Yesterday, I used pretty deliberate language when asking you guys what you've been up to gamewise over the post-Christmas "drought." Seems anywhere you go these days, from the media to hardcore forums, many folks are waving the "nothing good is coming out" refrain as readily as we trotted out the "omg too much to play" campaign over Christmas.
But it sounds like SVGLers, at least, have had no such desert of entertainment in January, nor do you expect to have one in February. Or March, for that matter. I absolutely loved hearing about what you all were playing, if only for the sheer diversity in the comments. Many of you reported not yet having gotten through Fallout 3's 80-plus hours -- really? Oh goodness, what's wrong with you? Some of you have set specific goals to more thoroughly revisit titles you have already played, and still others of you are choosing installments from gaming's illustrious back catalog -- you know, real vintage stuff like Super Mario Galaxy.
And you guys are the ones who read video game blogs, one way of telling that you're possibly a bit more enthusiastic than the majority of video game consumers -- who, rarely reading video game blogs, probably have no idea that there is a "drought" going on.
67 percent of Call of Duty 4 players haven't gotten the sequel yet. And of those that did, half of them played CoD4 regularly right up until the launch of World at War -- an entire year. Interesting to keep in mind what the real world's like, you know? (Which is what motivated me to write this a couple months back.)
Oh, and if you're wondering where those numbers come from, social network GamerDNA's been working together with Gamasutra to do a series on player engagement with sequels. So far, we've looked at the Gears and Call of Duty franchises, comparing one against the other and also measuring whether the release of a sequel elicits a predictable response from owners of the prior games -- and whether DLC really serves to increase engangement in the long term (some interesting stats there for those that love charts. Charts!) Check 'em out.
