Most Expensive Gaming Habit

[The Wandering God]

Brian's post about model assembly made me start to wonder.

Which gaming habit is most expensive?

Tabletop strategy, videogames, Tabletop RPGs, LARPS, card games, and board games are the only ones I can think of, but I'm sure there are more.

So, how much does your gaming habit run you?

Me? Varies, but I'd say about $75 a month as a videogamer. I'm about to purchase a Wii though, and I already own a $150 slim PS2, and DS Lite ($190 import).

The Wandering God

[Azisien]

Well it all does depend on how 'hardcore' the individual gamer is, but if I had to hazard I guess, given someone 'hardcore' in their given gaming medium, video games and tabletop strategy (if that's like Warhammer and such) are the most expensive.

My brother dabbled lightly in Warhammer and quickly slowed down when he found out how INSANELY expensive the models are. He started collecting some of the cheaper, "lesser-name" brands, but even those are pricey.

And well, if you're hardcore in video games, that's a whole lot of $50-70 games...

For me, well, I've never tabulated actually...

I own the ENTIRE Wizards d20 Modern line of books, purchased over a period of two years, so that's probably a few dollars a month right there. Back when I played Dungeons and Dragons Online, that came to $17 a month...

I haven't bought a console since the PS2, but I bought a $1500 gaming computer a little over a year ago. In that time I've bought maybe...three or four games, all new.

That actually comes to about $74 too, not including d20 Modern, which would definitely add a few dollars.

[Preturbed]

As far as I'm concerned TCGs are the most expensive. I got into Yu-Gi-Oh (laugh and you die.) a few years ago and I must have sunk thousands into that damn game.

[Fifthfiend]

Depends on your definition of gaming, but a bad night at Atlantic City can give a whole new meaning to the word 'expensive'.

[Tydeus]

Depends on your definition of gaming, but a bad night at Atlantic City can give a whole new meaning to the word 'expensive'.

One that involves ball-peen hammers and some really unpleasant crunching noises.

[notasfatasmike]

As far as I'm concerned TCGs are the most expensive. I got into Yu-Gi-Oh (laugh and you die.) a few years ago and I must have sunk thousands into that damn game.
I'm going to second this post, although I play Magic. If you want to seriously compete in constructed deck events, even on a local level, you have to sink significant cash into singles and packs. And if you like limited formats like I do...well, then you're really screwed. Having to pay $13 every time you want to do a draft on Magic Online adds up WAY faster than I usually realize.

[I_Like_Swordchucks]

I agree that TCGs suck a lot of money out, and are probably the most relatively expensive game versus what you get. You essentially get one game, hundreds (or thousands) of cards you'll likely never use, and limited playability.

I think computers can get to be more expensive. I keep upgrading my computer so I'd hate to think of how much money I've put into computers over time, but I get a lot more playability and versatility out of it. So while I might spend more than I would in a TCG, I get more "stuff" out of it.

So it really depends on the perspective.

[Azisien]

Yeah, cards are rather unruly too...I'm sure there's well over $1000 invested into my Grade 7-8 Pokemon Card collection. :P

Oh well, on the bright side I caught 'em all. Now I just need to hope some eccentric japanese man will buy the deck for $100,000 in 40 years. Cash outtttt!

[OctoberRaven]

TCGs and Clix. No question. Sure, RPG books are 20-30 each (Unless we're talking about a huge game like World's Lamest Dungeon), but I know people who spent 30 bucks that much a week on TCG cards.

[Preturbed]

TCGs and Clix. No question. Sure, RPG books are 20-30 each (Unless we're talking about a huge game like World's Lamest Dungeon), but I know people who spent 30 bucks that much a week on TCG cards.

A week? I've spent that much on a single card. More, actually. I've stopped lately because I've been pretty broke. But to continue my earlier post, I've sunk way too much money into TCGs. Several grand (over time) into the deck, more money every time a new set comes out - around a hundred I think. More when games are boxed with limited edition (or brand new) cards, $5 to $10 every week for locals, $15+ once a month ofr so for regionals, $20+ for larger events.

And people wonder why TCG events have problems with theft.

[Fifthfiend]

As a continuation of my previous comments, it seems important to note that where say a TCG hobbyist might spend several thousand dollars and acquire for his expenditures an accumulation of cards, a gambler in his pursuits may spend several thousand dollars, and acquire for his expenditures not having any money any more.

Which is sort of an interesting difference to note.

[Mirai Gen]

See, I want to say TCGs just like everyone else, but that's simply not the case.

