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[Nighthawk]

Goat Simulator is the kind of game you buy for the lulz and play for a few hours before growing bored.

I dunno how (or if) you guys decide this kind of thing, but my personal rule is thus: for a game to be considered "worth the buy" it must amuse me for 2 hours for each dollar I paid for it. Skyrim for 14 dollars? I have over 100 hours logged. Worth it. Super Hexagon for 20 cents? I've logged more than an hour, so yeah - worth it.

There are rare cases where the experience was so unique that it was worth more than the time spent, but generally this rule holds, and thus, I must deem Goat Simulator unlikely to pass the test.

[umiman]

My rule is that it must provide 10,000,000 units of utils per $10 spent.

For example, a good dinner is 100,000 utils.

Overtaking a dumbass driver is 50 utils.

Terraria was 174,000,000 utils.

Dota 2 is 1,615,000,000 utils.

[Nighthawk]

Overtaking a dumbass driver is 50 utils.

This should be more.

[i2amroy]

I dunno how (or if) you guys decide this kind of thing, but my personal rule is thus: for a game to be considered "worth the buy" it must amuse me for 2 hours for each dollar I paid for it.

I figure that "worth it" is the 1 hour to 1 dollar rate (considering that that's like a 7 to 1 ratio for work to play even at minimum wage), but 2 to 1 is like the "especial worth it" level.

[puke]

If you have someone gifted with the patience of saints you can play local hotseat multplayer, as well.

I used to play this way on one of the early (original) RTK games on DOS.  Man those were good memories.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[puke]

I dunno how (or if) you guys decide this kind of thing, but my personal rule is thus: for a game to be considered "worth the buy" it must amuse me for 2 hours for each dollar I paid for it.

I figure that "worth it" is the 1 hour to 1 dollar rate (considering that that's like a 7 to 1 ratio for work to play even at minimum wage), but 2 to 1 is like the "especial worth it" level.

Wow, you guys are harsh.  I'm with penguinofhonor on this one, but when I need a measuring stick I often compare the price-to-entertainment value of a game to that of going out to a movie.

[Rolan7]

Or the price of a decent meal out, or two days worth of pizza.  ~20$.  I haven't bought many games recently, but I tend to take a chance if they're $30 or below, and not multiplayer-centric, and the concept seems good.  Helps a lot if bay12 has reviewed it already.
Though there sure are duds.  Indie games are a minefield of lost money.

[ArKFallen]

This is how I decide to purchase Steam games: No MMO, online requirements, or high end specs; this is non-negotiable. Over$0-4.99 USD needs a cool concept and I want at least 1hr of interesting play. $5-9.99 I must like the game mechanics as concepts. I won't buy a game between $10-20 unless I think I'll enjoy the game mechanics enough to pick up and play sporadically after my first binge, preferably after several. Also need to investigate for gameplay footage at that price.
The only time went above $20 was CK2 and I still question that purchase. $100+ for a game is quite a bit and whole packs of the thing go on sale annually. Independent of Steam I got Minecraft for $27 but that was due to a craving for its DBZ mod.

when I need a measuring stick I often compare the price-to-entertainment value of a game to that of going out to a movie.

I don't think going out to a movie is worth it unless other people are involved, I really want those theater snacks, or the movie I want to see is cheaper than buying it.

[Mech#4]

I dunno how (or if) you guys decide this kind of thing, but my personal rule is thus: for a game to be considered "worth the buy" it must amuse me for 2 hours for each dollar I paid for it.

I figure that "worth it" is the 1 hour to 1 dollar rate (considering that that's like a 7 to 1 ratio for work to play even at minimum wage), but 2 to 1 is like the "especial worth it" level.

Wow, you guys are harsh.  I'm with penguinofhonor on this one, but when I need a measuring stick I often compare the price-to-entertainment value of a game to that of going out to a movie.

Similar, I'll buy a game if it has a concept I find intriguing enough to have a closer look at.

It is funny though, I only started quantifying how much a game cost with hours spent with the game after I was asked how I associate value with cost. That's not something someone taking surveys wants to hear.

[i2amroy]

I dunno how (or if) you guys decide this kind of thing, but my personal rule is thus: for a game to be considered "worth the buy" it must amuse me for 2 hours for each dollar I paid for it.

I figure that "worth it" is the 1 hour to 1 dollar rate (considering that that's like a 7 to 1 ratio for work to play even at minimum wage), but 2 to 1 is like the "especial worth it" level.

Wow, you guys are harsh.  I'm with penguinofhonor on this one, but when I need a measuring stick I often compare the price-to-entertainment value of a game to that of going out to a movie.

It comes from being a poor college student . When you only have enough money for a handful of games you damn well want to make sure that you are getting your money's worth out of each game you purchase. (And for what it's worth I pretty much only go to the movies with friends/family, never by myself, it's cheaper to wait until they come out on dvd). That said I do tend to shoot for that more as an "on average" rating then a die-hard individual game rating. Something like Blood Bowl only cost like $10 but has covered me for over 212 hours, so that's another $200 or so that can be spent on games that don't quite make it to the $1/hour marker.

[Delta Foxtrot]

I don't really have a ratio. If I have a unique, enjoyable, memorable experience then I'm usually happy no matter how much I paid for a game.

Pretty much this. Of course when times are lean I greatly value replayability as well for obvious reasons.

On topic:
http://www.gog.com/promo/weekend_promo_ubiverse_100415
GOG has bunch of ubi titles: Prince of Persias (all fun games, even the remake thing that's ridiculously easy), HoMM games and Raymans.

[Sappho]

I find it interesting that so many people judge the value of a game by how many hours they'll play it. I have two jobs, a thriving social life, and a lot of responsibility - I don't have much time in life for games (and I already have a massive backlog of games I'd like to play but don't have time for). The longer a game is, the less likely I am to bother even starting it. Some of the best games I've ever played were over in half an hour, but were well worth the money spent because that half hour was so great. I guess I'm a proponent of the Awesome Per Second metric: "five minutes of great is better than thirty minutes of good."

[puke]

The longer a game is, the less likely I am to bother even starting it.

Yeah, this.  This is why I like pickup games like KSP that I can futz with for a while and then put down.  My rule of thumb about cinema prices is basically just to keep things in perspective against other forms of entertainment. 

I like the idea of epic RPGs and strategy games, but I've still got a bunch in my library that I have not fired up yet.

[BigD145]

The longer a game is, the less likely I am to bother even starting it.

Yeah, this.  This is why I like pickup games like KSP that I can futz with for a while and then put down.  My rule of thumb about cinema prices is basically just to keep things in perspective against other forms of entertainment. 

I like the idea of epic RPGs and strategy games, but I've still got a bunch in my library that I have not fired up yet.

KSP is inherently a long game. .7 was not very long, but it's certainly many hours in career mode to get many of the parts. Each version gets a good 20+ hours out of me.