Topic: Gaming: A Moderately Priced Hobby?

[Maverick]

One of my best friends is always commenting on how cheap our favorite hobby is compared to others, such as sports, road trips, binge drinking, etc...  Do you agree?

It seems with this generations expensive consoles, and the fact that I've always been a "Buy All Systems" sorta guy, I'm not sure if I can agree anymore.  With games bumped up 10 bucks from last gen (excepting Wii games of course), it seems like in order to "catch 'em all" I'll be spending much more than "normal" people who do things outside with their friends.  I mean, just buying all three consoles when I did adds up to $1050, let alone addons for my 360 to make it usable (hard drive, wireless controllers, headset), and then buying new games regularly, I've stretched my financial well-being quite far over the past two years.

Is my friend right, however?  Do most people only stick to one console and buy a game every few months or so?  Just wondering what everyones' thoughts are on this.  

[ShyGuy]

Ask UncleBob how much he spends on video game related stuff.

[Bill Aurion]

I'm spending around 300 bucks on videogames between now and the end of October...

[Sir_Stabbalot]

It really depends on how into it you get. For example, someone who casually plays guitar doesn't spend much on his amps, but someone really into it could easily invest thousands into it.

[Adrock]

Game collecting is very expensive. Gaming in general is pretty reasonable. Not counting collecting, I will have spent more on gaming this year than any other. It's a great year for videogames.

[Kairon]

Gaming as an actual, die-hard hobby is pretty expensive.

But yeah, general, every-once-in-awhile- 4 games a year plus 1-year old bargain-bin/used game pickups is actually a more or less sensible endeavor.... unless you buy a $2000 big screen tv for this.

[Dirk Temporo]

Bull. I can't think of a single hobby (except ones that people with an overly large amount of money engage in) that is more expensive than gaming.

[Ghisy]

Casual gaming might not be too expensive. Collecting, as most of us do, is much much more expensive.
Like everyone else said, I guess it all depends on how crazy about gaming a person can be.  

[Kairon]

Doesn't the term "hobby" imply a certain level of hardcoreness?

[Sir_Stabbalot]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
Doesn't the term "hobby" imply a certain level of hardcoreness?

Not really. Someone who builds model airplanes every so often could call it a hobby even if they don't spend much on it.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Some of us do more game collecting/indexing/research/website updating/things about gaming rather than actual gaming, which skyrockets our spendings farther than those who simply buy a game to play every month or every other month.

[Ceric]

This Calendar Year I've spent about $2,235 (That includes a fully outfitted PS3 60 gig). Thats $186.25 a month or $42.99 a Week or $6.13 a day or $1.08 per hour I work in a 40 hour week.  All consider I don't think thats to bad.  Especially if you are a PC gamer which a l33t gaming rig would set you back that much alone.  Next year it will probably be less because I won't have to buy an expensive system.  So as a general hobby its cheap compared to Golf or RC cars (which I like to do but its expensive.)  If you spent the same amount of time on each as you do gaming.

Now on the whole collector side of things.  I consider collecting a hobby onto itself with subcategories not a subcategory of a hobby.  Collecting is and will always be vastly more expensive then the hobby you are collecting from.  Thats why their are Museums.  For the people who want to see it all but can't afford it.

[Shecky]

Playing video games is not a hobby!

[Deguello]

When compared to other entertainment hobbies, Video Games are actually quite expensive.

I'll take Ceric's total as an equivalence and assume we are just starting our respective hobbies.  $2,235 gets you...

Let's assume we start with a respectable SDTV at $300  (this will be important)

Movies:
$150 DVD player - $2085 left
The remainder gets you 94 movies ($22 each).  Even if you got every movie that was #1 at the weekly box office and drag Svevan in here and ask him what good movies are this year, you'd have every movie worth watching and still not reach 94 titles.
OR
You could go to 149 theater movies, assuming they are charging an egregious $15 per ticket.

TV:
Any sort of basic cable plan or satellite dish will run you $40 and the absolute MAX will be at most $120 per month.  You'd have almost half your money left.

Music:
Oh hey, there's no need for a TV here.  +$300 credit.
CD Player - $50
Big Time Stereo - $300
 With $2185, you can get 145 albums.  That'd be the #1, #2, and #3 albums in EVERY Genre, and you'd still have some left over.
Also, If you go the MP3 route: a $300 iPod, you can get about 2200+ iTunes downloads.  Every hit single of the year and you'd have about 1920 left.

Games:  Ready?  I assume you'd want the opportunity to play everything, just like you can listen to every CD or play ever DVD in basic players.  I also assume you have a computer, because THAT particular sphere of the hobby will really make this comparison unfair.

New PC graphics card - $300|   $1935 left
Xbox 360- $350| $1585 left
PS3 - $500| $1085 left
Wii - $250| $835 left
DS Lite - $130| $705 (handhelds count right?  Of course they do)
PSP - $170| $535 left

Before you even get game ONE, you only have $535 left.  You'd only be guaranteed to get one game per platform with the remainder.  After that, you'd have a limited choice.

I'm being generous in including price drops.  IF I didn't, you'd only have $335 left, and you'd only be able to get one game for every platform, plus a Wii or PC game, and have $5 left.

Everybody else has much more of their hobby content than a dedicated gamer.  It IS more expensive.

[Kairon]

Thanks for that breakdown Deg. That's why I'm a one console guy.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Start dropping unnecessary items like new graphics cards and sony consoles, and we can manage to buy more Wii Remotes and Wii games and VC titles and rechargeable batteries and component cables, some internet service bills, a few packs of Coca-Cola, and HEY THINGS DIDN'T GET ANY CHEAPER, WE JUST CHOSE TO SPEND THE BENJAMINS ELSEWHERE.

