Just like everything else in life, there comes a time when you have to make some tough decisions gamers have to make in their gaming lives. I’ve been a gamer for over two decades and I have, for better or worse, seen it all. Throughout those years, I’ve seen many fellow gamers make the wrong choices and I’ve made quite a lot myself when a tough decision was thrown into my digital world.
Today, I want to discuss some of the toughest decisions that gamers have to make with our readers. This article doesn’t have any clear answers about what is right or wrong but rather discusses the tough decisions and options available to gamers when making a choice. Things can change over time and some of you might have made different choices over your years of gaming. Below, you can find the five toughest decisions that I struggle with to this day and offer some advice.
To pre-order or not to pre-order
That is the question, right? Putting your faith in a developer might be easy for some, but for others, it is very difficult, especially when they have been burned before. I was extremely disappointed in myself for pre-ordering No Man’s Sky and we all know how that turned out, but sometimes the excitement for a new game is just too great.
After playing the Destiny 2 beta, as someone who never played the original, I was blown away with the game’s quality and pre-ordered Destiny 2 – so I didn’t exactly learn my lesson…
When making the decision to pre-order a game, I suggest you at least try out a beta. If there isn’t a beta available, or you can’t get in it, then do a lot of research before pre-ordering a title. There are also developers who have proven themselves over and over again, ones which I would pre-order from without hesitation – Blizzard Entertainment and CD Projekt RED.
Even so, one should always be mindful of getting on the hype-train and what is shown at events like E3 and what the actual game is about. Smosh Games’ No Man’s Sky Honest Trailer is, well, honest…which is something we definitely need more of.
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When you should quit
For the most part, excluding games like Skyrim, it is easy to quit a single player game after finishing the campaign. Sure, sometimes one might replay it again later, but there is still a clear beginning and end to most single player titles. However, for multiplayer games, there is no end in sight, except for when the servers go down.
You can play games like Dota 2 or League of Legends for thousands of hours (I have over 3000 in Dota 2). That’s not to say you should quit the titles I have mentioned, but sometimes one needs to at least take a break and have some new gaming experiences. There are a few things I look out for when making the decision to quit a specific game for good.
First up, if a game makes you angry most of the time, then it might be a good time for a break at the very least. Further, if a game feels more like work than fun, you should try to leave it alone for a bit and play something that makes you happy.
Last, but definitely not least, if an addiction to a specific game interferes with important real-life commitments, then I recommend you quit.
Watch The International 2018’s epic Main Event finals below, because watching Dota 2 is in my opinion, even more entertaining at the moment than actually playing the game.
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Giving Early Access a shot
Purchasing games that are still in Early Access on Steam (or Game Preview) on Xbox One is a decision I used to struggle with a lot, and still do sometimes. The thing about Early Access titles is that there is really no guarantee that a game will make its way to a full release, and even if it does, the game might be vastly different from what you expected.
Iterations do happen during the development process and as we know, Early Access titles are still very much in development. There are, however, a few games that have given me renewed faith in Early Access.
The Long Dark, developed by Hinterland Studio, is the best single player survival game I have ever played.Further, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds took the gaming world by storm and seen some extremely impressive results on Steam. It is a game that everyone is talking about and it is exceptionally fun to play.
To upgrade or not to upgrade
The decision doesn’t just plague PC gamers anymore, but also console gamers with the mid-gen upgrade options, the PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox One X. If you are a multi platform gamer, then you are faced with the decision of either upgrading to the PS4 Pro or waiting for the Xbox One X’s release. Further, if you do plan on getting a mid-gen console upgrade, then you also need to decide if you want a 4K Television and which one you will choose.
PC gamers, of course, need to make this decision more often, as there is always new hardware coming up that is faster or more efficient. NVIDIA and AMD release new GPUs on a bi-yearly basis, which makes your current GPU feel like a lightweight compared to the next generation. There is, without a doubt, always something to upgrade in your PC, but the question remains when you should upgrade.
Unfortunately, there is no clear answer, but you can make an informed decision by comparing the price of, for example, a new GPU with the performance increase over your old one. The best advice I can give is to hang on and wait until your system’s performance impacts gameplay. If your gameplay is smooth at, for example, medium settings…then wait awhile. There might be something even better on the horizon.
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Leaving a clan or guild
Sometimes it is very easy to leave a clan or guild, especially if you’ve only been part of the group for a few days and see that the dynamics are just not for you. Other times, a clan becomes more than just a group of strangers, but instead a close group of friends or dare I say, family. I had this experience in World of Warcraft for the first time when a South African guild called Natural Perfection picked me up.
Just before I joined the guild, the game already felt like work, so I should have quit as I recommended in a previous point. However, it was the people in the clan and the social aspect, the friendships I built, that kept me playing for much longer than I should. Sometimes a clan or guild is toxic, can put a lot of stress on you and things like that. Then you should quit, but if a clan is actually enriching your life, it can be the toughest decision you will ever make.
I did leave Natural Perfection because at the time I found it difficult to afford a gameplay card and had to let my time run out. Even so, it was a decision that kept me up at night.
Can you think of any other tough decisions gamers have to face? Let us know in the comment section below.
