gaming time/dollar spent

shaggydoug · Post by **shaggydoug** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:44 pm

Apparently my ratio of gaming time/dollar spent is really high. I've been playing HL2 pretty regularly for 3 weeks with at least 1 hour/day but I would say I average 2 hours accounting for my gaming binge nights of 3-4 hours but also skipping a couple nights. I'm on the second to the last level. That puts me at about 40-45 hours of playing time. A friend of mine got his new laptop just last Tuesday, installed HL2 and passed me up last night and it sounds like he's at "the end boss". He's playing on "Easy" while I'm playing on "Medium". It's hard to guess exactly how many hours he's played but I would say definitely at most 1/2 of my time. He put in 5 hours last night and started at the hard turret section in Nova Prospect. I already said where he stopped. He has a tendency to run past fights to not lose ammo while I like to clear out a room and explore every corner.

How many of you play like him or like me? Are you a "fast gamer" or a "slow gamer"?

And note, I don't think any of this is related to any other "activities".

- shaggy

Butterknife · Post by **Butterknife** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:56 pm

I spend about $50/month on video games, usually 1 game per month at full price or a couple of bargain bin games.

Gaming time averages around 10 hours per week, with some weeks coming in as little as 5 hours and some as many as 20. But the average I would say is 10: Roughly 40 hrs/month of game time.

So: $50/month divided by 40 hrs/month means my gaming costs me about $1.25 an hour. Well worth it in my opinion.

As to your second question (from your post) I'd consider myself a "slow" gamer, as I rarely finish games, always complete my quest log, poke in every corner, pick up all the junk, clear every area before moving on, do every subquest, play each scenario, etc. Most people will finish a game before I do, and I rarely finish.

Rich in KCK · Post by **Rich in KCK** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:18 pm

Slow gamer here, it always seems to take me much longer than others are saying it takes to complete a game but I tend to go through them like I was playing Ghost Recon, real slow like and carefull like I only have the one life.

EddieA · Post by **EddieA** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:28 pm

KoTOR took me close to 90 hours, I'm close to 20 hours with KoTOR 2 and still on Citadel Station, and my average time to complete a game is about a year. I guess that makes me a slow gamer

Rich in KCK · Post by **Rich in KCK** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:36 pm

I was thinking this while I typed my reply above but how many of us slow gamers grew up on coin-op games and consoles without memory cards? I don't know if the fast gamers just run through not caring if they get killed because they can just reload or what? I still think like I did back in the day of 3 lives and you're done while I'm playing even though I know I can reload when I die.

shaggydoug · Post by **shaggydoug** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:09 pm

Rich in KCK wrote:I was thinking this while I typed my reply above but how many of us slow gamers grew up on coin-op games and consoles without memory cards? I don't know if the fast gamers just run through not caring if they get killed because they can just reload or what? I still think like I did back in the day of 3 lives and you're done while I'm playing even though I know I can reload when I die.

Good one! Interesting.

My "fast gaming" buddy is older than I am though. Not sure how much coin-op he did though. He was telling me that he's changed his approach to gaming because of Counterstrike.

- shaggy

Eduardo X · Post by **Eduardo X** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:18 pm

Chris Grenard is insane with beating games.

I beat a game every six months or so. Not to say I'm quick or slow, I just don't always beat the games I play.

The last game I beat, besides Tekken, was... damn, I can't remember! Far Cry I know I beat.... I can't think of anything since then, though I know I've beat things.
Breakquest I got through, I know, but I don't know if that counts. That was in February.

Archangel · Post by **Archangel** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 7:24 pm

I have a good value as in how many hours I use on games.

Main reason for that is that I`m a clangamer, I bought BFV in july last year and still play it like 10-12 hours every week.

In addition to that I replay alot of my old favorites.

I would say that I buy 4-5 games at full retail price each year, rest is VERY cheap gamer either on discount or from ebay or similar.

For me it is great at a very cheap price in total.

As in regards on how I play them I`d say medium, some games like the Rainbow 6 series I finish quite fast.
Others like Silent Hill, Diablo I spend alot of time on, though there I won`t really replay the game so often, if I do so at all.
There are some games that I haven`t finished, but I usually do.
If not while playing them the first time I finish them on a later re-install.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 7:44 pm

Very, very slow. I tend to do and check everything, and find that I take about 50% more time on games than the average player.

Effidian · Post by **Effidian** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:23 pm

I finish 99.9% of the games I play and am a 'slow' gamer (meaning I like killing all the bad guys and searching everywhere). I always start on the hardest difficulty level. I feel like this gives me the most out of the game. As a result though, I rarely replay games because it feels like I've done almost everything after I finished it once.

Recently though, I've thought about not finishing everything. A couple times I've felt like I was just playing the game in order to finish it, not because it was fun anymore. So, I may switch my play style soon. Play at an easier difficulty setting on games that I'm not so interested in, and try to stop once they stop being fun. It'll be hard to change 20 years of gaming habit though.

