A Show of Appreciation

My girlfriend and I have this favorite Japanese restaurant called Asahi Sushi. We love going there mostly because the food is just awsome and we go quite often. Because of this, every time we enter Asahi, we are greeted with warm smiles by the proprietors of the place - a middle aged Korean couple - and sometimes, they would treat us to some free food. We don't always have to order specifics to get some extra edamame, or a free salad bowl or two. By now you might be thinking that this is a restaurant review, but no, it's not! It's about gaming! What else?

The thing is, if you're a regular at a restaurant owned by independents, you might get a bit of preferential treatment. Free food, warm smiles, that kinda thing. Small stuff mostly. But what about games? Do we get anything for being fans? Sometimes, I'm not sure if the answer is yes. Club Nintendo is one big loyalty program, yes, and preorder bonuses are a dime a dozen. No, I'm talking about something a bit more intimate. Something from the developers straight to you and me.... You might think that noone really does this but lately, I found one example to beat the odds and I wish that more developers and publishers would go this extra mile. The publisher who does things right is Aksys, and the game is Record of Agarest Wars 2. You will be forgiven for never having heard of this niche JRPG but I guarantee you that what they are doing on the appreciation front is absolutely new.

When you buy Record of Agarest Wars 2, you're buying a special edition only (for now anyway) box set with an art book, a mylar balloon and a hand towel but that's not it. You pay for these on the price of the special edition package. If you check the PSN Store, however, this PS3 exclusive offers a tonne of free stuff just for the taking. A great many of these free items have descriptions that begin with 'in appreciation of your continued patronage, we offer....' Something like that. The gist is there. Point is, they make clear that the free stuff offered on PSN are there as appreciation for buying the game.

The goods they give away are small. A few extra experience points, some crafting materials and maybe an armor set or two. The armor set is nothing to sneeze at. According to a friend of mine who downloaded the item, the gear is head and shoulders above what he can currently obtain at his point in the game. But we don't have to go that far. In the end, the armor is just a handful of stats. The beauty is that such appreciation packages don't have to cost developers much. Any game featuring a points system or some kind of in game currency can benefit simply by offering a few points in appreciation here and there. What makes Agarest and Aksys friendly is that they continue to offer free stuff even a couple of weeks after releasing the game, which, I think, enhances gamer gratitude. We're not talking about a free DLC with new missions, costumes and story, or whatever. Just a few extra points thrown the player's way that won't break the game but show the players that the publishers care.

Now, if a small outfit like Aksys can do this, how come EA and Activision and all the big players don't? UBI Soft kinda does. They offer free in game upgrades to your characters for the last couple of Assassins' Creed games but there's a catch. You have to open a Uplay account and give out some personal information to get the freebies.  This stuff in exchange for your personal info doesn't really count.  Nor am I referring to those pack-in codes available on the first new release runs.  Those are incentives to buy the game on or very close to street date.  I'm taking about free gifts that show appreciation to gamers with no strings attached whether you buy the game now or ten months later.

With the gaming industry sales sliding into free fall, maybe it will be gestures like this that make the difference. The casual players are gone but we can at least keep the core gamers happy by dropping a few goodies our way. It's a nice, inexpensive way to say 'thanks' for buying a game at up to $60 retail at launch. I don't see how that could hurt. Again, this isn't the same as a preorder bonus. This is stuff that everyone gets just for buying the game. No strings attached.

There's one caveat here, folks. Agarest Wars 2 is the third in a series and the only PS3 exclusive. The other two games, Agarest and Agarest Zero were also for the 360. According to the same friend who tipped me off the these freebies, the other two games aren't as generous on Microsoft's platform. Apparently, the same free stuff on PSN costs points on Live. I hear from a long time ago that developers who want to offer free goods on the 360 couldn't because MS won't allow it and this is a perfect example.  I guess when it comes to MS or Sony, we know who appreciates gamers more.