Year in review

Happy New Year! While writing yesterday’s post I noticed that it was the tenth of its kind, mostly focusing on expenses, so if you find that boring, I can’t help you.

Let’s start with the easy numbers:

Overall Expenses

• 2014: 450 EUR
• 2015: 355 EUR
• 2016: 374 EUR
• 2017: 298 EUR
• 2018: 176 EUR
• 2019: 467 EUR
• 2020: 976 EUR
• 2021: 916 EUR
• 2022: 535 EUR
• 2023: 400 EUR
• 2024: 236 EUR

So 2018 was an outlier due to unknown reasons and 2020+2021 were outliers due to Covid 19 and me not going outside a lot, but other than that it seems to be safe inside 300-550 EUR bracket, which means 25 to 45 EUR per month, so less than 1 AAA title per month. I can live with that.

MMOs I paid for:

• WoW:
  • 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
  • about 72 out of 96 months (not counting two years with zero game time)
• EVE:
  • 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
  • as of 2020 it’s three accounts, only one before that – too hard to count I think, but I guess it’s between 105 and 120 months, (out of 120 months) so accounts number 2+3 for the last 3 years make up the time I was not subscribed
• WildStar:
  • 2014, 2015
  • less than 12 months of subs
• SW:TOR:
  • 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
  • about 21 months spread over 5 years
• FFXIV:
  • 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
  • about 20 months spread over 4 years (only one free month in 2023)
• Marvel Heroes:
  • 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
  • no sub, bought some packs and ingame currency
• Guild Wars 2:
  • 2015, 2017
  • basically buying expansions with diamonds included

I suppose any statistics about other games are moot, there were some I played a lot, some I played from time to time, some were free and some were bought. Nothing spectacular in a 10 year review I guess.

Hardware

Hardware costs could be another interesting breakdown but I’m not sure I’ll manage to meaningfully break that down, but I’ll try. My gaming PC from 2019 was about 1500 EUR, then a monitor for 400, some more SSDs (let’s say 300), my old graphics card (maybe 300), another monitor (let’s say 300) and some peripherals. That would be about 3000 EUR in 10 years. Sounds low, but even with a bit of research I think I got most of the parts and might not be missing a lot. Taking notes helps.

And another year over, which means another review post.

What I played a lot:

• World of Warcraft
• EVE Online
• Diablo IV

Other games I played:

• Against The Storm
• GameDec
• Diablo III
• Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag
• Submerged
• Stellaris

Gaming expenses in 2023:

• WoW: 102 EUR for 11 months
  • 1x 6 months for 66 EUR
  • 1x 3 months for 36 EUR
  • 2 months for WoW tokens with ingame gold
• EVE Online: 392 EUR plus 70 EUR (prepaid in 2022) minus prepaid for 2024 (see below)
  • 1x Platinum Pack for 58 EUR
  • 2x Silver Pack for 12 EUR
  • 2x Bronze Pack for 5.50 EUR
  • 3x 3 months for 40 EUR
  • 2x 3000 PLEX for 90 EUR, mostly used for sub months though
• Diablo IV: 70 EUR – the game on launch

Small intermission:

OK, I’m at the point where I need to redo the math for last years because I am not sure how to handle these “prepaid XX months of subscription” and this year is especially egregious I think.

In 2019 I counted 26 EUR for 2020 subs in 2019, in 2020 I had both numbers (with and without prepaying), in 2021 I counted the prepaid stuff in this year, then 2022 had nothing from 2021 but 70 prepaid, so I guess I’ll count that in 2023 and have something for 2024, because calculating EVE will be something more complicated this time…

Summary:

• Amount of MMOs played: 2
• Amount of MMO subscription months paid: 9 (WoW) + 12 (EVE) + about 15 (EVE) = 36
• Amount of games purchased: 1
• Amount of MMO expansions purchased: 0
• Amount of money for ingame/services stuff: hard to tell with the EVE packs, maybe 50-100?
• Amount of games I got for free and didn’t play: some
• Amount of games I purchased and then didn’t play: 0

So that brings the total to 636 EUR, that’s 53 EUR per month, slightly more than 2022. This would still be a perfectly valid number, but it’s not painting a realistic picture.

Now if I subtract the EVE sub months for 2024 (oh boy, that’s 23 of them, split over 3 accounts, so basically two of them for the whole year… if I use a 24 month package from the website that would be 270 EUR but if I use the biggest discount paying with PLEX it’s more like 190, so let’s say about 236) then it would only be 400 EUR, or 33 EUR per month. So something in between. So we’ll see how much I will spend on EVE in 2024, but I hope it won’t be that much, even if I’m running my 3 accounts.

