How much do you spend on games? Gaming habits?

[sheek]

How often do you buy games and how much money do you spend on games on average?

Do you think it's necessary to buy games to 'support the genre'/industry?

What proportion of your money do you spend on shareware/indie games vs commercial/big corp games?

Personally I buy very few games. First because most games which get released are just not much fun. I prefer to save my money and spend it on other things.

The games I play are mostly old ones I bought a while ago. Games I played fairly regularly in the last six months include the Myth series (RTS), Civ series games: TOT, Alpha Centauri etc (occasionally), Warlords 3 Darklords, MDK, Thief 2, Return to Krondor, X-com...

I also have quite big collection of abandonware from Abandonia/The Underdogs: stuff I missed out on back when I bought games - notably System Shock, Pirates, Jagged Alliance, Little Big Adventure, Lords of Magic, Incubation, GTA, Starsiege: Tribes, Emperor of the Fading Suns, Flesh Feast, Settlers 2. Most recent one I got the other day was Albion which looks pretty good so far. Most I don't play too often but they provide a pretty decent range of alternatives if I ever get bored of what I'm playing at the moment.

I also got a few games over bittorrent... I won't get into that but there are some games which are no longer sold but for some reason not legal abandonware. I do not have a problem with downloading these games.

The only two games I've spent money on in the last year were: SimCity 4 and Mount&Blade. SimCity was fun for a couple of days before I remembered why I hadn't bought a commercial game for so long.

Mount&Blade has probably been the best 'gaming investment' I made in years. It's far from perfect but I believe it's going to get a lot better and I'm trying to help that process by modding (the first time I've seriously modded for any game).

So my conclusion is why spend any money at all? There are so many games that have already been made that are fun. A lot are relatively modern/good looking and you can get games that span almost the whole range of what's coming out now in terms of gameplay (god game/fps/rpg/tactical strategy/sports) without much difference except graphics.

I don't feel a necessity to 'support the industry' at all. If there are good games that genuinely add something new and of value (eg M&B for medieval combat) I'll buy and support them. New stuff that is just recycling games you've already played at the full price... what is the point?

If the whole official pc gaming industry shrivelled up and died tomorrow I would not give a shit... I got what I need already, and I know there will always be indie people/modders who'll be innovating without caring if there are profits or not.

Is that a bad attitude to have?

 

[sheek]

Sorry, I just realized maybe this should be in the general gaming forum. Moderators, please move it if you think that's appropriate

(I also fucked up the poll - $100+ should be an option not the poll title)

 

[bryce777]

What I do these days is buy lots of stuff in the bargain in and only once in a while a new game. There is just almost nothing new that comes out any more that's worth a shit.

 

[sheek]

What I do these days is buy lots of stuff in the bargain in and only once in a while a new game. There is just almost nothing new that comes out any more that's worth a shit.

I noticed a lot of stuff in bargain bins is stuff which you can download for free if you look. Even at $5-10 the distribution company is basically making money out of nothing.

 

[bryce777]

What I do these days is buy lots of stuff in the bargain in and only once in a while a new game. There is just almost nothing new that comes out any more that's worth a shit.

I noticed a lot of stuff in bargain bins is stuff which you can download for free if you look. Even at $5-10 the distribution company is basically making money out of nothing.

Maybe, but that is a pain in the ass. When I was young and poor it was worth it to save a buck, but now I am old and have more money than I could realistically spend...though I am sure I will eventually need it for hot young nurses and expensive surgeries so don't ask for a handout.

I used to get stuff impulsively when it was 50 bucks, but few things grab me like that these days.

 

[Thrawn05]

I average 2 to 3 games a year. I try to buy only games with lots of replay value.

 

[Zomg]

I typically buy a used, older or shareware game once or twice a month at a $10-30 price point, and a full priced (usually PC) game every three or four months at a $40-50 pp, unless I'm on the video game wagon due to some pressing real world stuff, or on an oldie binge in which case I play abandonware, emulated ROMs or replay stuff from my collection and spend nothing for three or four months.

There, have some free market research.

 

[TheGreatGodPan]

I am killing the gaming industry.

 

[spacemoose]

I buy a game outright only if its from a developer I know and respect - like Paradox. With all others, I don't buy unless I've tried and liked it. So that means that no demo -> no sale with me. And this applies to indies too.

 

[Tintin]

A few games an year. If you don't count abandonware games I download and play for a few days.

 

[Blacklung]

When I've got the money (which is rare these days) I usually buy about 1 game every three months or so. However, in recent years the market has been almost devoid of anything worthwhile.
I think the last game I bought which was actually worth my money was WOW which is only because it helped carry me over until I found FO and FO2 recently (and BG2 again which was collecting copious amounts of dust bunnies).
The next game I buy will be Oblivion just because I enjoyed the guilty pleasure power gaming of MW. Still my computer wil probably have a little trouble with it.
Other than that, I haven't seen anything really promising yet, but I'm crossing my fingers.

 

[HardCode]

I buy games when there are good games to buy. About 5 years ago, I'd buy games monthly. These days, I think I may buy something in 2012.

However, that is from the "big" publishers. The $14.00 I paid for Mount & Blade was well, well worth it. More games like that, I'll buy them.

I still refuse to buy BF2 or any EA game because of the fuckjob EA gave the customers with BF1942. It was a great game, but the customer service was shit. So they get nothing from me.

 

[Abernathy]

I've all but given up buying 'big name' games at all - I'll probably shell out for Gothic III, but there's nothing else on the horizon that appeals.

Mount & Blade is a different story altogether. It's a breath of fresh air and it's worth every cent.

I think by now I've eventually learned from my mistakes as far as BigTime releases go - they're nearly all total shit and I used to waste a LOT of money on them (and harware upgrades so I could play them), but no more. No fucking more.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

What I do these days is buy lots of stuff in the bargain in and only once in a while a new game.

 

[bryce777]

What I do these days is buy lots of stuff in the bargain in and only once in a while a new game.

New release, I guess I should say....

 

[SanguinePenguin]

The top one is only one game a month? I usually get one every one or two weeks.

 

[VasikkA]

3-4 commercial games a year and about the double abandonware and bargain bin games which I rarely finish. Occasionally I replay some of my favorites. Haven't played an RPG for a couple of years now.

I figure I'd lose interest in games if I'd start torrenting them.

 

[Slylandro]

I buy about one "new" game a year but several old ones as well, so it comes down to about 1 per 2 or 3 months.