How much of a game do you feel you have to play to justify buying it?

[Teelie]

I was thinking about this recently. I have many, many, many games that I have bought and played to some degree and a handful I never played at all. The number I have finished or beaten is much smaller than the amount I haven't at this point. Looking at my collection going back to the NES(!) that I think of how many games I start but never finish.

Mortal Kombat 11's loot grind and other grindy type games has me thinking about just how much investment is enough for a game? Does playing a quarter of it? 10 hours? What if the game is one of those 100 hours long types?

There are games seem like they never end or are so expansive they might as well never have an ending (this excludes MMO's which by design never end) like pretty much anything Bethesda (Elder Scrolls, Fallout) or like the GTA games which even if you beat the main story, have hours and hours of extra side content to complete.

Some games I have bought and tried but they just never clicked with me and I haven't gone back to them since. At least I gave them a shot but perhaps should have known better than to get them to begin with. Others I got far into and nearly completed but didn't quite make it over the line. Which is fine, I can always go back and finish those later. I don't feel those were a waste of time or money.

 

[Zorro]

As long I'm overall satisfied with the modes that interest me the most, I'm all good

 

[X Knight]

haha. I'm kind of in the same boat. the percentage of games I've actually completed, going back to the NES days, is rather small, too. lol.

for me, as long as I enjoy my time with the game, it's worth the purchase.

If the game is nothing but hassles or frustrations or bugs or just not totally how I expected it, however, then I will feel like it was a mistake to buy it. A recent example of that would be Anthem.

 

[Jick]

I have my own rule: I don't dedicate myself to more than one game per month. I don't purchase what I'm not gonna play either.

I always play only on weekends anyway so it usually takes an entire month to beat the story mode and complete as much as I can (as long as it is fun).

Only then I think of the next game. I think it helps me focus entirely on what I'm currently playing and subsequently enjoy it more if no other game is waiting to be played.

That becomes a temptation, even if a sutil and silent one.

 

[Sundancer]

usually completing story mode

 

[thomadrosika]

Actually buying the game is very expensive, I play it about five hours a day at androidrub.com to justify.

 

[psylockolussus]

I have 5 games that I got for free a long time ago, and I only installed this month because of the quarantine. And four of those, I wasn't thrilled either because of the gameplay, the graphics or both. I still have 1 free game that I might install but I have a feeling, I wouldn't enjoy it because its first person perspective game.

When I'm buying a new game, I have a lot of criteria
-The graphics must be good and not look dated, unless its an old game from a franchise that I like or currently enjoying or its a game from my childhood/teenage years. Then okay.
-I don't like cartoony graphics and "reading subtitles". Like for example, I was playing NBA and they didn't have a voice actor for the npcs. then Exist Archive, a lot of the characters don't have a voice actor and you need to read to understand whats going on.
-First person perspective is a huge deal breaker.
-I don't buy a lot of horror games/zombie games. I personally find these games stressful to play and there are a lot of more enjoyable games out there.

So before I buy a game, I make sure I've seen the actual gameplay and I know the average gamèplay time for the story mode. However, there are some games, that I bought tht I really didn't really enjoy, usually shooter/strategy open world games but I liked that I experienced it for myself to see if I'm missing anything or not.

 

[Iceman]

I want to complete the campaign at least on the easiest difficulty and try out everything else at least once.

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

I'm what I like to refer to as a "patient gamer" and rarely ever by games at launch anymore because in the current market, you're paying the highest price for the worst version of a game. With me, it depends on how much I paid for it. If it's under five dollars, getting two hours out of it is more than enough. On the extreme rare occasion I purchase a game at full price like with Doom Eternal, I better be getting at least 10-15 hours of single player that isn't padded out with bull****.

 

[Silvermoth]

It depends. I would say at least a week but if you enjoy it and you relished it I don’t mind finishing a game in less time. Luigi’s mansion is a good example.
That said though sometimes I might play a game longer but I feel like I have to play it and set reminders to force myself to play it so I get my money’s worth