As this comes up in various threads I though why not let it have it's
own thread.

My personal habits are I probably buy a couple of games a month and they
tend to be in the £5-£15 range with a definite bias towards the lower
end. Most of them are games on sale but generally they weren't that
expensive to start with so it's pretty rare there's a triple-A title in
there unless it's hit the rock bottom £5 price. I do occasional, very
occasional so a couple a year, buy games the are £30+ but they much fall
in the category of this is a game I really want to play. The rarest is
the range in-between partially because there's less games at that price
point but I think mainly because if I think a game is worth say £25 in a
sale then it was probably worth £35+ at full price. If it wasn't worth
£35 then I'm unlikely to pick it up until it's £5. Saying that Red
Redemption 2 is starting to tempt me.

I probably do have a you're taking the pee cut-off off £50+ but
fortunately very few of those games are ones I want to play anyway. Now
the biggy, free games - the only ones I've got are from Amazon Games and
even then if it requires me to use a different store front/launcher then
it's a no from me unless it's GoG. That's the same policy I follow on
Steam so I bought a Battlefield something as it was a £5 but you had to
create another account to use the launcher. It's the only game I've ever
refunded.

All of this is very different from my purchasing habits even ten years
ago when I used to buy less games more at the higher end. I then went
through a phase of buying games just because they were 'cheap' until I
realised that's stupid as firstly I'll probably play it for one hour
tops and secondly it will be on sale again (Steam seems to have more
times when there's a sale on than not).

So that's me, what about you?

$0 since there are free ones given away. I also don't have time to play
as an old fart. When I have time and am interested, I do like trying
free samplers like the current Star Wars: Squadrons' free weekend on
Steam.

JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:
> As this comes up in various threads I though why not let it have it's
> own thread.

> My personal habits are I probably buy a couple of games a month and they
> tend to be in the £5-£15 range with a definite bias towards the lower
> end. Most of them are games on sale but generally they weren't that
> expensive to start with so it's pretty rare there's a triple-A title in
> there unless it's hit the rock bottom £5 price. I do occasional, very
> occasional so a couple a year, buy games the are £30+ but they much fall
> in the category of this is a game I really want to play. The rarest is
> the range in-between partially because there's less games at that price
> point but I think mainly because if I think a game is worth say £25 in a
> sale then it was probably worth £35+ at full price. If it wasn't worth
> £35 then I'm unlikely to pick it up until it's £5. Saying that Red
> Redemption 2 is starting to tempt me.

> I probably do have a you're taking the pee cut-off off £50+ but
> fortunately very few of those games are ones I want to play anyway. Now
> the biggy, free games - the only ones I've got are from Amazon Games and
> even then if it requires me to use a different store front/launcher then
> it's a no from me unless it's GoG. That's the same policy I follow on
> Steam so I bought a Battlefield something as it was a £5 but you had to
> create another account to use the launcher. It's the only game I've ever
> refunded.

> All of this is very different from my purchasing habits even ten years
> ago when I used to buy less games more at the higher end. I then went
> through a phase of buying games just because they were 'cheap' until I
> realised that's stupid as firstly I'll probably play it for one hour
> tops and secondly it will be on sale again (Steam seems to have more
> times when there's a sale on than not).

> So that's me, what about you?

--
Go L.A. Rams! Dang winds, allergies, bodies, works, times, colony, nest, life, etc. :(
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

Hey JAB-you sure sound like a stubborn,
old wanker douche! Refusing to play an
entire slew of games because you won't
use more than one "launcher" makes you
sound like a diapered old fuck with Alzheimer's.

There is absolutely no sound logic to that.
Take yo' angry old ass up outta hear and get
a different hobby. Try jerking off while watching
old Shirley Temple movies. Your bitching makes me sick.

On 1/30/2022 2:33 AM, JAB wrote:
> As this comes up in various threads I though why not let it have it's
> own thread.
>
<space saving snippage>

> So that's me, what about you?

