That's a good point about the money. I never really thought of it that way, so marketing-wise it's good for them I guess.

And hey, New Vegas had extra gear+guns I was upset.

But seriously, the Musical score, a digital art book, anything.

Downloaded TF2 when it went free. Played it long enough to try the Soldier training missions. Didn't get back to it for awhile.

...got really, really tired of the fact that it seemed to be downloading more updates every freakin' time I ran my Steam client again, so I deleted the game.

Hats? Meh, who cares.

Valve doesn't make that stuff. If it's not provided how can they offer it?

But why?

Really all you're saying is "I don't want hats, keep games within games", but you can't give us a reason why, other than that you don't like hats.
So if you don't like hats, the logical thing to do, is not preorder games that have a hat as a bonus! There are other games that have discounts or free maps or in game skins, preorder those ones instead.

Well, the reason TF2 kept updating was because Valve kept improving it. They've been adding new content to the game since around Day 1 that TF2 was released. That's why it's downloading new stuff, 'cause there's more stuff to the game.

What I see in this whole thing is two great developers supporting each other. If you look at it that way, this can only be a good thing. I love both Bethesda and Valve. This deal has the potential to give them both a nice extra chunk of change without screwing over their customers like Activision or EA do all the time. But if you don't want a hat, there are plenty of other retailers to choose from. I seriously don't see the problem here.

I don't like the hats, because I don't like TF2. So what's the point of getting content for a game I don't like? Do I have it? Yes, but I don't really want stuff for it, as I don't play it/like it.

The only reason I got it was to get the skins for Garry's Mod anyways and because it was in the Orange Box. (I do love me some HL2 )

Really? I have no idea why I don't like it, I just don't. My idea of keep it within the game, is kind of how I feel about a lot of things. I don't want stuff I don't use, especially when there's lack of an option. (I MEAN IN STEAM, NOT IN PRE-ORDERING IN GENERAL)

PLEASE, ENOUGH WITH "DON'T PRE-ORDER IT THEN" STUFF. I KNOW! The topic is to get your opinions on the hats for the bonus, not to give me suggestions of where to pre-order it.
Above: Caps am I cool yet?

Some people do like it though.


Nobody is forcing you to pre-order.

Obviously, I can't make them change, I'm not trying to either. I'm just trying to see how others think about this.

You're right, nobody is, but Steam is just convenient. Much more so, than driving to the store and picking up a copy. But I'd rather have a map (in Skyrim's case) and maybe the CE than a hat. Even though the CE is $150, but that's a topic for another day.

I'm still very confused as to what the problem is here. If you don't like it, it's as simple as not getting the Steam version. Nobody is forcing you to. You seem to realize that, but somehow it's still a problem...? It goes back to what I said before. No preorder bonus is going to be able to cater to everyone. You don't like TF2, that's fine. But there's people who do and those people will probably love to get the hat.

If I buy a brand new game I buy retail, because if I'm gonna pay full price for a game I at least want packaging. Steam is great for sales, but I wouldn't pre-order there for any bonus at all.

So while it doesn't affect me, it's still good for the people who play TF2 and want a little bonus for pre-ordering. That's what I think.

I don't know how many times I have to say it: I don't want to change the hat thing, it's not gonna happen. I just want to get other's opinions. STOP GIVING ME SUGGESTIONS. It's not about me, the point of this thread was to find out the community's thoughts on it.

They do hat promos because it might entice you to play TF2 while at the same time entice those who play TF2 to buy the game with the promo. If you don't want it, then you can do what any logical person could do and ignore the hat. You literally won't notice you have a hat in a game you don't play AT ALL. It's not stopping the other pre-order bonuses at all, so there is no A or B here. It's A + B. Although I'm sure someone has already explained this to you in this thread. I see no reason to be against these kinds of promotions.

PS: CAN I HAVE ALL YOUR TF2 HATS?

