Purchasing A Game

Wheres the option for "that unidentifiable sense of emotional attachment subconsciously instilled in my psyche by the psychoanalytic marketing campaign"?

Wheres the option for "that unidentifiable sense of emotional attachment subconsciously instilled in my psyche by the psychoanalytic marketing campaign"?

Ha ha..good one...that option can make you go broke!!

The Brand Name! I won't buy it unless it's a sequel to a game I liked or a reboot of some nostalgic series!

Err, all of the above?

Graphics and gameplay are all I care about. Then again graphics doesn't play that big of a role, but it's a nice addition. Price doesn't really matter that much. It just restricts when I buy the game. For instance, I could have bought Crysis 2 or Homefront. I chose Crysis 2 and I'll get Homefront when it's on sale later.

This poll is missing many important options:
Genre
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Multiplayer
Single Player
Coop
MMO
Competitive
Casual
...
etc etc

This poll is missing many important options:
Genre
Gameplay
Atmosphere
Multiplayer
Single Player
Coop
MMO
Competitive
Casual
...
etc etc

multiplayer/re-playability are the two largest factors for me buying a game. I will buy an occasional single player game with low re-playability, but that is for really exceptional games. I rent if it doesn't have some sort of replayability through multiplayer, multiple storylines, open world, or some such.

Word of mouth. Length - less is better. I'm busy, I don't have 1,000 hours of time to invest in epics full of bland storyline and repetitive gameplay. I also like to support indie developers.

Can't answer based on that list, mine is based on this list:
- Single or multiplayer. I'll only rarely buy a multiplayer game
- Publisher and Studio involved. Lately, I buy mostly from Indie teams. Big houses don't really market to me anymore.
- Game genre. No interest in Sports / Schmups

Sometimes I look at reviews, but only user reviews. Most - if not all - of those reviews are bought. Yeah, maybe not right out... but they are in the "Give us good reviews on our products, or we'll pull out our advertising dollars and 'gifts' "

When I'm buying a game from a company that I've never seen or a series I've never played before, I go by how the cover looks for one. If it's appealing, I take a look at the backcover and see if the gameplay appeals to me. If that does, then I'll see how much it is to see if I have the money for it. Finally, I will get it a try and see if the gameplay appeal to it. If I don't like it (bored with it), I will most likely return it through gamestop or have it collect dust in my shelves.

For me its price and reviews that have the biggest impact, replayability or a decent length is pretty much required if the game costs more than $10.
(I've bought 28 games from gog.com in the last year and a half or so, mostly due to the low price, a $5 or $10 game doesn't have to last that long to be worth the money and lots of classic games have really solid gameplay).

For newer games its harder to know before buying if the game will be good enough or not, a game that i can finish and get bored with in 5 hours isn't worth $50 (to me atleast), while a game such as civilization tend to be worth far more. (I still havn't bought civilization 5 though but i probably will once i have more time to spend)

I do enjoy short games aswell but i expect the price to be set accordingly (Telltales Sam&Max games for example were fun but the price was a bit too high if you bought the episodes individually, the full season bundles however were more reasonably priced and i did buy the first two seasons on steam).

Gameplay trumps all others, graphics that don't detract from the gameplay, platform (I'm PC and Xbox mostly, just starting on Windows Phone 7), developer reputation.

I think I buy games either because it's something that I've been anticipating for some reason or because it was an impulsive decision.

I honestly don't buy games very often any more. I moreso just replay the best of the ones I already have, especially Oblivion. I also still play Age of Empires 2 regularly. Maybe when I finally graduate I'll catch up on buying new games .

I think I buy games either because it's something that I've been anticipating for some reason or because it was an impulsive decision.

So you're saying that you decide to buy games either ahead of time, or not ahead of time?

[quote name='kseh' timestamp='1301508807' post='4792258']
I think I buy games either because it's something that I've been anticipating for some reason or because it was an impulsive decision.

So you're saying that you decide to buy games either ahead of time, or not ahead of time?
[/quote]

Yeah, I suppose that wasn't really clear.

I meant, if it's a sequel to a game I've enjoyed before, I'll probably buy it (or at least, I'll want to buy it) because I know what I'm getting and I'm hoping the experience will be as good as last time. Otherwise, it's probably an impulse buy with little rationality behind the purchase. Although, I guess price will have an effect on whether or not I buy a game on impulse since I will feel less guilty about my decision if it turns out I didn't enjoy the game if the cost is low.