. . to break my fundamental game purchasing ruleset.

1. Never pay full price.
2. Never buy anywhere near launch.
3. Never buy anything at or near maximum radius of it's positive or negative hype bubble.

Motivation for each rule:

1. The less spent on any one game, the more games I can buy. Most paid in past 4 years is $40 for Cyberpunk 2077 in its first year. One of my favorite transactions here is 33 games for $40 a few months ago.
2. A lot of games are released in an incomplete, buggy or even broken state. Again, the example of Cyberpunk 2077 fits.
3. If a game is actually as good or bad as perceived in it's time of greatest popularity, then that assessment will remain consistent. Double again, Cyberpunk 2077.

How BG3 makes decent arguement against each rule:

1. The new at-launch full-price for most games has been shifted to $70 and Larian is asking $60 for a whole game (see next point) without "And just wait for the DLC!".
2. It's not actually a new release. It's been out and tested and tweaked since 2020. Not the full version, but a great deal has been play-tested by self-selected volunteers for about 3 years.
3. The view over time can really only be determined in that way; over time. However, similar to point #2 of this section, because so much of the game has already existed for 3 years, the overall opinion is less likely to drastically change.

For now, I will wait. And since you're here, a variation of the (can we have?) (we have at home) meme:

Can we have Baldur's Gate 3?
We have Baldur's Gate 3 at home.
Baldur's Gate 3 at home:

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

Edit. To any Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous enthusiasts offended by the attempted humor; I was downloading all the offline installer parts of Pathfinder: WotR as this was written.

the only game I paid full price was Fallout: New Vegas

but it's was worth it every penny

I didn't care for the Larian's final pre-release livestream's "preoccupations"...

... but...

... the release game seems to be pretty great... and... it seems to have reached outside its genre -- attracting a number of action players who would never usually touch turn-based games.

If you felt compelled to pay full price, few would fault your decision.

Having watched enough on the release to both quell my fears and solidify that this is indeed a "buy," I'm still waiting awhile because I just have too many games in my backlog (a number of my wishlist entries discounted at a fraction of BG3's price) and few extra dollars that I feel comfortable spending on games ATM. But I'll certainly pick BG3 up in time.

PS -- I find the "outcry" against BG3 from a number of developers to make me want to play it -- and support Larian -- even more.

I was so impressed by the game that after it had launched I bought it just so they can TAKE MY MONEY.

I can't play it because I don't have the hardware but I have been admiring videos I have found. I'm somehow just so happy that the game exists.

(I don't even buy games anymore. I think the last full price games I have been buying were MMORPGs and even then I think it's been almost ten years)

You want to get a feel for BG3? Play DOS2. The games feel entirely similar, because modern Larian.

1. This is actually not an argument, but a fact: this studio is well known for their pricing stability for a long time now. I remember they told they will not change the price upon the release of Baldur's Gate 3, and they honored that promise. Larian knew that people will buy BG3 anyway.
2. As much as I can tell after watching a complete playthrough this only applies to first act. I have seen many reports about numerous bugs and glitches in act 2 and 3. It appears that it wasn't such a good idea to only openly test a first act after all. Sure the issues will be ironed out after time, but I don't know why some saying (not OP) that the game is bug-free right now. It's simply isn't true.
3. Opinions about Baldur's Gate 3 will change. The quality that first part of the game can propose is decreasing as close as you reach to the end. I felt a bit pity for a streamer whose videos I have watched. The guy was definitely upset about the experience and was mentioning BG1 with a lot of passion from time to time, but in conclusion he was almost preaching for Baldur's Gate 3, like it was the best game he ever played. At least now I know where this kind of over-positive reviews come from. And this is exactly the category where Baldur's Gate 3 fits perfectly. Though I wouldn't say "Never buy", because the game is okay. Not one of the best, but definitely not the worst.

I would like to thank both AWG43 and kai2 for the precise and detailed responses. I would reference both in this, but have not learned how, or if possible, in this forum.

Also, to csanjuro; Agreed. Fallout: New Vegas is the only game worth maximum price purchase.

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