Yes, you may laugh, but with the discounts on PLEX, and being able to buy subscriptions with ingame money, just calculating how much you paid for your EVE subscription can be a whole afternoon in itself. Of course it involves spreadsheets, so make of that what you will…

Another year has passed, so it’s time for a review post!

What I played a lot:

• World of Warcraft
• EVE Online

Other games I played:

• Final Fantasy XIV
• Minion Masters
• Guild Wars 2

Gaming expenses in 2022:

• WoW: 196 EUR for 10 months
  • 1x 66 EUR for a 6 month subscription
  • 1x 50 EUR for the Dragonflight expansion
  • 1x 80 EUR for an 8 character transfer offer
  • 4x 0 EUR for 4 months of sub with WoW tokens for gold
• EVE Online: ~270 EUR for ~17 months (+70 EUR prepaid for next year’s subs)
  • 2x 96 EUR for 2x 6 months sub
  • 1x 12 EUR for a single month
  • 2x 50 EUR for two discounted Platinum packs
  • 1x 40 EUR for a 3 month sub
• Final Fantasy XIV: 69 EUR
  • 5x 13.80 EUR for subscriptions
• GOG, Steam, Epic, Humble: 0 (Actually one Humble Ukraine Bundle, but my wife paid that one)

Summary:

• Amount of MMOs played: 3
• Amount of MMO subscription months paid: 10 (WoW) + 5 (FFXIV) + 17 (EVE) = 32, so nearly 3 per month
• Amount of games purchased: 0
• Amount of MMO expansions purchased: 1
• Amount of money for ingame/services stuff: 80 EUR, plus an unquantifiable amount from the EVE packs
• Amount of games I got for free and didn’t play: a ton
• Amount of games I purchased and then didn’t play: 0

The total this year is around 535 EUR, that’s 45 EUR per month. Another very cheap year, even if I’d take the prepaid sub months in, then it’s around 50 per month. Quite ok for your main hobby.

Unfortunately my plan of buying and playing more indie games did not pan out at all.

I did manage to look at a few games in my backlog (most of them I got for free) and write about some of them, no AAA titles this year.

End of the year means review post, a tradition started in 2014.

Again gaming was (sadly) the number one spare time activity this year, with other things not even really competing. Getting vaccinated at the end of the summer I’m hopeful I can do fun things outside again next year.

But anyway, here are the details.

What I played a lot:

• World of Warcraft
• EVE Online
• Final Fantasy XIV

Other things I played:

• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• some Nonogram games (no new ones)

Gaming expenses in 2021:

• WoW: 206 EUR for 11 months of subscription total
  • 4x 13 EUR = 52 EUR for a monthly sub
  • 2x 17.5 EUR = 35 EUR for server transfers (could’ve saved one)
  • 1x 40 EUR for the Dark Portal Pass in WoW BC Classic
  • 79 EUR for subs, paid last year but running into 2021
• EVE Online: 576 EUR
  • 8x 49 EUR for 8x a 3 month subscription incl. 3 MCT
  • 1x 5 USD for a 7 day pack
  • 179 EUR spillover from last year
• Final Fantasy XIV: 103 EUR
  • 5x 12.4 EUR for subscriptions
  • 1x 40 EUR for the Endwalker expansion
  • 2.40 EUR for additional retainers
• GOG.com: 31 EUR for Horizon: Zero Dawn
• Steam: 0 EUR
• Humble: 0 EUR
• Epic: 0 EUR

And the usual stats:

• Amount of MMOs played: 3
• Amount of MMO subscription months paid: 11 (WoW) + 5 (FFXIV) + ~33 (EVE) = 49, so 4 per month
• Amount of games purchased: 1
• Amount of MMO expansions purchased: 1
• Amount of money for ingame/services stuff:
• Amount of games I got for free and played a lot: 0
• Amount of games I got for free and didn’t play: too many
• Amount of games I bought and then didn’t play: 0

The math for next year will be easier again, no weird “I paid so and so many months already” because of course I am not counting single days or weeks in December that spill over, but this time nothing for February onward is paid.

Again EVE takes number one as a spender game, but I did have 3 accounts running all year and they’re now all unsubscribed as well, but 2 still have some time running. WoW also got a full year of subs, but nothing from December onward. Let’s see when the next raid comes and if I will come back. Final Fantasy brought it up to a respectable 5 months, and in that time I didn’t really play a lot of WoW, I just logged in to raid and that’s why I stayed subscribed.

The total this year is 916 EUR, which is 76.33 EUR per month – 5 less per month than last year and still providing 90% of my spare time entertainment. Not bad, but overall still a bit high.

The list of free games I actually wanted to have a look at grows. Epic leads the way here, but GOG also gave out a few freebies. I’d actually feel bad if I never bought any and got them all for free, but again my conscience is clear if I’m not touching them anyway, even if that sounds a bit weird.

