1.5 years ago I started to track my gaming trends, how my life’s events affect it, and vice versa. I wanted to do this so I could literally gauge my habits of gaming by the hour. The results are quite an interesting reality check!
Having been a lead artist, I’ve learned a thing or two about tracking progress. Why didn’t I just use backloggery? Because backloggery is only a games list to brag to your friends on all the games you’ve beaten. I needed something much more detailed.
It felt like only a month ago that I was just starting to track my progress on Crisis Core, a game that carried over from 2008. Hard to believe that it’s already been a full 365 days since then!
So how do I go about doing this? I have an excel sheet (you can download the google docs version here) Every month, at the end of the month, I turn on the games I played, and check the game clock, subtract it from the hours logged previously, and that gives me the hours logged in the month. If a game doesn’t have clock in it, then I have to be more diligent in logging my hours.
This is my gaming trend on a per month basis. Many people average higher number of hours per month than I do. I averaged around 35hrs/month during the first bit of 2009.
In May, I spiked at 71.5hrs. This was a heavy gaming month as I completed several games, including Tomb Raider Underworld, No More Heroes, Heavenly Sword (which I had been putting off halfway since late 2008), Klonoa, and two big ones at 18hrs each, Resident Evil 4, and Dragon Quest V.
The spike happened when I started establishing my company. There was a lot of waiting around while paperwork was being processed, and my programmer partner was figuring things out on the programming side of things.
The following month was no better, at 59hrs. 30 of those were put into a new game – Crimson Gem Saga for PSP. Awesome awesome game! At the time, I also jumped into Eternal Sonata (PS3) for 5hrs, and Lux Pain (a super cool Persona style visual novel for DS), and finishing off DQV with 9hrs. My programmer was busy at this time prototyping our game. No real art was required at the time, and nothing was set in stone just yet.
I usually play one game at a time – one handheld game, and one console game, to completion. So basically, after finishing DQV, I jumped onto CGS, and then started Lux Pain.
In July, a HUGE drop happened. Lowest number of hours in that year. This was when things started to pick up for trickshot games and art was needed everywhere. The game was done pretty quickly, but the following months were critical, as I had to start advertising everywhere. July was also when my blog started picking up steam again as well.
November saw the least number of hours – a pathetic 16.5hrs, probably due to the fact that half of the month was spent having fun in Singapore. I took my DS with me (and 6 games), and played 0hrs on the plane. I logged about 5hrs on Atelier Annie (a very good lighthearted game)
December looks worse because I hadn’t put in my hours yet. It actually goes back up to 25hrs.
It’s interesting to see my gaming trend slowly becoming less and less, at the same time, still go up and down like a roller coaster. I notice that when I focus on something, everything else doesn’t matter – until next month or something.
Above, is my backlog of hours. The blue line indicates my estimated backlog of games in my pile. (this estimate is fairly accurate, based on other people’s findings by searching the term “long” on the gamefaq message boards for a particular game). The pink line is the hours I’ve invested into gaming. The yellow line indicates the difference between them. Since the amount of hours logged is fairly constant, that explains why it looks similar to the backlog.
The numbers don’t start at zero because these are carried over from last year. Last year’s data wasn’t nearly as well thought out.
At about July, the backlog reaches a peak, and slowly starts to go downwards. Summer is usually a dry spell, as games are being pushed for Black Friday/fall releases. You’ll notice in November, it starts to slowly climb again.
In September, the two lines cross, and the yellow line starts to fall below zero. This point is where I started cutting out some of my backlog, shelving some games for good, marked as “Give up, I’ll never play this game anymore.” If these 2 lines cross again, that’s bad news.
The highest point in the backlog was March – sitting at 729.5hrs. If I were to not buy any games, and just play, I would have to average 60hrs per month! Not an easy feat when my average is 30hrs/mo. I had logged 299.5hrs at this point, so a difference of 330hrs.
Reaching December, I had logged 712.5hrs in total, but my backlog was at 501.5! Only 228hrs dropped off the backlog – meaning I bought an additional 413hrs worth of games since March! Actually, that number is wrong, because remember I trimmed my backlog in October? Sept – Oct was a difference of 152hrs. I played 27hrs that month, meaning I trimmed 125hrs off that backlog. Now I’m confused – I either bought 538hrs worth of games, or I bought 288hrs worth of games. 😛
It’s nice to see my backlog sort of leveling out now, but it’s starting to climb a little again (Christmas presents!). Fortunately, the first few months of the year seem quiet, so it’s a good opportunity to whittle my backlog down some more.
Click the image to see my excel sheet, and a whack of games!
That’s my tracking sheet! The one with the ## are the carry-over hours from 2008. The purple games are the ones I’m currently playing, the white ones are the backlog, the light gray are the completed games, and the dark gray are the games I’ve given up on.
Interestingly, there aren’t a whole lot of games in the backlog – but that totals over 500hrs. That’s a harsh reality check for some of you gamers!