I never recovered from the 2008 implosion of the economy (sub-prime
mortgage crisis) so my game purchases have been limited for a number of
years. "Back in the day" (Apple II days and early PC) I bought a lot of
games. Many of which never got played at all or even installed. I also
tend to be interested in more involved, longer play time games like
'Victoria II' and other grand strategy games. Currently I am probably
averaging one or two games a year, almost all in the sub-$10 price
range. I have to be _really_ drawn to a game to consider more than that
and even then I can't pay more than ~$25.

I have accounts on GOG and Steam and will not create more accounts on
other services. If I find a game I'm interested in I'll look on both of
them for it and go for the less expensive. If the price is the same I
buy from GOG.

I don't even pick up free games just to collect them. I just don't have
the HD space or the money to buy more HDs and if I don't install it
right after buying I know myself well enough to know I will almost
certainly never install it. So what's the point?

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2022 10:33:21 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:

>As this comes up in various threads I though why not let it have it's
>own thread.
>
>My personal habits are I probably buy a couple of games a month and they
>tend to be in the £5-£15 range with a definite bias towards the lower
>end. Most of them are games on sale but generally they weren't that
>expensive to start with so it's pretty rare there's a triple-A title in
>there unless it's hit the rock bottom £5 price. I do occasional, very
>occasional so a couple a year, buy games the are £30+ but they much fall
>in the category of this is a game I really want to play. The rarest is
>the range in-between partially because there's less games at that price
>point but I think mainly because if I think a game is worth say £25 in a
>sale then it was probably worth £35+ at full price. If it wasn't worth
>£35 then I'm unlikely to pick it up until it's £5. Saying that Red
>Redemption 2 is starting to tempt me.
>
>I probably do have a you're taking the pee cut-off off £50+ but
>fortunately very few of those games are ones I want to play anyway. Now
>the biggy, free games - the only ones I've got are from Amazon Games and
>even then if it requires me to use a different store front/launcher then
>it's a no from me unless it's GoG. That's the same policy I follow on
>Steam so I bought a Battlefield something as it was a £5 but you had to
>create another account to use the launcher. It's the only game I've ever
>refunded.
>
>All of this is very different from my purchasing habits even ten years
>ago when I used to buy less games more at the higher end. I then went
>through a phase of buying games just because they were 'cheap' until I
>realised that's stupid as firstly I'll probably play it for one hour
>tops and secondly it will be on sale again (Steam seems to have more
>times when there's a sale on than not).
>
>So that's me, what about you?

The bulk of the gains to my gaming library are nowdays through free
(or semi-free) offers: Epic's weekly give-aways, the various games
offered by Amazon Prime (those are the semi-free ones), the
occassional tidbits thrown to us by EA or Ubisoft or some publisher
trying to bulk up his numbers on Steam. I got close to 200 games that
way in 2021 (although that number probably includes several duplicates
if the game was offered on multiple platforms).

After that, a lot of my games come from HumbleBundle's monthly bundle.
$12 bucks for 12 games is a pretty good deal. Not all of them are
games I'm interested in, but there's usually two or three I'm really
glad I didn't pay full price, and another two or three that look
interesting enough for me to consider playing them.

On Sun, 30 Jan 2022 10:33:21 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:

>As this comes up in various threads I though why not let it have it's
>own thread.
>
>My personal habits are I probably buy a couple of games a month and they
>tend to be in the £5-£15 range with a definite bias towards the lower
>end. Most of them are games on sale but generally they weren't that
>expensive to start with so it's pretty rare there's a triple-A title in
>there unless it's hit the rock bottom £5 price. I do occasional, very
>occasional so a couple a year, buy games the are £30+ but they much fall
>in the category of this is a game I really want to play. The rarest is
>the range in-between partially because there's less games at that price
>point but I think mainly because if I think a game is worth say £25 in a
>sale then it was probably worth £35+ at full price. If it wasn't worth
>£35 then I'm unlikely to pick it up until it's £5. Saying that Red
>Redemption 2 is starting to tempt me.
>
>I probably do have a you're taking the pee cut-off off £50+ but
>fortunately very few of those games are ones I want to play anyway. Now
>the biggy, free games - the only ones I've got are from Amazon Games and
>even then if it requires me to use a different store front/launcher then
>it's a no from me unless it's GoG. That's the same policy I follow on
>Steam so I bought a Battlefield something as it was a £5 but you had to
>create another account to use the launcher. It's the only game I've ever
>refunded.
>
>All of this is very different from my purchasing habits even ten years
>ago when I used to buy less games more at the higher end. I then went
>through a phase of buying games just because they were 'cheap' until I
>realised that's stupid as firstly I'll probably play it for one hour
>tops and secondly it will be on sale again (Steam seems to have more
>times when there's a sale on than not).
>
>So that's me, what about you?

