It has occurred to me recently that among the things we spend money on, video games are among those which we get the best value. Tonight, with tax, I purchased Earthbound for $5.42, and Buffalo wings for $9.61. Now the wings were delicious, but I ate them, and they're gone. (I expect) Earthbound will give me many hours of enjoyment, and I'll always have it. Or, if you want to stick with entertainment, compare it to movies. You may spend $10-15 on a ticket at a movie theater, which gives you 2 hours of entertainment. Whereas a game of that price should give you tens of hours of fun.

And the hardware isn't expensive either- consoles are cheap and PCs do lots of other (important) thing.

But I understand why people may not always feel this way. While the $60 you spent on your favorite game may seem like nothing after playing it for hundreds of hours, the $60 you spent on a game that was absolute garbage feels like a ton. Likewise, the $40 you spent on a game that was exactly like the one you bought last year *cough*Pokemon*cough* also is a great waste. But I think if we all look at our lifetime gaming spending, and compare that to the all the fun we've had, we would say that it is some of our best dollars spent.

My takeaway here is that when a game is good, we should be happy to pay what we do for it. Games are expensive to develop, and we are getting a lot for our money.

Yeah, especially if you can find them second-hand for dirt cheap. Like getting games for $1-5 are great because they can give hours of fun, entertainment and memories for their relatively-cheap price. Of course if you go for full-priced newly released game this holds less water.

No doubt about it. Games deliver a rediculous amount of value for the experiences they offer. In fact I feel they are the best value of any product, or activity. For me consoles and handhelds also offer an unmatchable value, and the content on them offers unforgettable experiences at an incredible value.

That is why I am such a huge fan and champion of consoles, handhelds, and gaming. I have been lucky enough to see many huge events, go to awesome vacation destinations, spend weeks enjoying theme parks, I Snow Board, go Four Wheeling, Dirt Bike, I take my cars to the track, but non of them offered anywhere near the value and memorable moments games have.

I know I am different than others but I absolutely love the experiences games offer. I love to be able to do the things I enjoy in real life without the travel time, without the waiting in lines, without all the people, and at $1,000's and $1,000's less.

That is also the reason I am absolutely elated about VR. To be able to get even closer to those real life experiences without the need to dump thousands upon thousands of dollars for extremely limited access will be life changing. Being able to practice real life activities to make the real experiences better is invaluable. To think I will be able to do anything I want for less then a grand. Are you kidding me?

It is truly an incredible time to be alive, and games allow us to experience almost anything we can dream of, for what in reality is next to nothing.

I think I might have spent over $1000 on World of Warcraft. Now one might think that is completely ridiculous, but just as ridiculous is the amount of value I got from it. Over 400 days played. I try to get $1 per hour for video games, and a typical $60 game will give me just that. Well even better is that WoW cost me about 10 cents per hour.

Taking it even further is the completely free game called League of Legends. Costing me of course 0 cents per hour, for many many hours.

So true, The Crew ended up being one of the best values of this generation so far. I was interested, but didn't want to drop $60 on it. Ended up picking it up on a flash sale for $10 with everything included, and spent over 150 hours on it. Probably e of the most valuable purchases I have ever made in my life. Now I will grab the Ultimate edition of The Crew 2 and likely spend a lot lss time with it, but I believe I owe them for the experience I received on the first one.

Plus, sometimes they come with little dollies that we can play with. Action figures, plushies, whatever. I mostly use them to impress women. I agree that games are a fantastic value when compared to other mediums. Personally, I rarely buy a game and get nothing from it. It happens though. I gave Metal Gear Solid 2 ( it also came with 3 ) another chance on the Vita, and yet again, could not get into it. Played for maybe an hour. But payed only about $5 on a PSN sale, so, eh. Don't discount the value of those wings though. If you're starving a wing will save your life.

That's too much of a blank statement for me. Some games are, imo, a value... sure. Some games are not. But even the best games with the longest gameplay are still questionable when you get into what they actually DO for your life. I mean, reading a great book does things for your brain, attention span... things of that nature, that a game can't as a game is just entertainment (well at least the ones we play anyway). Gaming as a whole is questionable when we start to think about it in that way because you're just... wasting time.

But, that's getting too far off the topic.

Compared to other media they certainly are.

Eh. Depends. The thing is gaming is not a necessity, meaning I'm much more critical on what I deem worthy of purchase. For example I'd easier spend €200 on a pair of shoes or a good coat than I would on a gaming platform. And I hate shopping. Anyway I do definitely agree that my favorite games are worth their price regardless.

That's why we are still buying video games :p