• Frostpunk
• XIII
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker
• Shenmue III
• Rage 2

Maybe I should actually set aside a budget of 10 EUR per month for an indie game (or every second month), because this is something I kinda feel bad for. The question is if I’ll play it then.

It’s the last day of the year and so it’s review time again!

What a year. I don’t think I need to go into specifics but let’s say my gaming time was exorbitant in comparison to other years, but so were my expenses.

What I played a lot:

• EVE Online
• World of Warcraft – Retail
• SW: TOR

Other things I played:

• Diablo 3
• Forgotten Anne
• Anno 1404
• Stellaris
• Borderlands 3
• The Cycle

Gaming expenses in 2020:

• SW:TOR: 5x 13 EUR = 65 EUR for subscriptions
• WoW: 214 EUR, of which 79 go in the 2021 bucket
  • 4x 36 EUR = 144 EUR for 4x a 3 month subscription
  • 1x 40 EUR for the Shadowlands expansion
  • 1x 66 EUR for the 6 month subscription that comes with the transmog set
• EVE Online: 897 EUR, of which ~179 go to the 2021 bucket
  • 1x 20 EUR for a character transfer
  • 120 EUR for several packs
  • 36 EUR for Skill Extractors
  • 212 EUR for PLEX
  • 8x 49 EUR for 8x a 3 month subscription incl 3 MCT
  • 3x 39 EUR for 3x a 3 month subscription
• Humble: 8 EUR for Forgotten Anne
• GOG: 0 EUR
• Steam: 4 EUR for Renowned Explorers + 10 EUR for Stellaris
• Epic: 0 EUR

And the usual stats:

• Amount of MMOs played: 3
• Amount of MMO subscriptions months paid: 5 (SWTOR)+12 (WOW) + 33 (EVE, but really only 20 for this year) = 37 / 50
• Amount of games purchased: 3
• Amount of MMO expansions purchased: 1
• Amount of money for ingame/services stuff: 120 + 36 + 212 = 368 EUR
• Amount of games I got for free and played a lot: 0
• Amount of games I got for free and didn’t play: too many
• Amount of games I bought and then didn’t play: 1 (Renowned Explorers)

So for both EVE and WoW I have paid subscriptions far into the next year, so I’ll separate those out. Sure, I spent it this year but it’s a subscription for 2021 and it’s such a huge chunk that I want to jot down both numbers.

Also: why so many? So I was subscribed to WoW for the whole year, that’s 12. I was subscribed to SWTOR from June through October, that’s 5. And in March/April I came back to EVE in full swing and first transferred my old NullSec alt to a second account, and basically ran three accounts for 3/4 of the year. That’s also why I burnt out a little and didn’t really play EVE since Shadowlands launched, but I plan to return in January.

So yes, it looks even worse than when I did a preliminary tally a while ago, 1234 EUR, at 102.83 EUR per month. Separating out the 2021 pre-payments, I get to 976 EUR, at 81.34 EUR per month. Still the highest amount ever and unlikely to be topped. Then again, 100 EUR for basically ALL your spare time entertainment per month is still a really good deal.

The only thing I can say in my defense is that all these budgets for the year 2020 were not exhausted at all or kept at the bare minimum:

• vacation – not zero, but a single very short trip by train + bike with a few nights in a hotel
• public transport and bike repairs – close to zero
• going out for drinks – zero
• going out for lunch/dinner – a few times in the summer when we could sit outside, with a table for ourselves
• ordering stuff online – surprisingly, despite spending all the time at home I did order a lot less stuff at Amazon or elsewhere

Also I really planned to buy Horizon: Zero Dawn when it came out for PC in August, and buy that new graphics card I had postponed buying last November when I replaced my PC. And I’d been trying to get my hands on a 3060 Ti or 3070 for 2 weeks (for a reasonable price), but to no avail. I didn’t buy a new because I spent all my time playing EVE in August, and then transitioned to WoW and Shadowlands. And now I’m changing the wording of this paragraph as I had indeed managed to order a 3070 on Dec 28th and was eagerly awaiting it being shipped today on the 31st, but it didn’t happen.

So in the end I have a guilty conscience but realistically I guess I shouldn’t – a few nights out a month would easily cost more than these gaming expenses I’m making such a fuzz about.

There’s such a huge list of games I got for free in 2020 and didn’t play, but I’m actually interested in these, it’s just (as always) the thing about freeing some gaming time from the thing I am giving 100% at the moment, usually an MMO.

• Prison Architect
• My Time at Portia (I actually played someone else’s copy for an hour or two when it launched)
• Darkest Dungeon
• Cities: Skylines (hey, I bought this one a while ago)
• Tyranny
• Pillars of Eternity
• ARK
• GTA V
• Assassins Creed Syndicate

The year is ending and so it’s time for a review post. 2019 was an odd year.

