Games cost a lot of money to make these days and almost as much to buy. With entire companies and hundreds of people working for years on single projects, the fate of these developers often depends on how well their last title goes, and what’s the best way to sucker people into giving you extra money? Offer them bonus junk, of course.
For people with the cash and foresight to pre-order games ahead of time, there can be some ridiculous swag to collect. The soundtracks to King of Fighters XIII, bonus discs containing classic Legend of Zelda games for Wind Waker, art books with drawings of EVERYTHING, etc. Getting your hands on these early copies can really pimp out your geek collection and make all the ladies/fellas swoon.
And if you can snag collectors editions? Hot. Damn. Spartan helmets with Halo 3, anyone? And don’t even get me started on the parchment map coming with the collector’s edition of TESV: Skyrim.
- Do want.
But of course, all of it comes at a price. A big price. Like I said, there’s no better way to get nerds to dump out their wallets at your feet than offering them extra junk. Let’s be honest, it’s all crap.
None of it really affects our enjoyment of the game, not even when the bonus is extra content since it appears as DLC almost immediately after launch. Art books rarely get paged through more than once, soundtracks by anyone besides Atlus or Square Enix are lucky to ever get a listen, and all but the most fantastic statues get boxed up and left in basements once shelf space is in demand.
And we know it. Everyone gets a funny feeling in their pants when a game they’re excited about gets pre-order/collector’s/limited/exclusive nonsense thrown in for “only” the price of three extra copies of the game. Yet every time, we curse our greedy eyes once the sparkles wear off and our wallets feel a bit loose.
So what say ye, Gay-Nerds? Are we being taken advantage of time and time again for the sake of higher profits and fake enthusiasm, or should every statue and art book be cherished as the treasures they are?
Tags: gay-nerds, halo 3, King of Fighters XIII, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, lesbian nerds, Nerdrage or Nerdgasm?, pre-order bonus, Skyrim
