Weekend Debate: Putting a price on fun

So, this week saw the PlayStation Mobile service roll out in a number of territories, bringing with it a raft of bite-sized titles tailor-made for short-session ‘snack’ gaming. I’ve found time to check out a handful of the games and generally I’m impressed by what’s on offer.

Looking around the web at the reaction from gamers, a lot of the discussion seems to have focussed on price. I’ve always found it interesting how gamers – or consumers of any kind of entertainment medium – assign value to a product. Let’s take PSM title Super Crate Box, which is currently selling for £2.79/€3.49.

I’ve probably poured at least 40 hours into that title in its various incarnations over the last year or so. Compare that to, say, Darksiders – a great game, but I probably only spent around 10 hours on it for my £40 outlay. I’m not for a moment suggesting I wasn’t content with my purchase, but it does make me question exactly what gamers value most in a title.

Take your favourite casual smartphone game – whether it be Bejeweled, or Drop7, or Peggle, or Angry Birds, or whatever. In retrospect, taking into account the amount of fun that game has provided, would you have been willing to spend, say, £30/€40 on it? Or is a game’s value about more than just the number of hours of gameplay it offers?

Your debate topic then:

How do you decide if a game is ‘worth the money’?

Your thoughts please!

This week, the authors of the five most interesting or amusing comments win themselves a download voucher for the thoroughly excellent animal-on-animal apocalyptic brawler, Tokyo Jungle. Not familiar with it? Check out the (frankly astonishing) trailer below.