Sure, I probably don't have like any though

You realise "don't preorder games with hats if you don't want the hats" is our opinion right? (Note the word "you" here does not have to mean YOU specifically)
It's not about you, that's the community's thoughts.

I still don't understand why anyone would pre-order a game somewhere that could never, ever sell out of a game. Actually I don't understand why anyone would ever pre-order any game any time or anywhere but that is a different conversation.

I'm not really sure what the OP is looking for but being upset at a company for marketing their own game is rather: :huh:

Seeing as I don't play Team Fortress 2, getting a hat for it for preordering a game through Steam would be rather worthless to me. Of course, I'm not into the habit of buying games through Steam anyway, or preordering games for that matter. But if hypothetically I decided to preorder a game, I'd be doing so because I want to get it as soon as it's released and don't want to worry about stores being out of stock, and if I actually decided to buy a game through Steam, I don't see why I'd bother to preorder it, since it's not like the things I mentioned would be an issue with digital distribution, regardless, though, I wouldn't be preordering the game for any special bonuses it would offer, if someone gives me free things to go along with the product I buy, I don't generally complain, but in the end, I'm still paying for the main product itself, not the bonus, so if it's something I don't really have any use for, then I just have to accept that and move along.

Though if you want to give people a bonus for preordering the game in the form of minor, possibly quite pointless in-game content, I think it would make more sense to make it content for the game itself, because not everyone necessarily plays Team Fortress 2, or would want to play it even if they get a free hat to wear in it, but you can probably assume that people will be playing the game they intend to preorder, otherwise it would be rather baffling to preorder it. Thus, the chances that they'll enjoy the bonus in question, and would even consider letting it influence the choice of whether or not to preorder, increase as a result.

Those are some very good points, but wouldn't Bethesda have to create this "minor, possibly quite pointless in-game content" to distribute to each digital distributor? If so I would rather they focus on the game itself and let the others waste time dealing with pre-order bonuses.

That's what I'm saying

And making hats for TF2 takes nothing away from the developers of, say, Skyrim. Valve says "Hey! We'd like to promote your game with an in-game hat in TF2, and you just have to say yes, maybe send us an art file and we'll do the rest."

I just don't see the point of the pre-order bonus having NOTHING to do with the game. Why should you get a bonus (that you PAY FOR) for a different game? It takes away nothing, but adds nothing, which is the point of pre-order bonuses (well one of them at least)

And please, people stop telling me that I can pre-order elsewhere. After the 30th [censored] time, I figured that one out.

You don't pay for the preorder bonus, you pay for the game. The bonus is just that, a bonus. If you were paying for the preorder bonus, they'd be charging you extra.

Yeah theres no point in pre-ordering from steam. Unless you get it for a discounted price that is but Skyrim is full price so yeah. Your better off just waiting for the price to go down in a few months. I'm getting it in the boxing day sales. I got Fallout New Vegas for just $45 that way.

Steam didn't develop or publish Skyrim. Valve is in no way obligated to offer anything for pre-ordering games that aren't theirs, and while I can't say for certain, I'm pretty sure anything like this requires an agreement from both parties. Maybe Bethesda didn't want the pre-order to be 10% off? Maybe they weighed both options and decided that the extra people who'd order it at a small discount, minus the smaller profit from it, would be less beneficial than the extra people who would order it for the hat? Keep in mind that pre-order bonuses, as a concept, are NOT meant to be a reward for the players. They are meant to be an enticement to get more people to buy it at full price, before it can be released and let them get it at lower prices or be discouraged by negative reviews. It's why some games will package entire quests or something separately, to basically punish people for not paying full price and make them feel obligated to do so. Some silly hats certainly beats that, I'd say. I'm really not seeing the big problem here. Not all games have any bonus at all, and your only real complaint seems to be that the pointless, shiny bait they're dangling isn't pointless shiny bait that appeals to you in particular.

I'm not sure how it's "lazy", either. It may be a small item, but it still takes a lot more effort to design and model the thing than it does to just wind back the price a little.