In a moment of boredom I fired up a spreadsheet to try and analyse how many games I bought last year, how much I paid for them and how many of them I have actually played. There is a bit of estimation involved because I am too lazy to go back over old credit card bills but in general I think my figures are pretty sound.
Please note I only include full feature games that I first acquired in the period from November 2009 to the present. I do include full featured games that I got for free but I don't include Flash games. I include mmorpgs that I either started or bought a paid expansion for during the year.
Level of play is a somewhat subjective measure. Zero percent means I never even played the tutorial. 100% means I finished the main campaign of a single player or I spent a substantial amount of time in multiplayer.
Please note that all of the games were legally acquired. I don't pirate games.
Number of new PC Games Acquired from November 2009 to October 2010:
Games from Steam: 28
Other Digital Downloads: 7
Mmorpg: 4
Hardcopy Purchase: 3
Total New Games: 42
Prices Paid
Number of games above €20.01: 3 (7% of total)
Number of games above €10.01: 9 ( 21%)
Number of games €10 or below: 33 (79%)
Number of games that cost me nothing: 5 (12%)
Total Spend on new games: €392.00
Average Price per game: €9.33
How many have I played?:
Number of new games I have never played: 4
Number of new game I have played thoroughly: 13
Average play rate: 47%
Please note I only include full feature games that I first acquired in the period from November 2009 to the present. I do include full featured games that I got for free but I don't include Flash games. I include mmorpgs that I either started or bought a paid expansion for during the year.
Level of play is a somewhat subjective measure. Zero percent means I never even played the tutorial. 100% means I finished the main campaign of a single player or I spent a substantial amount of time in multiplayer.
Please note that all of the games were legally acquired. I don't pirate games.
Number of new PC Games Acquired from November 2009 to October 2010:
Games from Steam: 28
Other Digital Downloads: 7
Mmorpg: 4
Hardcopy Purchase: 3
Total New Games: 42
Prices Paid
Number of games above €20.01: 3 (7% of total)
Number of games above €10.01: 9 ( 21%)
Number of games €10 or below: 33 (79%)
Number of games that cost me nothing: 5 (12%)
Total Spend on new games: €392.00
Average Price per game: €9.33
How many have I played?:
Number of new games I have never played: 4
Number of new game I have played thoroughly: 13
Average play rate: 47%
Comments
As for the statistics they're very interesting. 9 euros per game - can you explain why your games are so cheap? Also how much did you spend on MMOs in terms of subs, cash shops etc? Lastly do you see it as a problem that you never or briefly played so many games - are you too impulsively buying games you're not really going to play or is it still worth getting them to have a brief look?
Your questions are good too:
1.I am a sucker for a game bargains. I rarely buy new releases and I keep an eye on on sales. This is not a new thing for me. Ten years ago I used to buy job lots of second hand games and I trawled the bargain shelves of my local game shops. Now-adays with digital distribution it has gotten much easier. Most games can be picked up for less than a tenner if you are prepared to wait between 6 months and a year after release. I also scored several excellent free games this year (Peggle Nights and Area 51 for example). I did buy three new releases at full price: Dragon Age, Borderlands and Battlefield Bad Company 2). Technically two of these were actually gifts (my wife wanted to buy me a game so I told here what to get me).
2. It has been a cheap year for mmorpgs because I haven't actually payed any subs. I already have a lifetime sub to Lotro so I just had to buy the expansion pack. I played DDO for a couple of months and only spent about €15 in the cash shop. The other mmos I played were Allods and Age of Conan (free trial ) but neither of them held on to me for long enough to get cash out of me.
3. I have actually gotten better than I used to be. I try not to buy a game now unless there is a real chance I will play it. The trouble is that there are so many good games around at the moment that I still end up being enticed to buy. If you look at the numbers you will see that I amn't doing too badly. There are only 4 games out of 42 that I never got around to even trying. Most of the games I have played for long enough to get a good flavour of. If a game really grabs me I can immerse my self totally in it for some weeks perhaps even a couple of months but that's about my limit. I don't really see that being a problem. I will never be a leet Counterstrike player or a top end mmorpg raider but the variety of games I do get to play makes up for it.