The only problem is what is the ceiling of value? There could be a $60 game that is worth more than $60. Would $100 be the ceiling? Then people will think it is a 100 point scale. There are not many games I would pay $100 for.
There are many other problems with a system where you specify how much you think a game is worth instead of giving it a traditional rating.
- It completely alienates anyone who doesn't live in the US, who might want to review games on CAG (because everything would have a US dollar value).
- Valuing what a game is worth is completely subjective, even more so than a regular score. For example, a Final Fantasy fan might always be willing to pay full price for an FF game, even when they wouldn't give it a 10 with the traditional 1-10 scale.
Another example, I spent a lot of time playing Mr. Driller on the Dreamcast. I'm thinking about buying Mr. Driller Online in the Xbox Live Arcade. I know it's a bad game, poorly reviewed, and probably a bad purchase - but Mr. Driller and achievement points, what's not to like? If I lose my mind and end up buying it, my valuation would be the full MSRP - even though I'd score it a lot lower on the traditional scale.
- Because games have different MSRPs it limits what you can do with the data. For example if you have a list of racing games and sort by the average CAG valuation, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue would appear far down the list because it has a smaller MSRP. It means you can't use the value as a score replacement because the upper limit always changes - people are less likely to say they'll pay $60 for a $40 game, regardless of the quality.
- Game value changes over time. I would've paid $60 for Halo 1 at launch, but I wouldn't now. For the data to be relevant people would have to update their valuations over time.
- The system doesn't work as well for things like Xbox Live Arcade games (where price drops are rare). If CAGs say a particular XBLA game is only worth a purchase at half price, there's no point in recording that data because the price is never likely to change.
- People reviewing games should have played and finished the game - that means that on day one, any reviews that have been posted should theoretically be at full price (or nearly full price).
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