This is why I put a lot of games I’m not sure about on my Steam wishlist. Then when a game is “cheap enough” I buy it.

If my hunch was right and the game is only “ok”, but I got a few hours of enjoyment out of it for only a few bucks, I don’t have any buyers remorse.

Where I was born, buying licensed games was hard/impossible, so I just used pirated content. Now, even if I can afford to buy, I still try out a pirated version and if it's good, I buy the game in steam(got Witcher & age of empires 4 this way) *(with some exceptions when pirated content gives superior experience, for example AC2/brotherhood where some content can't be accessed no matter how you pay)

I pirate games, play them, and them buy them (some multiple times, sadly) if I'm still playing after an hour or so. Most games tend to not capture my interest and I only play an hour or two and leave them, and I don't want to be paying 60 currencies per time.

I wish they had a free trial for an hour or two, that would be ideal.

on steam you can get your money back if you play less than two hours. i wish they'd make it 5 hours though. two hours is kind of tight to evaluate a large game. for some i can't even get through the tutorial in that time.

I know they have a refund policy, but it's too much of a hassle to go through checkout, enter my card, check out, then play, make sure I don't go to 2:01, etc.

I'd much prefer to install the game, play, and get a dialog "your trial is over, would you like to buy to continue?" and I can pay at that point.

i fully agree. that's why i wanted 5 hours. the 2 hour limit is just to tight.

on the positive side i did notice a fair number of demos pop up on steam lately, which for those that i have tried, let you play the first few levels of a game, which depending on the game is even better because there is no time limit at all. and no need for a credit card either.

This also makes it ok to not finish a game.

If you bought a game for 60€ and played it for 20-30 hours but didn't finish it, I still count it as a net positive. 2€/hour for a good time, it's hard to beat that.

Surely quality should factor in somehow? I would much rather play a short, innovative game than a long grind-fest.

Unless you're Papa Burch: "If you watch Paul Blart: Mall Cop seven times in a row, it's better than Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Gone With The Wind combined."

https://youtu.be/jI2zxBAIepI?feature=shared

Games are cheaper for hour of entertainment than pretty much any other class of entertainment/hobby where you normally pay, even if you only play the game for a dozen hours or less. Movies, concerts, going to the bar, fishing, gardening, sports (including transportation/facility costs), etc.