There's this thing called "Consumer whorisms," and when you get into Warhammer fantasy and 40k, you become a consumer whore. You start looking at things like custom made dice, especially with the wounding hit already written out on the "6". You see some ruined Imperium cityscape, and you go, "That'd look pretty good with my Tau placed right next to it."

So you order it.

TCGs like Magic try to do this - what with the special life counters, tokens, placemats, and the like - but it doesn't have the same 'cool shit' factor.

So, having said thus, table top squad and company based games.

[mxyzptlk]

I'd say being a Vintage card pimp would be most expensive. Beta power and Japanese/Russian Foil everything would run five digits. Then there's Summer Magic, anything from that is hundreds.

[Truce]

MMORPGs.

They cost me my life.

[P-Sleazy]

As far as I'm concerned TCGs are the most expensive. I got into Yu-Gi-Oh (laugh and you die.) a few years ago and I must have sunk thousands into that damn game.

HA! I laugh at you! I spent somewhere in the area of 500-600 dollars so far on my Yu-Gi-Oh cards....and still going. :D But yes, I will agree that is a damn expensive habbit to keep up.

One of my friends, every week for the past 5-6 months has spent 20 dollars on Yu-Gi-Oh cards. And guess what? He didn't learn the differences between rarity until 2 months ago, so we whored all his ultra and super rare cards off of him for common and common rare cards. :D Got me a nice shiny Voltanis the Adjucator (1st ed too) for just a Great Maju Garzette and some other insignificant common rare card that I can't remember. Now that he's learned I have to start buying again.:(

[Azisien]

One of my friends, every week for the past 5-6 months has spent 20 dollars on Yu-Gi-Oh cards. And guess what? He didn't learn the differences between rarity until 2 months ago, so we whored all his ultra and super rare cards off of him for common and common rare cards. :D Got me a nice shiny Voltanis the Adjucator (1st ed too) for just a Great Maju Garzette and some other insignificant common rare card that I can't remember. Now that he's learned I have to start buying again.:(

I guess the definition of friend varies somewhat goegraphically?

[notasfatasmike]

I guess the definition of friend varies somewhat goegraphically?
Actually, that's pretty common in most TCG communities, as far as I know. It happened to me when I was younger, and I've scammed more than a few younger players in my day. Although, come to think of it, I wouldn't have probably defined any of them as "friends" per se.

Does that really excuse it? No, not really. :shrug:

[Mirai Gen]

"These aren't the cards you're looking for," is the nerd term for it, I think.

And jipping someone because they don't know the value is perfectly legit among TCG collectors. Is it because we're fucked up or because its an unspoken agreement? The world may never know.

I'm inclined to agree with the former.

[Truce]

In the defence of TCGers (though, probably not some of you), most of the people I know generally are fair to each other. That isn't to say they won't take a good deal when they see one, but they won't go out of their way to rip someone off. In fact, a lot of "veterans" will give cards to help others out.

[Rick Void]

I guess the definition of friend varies somewhat goegraphically?

:bmage: I have friends.
... I have a friend.
:wmage: What you have is a highly dysfunctional relationship based entirely on abuse.
Right, a friend.
See, that, that right there. That's what's wrong with you.
...
:bmage: Dammit, Fighter. White Mage doesn't like me because you're a rotten friend.
:fighter: I'm horrible!

[Lord of Joshelplex]

I try to only buy 1 game a month, preferably for only $40, but I am known to scour bargain bins for $5 games (I'm infamously cheap) and well, I want to get into Warhammer 40K, but its $100 for a starter kit. D&D has so far costed me about $85, but Im updatin all my rulebooks, so more like $100. The most exspensive gaming habbit is probably tabletop war games. I know a kid who has invested at least $300 this year into 40K.

[Fifthfiend]

I guess the definition of friend varies somewhat goegraphically?

I dunno, it's been "guy you take every chance to fuck over / who takes every chance to fuck you over" everywhere I've ever seen.

[Karenaide]

You see it in the store and go "OOH! $25? Sweet!" But then it's $30 a month, around $50 for each expansion which come out maybe three times a year, and THEN if you catch a virus or buy WoW gold or stuff online, then wow, that's just below $400 a year for JUST the game subscription! OUCH!

[Tokkie]

In my personal opinion, games like Warhammer and D&D can be the most expensive in the long run. I've wanted to play both for a long time, but I have... erm... a restricted budget.

Okay, I'm broke, are you happy?

I spend probably $100 a year on any and all forms of gaming.

[Krylo]

Inspired by Ecurt, I'm gonna have to go with MMORPGs.

Ok, so you're paying like, thirty bucks for the game itself, right? Then you're paying about fifteen dollars a month, so in one year that's $180 in subscription fees. However, I'm not done yet.