Paying $50 for Metroid Prime 3 is enough to get the DVDs i'd want to watch in a 4-month period.  You will say WOW.

[Kairon]

Quote
Originally posted by: Professional 666
Start dropping unnecessary items like new graphics cards and sony consoles, and we can manage to buy more Wii Remotes and Wii games and VC titles and rechargeable batteries and component cables, some internet service bills, a few packs of Coca-Cola, and HEY THINGS DIDN'T GET ANY CHEAPER, WE JUST CHOSE TO SPEND THE BENJAMINS ELSEWHERE.

I wasn't saying that I wasn't spending a lot of money, just saying that I was spending a lot of money on GAMES whereas multi-console gamers need to buy loads of hardware before they can even have any fun.

Quote
Paying $50 for Metroid Prime 3 is enough to get the DVDs i'd want to watch in a 4-month period.  You will say WOW.

Use netflix. I do. Oh wait... four months of netflix... about $17 monthly ...yeah, never mind.  

[UERD]

The thing is, if you want a reasonable cross-sectional sample of the gaming spectrum, you can cut the PS3 out (by the time its really good games come out, it'll be $200 or less), as well as the XBox 360 (because not only are the best XBox 360 games all being ported to or released on PC, they are also being 'enhanced'). But he does touch on a good point. Quite frankly, the fewer consoles competing the better, because each console represents a significant amount of 'dead weight' investment you have to make just to play games you buy separately.

[couchmonkey]

When you start to get involved, other forms of entertainment can become more expensive...many sports turn out to be really expensive (golf and skiing come to mind), music can become more expensive (concerts), movies can be moderately expensive (theatres are crazy, and although they still come in cheaper than a game, most any game should give you more hours than a trip to the theatre).

I'd say it's mid-priced, depending on how you approach it.  You can be cheap with music - go to second hand stores, find concerts by local talent instead of going to all the big names - and the same thing goes for games.  Instead of buying every system up-front, buy your favourite and get the best ones later at good prices.  I could buy a PS2 and several games instead of a PS3 or 360.

[decoyman]

Well, one thing we're overlooking is the amount (in hours) of entertainment you'll get for every game/dvd/cd/etc. (this has been discussed before, but I can't remember where/when)

Music-lover:
$15 for a CD. Playtimes these days are generally shorter than an hour, but we'll say 1 hour for simplicity.

Movie-goer:
$20 for a DVD. Let's make it up and say the average movie is 2 hours long.
$15 for a movie in a theater (including candy to make up the difference if necessary ā€“ it's part of the experience!). Again, 2 hours.

Gamer:
$50 for a game. Average playtime for a game would be, like what, 15 hours?

I'm going to do a gross generalization again, and say that your startup cost for any of these options is similar (console or stereo or dvd player ā€“ everyone's got a tv these days, so I'm not counting it), so we can just compare the amount of entertainment you get from each CD/movie/game. I'm also not going to count replayability, because any of these things could be replayed, making it moot.

NOW, the average cost of an hour of entertainment from each option:

Music $15 / 1 hour (that's an easy one!) = $15/hour
Movies $17.50 / 2 hours (average the dvds and theater-movies together)=$8.75/hour
Games $50 / 15 hours = $3.33/hour

If you look at it this way, gaming isn't so expensive after all, at least for a one console person. Any hobby can get expensive if you really get into it, though. Depends on your level of fanaticism/enthusiasm, of course.  

[Ceric]

I also like to mention that buying each console is a one time expenditure which should last for 4 years min. (Which is where a lot of the money initially goes.)  To be fair I would agree that Gaming can be an expensive hobby to start into but, if you realize if you are a 1 time througher or a multi-play through person you can invest differently to fit those needs.  When done right its per hour cost becomes lower and more budgettable.  Is it the cheapest hobby: No.  Is it more expensive then most other hobbies that take the same amount of time and dedication: Definetly no.

[Shecky]

Playing video games is a pastime, not a hobby...  I mean, on an application or resume ... would you really list video games as hobby if you simply owned all the systems and some games for them?

Just because it can get expensive also doesn't make it a hobby either.  Most hobbies can be both cheap and expensive...  

Video Games as a hobby....

You can vintage collect: stamps, cards, video games... either looking to have a small collection of older games, or just a large collection overall.  This is beyond a "normal" amount.  No matter what it is, this can get pricey.

You can code: Some people may like to code as a hobby and program some small games in their spare time...

You can compete: Which may or may not be expensive, for travel, gear, fees....

You can hack:  Like messing with your systems?

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: Shecky
It's a pastime, not a hobby!

Speak for yourself, I buy games that I never play. I know my gaming habits are quite expensive especially since I don't get much "Benefit" out of it because I'm busy, I am lucky to get 3hrs a week into playing games, but you would never suspect that considering I buy a ton of games and am continually upgrading my PC!

[Shecky]

Quote
Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix

Quote
Originally posted by: Shecky
It's a pastime, not a hobby!

Speak for yourself, I buy games that I never play. I know my gaming habits are quite expensive especially since I don't get much "Benefit" out of it because I'm busy, I am lucky to get 3hrs a week into playing games, but you would never suspect that considering I buy a ton of games and am continually upgrading my PC!

I did and I added more words.

One of my friends tends to spend 10x on games more than what he ends up playing (or plays one out of every 10 titles he picks up), and he doesn't consider it one of his hobbies.

Often times hobbies are closely tied to things you spend a lot of your time doing... so the fact that you don't play games would kind of indicate that it isn't really a hobby for you either

[msharpee20]

I wouldnt call it a hobby, more like an expensive addiction or a very enjoyable form of entertainment.