What is the correct price to gameplay-hour ratio?

[Atepa]

Either way, to me such a ratio doesn't exist. The only deciding factor is "Am I having fun within 2 hours" and if the answer is no to that, refund. If it yes, then purchase price becomes irrelevant, I own it to play it either through or until it ain't fun no more And replayability is a big factor for me, but not a deciding factor for purchase.

This was such a good move on Valve's part, which was long overdue, but probably helped a lot of companies. (Although I would question if it helped Arcen Games, only because their games are a little more complex and I could see people buying, trying to get into it and giving up within 2 hours and refunding it)

But considering I paid 19€ for Factorio and Played that 250 hours... or 20$ for KSP and played that for 250hours.. well yeah. Some games on the face seem vastly under-priced. But that's not how I think about purchases. I buy things I want nowadays, never again buying anything based on hearsay so the "value" element is really meh for me.

This has very much become my point of view over the years too, but I also have a very well paying job so I have the disposable income to drop the $60-$80 on a game that I may not get a lot out of.

Apparently based of my Steam Library at the moment I pay around $9.27CAD an hour... but that's probably off because I have 142 games I've never launched. (Purchases that were parts of bundles for other games I did want), and time accounted for by my father who plays his games in offline mode mostly.  Currently out of my top 19 games (that's as much as I could fit into a screenshot lol) I have paid $1/hour for exactly one game, which is Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and even that isn't correct because it doesn't factor in the 70+ hours my father's put into the game in offline mode on my account. (the total should actually be around 135 hours according to my Ubisoft Profile)
edit: Yeah that number is way off because I also didn't buy TW:Warhammer for $25.

The point is that while yes it is important to get a good value for your money, at the same time it is important to have fun as well. So sure by all means use the $1/h ratio if you want, but remember that sometimes that won't line up, and you'll pay more for a game. It doesn't necessarily mean the game was bad, it simply means you didn't enjoy it. That's okay.


And before I finish Courtesy of SteamDB https://steamdb.info my top 19 games, because apparently I'm all over the damn map on what I play.

[Misery]

Like I said, a matter of taste. i could as well show people that share my opinion but the sales of the game speak for itself enough.
Some people simply don't like the genre and that's okay. It's the same with me and Isaac. isaac is a trash game for me. I hate it with my guts. This game is in my eyes really badly designed. But the game was/is succesful. It has a big fanbase. So it is popular.
But in my eyes it still will be trash.
It's the same for you with Skyrim.

I still find this moderately baffling, considering you play something like Starward, which is, if I'm blunt, an Isaac clone.  It's basically Space Isaac, with extra bullets. 

I find the titles of the videos quite insulting. And it's called opinion for  areason but the titles... well whatever.

An unfortunate fact of the internet as it currently is.  EVERYTHING has to be "shocking" or "attention grabbing".  I swear, it seems like MOST videos these days have bloody stupid titles like this.  And dont even get me started on the damn thumbnails.

I remember when Youtube WASNT constantly irritating.  Those days sure seem far off now....

[TheVampire100]

I still find this moderately baffling, considering you play something like Starward, which is, if I'm blunt, an Isaac clone.  It's basically Space Isaac, with extra bullets. 

I don't see it as this because of multiple reasons. Main reason? Starward has different weapons or equipment slots and you can only equip one item per slot. This makes the whole experience already  a lot different and the balance as well. In Isaac you can grab stuff as you want and stuff your face with all the items you come alone. If this wuld be smart is another thing but this makes a very bi difference.
Another one, Staward tells you what each item actually does whiel Isaac, even after it has been remade and has several dlcs, still does not manage t give you knowledge what each item does. You have to play the game with a wiki open and I simply don't want every 2 minutes check what an item does. Also, the visual design of Arcen is  A LOT better whiel Isaac is simply blood and feces. Do I have to say more?

An unfortunate fact of the internet as it currently is.  EVERYTHING has to be "shocking" or "attention grabbing".  I swear, it seems like MOST videos these days have bloody stupid titles like this.  And dont even get me started on the damn thumbnails.

I remember when Youtube WASNT constantly irritating.  Those days sure seem far off now....

Yeah, the titles are pretty much click bait to attract similiar minded people. Works wonders the other way aroudn as well.
"Why Skyrim is the best RPG of 2011" for an example. I bnet I could find a video woth that title and I bet hardcore fans of Skyrim would watch just to get their satisfaction that the are right in their opinion.

That is the reason why I simply use the thumbnail/title of the game itself for my videos and keep my titles rather simple/dull (which is also a reason why I have barely any viewers). The viewer sees simply what game I play and talk about nothing more and nothing less.

