How do you discover games?

[tibbon]

A huge part of GamerDNA is game discovery. We want to connect you with games based on your tastes and prior experiences so that you can find new games to check out.

I'm curious, what's your decision process for finding new games? Do you use the GamerDNA Discovery Engine (you don't have to say yes)? Do you read magazine reviews? Is it the marketing/hype that gets you going? Do you mainly listen to what friends recommend?

And then I'm curious as to how you finalize your decisions of what to play. Do you rent games first? Do you find a demo first? Read reviews from professional reviewers, or read user reviews? Or do you just go out and buy every game that comes by and try it out when you get it home?

I personally LOVE playing games, but I HATE playing bad games. I do a mixture of all of the above to find new games, and generally try to rent or demo a game before throwing down $50-60. This does limit me to playing around 4-5 games a year, at most, but that's ok with me. For the most part I end up playing 'Top Hits' style games, but sometimes diverge when I can.

If you haven't given the discovery engine a shot, you should try it. I've found a few neat things through there that have definitely peaked my interest and made me ask some friends about their opinions of the games. There's so many games out there, its easy to forget about some really awesome ones or miss a few.

[MisterUgly]

Well at first i was gonna be a smart ass and say I walk into the game store, hold the gamebox above my head and yell DO DO DO DOOOO a la Zelda games but for srs. I usually stay away from pro reviews and look for any raw video of the game or if i can get it a demo. If i have a friend who has it i tend to ask them about it.

I havent used the Discovery Engine yet but the next time i'm at a loss as to what i should get i'll give it a spin.

[Narilka]

Usually I just hear about a game that might be interesting from an ad, and then go in and throw down the $50-60 for it and get it home and see if it sucks.

Once in awhile I'll do a quick check on forums to see what other people are saying about it, but usually if I do, it's not until after I've brought the game home (but before I've tainted my game list with it!).

[Shadow]

similar to mister, I first check a long list of whats coming out for the next 6 months then check youtube or something for some beta/demo/review/PAX/E3 video of the gameplay before buying.

If I can't find any gameplay footage I read about the features like multiplayer, coop, achievements, etc...surprisingly enough if you can get mulitplayer and coop done right then really it doesn't really matter what type of game it is (FPS, MMO, RTS) you probably got a winner. Then wait until it releases to see some video....rarely do I trust other people's review unless it comes with gameplay footage for the reason for hate/loving the game.

Seeing the marketing hype with my own eyes in the game is VERY important. Didn't even know about the discovery engine to be honest, i guess more importantly don't know how to get to it or where to use the engine?

[QforQ]

If you guys would like to check out the Discovery Engine, go to your Games member home tab:
http://www.gamerdna.com/member/home/games/

Start traiting the games you've already added, or add a new game and trait it, and we recommend games based off those traits. Check it out!

[Judge-Azrael]

I use a variety of preview and review sources both in print and online. I have hed a gamefly account for over a year so i usually just rent games and if they are great and would take a while to finish i purchase the game from gamefly. In rare occasions i don't want to wait for a certain game i will purchase it from gamestop or wal mart.

[Dem]

Originally Posted by MisterUgly

hold the gamebox above my head and yell DO DO DO DOOOO a la Zelda games

Ehehehehe.

I read about 7 different game related websites a day so I'm usually up to date on what titles are coming out and what they're about. Read a lot of boards but don't really care about the opinion of most people there, but obviously there are people who I know have a similar idea of what constitutes a proper game.

There are so many factors playing when I buy a game (Friends, videos, impressions, developer, dev history, game history, setting, multiplayer modes) or don't buy a game. Often I think a game is probably amazing, like Mirrors Edge, but I won't buy it simply because it doesn't have a proper multiplayer mode, and thus is too expensive at 50 euros. But then again I did buy Assassins Creed, and I'll blindly buy the 2nd one... I also buy XBL titles cuz a lot of 'm are quite a lot of fun (worms, castle crashers, braid).

But to answer the thread question, I 'discover' games at press release.

[Jodou]

For anything that isn't established, I just research it via reviews/media. If a game starts making waves, I'll review it and if I'm not completely sold -- I'll wait for it to be on sale. All my games are purchased without having played demos and I have never been disappointed using this method. Recommendations or matchmaking have never played a role, because they're too impersonal.

[metza]

I don't really have any set method. Sometimes my friends will be talking about how amazing a game is and so I'll check it out (like with Portal), sometimes I'll decide from reviews and/or videos, sometimes I'll go off a demo and sometimes I'll buy into the hype. Oh, and occasionally I'll grab things if they're super cheap in the sales, but they have to be really cheap for me to do that without a bit of research first. The only games I've really regretted buying are the ones I've picked based on the box in the shop. Definitely won't be doing that again.

[Shadow]

MOTD is a good start to get people to use the engine more but maybe you should do a three step fame rewards since that seems to get a lot of attention...maybe 5 games silver game traitor, etc