The Numbers Really Surprised Me
What would I do without Google Sheets? I’ve found it harder and harder lately to predict if I’ll like a game. One way I thought might help was to take a closer look at what games I had enjoyed the most. Perusing my spreadsheet of hours spent in various games, I was shocked. I never would have guessed #3, 4, or 5. Of course, #1 and #2 were easy to accept.
#1 World of Warcraft
I have over 14,800 hours in World of Warcraft. I’ve never considered myself much of a fantasy buff, but I have always known that World of Warcraft was an exception. I’ve spent over 580 days in Blizzard’s fantasy world. Largely due to the people I’ve met, but if I had to pick one other thing that kept me coming back, it would be the story. Man I love that story. In fact I’m subscribed right now.
#2 Star Wars: The Old Republic
I’ve been a Star Wars fan for almost 20 years now. I’ve played SO many Star Wars video games, spending untold hours in them. If you counted all the Star Wars card games, roleplaying games, and miniature games, I’m willing to bet it would dwarf WoW handily. SWTOR has never felt like Star Wars to me though. That combined with it’s lack of PvP content updates has really put me off from this game. Still, SWTOR clocks in with over 3600 hours played. With the new expansion coming, there are probably a few more hours yet to come.
#3 League of Legends
I didn’t see this one coming. This game has done some growing up. When I first started playing, it was with a small but dedicated group of friends. I stopped for a month or 16 and came back. When I returned, I found the community much more friendly and accepting. In my on-and-off again experience with League of Legends, I’ve logged over 750 hours. It’s also one of the games I’ve spent the least amount of money on. It’s been great for the wallet.
#4 Total War: Arena
Never played a Total War title in my life before this one. I dare say it has had a significant impact on my life. It reintroduced me to my love of strategy games, it got me started in streaming, and it put me on my first airplane. All that in just 6 short months, and over 720 hours of play time. In just 6 months time, this game became my #4 game of all time. I’d imagine it’d be well on it’s way to #2 if it was still available today.
#5 World of Tanks
So the math on this one is a little iffy because I can’t track exactly how much time I’ve spent. What I can track is how many matches I’ve played in, and that’s over 5100 games. I could have been knocked out in under 3 minutes, or I could have spent the whole 15 minutes allowed. It’s impossible to say. Even at 7 minutes per match, which if memory serves should be about right, that’s over 590 hours of game time. Kinda miss playing, but never really had anyone to play with.
Interpreting The Data
Looking at the disparity between time spent in these seems like it should mean something, but I don’t know what. From 14800 to 3100 to 750 is such a huge drop, but then again WoW has been out more than twice as long as SWTOR. I also haven’t exactly stayed consistent with League for more than 3-6 months at a time. I haven’t played in years now in fact, although I’ve wanted to go back and try those ARAMs again. Doesn’t help much in the way of figuring out what I like, although it does bring up some questions that may help. Questions about MMORPG vs. MOBA and subscription vs. free. Suppose that’s a post for another time though.
What’s your longest time spent in a game?
I’m surprised that SWTOR is your number 2! I guess you were really into it at the height of GSF. 🙂
I did a /played tally of all my SWTOR characters back in July and came to a total of 290 days at the time. I don’t think I can check my old WoW characters without being subscribed, but I would expect them to still come out on top for now as I did play that game for more than five years (longer than SWTOR has been out) and had more free time back then that I do now. Nothing else would come close to those two for me either though. In Neverwinter, which is probably the MMO I’ve played the most after these two, I’m on less than 40 days played across all my characters.
I think I probably racked up the most time when I discovered that F2P wasn’t as bad. I had to do a lot of grinding and experimenting for my guides and unlocks.
You still playing Neverwinter? I’ve been kinda curious about it.
I’m kind of on and off with it, ignoring it for long periods of time and then playing in bursts when I need a bit of a break from SWTOR. It also helps that my pet tank and a couple of my guildies are highly into it and want to drag me into group content frequently… though again, that interest comes and goes. Neverwinter’s levelling is very casual-friendly with few restrictions, but at higher levels you either have to love to grind or be happy to fork out money to progress.