I am certainly prepared to pay a little more for something I know I will like or are a fan of, but price is always important to me, and it just seems alien to be otherwise. I guess if money's no issue for you and you just obey urges or whims, then you have had a very different life experience to mine, and I suspect that of most people.

Most of us have had to pick and choose between having something and maybe going without something else.

Now that I am retired I am able to be a little more flexible, but I am still acutely aware of the value of money.

I just cannot fathom giving a game company what amounts to a blank cheque for them to fill in, which is what some of you seem to do. To me the price always has to be within reason.

I hope you do realize, that when you hand over that blank cheque and they can charge whatever they like, you make it tougher for the rest of us, who aren't so lucky financially. Sure we can wait, and of course most of us do, but it just encourages a bad state of affairs, and some, especially the young are foolish and have no self control, and they and their families pay (suffer) for it.

On the other hand, I appreciate the fact, you peeps paid more (usually much more) and subsidized the game so I could eventually buy it much cheaper. I could say 'Thanks Suckers', but I won't.

Typically, some actual gameplay and good word of mouth.

I admit, I've bought some complete bungles before. Windforge, Blockhood, Eschalon, and such.

It's mainly title and artstyle (both of the digital cover and the actual in-game art). If both fit, I go into the description. If all the criteria below are met, I don't even need to look at Gameplay. I am down for any game that fits these:

- If it looks anime or otherwise cutesy, I immediately skip. Don't care what game it is.
- If I see in-game pixel art and it was released past 1995, I immediately skip.
- If the title is a pretentious sentence and the game was made post 2005, it's probably a skip but I do click on it just in case.
- Honestly, "retro-inspired" in general in the description is also an immediate skip.
- If the title or description references an existing property (like 'Cthulhu' or an existing game like '7th Guest') I immediately skip it. I don't mind being inspired by something, but being upfront about it is clickbait.
- If the description makes a big deal out of being Co-op, it probably doesn't have faith in its Single Player, so skip
- If Word-of-Mouth around the game is in anyway pretentious and people make it out to be a art (like "Plague of Innocence" I think was the name) I don't even get to the description.

After that, I just check out screenshots to make sure it's not a hidden objects game or some mobile port. After that, the game is certified as interesting and goes on the wishlist, and if my interest holds for one month, I buy it at whatever proce it asks.

About buying, not much. If I've been wanting it for quite a long time and I'm reasonably sure I'll actually get to playing it in the foreseeable future, or alternately if I'm buying it to give away, and it's a couple of bucks or less, and obviously has no regional prices above base (which in itself rules out the vast majority), just maybe... Of course, DRM free goes without saying.
About checking out, I have a look at all release announcements here, then I guess it's sort of a mental checklist. RPG, or TBS or TB or RTwP tactics most preferably with RPG elements, city builders, maybe some managerial ones too, those catch my interest on a basic level. Fantasy setting adds to it a lot, low-fantasy or realistic medieval or ancient settings also add a little, modern or recent past or near future or postapocalyptic or dystopian basically eliminate interest, far future may go either way depending on details. Roguelike, procedurally generated world, permadeath, no free saving, those eliminate all interest. Brutal difficulty as a goal of the developers greatly diminishes interest, eliminating it if any measures are implemented to discourage, not to mention block, save scumming. Focus on player needing reflexes, coordination, speed, that reduces interest. Focus on lore, story, characters, writing, these greatly increase interest, and lack of proper story campaign, replaced with separate scenarios or even random missions, greatly reduce or even eliminate interest. Then check out trailer and screenshots, but don't put much stock in that. Probably a few more things, I'm sure there are some I won't believe I forgot a bit later, but this comes to mind right away now.
Then, if looking into it deeper, look through reviews on aggregators or even search for reviews and look for a few thorough ones from established sites I know of and ended up considering as more trustworthy and relevant for me from the days when I was submitting mobyranks (critic scores) on MobyGames, plus look for mainly negative user reviews, to see whether I can deal with the main complaints. If still interested, or if there are things I need clarification on, look for gameplay videos, most preferably no commentary let's play's, searching for some relevant moments to answer my questions.

If game is on sale and general reviews.

Also, if its getting a lot of attention from streamers.

I must admit I am a bit ambivalent about price when it comes to replay value.

Replay value is of course an important consideration in many cases, but I am more likely to appreciate the effort and diligence gone into making a game.

