Uh... No? A game is a game. The price is irrelevant, unless you lack the common sense to look past appearances and think "Oh, wait, just because I got the game cheap, doesn't mean it is cheap!"
Now, I could see the whole "obligation because of high price" angle but only because if you spend $60 on a AAA title, you're probably going to play it as much as you can to get $60 worth, even though you could have got the same amount of playtime on a sale. A lot of my console gaming was basically that, playing games that I didn't particularly like but tried to finish because they were expensive and had better be worth the cost. That being said, a lot of the console-exclusive titles (naughty dog, for example because the Jak & Daxter series had a lot of content in it and the anniversary release for the PS3 was about $60-ish or something) tend to be keyed towards being able to play it more than once or having a decent amount of content in one go.
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That is why Steam is doing so great. People pick up most games because of the sale.
It's the same with physical items in stores that have discounts, but in fact were never more expensive. If people get a good deal, or at least think they do, they are more likely to buy something and when you get something for cheap you don't feel as guilty for not playing it.
I used to be a console gamer and cheap games ewere just so goddamn rare. I would almost always end up paying full price or be lucky to get a cheap pre-oirder somewhere. Get a used copy or whatever, but that's it.
I said it in another thread already, but in 6 years of being a console gamer I collecter a bit over 30 games, because I had to save money for them. They were expensive, some of them not even easy to get. I was counting the day until I could buy a game and play it until I am sick of seeing it. In one year being on Steam I got over 200 games. Cheap sales, Steamgifts, generous friends all did their fair share on building my library. I am kinda proud tho since 95% of my library is pretty decent in my opinion. I am extremely picky about the games I wanna have in there, but I still got a lot of them. :D
So yes, comparing it to the good ol' days it's definitely altering the overall attitude towards gaming. I would buy a bundle and only activate what I actually want and give away the rest, if there's even something I want in it, but even then there's so much to get. Alien: Isolation on sale? Gimme! That's an awesome game! Didn't play it yet. Deadpool? I love the comics! It's on sale? Gimme! Didn't play it yet. The list goes on and on.
But I prioritize the games I won first so there's even more going into that whole thing.
Oh man, I am writing a lot today and I just gonna end it without a real conclusion, so yeah... Seems like I'm writing just for the sake of talking and not contributing anything of value. :D
TYPOS ERRRRWHERE BOIZ!
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I used to buy bundles if they had at least one game that I THOUGHT I would play and then active them all. But other than bundles, I never really bought any game unless I was going to play them immediately or soon, in which case the better the deal is, the happier I would be :D
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I think it just has to do with how much it is worth to you. If I wait for a sale until a game is like $5 to $10 dollars, then that means that game is worth that amount to me. If I can't wait and decide to purchase a game full price then it means it's worth that for me. I'm gonna play the game worth $60 to me over the game worth $5.
I'd be interested to see if I was planning on spend a bunch on a game and for some reason get a good deal on it, how that would affect my desire to play.
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The thought of associating how you got the game and at what price with the game after it's purchased, is a deeply confusing concept to me. "I'm in the mood for this genre" > "I'm in the mood for this subgenre" > "Okay, this, this is the game I want to play." is my perspective, and even your 'relative worth' outlook is confusing, as it only factors in my perspective for very similar games within the final selection.
That is to say, if I've got multiple games that match the specific style I'm looking for within the specific subgenre, then I contemplate relative worth. Though, even then worth is more a factor of what's more suitable to the moment- which makes sense, given that I don't buy games I don't fully intend to play, so to a degree they all have equitable worth.
Where my perspective is akin to having a well stocked kitchen so I can cook whatever I want when I want it, the OP's perspective seems to be "okay, lets order pizza and forget the food in the kitchen".
Much like that indulgent perspective, if you enjoy doing such, and can afford to do that regularly, it's no wonder other food options fall to the wayside.
From what I gather, it sounds as though the OP impulse buys something they want to play at that moment (or perhaps something that they feel is new and fancy), and then focuses on it.
If that's the way they play games, then I have to agree with them, bundles are just a waste of money for them- they're never going to hit that backlog, because that's just not where they're looking when they want to play games.
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I'm never going to hit my backlog because I just don't have enough time.
Although, I'm kind of reaching the point where, apart from some new AAA games, there are very few games that I really want and don't have yet
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i only play games i won here, the ones i buy are just for profits™ :3
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TL;DR Discussion questions: is there less incentive for you to play games you got on sale? How big is your backlog, and do you see it as a problem?
(No giveaway or anything, I just figured if there's any place where I can rant a little about this it's here, haha)
I got myself Fire Emblem Fates a bit less than two weeks ago, and I've already put more hours into it than I've played in my entire Steam library overall (before I started idling for cards, that is). It makes me realize that I usually enjoy games far more than I pay full price into, rather than getting it at a discount. It makes me wonder if I should unsubscribe myself from all the bundle sites and focus more on getting individual items, if I'm going to get more bang for my buck anyway.
It could just be that I don't play games as often on my PC, as it's kind of an old laptop and I'm a bigger fan of my portable devices (if the Smach Zero thing actually turns out to be good it might be a worthwhile investment for me). PC games definitely have the edge when it comes to sales, and I'm not sure Nintendo knows the meaning of the word sale (if it's popular, it'll be sold at the starting price for years after release). But I noticed it too with my console games - I racked up a good amount of games in various PSN sales for my Vita but most of them I haven't even downloaded, let alone played.
There's a lot more at stake for larger purchase, so I'll put more time into researching them and being sure that I'll enjoy them - and there's a difference to me between $50 enjoyment and $5 enjoyment, so the quality ends up being higher. I guess for me my "sale" buys have less thought to them, like 'hey I might as well grab this' vs 'I've been waiting for months oh my god give it to me'. It's the "too good to pass up" mentality, even though I know that I'll more likely enjoy one large game purchase more than a crate-load of cheap finds (I realize that's the whole mindset behind sales and bundles, but y'know). The cheaper I get it, the easier it is to backlog too - if I put 50 bucks into a game I'm going to jump right in and at least start to get my money's worth, but I'll grab 10 games for $5 each over a span of time and not touch any of them.
There is some enjoyment to me in owning games, like "hey, this thing is cool, I got it at a nice price, and whenever I want to start it it's there for me". I'm getting better about holding back on the super cheap crappy bundles, too, but sometimes I'll still spring for something and wondering if I would have gotten more enjoyment out of a candy bar or coffee. At some point I'll probably attempt some backlog-clearing challenge so I can at least appreciate all the content I have amassed for my immediate pleasure (before sinking another 50 hours into games I've played 3 times already).
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