How spoilers, bugs, and online play influence our buying decisions

Choosing when to buy a new video game is a delicate balancing act. Story spoilers, fluctuating prices, and technical problems all factor into when we decide is the best time to make a purchase. But the right moment is sometimes difficult to foresee. As consumers, how do we know when to play to enjoy the fullest experience? What conditions make a game more suitable to play earlier or later in its lifetime

[deantak]

Hey, why play a game when you can read about it instead?

[DFresh]

I take many things into account when buying video games.
Most of the time I wait for price drops.
If there's technical issues then I'll pass on it until a patch comes out fixing those issues.
If there's poor dev support then I won't buy that game at all.
If there's bad business practices that makes me spend more money after I just paid $60 it's not worthy of paying full admission.
(A lot of times if you wait for GOTY Edition everything comes included anyway at a lower price.)
If it's a dev that really supports their games and gives value to players then you've got my support.
(I'll pay the full admission.)
Try to screw me over and you'll lose my support.
(I won't buy your game at all.)
Simple as that.

[Zha1tan]

Il only really buy into a game if it has a sturdy multiplayer component that i can sink a good few hours into or if it has an expansive singleplayer which has atleast over 30 hours of gameplay.

The games that are 7 - 12 hour campaign run throughs like Uncharted, Spec ops the line, The Darkness II etc I just wait for on the steam sale or rent them.

[nathanhale]

wait for Uncharted on Steam? Haha

[Zha1tan]

I believe that was covered with the section

"or rent them"

...people these days