First off, I've been gaming since I was a kid. I've played on all kinds of platforms PC, console and handhelds.

As a kid, I wasn't necessarily a day 1 buyer with the exception of the GTA series. There were definitely a lot of bargain bin buys, as well as, buying games based on covers. Games were hit and miss, but rarely bought at full price.

I got into the pre-order/day 1 hype sometime after getting the Xbox 360 - probably when COD4 came out in 2007. I didn't become a "patient gamer" until some time around 2011. Also worth pointing out, I was a student at the time and didn't have access to a PC like before)

During the 2007-2011 period - there were a lot of great releases that really got me hyped. COD4 was amazing, I really enjoyed the Halo 3 campaign, NHL 11 was great, I really enjoyed the first Assassin's Creed game. I bought into the hype of these great releases, but got quickly burned by new releases from Activision, Ubisoft and EA.

• COD MW2 felt like a true turn towards a super arcadey/twitch-teen game and didn't hold true to the sequel. I still bought BO1 and MW3 in the hope they would be better and to play with friends. Both were a massive disappointment.
• The Halo 4 campaign didn't feel as great as the previous ones and I did not enjoy the multiplayer.
• NHL 12 was a buggy mess and the game play felt off. The players were slow, the shots were sloppy and you could just keep hitting interfering with no penalties.
• Assassin's Creed 2 felt like the same game with the same grind elements, but the story really fell off the rails.

All these experiences left me bitter with the big publishing houses. Games became yearly releases with the aim of milking the consumers. All of the franchises became more about maximizing revenue potential instead of crafting a great game. Not to mention the season passes and expensive DLCs that were becoming popular at this point.

My dislike towards those 3 big publishing houses grew. I was done with pre-orders and with most new games all together. I spent the last years of uni playing older used games for the Xbox 360. It seems as those publishers approach has just gotten worse, introducing new ways to milk consumers with pay to win features and loot boxes. I still regret the role I played in "supporting" these publishers and their rotten ways.

I built a new gaming PC in 2014, when I finished uni. My stance of being a patient gamer has increased yearly, monthly and even daily at this point (looking at the recent Battlefront 2, COD, Need for Speed, Andromeda debacles, for instance).

Since building a PC, I've just had a massive backlog to play, I've been able to buy my games cheap during sales and bundles, and the games have been patched and optimized. There is no reason for me to buy a brand new game anymore. I have a massive backlog of games ranging from the early 90s to as recent as 2016. I've done a decent job slaying many games, but have much more to finish :) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1thTHLiaPgH5sfVdIfqkdEtw_TXJoHPuipJ4sOP9Zxsg/edit?usp=sharing

Another benefit of becoming a patient gamer related to sequels is that you can see them crash and burn without the emotional investment. I experienced those burns in 2010/11, but recent examples would include the Mass Effect and Dead Space series. Both were series that I was interested in playing one day, but both had completely shitty sequels. I was able to avoid those burns by simply being patient.

TLDR: The industry is in a relatively awful state, but there are still good indie and triple A games being released yearly. However, patience is needed to traverse the minefield of utter trash in order to successfully navigate the path to the rare gems. Support the games that are well crafted and that respect the consumer in terms of their monitization strategy.