How do you decide if a game is worth it's price tag? Some people feel that they have to get a certain amount of hours for the money spent, which is certainly understandable considering that new games can cost $60. Other people feel that if a game is good enough, it doesn't matter how many hours it is. I tend to fall in the middle. If I am buying a full price game, I am hoping that I will get a lot of Time Out of it. That doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be a long game. A game like New Super Mario Bros can be realistically beaten in less than 10 hours, but there is a lot of replay value to try new things and collect all the secrets. Another example is Pokemon where the main story isn't that long, but I know I will be putting in a lot of time after I complete the main storyline.
I only spend full price on the game if it's well known to be worth it. Games like GTA and South Park which were universally loved I feel confident in paying full price for. Otherwise I mostly just hunt the bargain bins and search from there. There are also on meat mid range priced games that I would experiment with if I am somewhat familiar with the title or if I saw clips or reviews of it and it seems like something that would appeal to me. I'd just never pay full price for what I would consider a gamble.
I hardly ever buy a new game because of the hype. You'll hear lots of rumors how great a game is, etc, etc but before I actually play the game I won't buy it. That's why I stick with well-known franchises that hardly ever disappoint. FPS games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for example, no matter how many times you play them will never get boring
To add to that, a lot of games will release with bugs. It is often times better to wait a few months after the game has been patched. Not only will you get a better quality game, it will likely be less than half of the original price. That is a win win in my book as long as you are willing to wait a little bit.
I consider a game worth it at tI consider a game worth it when you take it right back to game stop and find out that it's only worth $40 dollars, not that $60 you paid. I bought a brought a brand new video game and didn't like it so I tried to return it, they told me that you can't do that after opening brand new games. I took it to game stop and they offered me 75% of what I paid for it on the same day that it came out. No video game is worth $60 dollars. that's just the price that the market has set it products for, people pay for it so they are never going to change it.
Replay value would be a determining factor for me as well. I only buy games or even movies that will be used again. I'm not forking over that kind of money for something that will be used once for a short time. That isn't a good value to me. I also suggest ignoring certain sources like those who get free copies of games or other perks for their reviews. Sometimes, it's clear that they haven't even played a game or at least not much, yet they offer reviews. I want real reviews from someone who has actually experienced the game play (or at least beta tested it). I prefer to read their forums if applicable, and see what the actual gamers think rather than some paid media.
Yeah that is a tough spot because on one hand, you are only paying $20 for a game if you can return it for $40, but on the other hand, you can probably save money by just renting a game through redbox. If companies are going to be releasing $60 games that have only a few hours worth of gameplay, they just have to accept that they are going to lose money through rentals.
It depends of the genre, but the general criteria to judge a game's worth in money figures is the quantity of playable hours. Certainly, some long games are terrible, like dungeon lords or Quest 64. Thus I suggest to read some in depth review about the quality of gameplay to decide whether or not to buy it at release price.
I have never actually used something like game rentals. Is it better? Are new games even released at redbox the same time the game is released? I doubt that, I don't think people would always buy new games if they knew they could just go to the redbox or rent them online and return them at a much fairly cheaper price than actually owning it. I used to want to use this online rental service for my video games, but I thought it was a scam.
If you really love a particular series of game, like Call of Duty or GTA, then you'll likely also like the newest version. Those games are generally safe bets. However, our local GameStop and even sometimes our Wal-Mart usually has the newest game on display for people to try out when it first comes out. You can play a few minutes and get a really decent idea of whether or not you'll like it. Also, I found that YouTube videos of other people playing the game have given me a really good idea of whether or not I want to drop $60 on a game or wait for the price to drop.
New iterations of games aren't always that great, even when it's a trusted title. You do make a good point about testing out the demos though. Walmart here has that, so it's a good option for at least getting a taste of a new game before deciding on whether or not to make a purchase. Also, if possible, you might try to sign up for beta testing (especially online games). Some games even have open beta. I mean, yeah, you are supposed to actually test and not just play for the heck of it, but even so you should be able to get the idea of whether or not you think the game will be fun. You might also see if a game offers a Public Test Realm or something similar. I've been trying out the one for World of Warcraft.
A game's worth to me is all dependent on how much you enjoy it. There are games that I played that are priced at under $10. That I consider to be worth way more than the price given. Then there are games that are worth $50 that I consider to not even be worth owning. At the end of the day you tend to realize that a lot of these games are priced high because of the crew working on it. At the same time you have tons of games with lots of game play and replay value with small teams behind them.
As I premise, I admit that I rarely buy newly released games at full prices for two reasons: first of all, usually there are some bugs that get fixed after a few weeks; furthermore I like to read a lot of reviews of the game before buying it, checking the opinions about it on the internet and even watching the gameplay on Youtube, to decide if I'm gonna really invest my time and money on it. This implies that usually I get them when they are on sale or at lower price. Answering to your question, as long as the game keeps me entertained for a decent amount of time, I'll buy it. I don't care if it is because of the main story or if it has a good replay value, but if I think that I'll play it for a long time the game is worth its price. For example I bought "TES V: Skyrim" and "The Witcher 3" because I was sure that I could sink almost endless hours into those games, even if they were quite expensive. If I just want something to play for a little time, there are a lot of good shorter games on Steam or on The Humble Bundle. You can get excellent games like "Undertale" for a very cheap price and play them without caring about the price, since it's so low.
I never easily finish a game in less than a month even if I play it everyday with the exception of racing games, so I just tend to go for those games that are action/adventure or sandbox in nature so that I will get my money's worth when it comes to game longevity.