The bulk of the gains to my gaming library are nowadays through free
(or semi-free) offers: Epic's weekly give-aways, the various games
offered by Amazon Prime (those are the semi-free ones), the occasional
tidbits thrown to us by EA or Ubisoft or some publisher trying to bulk
up his numbers on Steam. I got close to 200 games that way in 2021
(although that number probably includes several duplicates if the game
was offered on multiple platforms).

After that, a lot of my games come from HumbleBundle's monthly bundle.
$12 bucks for 12 games is a pretty good deal. Not all of them are
games I'm interested in, but there's usually two or three I'm really
glad I didn't pay full price, and another two or three that look
interesting enough for me to consider playing them. Sure that leaves
me with five or six games a month that are just filler, but it's still
a tremendous deal

Which leaves all the games I do pay for. Some of these are just games
that are part of non-monthly bundles (from HumbleBundle or Fanatical
or wherever) that have one or two games that look neat and a bunch of
extra fodder that I don't object to, and games I actually buy
specifically because I want to buy them. The former are a decreasingly
small number as the years go by, so let's talk about the latter.

Mostly it's GOG that gets me. They'll have a sale or reveal some new
'good old game' and I'm helpless against the urge to grab the games.
Just last week I bought a dozen titles because they dropped below the
dreaded $5USD mark. Many of them I already owned, albeit on optical or
magnetic media, but the convenience of digital downloads is worth the
few bucks. I'll splurge this way every couple of months or so,
spending ten to thirty dollars at a pop. But very rarely are my
'direct purchases' for any modern games; they almost always are older
titles.

'New Game' purchases are, for me, fairly rare. I've expressed my
reasons for this before but it largely boils down to the fact that I
don't feel I get as much value - as much 'bang for my buck' - from new
games. This impression isn't helped by so many 'nearly new' games
being offered for free. Is the $70 price tag of "God of War" really
worthwhile when I can get "Plague Tale", "Ghost Recon Wildlands", and
"Shadow of the Tomb Raider" for $0? So it has to be the rare 'new'
game that even makes me consider shelling out for it, much less paying
full price... and there's few that ever reach that mark.

While I don't really have any hard limits, I tend not to even consider
games that breach the $20 mark anymore. Odds of purchase become much,
much higher after the game drops beneath the $5 USD mark. The area
between greatly depends on the quality and type of game, but even
games I want (say, "Terminator: Resistance") I'll hold off on buying
if it's in the $10-20 range because I know that - if I wait long
enough - eventually I'll get it for less money. And it's not as if I'm
wanting for games to play in the meantime.

So, numbers? Off the top of my head:

- About 200 free games.
- About 120 Humble Bundle games (of which half are interesting to me)
- Maybe 10 'other bundle' games
~ 50 or so 'old games' bought on the cheap (<$5)
~ 2-4 modern games bought on sale ($5-20)
- Nothing purchased at full price

Oh, and four DLC packs (two for SCI's Truck Simulator games, and two
for TheHunt: Call of the Wild).

