4 ms·

Did you play it because you liked the creator, or because the creator had a strong insight into what you like?

• strogonoff 6y ago
  Not OP but I find I’d easily get a game because I empathize with its creator in some way. It’s more likely what they make may align with me, though even the act of choosing to acquire a game makes it more likely I would enjoy it (mere-exposure and you can’t enjoy a game you wouldn’t buy). I’m hardly a gamer at all, but that’s how I ended up getting Disco Elysium—and it didn’t disappoint. I think Patreon takes it to the extreme—you can literally support a game developer, and get whatever they make without knowing what it will be. (Related: buying merch of your favorite band, even if you don’t really need those T-shirts and rarely wear them.) With X-Plane it’s different; I got it for state-of-the-art flight model simulation (surprisingly low price point pushed me) and only recently started paying attention to who makes it. It’s really cool: I reckon they must make most profit from selling FAA-certified version for professional pilot training, but they still choose to offer pretty much the same program (sans some really specialized hardware support) for peanuts to enthusiasts. Supporting non-enterprise consumers must cost them, though I suppose they get bug reports in return. Liking the creator doesn’t only cause one to buy a product, but significantly increases the chances they will champion it to support the creator further.