Some games include launchers for practical reasons. Launchers allow you to change settings before having the game up, for example, which can be nice. They also sometimes can do mod management, though this is less common. Paradox does mod management through the launcher, for an example of that.

Usually the launchers suck though and only slow things down, but you can also usually use an argument to skip them.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Launchers allow you to change settings before having the game up, for example, which can be nice.

Or you can change options after the game launches, like a normal game.

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

A lot of times I just want to make a quick change for later without actually having to fire up the game. Even if I'm not interested in playing it anytime soon.

Weird, I know, but I have ADHD so if I don't do something the moment an idea pops into my head, within seconds I forget and the thought is lost forever. It's so bad that I'll often finish a sentence without having any idea how or why I started it.

[–] Rubanski@lemm.ee 5 points 6 hours ago

Sometimes you have to reset the game to apply changes tho