Am 30.01.22 um 11:33 schrieb JAB:
> All of this is very different from my purchasing habits even ten years
> ago when I used to buy less games more at the higher end. I then went
> through a phase of buying games just because they were 'cheap' until I
> realised that's stupid as firstly I'll probably play it for one hour
> tops and secondly it will be on sale again (Steam seems to have more
> times when there's a sale on than not).
Same here.. I have become a bargain bin gamer, it is just not worth it
to shell out so much money for games, my pile of shame is endless by now
and usually even AAA titles come in over the usual cheap /free channels
after a couple of years. And frankly spoken AAA has become repetetive
and boring i have not seem too many titles lately which interest me,
they seem to have become very carbon copy in their elements while
between a huge pile of trash there are gems to be found in the AA and
Indie segment, you just need to dig them out.

On 31/01/2022 08:28, Werner P. wrote:
> Am 30.01.22 um 11:33 schrieb JAB:
>> All of this is very different from my purchasing habits even ten years
>> ago when I used to buy less games more at the higher end. I then went
>> through a phase of buying games just because they were 'cheap' until I
>> realised that's stupid as firstly I'll probably play it for one hour
>> tops and secondly it will be on sale again (Steam seems to have more
>> times when there's a sale on than not).
> Same here.. I have become a bargain bin gamer, it is just not worth it
> to shell out so much money for games, my pile of shame is endless by now
> and usually even AAA titles come in over the usual cheap /free channels
> after a couple of years. And frankly spoken AAA has become repetetive
> and boring i have not seem too many titles lately which interest me,
> they seem to have become very carbon copy in their elements while
> between a huge pile of trash there are gems to be found in the AA and
> Indie segment, you just need to dig them out.
>

That's the problem I have, there are good titles out there but with so
much dross how do you find them. I do like Steam but I also miss the
days when you could actually go to a store and just browse for games.
Then there was the demo CD's that came with magazines.

On 30/01/2022 23:11, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
[snip]

> Which leaves all the games I do pay for. Some of these are just games
> that are part of non-monthly bundles (from HumbleBundle or Fanatical
> or wherever) that have one or two games that look neat and a bunch of
> extra fodder that I don't object to, and games I actually buy
> specifically because I want to buy them. The former are a decreasingly
> small number as the years go by, so let's talk about the latter.
>
> Mostly it's GOG that gets me. They'll have a sale or reveal some new
> 'good old game' and I'm helpless against the urge to grab the games.
> Just last week I bought a dozen titles because they dropped below the
> dreaded $5USD mark. Many of them I already owned, albeit on optical or
> magnetic media, but the convenience of digital downloads is worth the
> few bucks. I'll splurge this way every couple of months or so,
> spending ten to thirty dollars at a pop. But very rarely are my
> 'direct purchases' for any modern games; they almost always are older
> titles.
>

I've managed to wean myself of doing that and now it's very much a case
of I may buy a game because it's come into the 'correct' price range but
it also has to be something that I think I will play. I used to have
this horribly habit of not find something in my Steam library that I
wanted to play so I'd just buy something, anything. Of course that
something hardly got played.

> 'New Game' purchases are, for me, fairly rare. I've expressed my
> reasons for this before but it largely boils down to the fact that I
> don't feel I get as much value - as much 'bang for my buck' - from new
> games. This impression isn't helped by so many 'nearly new' games
> being offered for free. Is the $70 price tag of "God of War" really
> worthwhile when I can get "Plague Tale", "Ghost Recon Wildlands", and
> "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" for $0? So it has to be the rare 'new'
> game that even makes me consider shelling out for it, much less paying
> full price... and there's few that ever reach that mark.
>
> While I don't really have any hard limits, I tend not to even consider
> games that breach the $20 mark anymore. Odds of purchase become much,
> much higher after the game drops beneath the $5 USD mark. The area
> between greatly depends on the quality and type of game, but even
> games I want (say, "Terminator: Resistance") I'll hold off on buying
> if it's in the $10-20 range because I know that - if I wait long
> enough - eventually I'll get it for less money. And it's not as if I'm
> wanting for games to play in the meantime.
>

I did have a think about games that I bought recently that were in the
premium price range and managed to come up with two in two years. Disco
Elysium and Desperados III. This year it's entirely possible that figure
will be none.

