The Price for Entertainment

Previously I have wrote down a quick simple budgeting on buying games. The previous post touch on over buying games during a mega sale, in this case steam summer sale.

This post will expand more why picking up a lot of games during a sale can be bad  choice.

For a quick recap, games are best bought after a review( to avoid disappointment and bad buy ), hunt for discounted single player games. Avoid pre-order games whenever you can, which I will talk about it in this post as well

Pre-order games, the current trend of today marketing strategy. As much as the gaming industry is changing pre order has been a rising trend for not just games but many things as well. Letting developer cashing in early on their product before launch. Because of this a lot of developer tend to be lazy after they hit their pre order quota. Seeing a decline on quality of the finish product. But not all developers are bad apples.

As a consumer, yes we gamers are consumers and being an informed gamer / consumer is good practice. For me, upon buying a game or even a pre-order if you really want. Knowing the entertainment value of the product is crucial. Personally I have been through pre-ordering games, stocking up games during several steam sale and humble bundles. Sadly I must admit, there are a lot of games I have yet to begin.

From this point, I consider myself an unplayed paid game is a waste of money. This leads to "filling up my library for later games" as well as chances of playing it is rare. But for those who did, well done.

So how much should I spend on games now? A common measuring stick is how many hours will you sink for a game. I use to put a dollar spend per hour ratio, so if I paid 60 dollar per game I need 60 hour of play time. Because of this many single player game hardly can consider a value buy.

This is ok if you have plenty of time, but as a working person with 40+ hours a week time is scarce. So instead on just relying on dollar per hour, I am starting to use the cost of average entertainment. This measuring method is much convenient as not every hour I spend on a game is "fun" and it's easier for you all calculate with your local currency.

For me an average game price after conversion in malaysia is around RM 200 - RM250 ( and that's actually a lot more expansive ). For starters where I live an average meal cost Rm7 - Rm15 any price higher then that I consider as expansive or luxurious meal. A movie ticket cost around Rm15 - Rm20. A can of beer cost around Rm 6. A Starbucks coffee cost Rm7. A new game in the arcade cost around Rm 2 per game. So given with data  that I have I am assuming that every Rm 10 spend is an hour of entertainment in return.

With this I can have a better gauge on the value of a game. Sadly even this measurement  a lot of games out there needs to fulfilled a minimum of 20 hour game play. Which leads to my advice on always buy discounted single play(er) games. That is why pre-order games are a bad choice for me in value wise as well.

Multiplayer games are in a better place as it's relatively easy to break the 20 hour mark, but what is better is that you have a multiplayer buddy to play with. That alone no amount of "value" can be measured as having fun with friends is priceless some most of the time seeing hilarious moment and salty rage drama.

However there is a little exception to this method of measuring, microtransection. The concept and the misconception behind it.