How I Buy Games (With Flowchart) blog - ssokolow

Being the geek that I am, I've always wanted a diagram of how I decide what to do when a video game catches my eye. Well... I finally made one.

Why do I require such strict conditions before I buy games? It’s fairly straightforward, actually:

1. I have strong and well-justified feelings about DRM.
2. I'm a poor university student. Without sales, I wouldn't be able to afford anything.
3. Linux is the only platform I use, but I want to keep my options open. (And be able to run games in Wine if the Linux version is unusable buggy.)
4. When you consider all the other ways I entertain myself, I probably have more games than I’ll ever be able to beat. (Including the CD-ROMs and diskette images in my closet, I've legally purchased at least 600 non-shareware games over the course of my life.)

...so why don't I just spend more on the handful of games I'll actually play? Partly to keep my options open but mostly because I want to reward every developer whose product I approve of. I may not be able to pay a lot, but I can at least give everyone something. (Especially when I make every effort to minimize the amount I cost them in download bandwidth.)

Finally, to anyone who might want to flame me or call me entitled, it's my money, not yours. I could just as easily pirate games and buy books and snacks instead... or have a 9-in-10 chance of paying $50 to a game you don't like rather than paying $5 to all 10 I was considering.

(For the record, I don't pirate games. Principles aside, I have enough trouble kicking my fanfiction addiction so I can play the ones I already have, write more programs, and read all the novels I bought but haven't yet read.)