I wouldn't consider it blind actually, I have 4 predecessors to base my decision off of. Sure SHIII and SH4 are still buggy, even after patching, but by the time each version of SH has left my hard drive I have received MUCH more gaming value then the purchase price. I have no reason to believe I won't from SH5.

If, by the time SH5 has had it's day, I don't feel I got my $50 worth then I will step back on a "next one" if there is such a thing. So far I have not felt ripped off with a SH game.

Buggy software eh??? Yet S3D's alpha and beta releases (some 20 different releases) were downloaded about 20000 times in just over one year, and has been very popular around here. But it's by no means bug free... So surely, this can't be an argument?

And what about all the mods you download... Bug free??? You think?

Not to mention the dozens of other 'half baked' tools everybody downloads and uses, but then it crashes, you uninstall, doesn't uninstall completely, slows down your computer, oh well, next tool, rinse... repeat...

I agree that software companies should not release buggy software on purpose, and that they should have a good QA system in place, yet you can't just keep on developing to find every single god damn bug, because you won't find them. As soon as you release it, people will still find critical bugs...

I find it poor argument to just wait for patches and a bargain sale of 10$ when this is a game you play for hundreds of hours in the long run. You're just being cheap then... :shifty:

PS: look at me, I bought SH4 on day one (pre-order actually), spent over 1000 hours working on a free program, and only played the game for about 4 weeks total, yet I still bought the collectors ed. and it was worth every penny...

A definite pre-order for me, I will continue to support the Silent Hunter series good or bad!!:yeah:

after hearing speculations about things like scripted campaign and after watching the trailer which looked awfully arcade.... i'm not holding my breath

of course, there's always the chance I have a shiny new rig and some cash to spare and then i'll probably end up buying it anyway

You should also thank them (us) for keeping the genre alive so that you will even have a game that you can actually play.

A few of us were playing SHIV months before the release and it was loads of fun. :03:

JCC

I don't know if you were replying to me specifically, but to give my personal answers to your points...

1) S3D is free. Also, I personally have never experienced a bug in it (probably because I've only done simple things with it).

2) Mods are also free, and I don't use mods that seem to cause more bugs than they fix.

3) I am not waiting for SH5 to be $10, I'm waiting for it to be bug-free (or close enough for my tastes). At that point I'd happily pay the full price for it, a year (or whatever) after it's release. Of course by that time the price will be much lower but my point is that the price isn't the issue for me; I'm not being "cheap" I just want it to work.

based on my own personal observations of peoples buying traits with all games in general, the way it looks to me how people buy them is as follows:

40% buy it at full price when its released as soon as they can get it

40% will buy it at the first reduced price they can find it at reguardless of weather that means waiting weeks or months to get it.

10% will buy it only on sale at a good discount from the original price and only after the first game patch has been released

the last 5% are true cheapskates who will never pay full price for any game so they will wait to find it in the bargin bin or not buy it at all.

Hmm... after alittle thinking... I think ill hold out to see if it is gonna be a flop or not.

I've found thru lifes experiences that, some people are impossible to satisfy.

As far as waiting until a possible fix for something I don't even know is broken. Life's to short to deprive myself.

I'm in my mid 40's and the day I can't spend $50.00 for a game I call a hobby,I'll know I did something wrong with my life. :haha:

It wasn't personally directed ;)

Bugfree software is an utopia. I understand why 'we' as customers want a bugfree product but this simply will never happen. The point is, the budgets that are available for this type of game will only diminish or be scraped completely if all of us think this way... If you (generalizing again) are a sim-diehard, you should buy it asap even if you don't wish to play it immediately. I don't even consider myself a diehard because I will just play the game with all noob-settings and be done with it after one month, but I still enjoy the type of game and want to play the newest version again 2 years from now...

Basic economics, no demand, no offer. I won't hold it against you if you don't, but I'm just whispering in your ear: 'BUY IT!' :O:

Oh and WEBSTER, don't forget torrents in your figures... i'd say that's more than 5%.

I'm buying on release. I want to support the franchise and i don't have the willpower to wait. Good combat simulation games are rare so i support where ever i can. And despite bugs and problems with SH3 and SH4, i have still had a blast with the games with or without mods and communityfixes.

That is because you play noob-settings game you don't actually care about bugs. Or they - BUGS - don't disturb you as they are disturbing a hardcore gamer to feel the top notch joy of this simulation.

I have a fair bet here. All noobs go buy it the first day - show the support the very first day, be exemplary (save the world if you must) and we all who decided to wait will wait for a decent final release patch then buy it. I don;t want to buy a game and leave it on a shelf for half a year waiting for all these patches to show up. That would probably tease me to death. So I will buy it when it's going to reach it's top quality in stability, glitches-free policy and the rest of damn bugs that will probably be and will shorten my damn life with every CTD that might happen. :arrgh!:

What should i vote if I'm going to buy it on day 30 ? :haha:

I do thanks you but since I can't describe SH4 as fun even after the patches and mods (Not bad but just weak compared to GWX3, IMO) I must assume challenge is not as important to your idea of fun.

For those wrongly trying to make this about saving a few bucks as if we are not doing our share of keeping the venue alive, well try that on others not me. :down:
I would pay double the original price if it came complete, no patch needed.
Telling me (us) we are some how less in our desire to support SH series because we won't purchase a broken game denotes a desire for self induced pain that I (and others) simply do not share.
I want to load the game and do SH5.
If they want beta testers they should ask for them not expect us to pay them to be those testers.

This is not about money. It is about a consistent pattern of unfinished programs being offered as finished.
I am simply asking them to release them when they are done and not sooner.
The fact they choose to release them unfinished is justification for those of us wanting to support SH to wait until it is reasonably playable.

Wulfmann