by Natalie M. Wolverson

Created on: October 30, 2010

If you are a huge fan of gaming and play games of all different genres then you may find that your wallet is often stretched or left empty because of video game purchases. So many interesting and new games come out each year, many of which employing new graphic engines or featuring the latest technology which encourages keen minded gamers to purchase a game which may not have otherwise appealed to them. With so many video games coming out on a weekly basis, how do you know which is the best option for your wallet; purchase or rent?

General rules for purchasing a game:

* Multiplayer – As a general rule I will purchase games which have an interesting multiplayer aspect to them. The reason for this is simple – replayability. Games which feature a multiplayer mode allow me to play for days, months and even years in some cases because I am a huge fan of multiplayer games as multiplayer matches are never exactly alike and feature many different game modes. Playing online also allows me to play with friends and people from all around the world, which adds great longevity to any game. Lately game publishers such as EA have decided to charge gamers who rent games to play online. The cost is around $10 but certainly puts me off renting a game as I know that I will have to pay to play it online, and I won’t even have the game for that long to make full use of the money.

* Discount – If a game is on discount at a game store near me then I am likely to be enticed in and before I know it making an unexpected purchase. A lot of the time it will be a game which I know I would like to play but didn’t feel that it was worth full retail price.

* Achievements – My main gaming console is an Xbox 360, which utilizes an achievement or gamer point system, where gamers play games and complete in game challenges to obtain points. These points are pretty useless, other than bragging rights and show up on your personal gamer card. I am a perfectionist and love to finish a game, especially one that I enjoy, so it is only natural that I enjoy working to collect all of the achievements for each game that I play. Sometimes these achievements may require a lot of time and effort to earn, meaning that if I had rented the game I may not have had time to collect each one. This would lower my game completion ratio!

* Trade in – When I have finished a game completely and have grown bored of the multiplayer aspects then I will likely trade it in for another

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