On Mon, 31 Jan 2022 09:31:36 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:

>I've managed to wean myself of doing that and now it's very much a case
>of I may buy a game because it's come into the 'correct' price range but
>it also has to be something that I think I will play. I used to have
>this horribly habit of not find something in my Steam library that I
>wanted to play so I'd just buy something, anything. Of course that
>something hardly got played.

I have so many games in my Steam library that I find it highly
unlikely that I could not find something to play there.

As for me, the amount of games I buy each year is random. It is based
on what older titles are for sale (I never pay full price anymore and
modern triple A titles do not interest me) and what the Indie devs are
making that suits my tastes.

On Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 2:33:31 AM UTC-8, JAB wrote:

> So that's me, what about you?

I used to browse the under $5-10 games on Steam sorted by best
reviews and I'd toss anything interesting looking on my wishlist,
or even buy something right then. I also tend to add things to my
wishlist that get mentioned here that sound interesting.

Then I'd buy a bunch when they were on sale. ​I'd end up playing
one or two out of the 5 or more I had bought. Then repeat the process
again. If I was lucky I might find 1 out of 5-10 I played that
I was actually interested in.

Lately the prospect of even playing a new game has felt like a chore
to learn how to play the game, the controls etc. and I've not
felt like doing so much. Especially with all the free games.

I've kind of reversed this direction and now tend to buy only more
expensive games that I feel like I'm going to be more invested in.
It's still quite a bit hit or miss, but the ratio has been
much lower. However, I bought a bunch of stuff around Christmas
time in the $20 range that was on sale. I'm not even sure
what I bought now, nor what service they were on so even finding
them could be difficult.

Just more virtual hoarding I guess. At least when I do find something
I'm into I tend to play it for a long time.
TDLR; I tend to buy in bursts when I'm between games and now tend
toward more expensive games.

- Justisaur

On Mon, 31 Jan 2022 09:31:36 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:

>On 30/01/2022 23:11, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>[snip]
>
>> Which leaves all the games I do pay for. Some of these are just games
>> that are part of non-monthly bundles (from HumbleBundle or Fanatical
>> or wherever) that have one or two games that look neat and a bunch of
>> extra fodder that I don't object to, and games I actually buy
>> specifically because I want to buy them. The former are a decreasingly
>> small number as the years go by, so let's talk about the latter.
>>
>> Mostly it's GOG that gets me. They'll have a sale or reveal some new
>> 'good old game' and I'm helpless against the urge to grab the games.

>I've managed to wean myself of doing that and now it's very much a case
>of I may buy a game because it's come into the 'correct' price range but
>it also has to be something that I think I will play. I used to have
>this horribly habit of not find something in my Steam library that I
>wanted to play so I'd just buy something, anything. Of course that
>something hardly got played.

As I said, for me the majority of my 'direct purchases' (buying games
individually rather than as part of a bundle) are for older games I
already own. And while that may seem a foolish thing to do, I'm fine
with it.

I /really/ /really/ /really/ hate having to pull out and use optical
media. It's not just much needing the disc to install (although that's
a pain too); I also hate the requirement of needing the disc in the
drive. Not only is it annoying and inconvenient, it opens the disk up
to getting lost or damaged. Digital downloads also (usually) have an
advantage in that they have been pre-configured to work with modern
hardware too.

So I feel no qualms about buying up a bunch of these at a time,
although even that convenience has a price limit. You sometimes see
30-year old games re-issued with marginal improvements for $20;
there's no way I'm paying that much. But $2, $3 a pop? It's well worth
that price; I can easily revisit old favorites (even if it's just for
the briefest of stays) and my old disks remain safely ensconced in
their protective folders.

>I did have a think about games that I bought recently that were in the
>premium price range and managed to come up with two in two years. Disco
>Elysium and Desperados III. This year it's entirely possible that figure
>will be none.

My 'official story' is that the last full-priced game I purchased was
SCS Software's "American Truck Simulator", and that was released just
under six years ago. (I say 'official story' because I think there may
have been one or two games that snuck in at full price since then, but
I can't remember any details). I was already leery of paying full
price for games back in 2016, but I loved "Euro Truck Simulator 2" so
much that I decided to buy its sequel day-one.

