I mentioned previously that I was a little short on spending money. You see, I was doing a little money upkeeping, budget work, etc. You know, all that stuff you have to do when someone starts using your apparently stolen card numbers for nefarious purposes. (On the bright side, there are lots of safety nets for that sort of thing, and in this case I can safely say that this was not my fault!)
Anyway, that along with the summer sales has led me to doing something I hadn’t done in a while, which is seeing how much I spend on games this year. Years ago it was a pretty set amount – I’d ask for whatever new games I wanted as Christmas or birthday gifts, and just paid out 1 or 2 subs a month for a year. Back in those days when F2P was not an option. And I never really got a discount because I could only bounce around month to month and there was always some shiny new game to check out, all of which required a sub. Throw in some scratch money for the occasional clearance game, and it was a pretty easy number to conjure with.
So I was both shocked and also relieved when I totaled my “fun” spending for this year and encountered about the same number.
On the one hand, shocked because the only real sub I am running these days is for Xbox Live and its a bit cheaper than your plain old run-of-the-mill MMO sub. Not to mention we are only halfway through the year! And that there is some money not counted there because of gift cards that offset.
On the other hand, our life and job situation is better, and there are some one-time purchases in there (I had to break down and buy a bigger hard drive for Xbox because of my daughter’s purchase and obsession with Minecraft, for example). And since that money is not only games but also includes books I’ve bought for pleasure and my soccer league fees, I guess its not too bad (though fantasy football season approached with alarming speed). Part of me is convinced that is a far cheaper hobby total than what some of my peers are involved with. Like, say, owning a boat – which involves gas and maintenance and such. Then again, as my wife is quick to point out, at least in that hobby the rest of the family gets to enjoy the spent money in some way (time on the lake), whereas my hobby is cheaper but in not way contributes back to the family.
It would be easy to turn this into a tale of how F2P can rake in more money than sub games, but that’s not the case really. On the one hand, as I mentioned, that’s a mixed bag of hobbies up there, and the spending on F2P games actually accounts for very little of the overall total (about a quarter of it actually). So it would be easier to say that in the last couple of years, with the advent of F2P, it has not only allowed me to jump into several different games, but its also allowed me to spread my hobby money around into other areas. I appear to be slightly less obsessed with games in general and MMO’s in particular. On the other hand, after looking at the totals, I understand why my wife has threatened to ban me from Kickstarter.
So what about you? Are you spending the same as you did back in the days of subs only? More? Less?
And, most importantly, please tell me that some of you are spending about the same as me. Otherwise I’m going to lose a discussion with my wife…
Harbinger Zero 
I think if we include hardware that is driven by game requirements… I rarely need a video card upgrade for Excel… I am spending a lot less. If we keep it to just software (and Kickstarter), probably still less, but not by as much of a margin.
Actual new games I have purchased have been pretty rare. Some of that is because of free to play. Some of that is looking at all the games in my Steam library that I have barely played, if at all.
But hardware, and the plateau we have reached in that, has been my biggest money saver. I used to replace my computer every other year, with a video card upgrade in between. And each upgrade made a huge difference. Now, not so much. My current computer is now 3 years old and while I am considering some more RAM and a video card upgrade, I have no intention of replacing it any time soon.
Hmm, Yes, I am am spending well south of a million dollars on gaming. 😉
Seriously, though I’m down this year from years past, precisely because I have no subs and haven’t purchased a game (for me) since last year. That’s not to say I haven’t spent some money in item shops., but it certainly doesn’t equal 15-30 bucks a month.
Hi there,
I never made a real calculation of my spent for games, but this could be interesting.
So in 2013, my WoW year subscription has ended in March, so 39 euro.
In March I start first account for WOT, 3 packages of 20 euro, two of 40 and Lowe so another 190 euro
In April the second account in WOT let say 30 euro there too.
Around 25 euro for Ipad games.
In total 284 euro so far, near 50 euro per month. Wow, I was thinking is much less :P.
But is fun 🙂
Xantya
That was kind of my feeling as well Xantya. My spending hasn’t broken the bank, but much as Rowan and Wilhelm’s, I expected to be spending less. It was a shock that I was actually higher. My total is hovering around the $340 mark, so pretty close to you.
I’ve been cutting back on my game budget this year, so I know it’s lower than the last. $83 on very discounted games from Steam, $90.50 on GOG games and assorted game bundles from places like Humble Bundle and Indie Royale, and an even $100 so far for GW2 gems, which makes it $14.28 per month. Right in the range of $10-20 a month, equivalent to a sub game.
Alas, I have been leaving a sub game (A Tale in the Desert) on maintenance mode until I finally decided to let it expire this July. That’s seven months of $14 a month, and a secondary account which may have been reactivated when I peeked back in, I’m foggy on exactly when, let’s say for three months. So 10 x $14 for an extra $140.
Total: $413.50, but would have been lower if I had been sensible and canceled the sub rather than think I might get back to the game some time this year and thus maintained it for the perks of not having my house and items get looted by scavengers.
I feel ya on the “maintenance” subs. At least twice I’ve have had a six month sub renew just about the time my interest in the game petered out. I don’t do block subs anymore.
I think the only time I’ve ever done a block sub was STO (1 year at launch, played 6 months) and SWTOR (6 months, played 6 months and then quit). So I’ve gotten my money’s worth both times, but neither experience has really encouraged me to keep doing it that way, lol.
Hello again,
I forget about 40 Euro paid for Age of Wushu just to see the beta (played a month probably) and another 50 Euro in last weekend in WoT, to buy my Panther II. So around 374 Euro this year, maybe more .
I’m champion for paying games elite packages and quit after short time:
GW1 and some expansion, bought, logged 1 hour then uninstall.
Warhammer, witch hunter played for two weeks then quit.
Conan, some problems at installation, so uninstall. I logged for two day after become free.
AION, assassin level 35 and quit after two months.
RIFT since beta. I made a rogue up to 50 and quit after two months.
SWTOR founder account (5 days before release), bought from Denmark with 7 month before, because in my country wasn’t available. I made one assassin up to 50 and quit after one month and half.
GW2 , thief again, but I quit after less than a month and I never logged back.
I’m not speak about single players titles, where are too many.
The longest paid subscription remain for sure World Of Warcraft December 2005 – March 2013, after that EvE with two times of six month each, never succeed to go over 13 million SP in each attempt.
Good start and very addicted become WoT, started at end of March with two premium accounts.
Not so cheap but is fun 🙂
All the best Xantya,
“Not so cheap but is fun”
So very true (-: There is also the time factor, I barely have time for one WoT account, much less two!