What I played a lot:

• World of Warcraft – Retail
• Final Fantasy XIV
• World of Warcraft – Classic

Where I spent a decent amount of time:

• SW:TOR
• EVE Online
• Borderlands 3

Played a bit:

• Shadowrun Returns
• several Picross titles on mobile, but not really worth mentioning

Gaming expenses in 2019:

• SW:TOR: 3×13 EUR = 39 EUR for subscriptions
• WoW:
  • 7×13 EUR + 6×12 EUR = 163 EUR for subscriptions
  • 3x 17.50 EUR = 52.50 EUR for discounted server transfers
• FFXIV:
  • 9x 11 EUR for subscriptions = 99 EUR
  • 5x 1.40 EUR for retainers = 7 EUR
  • 20+35 EUR for expansions = 55 EUR
• EVE Online: 1×11 + 3x 13 EUR = 50 EUR for subscriptions
• GOG: 0 EUR
• Humble: 0 EUR
• Steam: 2,50 EUR for Islanders, it’s really cool
• Epic: 0 EUR
• Got Borderlands 3 for free for buying an AMD Ryzen CPU.

In total that’s 467 EUR in 2019, at 39.66 EUR per month – I think that’s a record expense for me, because I was indeed subscribed to 3 MMOs except in the summer, but the server transfers made up for that. So again sorry to all game creators who don’t happen to be making MMOs 🙁
It seems like a lot, comparing it to the last years, even exceeding 2014’s 450 EUR by a bit, but overall I think it’s still a really good figure for your main hobby, if you exclude upgrading your gaming PC – but I don’t do that very often (this year I did).
Also I could subtract ~26 EUR for prepaying EVE and WoW into January, but I paid this year, so I’ll keep it in.

• Amount of MMO subscription months paid: 29
• Amount of games purchased: 0
• Amount of expansions bought: 2 for FFXIV: ShB + SB (actually, 3, but SB included HW)
• Amount of money for ingame/services stuff: 60 EUR
• Amount of games I got for free and played a lot: 1 (Borderlands 3)
• Amount of games I got for free and didn’t play at all: ~10? (mostly Epic Store)

Yeah, this was an odd year I guess.

A final look at my wishlist/winter sales didn’t bring any surprises. There are a few games I might like, but right now I can’t think of anything that gets me really excited, except the new SW:TOR expansion, which I haven’t checked out yet. So I don’t think I will buy anything, as I don’t see myself playing anything in the near future.

As is customary I am writing a “year in review” post that shows my exploits and ignores the rest of the world, there are better writers for this kind of stuff 🙂
What I played a lot:

• SW:TOR (there’s not even a close second)
• Two Eyes (Picross on Android)
• Picross Luna II (Android)

Where I spent a decent amount of time

• Diablo 3 (50h in Season 13)
• Destiny 2
• Picross Fairytale
• Dead Cells
• Star Wars – Galaxy of Heroes (Android)
• Pokémon Go (Android)

Played a bit:

• Quake Champions
• Guild Wars 2
• WoW
• EVE Online
• Torchlight II

Gaming expenses in 2018:

• SW:TOR: 7x 13 EUR = 91 EUR for subscriptions
• WoW: 1x 35 EUR for Battle for Azeroth, no subscription yet
  • Oh my, just checked the Blizzard store. It’s on sale *again* for 25 EUR. Stupid me for buying it, but I really had planned to play around this time. Is it selling so badly they need to have it on sale twice in the first few months? Wow.
• Games on Steam: 24 EUR for Quake Champions, 0.42 EUR to complete 2 Card sets
• Games on GOG: 3.90 EUR for Torchlight 2
• Games on Humble Bundle: 20 EUR for Dead Cells, 1 EUR for Shadow of Mordor

This means: 176 EUR in 2018, at ~15 EUR per month. WTF, this is a new low I guess.

• Amount of MMO subscription months paid: 7
• Bought stuff in the ingame shop: SWTOR, but with no additional cash
• Full price games: 2 (Quake Champions, Dead Cells)
• MMO Expansions: 1 (WoW: Battle for Azeroth)

So (and this is new this year) some analysis:

• I’m still mostly playing one MMO at a time
• Although I have 4 mobile games up there, this was only a few minutes at home this year, mostly while waiting for something
• Depending on how much public transport commute I have, I play some mobile games. Usually I read RSS feeds, this winter I preferred gaming
• I guess I didn’t buy so many games that I won’t play then. Yay.

There are still a few Steam games on sale I’m thinking about 😛

• The Flame in the Flood
• Convoy
• Tooth and Tail
• Cat Quest
• Prison Architect
• Another Brick in the Mall