ChrisGwinn · Post by **ChrisGwinn** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:17 am

I don't finish games that often, and I frequently buy them and put them on the shelf for a long time. So I expect my $/hour ratio is quite bad, but maximizing the ratio has never been my goal. If it was, I'd head to the public library for all my entertainment.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:14 am

I choose games partly for longevity, and can stretch a decent replayable strategy game for six months or a year. So I guess I'm slow, and I definitely get full value. I tend to hurry through linear games, though -- I'm not sure why, but I often feel some vague urgency to finish. I have no patience with puzzles, and go for walkthroughs when I can't solve them quickly. I had heard that KotOR would last about 40 hours, and I finished it in 42 hours, so I guess I'm pretty average on story-based games.

Ripstar · Post by **Ripstar** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:21 am

I am a slow gamer.

I like to plod through seeing and experiencing everything. If its a great game like a great book it should be lived not just played or read.

Sometimes it boils down to your imagination, the more you have the easier it is to get immersed and spend time living in that other world.

The less you have maybe that makes for a speedier pass through the game.

However, when all is said and done the objective remains the same.
Having fun.

qp · Post by qp » Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:32 am

Some games are excellent, MMO's, despite their MRC offer a lot of hours per dollar. Morrowind was very good, the PS2 GTA series has been decent as well. I think the record may be Daggerfall...although it's really hard to remember how many hours I've spent on various games.

D.A.Lewis · Post by **D.A.Lewis** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:11 am

I'm such a slow gamer I measure my time in weeks not hours.

As a matter of fact I was never down with the hour measurement thing. For one thing, some games I might go back to, a few times a day. Some games I only play once a day. And some, only occasionally. So if I spent 50 hours on a game, that 50 hours could be in two or three days or in a couple of months. And who really has a gamer clock when they play games? You know you bought a game on release date and finsihed it in a marathon session on some Holiday you didn't have to work or go to school.

Examples:

Morrowind was a few times a day game but it was so big it turned into a few times a week and then a few times a month. When the OO DVD came out it went back up to a few times a day. (took about 2 years)

Riddick was a few times a day. (took about 3 weeks)

CSI is one time a day. (still playing after 3 weeks and early in game)

A typcial RPG will take me about 8 weeks to play. A typical adventure game will take about 4 weeks to play. A typical FPS will take between 3 to 6 weeks to play. And a typical RTS will take about 6 weeks to play. I have no idea what the hour investment is. I think my interest level in a game has a lot to do with the amount of hours in a game. And since RPGs are my prefered game, that is where I spend a lot of time.

As far as cost, well if it gets to expensive to play, then I will buy less games. Gaming is what I do. It is who I am. So sayeth this gamer.

Bad Demographic · Post by **Bad Demographic** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:45 am

I'm a slow player. Like a lot of you, I like to explore every nook and cranny (well, nearly - I'm not as obsessive as some other Thief fans) and for rpg's, I like to try to do as many quests as possible. I'm also not all that good at fights so I often have to replay them several times. On top of that, my normal style is to only play one game at a time. I don't even know how long the Baldur's Gate games or Morrowind took me - a really long time each. And to add to my high hours/$ ratio, there are some games I play over and over - notably Thief 1 and 2 (and their mods), the orig. Dungeon Keeper, Sacred (don't ask why - I don't know) and currently, Star Wars Battlefront.

godhugh · Post by **godhugh** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:07 pm

I'm a very slow gamer. I like to make sure I finish everything before moving on.

That said, you can imagine how long it took me to finish BG2+ToB the first time

.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:55 pm

I play mostly MMORPGs now, and I make my money count.

I bought WoW on release day - $50
I paid for three months up front - $41
Those three months just rolled expired, so figure I've spend $91 on WoW.

I've played my main for 7 days, 9 hours. I've put maybe another day on my alt, for 8 days, 9 hours, or 201 hours in-game.

That's $0.45 an hour - and I call myself a casual MMORPG player.

Many decry the monthly fees for such games, but I don't think I've found a game that gives me that kind of entertainment for that little cash outlay.

edosan · Post by **edosan** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:31 pm

It's hard for me to measure my gaming, because I tend to go on gaming sprees -- I'll play Diablo 2 like mad for 2-3 weeks, and then get into something else, only to go back to it months later.

That's also main reason I've never gotten into MMORPG's.

Greg Wak · Post by **Greg Wak** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 4:28 pm

Good to hear from so many other slow gamers! I was begining to think I was the only one. Around here it sometimes seems people finish about 30 seconds after install. My play time varies but it usually takes me about 6 weeks to finish a game. I finish just about every game I start. I too want to explore every nook and cranny.

Rowdy · Post by **Rowdy** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 8:42 pm

I try to play as quickly as possible while still experiencing the whole game. I'd never run past something without checking it out, but as long as a game has an easy mode that still contains all the content of the other levels, I'll play it. I HATE not finishing games, and there are so many games now that I don't have time not to play them through as quickly as I can, while still immersing myself and enjoying the game. I don't put pressure on myself, but I won't screw around with a game for weeks and not make much progress either. That's why I don't want to play Morrowind - I really don't want a game that will tie me up for hundreds of hours. That's a few months of my precious gaming time, in which I'll miss all the next big things!

WoW has absolutely killed me in this regard - I have about 10 games piling up I want to play and finish, but I keep getting dragged back in. Once I hit lvl 60 I suspect I'll pack it in until the expansion comes out.