In 2009, I completed 21 games. I only have 8 games completed for 2008, since I didn’t start tracking until mid year. What I find also interesting is that Soul Calibur 4 is the highest number of hours I’ve played on my list, at 80hrs, but I haven’t played it for over a year!
Second longest game of the year was Valkyria Chronicles at 45hrs followed by Eternal Sonata at 41hrs. Both games look absolutely beautiful and have solid, incredible gameplay. You’re missing out if you haven’t played these.
The game that spans the most months without being completed so far is Flower (youtube link). I bought it in Spring, and played only 2 hours worth of it. A few more months, and it will be about a year since I’ve played it. I guess I’ll finish it when Spring comes around.
Looking at some of these games that I’ve completed, I remember what I was doing in life at the time, and as a result, why my hours were affected. It also shows a trend of my gaming preferences at that time of year, and possibly why as well. Sometimes, it was just to get the game off my backlog list, other times, I got sick, and couldn’t play action oriented games effectively. Or in the best cases, I just felt like playing that game.
Overall, it’s been an interesting year – now I can come up with a more thought out New Year’s resolution depending on my priorities! (one of which is to buy less games!)
So the games I’ve completed this year (in order):
- Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core
- Theresia
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Prince of Persia
- Resident Evil 5
- Jeanne D’Arc
- Tomb Raider Underworld
- Klonoa
- Heavenly Sword
- No More Heroes
- Resident Evil 4
- Valkyria Chronicles : Edy Missions
- Dragon Quest V
- Crimson Gem Saga
- Lux Pain
- Another Code R
- Eternal Sonata
- Uncharted 2
- Brutal Legend
- Atelier Annie
- Touch Detective
If you are interested in trying out my spreadsheet for yourself, you can grab this one, and delete all the old data (don’t accidentally delete the formulas!) or use this blank one. The only thing you need to fill out are Title, Type (C for Console, P for Portable), System, Priority, Estimated Hours, and Start Date. Put your hours in each month, and it will automatically figure out the hours remaining, and hours logged.
Hope everyone is having an awesome start to their New Year!
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You got a good idea here. Note every game hours and see your cadence all over the year, interesting.
As much as the purchases table.
From May you started to lower and lover your play time.. ^^
I’m not a videos games addict but it give the envy to do the same with my given work for photos and reviews.
And also to make a table of my figures purchasing per months.
Oh so when you’re deeply absorbed in a task, nothing else matter ???? I’m exactly the same. LooooL
It’s quite interesting seeing my gaming pattern after a year. Especially when it’s visually graphed out like that. It helps me in figuring out what my New Year’s resolution should be.
I actually do have a separate table for my purchases too! I know exactly how much I’m spending, and if I’m going over budget or under budget on average. Interestingly, with all my buying and selling, I was exactly on budget with my purchases! In 2008, I actually made a profit! O_O
When I get absorbed in a task, I just focus on it, and neglect everything else. That may explain the fluctuations in my gaming hours. I game heavier every other month.
Where did you take the “Esimated Hours” of every game?
I usually go on gamefaqs’ board of that particular game, and do a search for the term “long”. People always ask the question “how long is this game?” and there are usually a lot of responses, so the estimated hours are pretty accurate.
Thanks!
By the way i’d like to see more posts about videogames!!! :3
You’re welcome!
I rarely post about video games on this blog, because my main focus is still anime figures and anime art. My other site, Mirror’s Edge focuses heavier on video games, and the games industry, with in-depth analysis of game design and other interesting articles!
Oh my … For a second i though to be on the wrong site ^^
That’s amazing you were able to collect a whole year of data. I just couldn’t achieve something similar myself, not rigorous enough.
I don’t play games as much as before when i was a scholar.
Ohh Valkyria Chronicles, awesome game !
I should check on games i didn’t completed … probably scary. Na i don’t want to know lol
^^ I apologize if you were expecting my usual stuff! It seems that during the beginning of the year, I like to post about other things. Figures are in a bit of a dry spell as well, as all the good stuff doesn’t come out until Spring or something.
At first, I thought it’d be a lot of work, but it actually isn’t! I spend at most, 10 minutes on it per month to update the sheet.
Ugh, I don’t want to think about the games I played over the last year.
Off the top of my head, I completed 11 titles for the first time, including ninja gaiden sigma 2, uncharted 2, batman: arkham asylum, ghostbusters and killzone 2.
But at the same time, I don’t think I actually spend that much time on gaming. Most of these games were completed quite quickly. Maybe a week or 2 playing an hour or 2 a day?
I finished Valkyria chronicles back in 08. Was my game of the year then too! But I finished it really quickly because i wanted high grades on the stages…
Oh man, the enjoyment of VC was totally about taking your time and planning your tactics! It was much more methodical and “swat-like” playing that way.
Seems like you don’t know how many hours you’ve put into your gaming! Try out the chart for this year and see how you do!
Pretty interesting. Maybe i shld do the same for my gaming experience.
What got me started on it was the urge to really find out how I was spending my time in terms of gaming. I was surprised at the results each month, which also helped control my bad habits.