[Misery]

I still find this moderately baffling, considering you play something like Starward, which is, if I'm blunt, an Isaac clone.  It's basically Space Isaac, with extra bullets. 

I don't see it as this because of multiple reasons. Main reason? Starward has different weapons or equipment slots and you can only equip one item per slot. This makes the whole experience already  a lot different and the balance as well. In Isaac you can grab stuff as you want and stuff your face with all the items you come alone. If this wuld be smart is another thing but this makes a very bi difference.
Another one, Staward tells you what each item actually does whiel Isaac, even after it has been remade and has several dlcs, still does not manage t give you knowledge what each item does. You have to play the game with a wiki open and I simply don't want every 2 minutes check what an item does. Also, the visual design of Arcen is  A LOT better whiel Isaac is simply blood and feces. Do I have to say more?

An unfortunate fact of the internet as it currently is.  EVERYTHING has to be "shocking" or "attention grabbing".  I swear, it seems like MOST videos these days have bloody stupid titles like this.  And dont even get me started on the damn thumbnails.

I remember when Youtube WASNT constantly irritating.  Those days sure seem far off now....

Yeah, the titles are pretty much click bait to attract similiar minded people. Works wonders the other way aroudn as well.
"Why Skyrim is the best RPG of 2011" for an example. I bnet I could find a video woth that title and I bet hardcore fans of Skyrim would watch just to get their satisfaction that the are right in their opinion.

That is the reason why I simply use the thumbnail/title of the game itself for my videos and keep my titles rather simple/dull (which is also a reason why I have barely any viewers). The viewer sees simply what game I play and talk about nothing more and nothing less.

Oh, I definitely agree with you about the item description thing.  I use a mod that simply displays the bloody things on the screen in-game.  Amusingly, it's one of the most popular of all of the mods for the game.

The odd part is:  It's not just Isaac.  Someone, somewhere, seems to have decided that "all roguelikes must be really cryptic and never explain things".   Even Enter the Gungeon, with it's Ammonomicon, which exists to explain things, STILL has me jumping to the wiki frequently.   And just.... why?    Why not just tell me EXACTLY what the bloody item does? 

The WORST bit though is hidden mechanics.  I haaaaaaaaaate that.  Isaac doesn't really do that one too much, but plenty of games do.  Like Gungeon's "Coolness" stat.  Don't get me wrong, it's a good mechanic, that one.  But it's NEVER EVEN HINTED AT.  Not once.  How the playerbase even found out about it, I don't know.  I can only assume goat sacrifices were involved.   There is literally not even the tiniest mention of it in-game, and that's NORMAL in this genre.  And infuriating.

I've never understood this aspect of this genre.  Both of those things, I mean.  Because it really is a genre-wide issue. 

You can thank Chris for it NOT being an issue with Starward.  He was very adamant about that right from the start, making sure that the player got ALL of the info all the time instead of some of the info maybe occasionally sort of.

[Draco18s]

Yeah, the titles are pretty much click bait to attract similiar minded people. Works wonders the other way aroudn as well.
"Why Skyrim is the best RPG of 2011" for an example. I bnet I could find a video woth that title and I bet hardcore fans of Skyrim would watch just to get their satisfaction that the are right in their opinion.

Here's one you might like:
Skyrim: Freedom of Character, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsfQG0h8ijE

His main point is that "Skyrim does everything" which I can agree with. My problem is that it does so poorly (which he agrees with), but sets aside because you can BE anyone. I generally don't want to "be anyone" in a game like Skyrim though, at some point I get fed up with the interface, or one mechanic or another, or something else and go find something more enjoyable.

Can someone play the game anyway they'd like? Yeah. Pretty much. They have the freedom to be anyone.

But that's not why I play games. And its not why a lot of people play games.

[AmishaAldred]

In my family the rule of thumb is $1 per each hour of gameplay. So a $60 game would ideally merit 60 hours of gameplay.

However, I think this is an extremely strict method. Online I saw people willing to pay $10 an hour, so a $60 game would ideally merit them 6 hours of gameplay time. Some people were even more generous than that.
statistics homework help
Though I generally hate DLC with a passion, one nice element of DLC is that it allows people to invest more into a game when they realize they "owe" the developers more money because they've played it so much.

What is your ideal ratio?

To be honest I dont have any strict ratio.
I've played:
- The Binding Of Isaac for more than 800hrs and paid smth like $10-15 (including dlc)
- Dota 2 for 4000+ hrs and paid $0.
- Rocket league 500+ hrs for <10$
But I still think that paying much higher fee for less hrs played is okay, just not for me