Pay once or pay often?

I've never really been at the forefront of PC gaming so I've rarely bought games at their release price. Instead I wait until they're released on budget and I've got a PC capable of playing them. I'm more interested in plot and game play than graphics anyway. You won't laugh any less while playing the No One Lives Forever games because the characters are a little blocky because the writing is so good.

What got me thinking about this was reviewing Snoopy's Fair for the iPad (full review here) and the potential drain on my wallet it could cause.

Snoopy's Fair is free to play, and I've rather enjoyed it in the vaguely obsessive manner that micromanagement games create. Luckily I've remembered to feed the children before claiming more coins. Still, it's been there, at the back of my mind, that it's time to check on my progress.

It's clear though, that to really succeed in this game you need to spend money. Basic items can be bought with the coins earnt in the game but there are many others to buy with notes. You get two notes every time you level up but that's not enough when the cost of buying all the stalls that cost notes is 400. That would cost around £22 and assumes that you're strong willed enough not to use any to earn coins and experience immediately.

There are options to buy notes in batches up to 2,000 at a time for a whopping £70, suggesting that the game developers expect people to feel the need for that many coins.

Suddenly spending £30 on a new game doesn't seem so painful on the wallet after all. Now you'll have to excuse me as I need to check whether I've earnt any more coins while I was writing this.