I’m actually thinking of installing a tracking program on my computer to automatically track my time spent on what programs on the computer so that I can optimize my time properly too!
wow, i should have done something like this back when i played lots of mmorpgs! the numbers would have been off the charts Lol nowadays i dont do much gaming at all T_T but this is a really neat idea… you need to put more time into Project Diva XD im going to give this chart to my little bro, he games a whole lot ^^;;
Lol you noticed my Project Diva! Yeah I dropped it after I found it not as fun as DJ Max. It’s still pretty fun watching all the MTVs though.
I remember playing Guild Wars and hit 800 hrs on it, so I stopped playing.
I’d like to see what your bro’s hours end up being!
You’ve got quite an efficient system here 🙂
Noticing what you’ve played…Resident Evil 4 was a great game wasn’t it? I got much more into it than I did with Resident Evil 5.
I want to play “No More Heroes” for wii, but I don’t really know if its any good, any input on it whether it is worth buying?
Hi Lostty! RE4 was great! I really liked RE5 too because I played the whole thing on co-op. It’s not as fun single player. No More Heroes is good! Except for the mini-game odd jobs. I suggest buying it and downloading a max-money save game off gamefaqs. You’ll enjoy the main game much more that way!
That’s quite the list you’ve got there and you’ve finished quite the number of games too!
Tracking all your games like this is really useful and a really easy way to look back on what you’ve played and how much time you spend on just gaming. Unfortunately if I make a chart like this it’s going to be filled with so many unfinished games…
I haven’t played games that much since working in the industry actually. I also found I got really picky and won’t be entertained as much with the same genres of games that I used to love. JRPGs as an example as I find that they’re all too similar. On the bright side, I’ve spent less money buying games, though most of that has gone into figure purchasing… (T_T) The only game I played recently is Assassin’s Creed 2, which I found really fun and much improved over the first game which I also finished. Have you found your gaming tastes have changed over the years?
Having unfinished games on your tracking sheet should be okay. I found myself more encouraged to finish a game when it was on the tracking sheet. But even if you don’t, and decide to shelve it, you still get the benefit of having tracked your hours, which is the sheet’s main purpose anyway.
It’s good that you’re picky about the games you play! It means you can put your energy towards other things, and maintain a high quality gaming experience! I’d like to see what figure purchases you’ve made! 🙂
I got Assassin’s Creed 2 before I went to Singapore, and it still remains sealed! ._.
If you’ll notice, I haven’t even added it to my backlog yet! I should re-check my backlog and start adding some of my recent purchases in!
I’ve definitely found my game tastes have changed over the years, and the trend of completed games show it. I’m not as heavily into RPGs anymore, and tend to set 10-15hr games in higher priority to 30-45hr games. Disgaea has been floating there for a long time, but just keeps getting pushed!
Demon Blade Muramasa has tricked me though. The average is 18-20hrs to complete, but the post-game is where the real ending is at, and the post-game is incredibly fun! I’ve gone a few hours over the estimated mark already, but totally enjoying it!
Interesting to see that you estimated/timed your gameplay hours for each game, and did a log on the games you have played for the year. It is a neat idea, but I will have no clue on how to do games that have no real start or ending, like Battlefield 1942 or the Gundam VS series. In fact, I have been pretty backward in games and only went for Gameboy games and constantly on BF1942 mod called Battlegroup42 (it’s an ongoing development and there’s about a new release/patch every 1/2 year or so).
The only games that I can think of that need to be completed for FFXII and Crisis Core (just got myself a PSP recently). Well, I am sort of giving up on FFXII for some reasons, and will try to focus more on Crisis Core when I have the time – very fun game I must say.
For games that have no real end, such as Rock Band, Street Fighter IV, Little Big Planet, etc. I set the start date for the day I’ve begun, or put NA if it was started a long time ago, and just put NA for the end date. Fortunately, Street Fighter has an internal clock, so I can just punch in the hours at the end of each month. But for games that don’t have an internal clock, I have to punch in the hours after each gaming session!
I stopped playing FFXII as well! Dunno why the hrs show 0 though, since I was probably half way through the game in 2007…
Crisis Core was okay. The main game was decent, but the side-quests were repetitive and boring. I just wish the story didn’t focus so much of Angeal and Genesis. Zack just felt like a side-character until the very end.
>.>! WOW
lol! What are you implying! XD
Theresia, Valkyria Chronicles, and Eternal Sonata are still on my untouched Backloggery list. But I look forward to playing more games once I get this degree this spring. I like games a lot but I end up spending more time reading manga and watching anime than playing games when I have free time. I love all my hobbies but I admit anime/manga is more dominant for me.
Studying is definitely more important, and when you have time, your most enjoyed hobby takes precedence. I have to admit, my love of gaming has unfortunately taken a sideline a bit last year as well, in favor of just blogging about anime figures and doing photoshop work. I guess it fluctuates for me on and off. 😛
My January gaming was over 40hrs this time!