Now, let's say you play for an average of twelve hours a day (don't lie, you WoW addicts, I KNOW how you are, this is going light on you), that's costing you roughly $380 a year on your power bill.

We're now up to $560 a year, plus the one time cost of thirty bucks, to bring it to five hundred and ninety dollars. And that's just your immediate monetary costs.

There's a whole lot of other costs, emotional, social, physical, and job related that come from a MMORPG addiction. People don't get enough sleep, let their health deteriorate, have less time for other people (less sex!), let relationships fall apart, buy money off the internet, lose out on performance reviews at work due to not getting enough sleep, etc. etc.

Honestly, given the overall loss, not JUST in money (though that's damn substantial too), nothing else even comes close.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Yep, WoW is seriously draining on your bank balance. I think over here it's like £10 a month after you buy the game (say around £35-£40). Then the power bill (not sure how much that would be over here though).

To be fair though, not everyone is going to buy gold online. That's only for the REAL addicts who LITERALLY have no life!

Glad I stick to Guild wars. Just buy the game and pay for the power. And seeing as I would be on my computer anyway that's not really going to make a difference.

Also, I'm not addicted to GW like everyone on WoW is with that. I mean, I bought Nightfall about three weeks ago and I'm not even off the starting island yet!

[Fifthfiend]

Inspired by Ecurt, I'm gonna have to go with MMORPGs.

Ok, so you're paying like, thirty bucks for the game itself, right? Then you're paying about fifteen dollars a month, so in one year that's $180 in subscription fees. However, I'm not done yet.

Now, let's say you play for an average of twelve hours a day (don't lie, you WoW addicts, I KNOW how you are, this is going light on you), that's costing you roughly $380 a year on your power bill.

We're now up to $560 a year, plus the one time cost of thirty bucks, to bring it to five hundred and ninety dollars. And that's just your immediate monetary costs.

There's a whole lot of other costs, emotional, social, physical, and job related that come from a MMORPG addiction. People don't get enough sleep, let their health deteriorate, have less time for other people (less sex!), let relationships fall apart, buy money off the internet, lose out on performance reviews at work due to not getting enough sleep, etc. etc.

Honestly, given the overall loss, not JUST in money (though that's damn substantial too), nothing else even comes close.

To summarize: If time = money, you WOW-fans are in for one hell of a lot of money.

[Truce]

To summarize: If time = money, you WOW-fans are in for one hell.

Fixed.

Seriously.

[POS Industries]

I'm going to have to say that, in many cases, the power bill from a MMO is a moot point. Nowadays, computers tend to be on much of the day as it is, and therefore using said computer to play WoW over, say, doing your taxes or looking at porn isn't going to make a bit of difference cost-wise.

Secondly, if you're playing like a coke-fiend, then you're probably making enough in-game money from your questing/grinding/etcetera that the need to pay real money to buy fake money isn't really going to be there, otherwise you wouldn't be playing so damn much to get the money that you need for epic mounts, gear, and other such things. Power-levellers and gold farmers typically make their money off the more casual gamers who, for whatever reason, just can't allow themselves to "fall behind" because they don't have the time to put into the game, in which case it's money spent on the absence of an addiction rather than to feed it. Of course, it could also be argued that these are addicts with less free time and an inability to just not play the game.

So yeah, I see that point.

As for the time you spend playing taking a toll on your life as a whole, that goes for any game. You all know you've spent at least one night of your life playing a game, any game, from dusk till dawn and probably into the mid-afternoon. The only reason that it's so much more noticeable with a MMO is that the game never ends. But if you're losing your job and family over a game, regardless of what sort of game it is, I do believe that it's more evident of a larger problem.

However, if we're going to villainize WoW, let's at least put it into perspective with the rest of the genre, that being that if a person spent exactly one year, starting in January 2007 through January 2008, playing WoW and another person played RaiRO during the same duration for the same amount of time a day, the WoW player would spend about $240 more over a gradual, extended period of time. Specifically, $75 in January and then $15 every month for the whole rest of the year.

Furthermore, that total is less expensive than either a Wii, PS3, or X-Box 360 plus games. A hardcore, overly addicted console gamer would pay far more money throughout a one-year span than a similarly pathetic MMO player, and the consequences of any game addiction would be equal.

To summarize, if Time = Money, then MMO players are among the least screwed.

[Truce]

You provide a good argument, POS.

You're right about one thing: Buying a console and its multiple games is more expensive than paying for the subscription of one MMO. At the same time though, it's more expensive still to get what is considered to be a top of the line gaming computer, which constantly needs to be upgraded. The Commando Quad SLI (
http://www.viciouspc.com/lord.html) for instance is $4110.

