In general, are you happy with the games and apps that you actually purchase for iOS? I must say, that for me, I am unhappy with at least 40% of what I buy. I read the reviews. I look at screen shots. I try to figure out if the price is fair...... And still, I end up disliking a lot of what I buy, more so with games than apps. I probably have 20 or so games on my mini, and I actually play about 5 of them. I probably have 25 apps, and use about 5 of then as well. But I keep a lot on my mini " just in case ".
Ratio for good ones for me lately has been high, but entire collection is filled with overhyped (usually by users) titles I played very little of. I would say overall I'm sitting at about a 50/50 split between games I like and don't like, 20% total I'd consider excellent.
At average ios appstore prices ($.99 to $1.99) a game has to be pretty bad for me to feel it wasn't worth the expense. I've got lots of games that I bought (I've probably purchased 200 or more over the past 4 years) that I haven't played more than a few minutes and they just didn't grab me. But I've bought a fair number of $40-$60 games for the PS3 that I've barely played, and the dozens of ios games don't total more than 2 or 3 of those PS3 games. Otoh, I've got a half dozen or so ios games that cost me 99 pennies and that I've put literally dozens (even hundreds) of hours into. In fact, its really more a case of having a small number of games that I enjoy too much that keeps me from playing more of those ios games I've purchased rather than actual disappointment with those games... ...its worth noting also that I've acquired a fair number of games for the amazing price of nothing over the past few years that have ended up being really good games so overall I'm pretty darn pleased with the whole ios thing.
I don't feel the price is any excuse whatsoever. A bad game is a bad game at $0.99 or $99.99 and I've bought plenty of bad games at $0.99. I don't feel I've been ripped off, but I know I shouldn't have made the purchase. In fact, I'd say iOS has been the cause of most of my money wasting for the past 4 years. The real gems are pretty rare around these parts and with casual games repeating themselves over and over, I've practically given up on them completely. Now I mainly just keep an eye out for premium strategy games I can play on iPad as the overall quality tends to be higher.
I think theres a difference between a "bad" game and a derivative or average game. I've been pretty good at avoiding really bad games. I've bought quite a few that sounded good but ended up not really grabbing me. But not very many of them were bad - they just weren't exceptional enough to take time away from other games that I love playing. And I think price does matter. I'm sorry, but I expect more of a game that costs me $50 than I do of one that costs me $2.
I can't say I've purchased any iOS games I didn't like. I usually wait a decent amount of time before buying anything so I can get some impressions on the game first.
42 games I like playing opposed to 14 I never did get into, so basically every third purchased game has been money thrown away for nothing, thank God most of them were 0.99 $ ; didn't count 8-10 games I got for free an like playing and 5 more games I'm currently indifferent for.
But you expect both to entertain you, right? If one doesn't, then the price isn't a factor on that at all, it's just a bad game.
Just because a game doesn't entertain me that doesn't mean its a bad game. And I don't have the same expectations of entertainment from a 1 or 2 dollar game as I do from a $50 one. I'm much much more likely to take a chance on a $1 which means its more likely I might not end up finding that game to my liking.
99% of the time, I'm happy with my purchases. Usually, before I buy a game, I watch a few gameplay videos, check out the TA thread for it, and more, and that's usually when I decide whether to buy it or not.
I download loads of free games that I don't like. The ones I actually pay for are usually good enough to justify the 69p I usually pay. The worst that usually happens is that I pay for a game that isn't bad, but I just don't play. Offhand, that's Reckless Racing, Slingshot Racing and Chopper 2. Paper Titans and The Curse were a bit disappointing too.