So in short, if a game took very little to make but has good replay value, then I am not going to pay more just on the basis of someone having a clever idea. That might seem unfair to some, but in reality it is likely many will buy the game, so no unfairness really ... plus they also get good rep for future and maybe even past endeavors.

What about for those who put in a lot of effort but the game sucks?
Well for me, I always try and look at the positives ... maybe the Artwork or Soundtrack or lots of other elements. In the end I personally find it better to respect and just appreciate that game making isn't as easy as some think, and sometimes what works and what doesn't, is more an intuitive thing. It cannot be forgotten either, the tremendous pressures many of the developers are under, not least from the publisher or parent body, share holders etc. So yes, I will not pay much for something that has ultimately failed in its main object, but if cheap enough I will buy it and give it a go.

I like to encourage developers, even if sometimes they get it wrong .... unless they weren't diligent enough - careless, uncaring, etc.

P.S. There is an irony for me though. I nearly always check out reviews, but rarely do one myself. This is something I am also like with books, movies and music. So on the one hand I find reviews helpful, while on the other I don't like doing them. For me, any review is kind of a spoiler, not just due to revealing content, but also due to thoughts. I like to get into something with an open mind, without the thoughts of others filtering my experience. So in that regard I guess I am a contradiction ..... except that for me personally, there is a large amount of time usually between purchase and play, and so I have most likely forgotten what I read by then. So what I read is only relevant to purchasing. Then again, as you all would know, some games have totally opposite reviews going on, so they aren't particularly reliable, often impacted by various bias or mood etc.

It can be quite a complex endeavor deciding whether to buy a game or not, especially when finance may be an issue, and your money needs to be well spent.

Heh, I tend to review most. When it comes to games, I tend to go by the number of reviews it already has on MobyGames. If less than three, or if exactly three but I either really want to talk about it or feel I have something to add not covered in those, I write a full review for it, and they tend to rather get away from me, have some even over 3000 words. If more than three, I tended not to review it at all, but recently started writing some quick reviews, by the same rule I use for books, 300, at most 350 words, 2-3 paragraphs, usually one for good and one for bad, if a 3rd as well then it'll probably be about some particular aspect of the game I want to point out. (And yep, quick review for every book I read is a rule. Full ones are rare.)

As for the talk of replay value, irrelevant for me, as I don't replay games, want a story to go through start to end and that's it. Which means that it counts as a major negative if a game is intended to be replayed due to having things you can't experience in a single playthrough.

I'm OK with games not letting you experience everything in a single playthrough, provided that:
* The game is short enough that multiple playthroughs are suitable.
* The number of choices isn't too large. (This excludes the way skill point systems work; with skill point systems, you have to constantly make irreversible choices at every level up, which I don't like.)
* The choice(s) that affects what you experience is presented clearly as a choice, and either the choices are (reasonably) balanced or the game makes it clear which choice makes the game easier and which makes it more of a challenge. (In particular, events that are missable because you did things in the wrong order, or because you decided to progress the story rather than explore or do sidequests are bad.)
* Bonus points if the choice completely changes the game, like in SaGa Frontier or Rudra no Hihou. (With that said, these two games have other issues with missables, particularly SaGa Frontier's approach to magic gifts.)

No doubt there is a variety of reasons why we play games.

For me, entertainment pretty much comes first, and anything good outside of that is a bonus.
So the only time for me where secondary etc reasons become vital, is where the game failed at the primary one.
In that scenario, price then becomes even more of a factor.

Like I have mentioned previously, Artwork and Soundtrack etc then become important factors for what I spent my money on. If either of those is decent enough and good value for the money spent, then I don't feel ripped off. Of course, I can still be disappointed, especially if the game held great promise in some unique or different way, but failed to deliver.

At the end of the day though, a game is just a game, and so long as I didn't spend too much, it is just another one of life's experiences, good or bad, that are inevitable.

No game is a must play for me, though there are some I really want to play if at all possible. Just one of those things I guess, where I like to dictate the terms, remain in control.

In a very real way, I find it an issue of respect, and respect is a two-way street. And price is often that benchmark indicator. DRM is another one. As is paying more than once for the same game, due to different stores or added extras. Diligence when it comes to patching bugs, especially in a timely manner.

Of course, things are rarely simple when developer and publisher are different entities.