Unfortunately, on release "American Truck Simulator" was an incredible
disappointment (six years of development and 9 map DLC packs later,
it's supplanted ETS2 as my favorite) and that was enough to make me
swear off full-priced games forever. Just wait a few months (or
years), became my new philosophy; not only will it give the game to
prove itself, but the price will drop down to something reasonable.

It's proven a workable theory so far.

On Monday, January 31, 2022 at 7:51:46 AM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> I /really/ /really/ /really/ hate having to pull out and use optical
> media. It's not just much needing the disc to install (although that's
> a pain too); I also hate the requirement of needing the disc in the
> drive. Not only is it annoying and inconvenient, it opens the disk up
> to getting lost or damaged. Digital downloads also (usually) have an
> advantage in that they have been pre-configured to work with modern
> hardware too.

Agreed on that front. However I try not to buy anything I've got on
media, though I did rebuy Stalker because the media got broken.
I also rebought a few games 'gold' packs as it was cheaper than buying
the DLCs by themselves. Fallout 3 for instance.

> Unfortunately, on release "American Truck Simulator" was an incredible
> disappointment (six years of development and 9 map DLC packs later,
> it's supplanted ETS2 as my favorite) and that was enough to make me
> swear off full-priced games forever. Just wait a few months (or
> years), became my new philosophy; not only will it give the game to
> prove itself, but the price will drop down to something reasonable.
>
> It's proven a workable theory so far.

That's how I mostly used to be, but I've found I've missed some good
times before patches/high volume with games with online co-op/
multiplayer. Either that or it's just FoMO.

Even some of the mods I enjoyed shortly after the original Fallout 3
was released aren't available any more/won't work with patches.

- Justisaur

>So that's me, what about you?

My concern now are subscription fees: Amazon Prime, XBox Gamepass,
Playstation PS+, I think that's it, but it's nothing to sneeze at.

rms

JAB <noway@co.uk> writes:

> So that's me, what about you?

For me frequency seems random, maybe one game every two months or so on
average? Or less. Depends on what's out but I guess I'm not in the
target market much. Or maybe I used to like more games? Seems like the
pandemic has lessened my patience but also less games have come out I
think. Or at least some titles have been delayed.

I try to give the Epic and other freebies a go if they seem even
slightly interesting.

I don't care about store fronts. Variety is the spice of life and all
that. Although I'm not really happy if some of them don't let me move my
games around. (Meaning, I have plenty of HD space, not enough SSD
space.) I wonder how this works for the Origin games I've bought on
Epic, probably not at all. The way those games work, I click play on
epic and it spawns origin and then the game itself.

Cost is maybe up to 50 euros? Even with new games there's usually a 20%
off somewhere so that brings it down to 40 euros. I don't really care if
it's something I want but a lot of what I want isn't out or even known
to be in development.

On 31/01/2022 12:58, Anssi Saari wrote:
[snip]

> Cost is maybe up to 50 euros? Even with new games there's usually a 20%
> off somewhere so that brings it down to 40 euros. I don't really care if
> it's something I want but a lot of what I want isn't out or even known
> to be in development.

I think that something that has definitely changed in my buying habits
is I actually put more thought into do I really want a game instead of
just fancy playing it. I've got loads of games I can play so why add
another one unless I do really want it.?

I also make use of the Steam wishlist for games that aren't in the must
buy now category as then you tend to get notified if something is on sale.

Am 02.02.22 um 11:35 schrieb JAB:
> I think that something that has definitely changed in my buying habits
> is I actually put more thought into do I really want a game instead of
> just fancy playing it. I've got loads of games I can play so why add
> another one unless I do really want it.?
>
> I also make use of the Steam wishlist for games that aren't in the must
> buy now category as then you tend to get notified if something is on sale.
Yes definitely as soon as your pile of shame has reached a certain size
you start to think twice about buying another game beyond a certain
price ragen.