How many hours of fun game play do you have to get for you money to consider a game a good deal?

For me I am happy with $1 to 1 hour of engrossing game play. If I can get more than that I consider a great deal.

Thats not working for me.
If i like a game (real like it) and i have enough money i buy it.

But have you ever bought a game and were really excited about it but then got burned out on it after only a few hours? If you paid $2 for you probable would not mind, if you paid $60 most people would regret the purchase.

I don't feel like I need to put a cost analysis on my hobbies to know my time was well spent. Problem being, I sometimes buy games I don't really intend to play at the time. The fact that I "own" it and could try it out at a moment's notice is worth a lot to me, therefore my cost/benefit analysis would sometimes go off the charts. In short, I couldn't produce any useful data, subjective or otherwise.

Well, you also have to factor in re-play.

Value for me comes from whether or not you enjoy the game. If you don't, it's wasted money regardless of how long the game is. If you enjoy it, it's of value even if a practiced person can win in an hour (See a game like FTL) regardless of price.

Of course, this really only applies to reasonable purchases. I'm not going to go and buy a game online for $200 when I can torrent it or get a copy on a different system that supports it for cheaper.

This honestly isn't something that I worry about. A game should be exactly as long as it should be. If a game delivers an effective experience in four hours, and padding it would just dilute the impact, then I'd rather they left it as-is. It doesn't affect my consideration of what the game is "worth".

Then again, I tend to play a lot of story-driven or atmosphere-heavy games; if I played more games that were just "games" in the stricter sense of that word, I might feel different.

I compare gaming costs to movie costs essentially. If we find it acceptable to be entertained for roughly 2 hours for roughly 10 dollars (not counting other expenses like snacks, gas, travel time, etc). Then I think its fair to expect to spend about $50.00 to $60.00 for 10 - 12 hours of gaming.

Based on this, I have won and lost pending how entertaining the game is.

I just finished Divinity 2. I didn't check to see how much time I spent, but the advertised 60+ hours seems about right. And it was FUN as well as lengthy. This was a big "win" financially.

Auryn's Quest, on the other hand, only cost $1.99 and it was still a rip off. First, because I beat the game in roughly 15 minutes. Second, it was the equivalent of charging to watch the coming attractions. The game was horribad on every conceivable level. But, we have similar risks with the movies we pick as well. Its very rare for a theater to refund ticket prices.

On most levels, the quality of the game is by far, more important than the length... but there is diminishing returns if the value only lasts a certain amount of time that doesn't quite match up with the amount spent.

I'm with Titanium in that just having it there is worth a lot. Plus it's hard for me to give any sort of monetary value to subjective things like this.

How much is Pulp Fiction worth to me? The Star Wars saga? Gurren Lagann? If you're asking me how much I'd pay for any of those the number really depends on how much money I have to spend and a number as variable as that just doesn't hold much weight for me.

Add in the fact that many times the price of these games on sale is much less than a meal or even an individual item (our local Sonic wants over six bucks for a large shake) and whether or not I got my money's worth seems like much less of an issue.

However the purchase of all the DLC for Halo 3 was a mistake. Think I've popped in that disc a total of 4 times since I've had it.

It has to be alot for me. I am usually a bit disappointed if the game doesnt last longer than 50 hours or so.
I bought Eador:Genesis on release day for 4.79$ here and it lasted almost a thousand hours. That's the ideal now.

And yes I do mind if I buy a game for 2$ and it sucks.

I paid full price for KoDP. I played hundreds of hours so far, and I haven't even finished a long game yet *holds his head down in shame*

Can you really do a cost analysis on joy?

Prostitutes do it all the time.

LEAVE MY SEX LIFE OUT OF THIS!

I don't know, that sounds like it's too good to be true like you get stuck in some kind of nostalgia horror that you're too emotional to get out of. Granted, I've played the game and it's good but the lack of animations and a decent save function ruined it for me to make any progress.

In an absolute way? In my opinion no. In a relative way? Sure, just compare with different types of enjoyment.

Asked and answered :p