Assuming you're not buying it off Ebay (because, let's face it, the real addicted players waited in line), you would get the PS3 at around $700. The games themselves are $60. You would have to buy over five hundred games to even match that price.

Some play multiple MMOs as well, though generally they won't subscribe to too many, and there are Console MMOs as well.

[POS Industries]

You're right about one thing: Buying a console and its multiple games is more expensive than paying for the subscription of one MMO. At the same time though, it's more expensive still to get what is considered to be a top of the line gaming computer, which constantly needs to be upgraded. The Commando Quad SLI (
http://www.viciouspc.com/lord.html) for instance is $4110.

Top of the line is for the rich and ignorant. Mine's a $500, bottom-of-the-line Dell, and it runs WoW just fine. Maybe not amazingly, but it gets the job done.

[Noodlesis]

Inspired by Ecurt, I'm gonna have to go with MMORPGs.

Ok, so you're paying like, thirty bucks for the game itself, right? Then you're paying about fifteen dollars a month, so in one year that's $180 in subscription fees. However, I'm not done yet.

Now, let's say you play for an average of twelve hours a day (don't lie, you WoW addicts, I KNOW how you are, this is going light on you), that's costing you roughly $380 a year on your power bill.

We're now up to $560 a year, plus the one time cost of thirty bucks, to bring it to five hundred and ninety dollars. And that's just your immediate monetary costs.

There's a whole lot of other costs, emotional, social, physical, and job related that come from a MMORPG addiction. People don't get enough sleep, let their health deteriorate, have less time for other people (less sex!), let relationships fall apart, buy money off the internet, lose out on performance reviews at work due to not getting enough sleep, etc. etc.

Honestly, given the overall loss, not JUST in money (though that's damn substantial too), nothing else even comes close.

Not to mention all of the pop, chips, and other munchies you have to buy. That, or move the fridge to your computer. Or get a laptop.

[Krylo]

I'm going to have to say that, in many cases, the power bill from a MMO is a moot point. Nowadays, computers tend to be on much of the day as it is, and therefore using said computer to play WoW over, say, doing your taxes or looking at porn isn't going to make a bit of difference cost-wise.

Secondly, if you're playing like a coke-fiend, then you're probably making enough in-game money from your questing/grinding/etcetera that the need to pay real money to buy fake money isn't really going to be there, otherwise you wouldn't be playing so damn much to get the money that you need for epic mounts, gear, and other such things. Power-levellers and gold farmers typically make their money off the more casual gamers who, for whatever reason, just can't allow themselves to "fall behind" because they don't have the time to put into the game, in which case it's money spent on the absence of an addiction rather than to feed it. Of course, it could also be argued that these are addicts with less free time and an inability to just not play the game.This entire paragraph is mostly wrong. It's the addicts who buy it because the casual gamers aren't stupid enough to buy fake money with real money. It takes an addicted point of view. And yes, you can play all day and still not have enough money to buy those purples, or epic mounts, or whatever the hell else people buy. At least not fast enough for these people.


As for the time you spend playing taking a toll on your life as a whole, that goes for any game. You all know you've spent at least one night of your life playing a game, any game, from dusk till dawn and probably into the mid-afternoon. The only reason that it's so much more noticeable with a MMO is that the game never ends.Exactly. I may have played DQVIII all night once or twice, but then it was over and I was back to playing casually. With an MMORPG you're NEVER done, it NEVER goes back to casual once you're addicted. It only gets worse as time goes on. Losing two days to a game and then waiting a few months acting like a normal human being before losing another two days, as opposed to spending every damn day like that? Yeah, BIG difference.

But if you're losing your job and family over a game, regardless of what sort of game it is, I do believe that it's more evident of a larger problem.I agree, however, the only games with documented cases are MMORPGs. And yes, there are documented cases. Like that Korean guy who played until it killed him. Literally. Normal video games can not reach such heights of addiction because they will end before such heights CAN be reached. And your table top and CCGs? Again, you can't reach heights of addiction that ridiculous, but this time because you need to be able to organize a social event around it.

Now, while I agree that that is a rather extreme case, you don't have to be 'extreme' to be addicted. I'll point you here: http://www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/mapping.html Look at the charts. Look and be warned.

Further, it's very easy to let a game, regardless of what it is, affect your social life and job without realizing it. I never did say 'losing', simply affecting it in a detrimental manner. If you're staying up playing WoW or whatever until 2 am every morning, then yes, you ARE going to suffer on your performance reviews at work due to a lack of sleep, and yes you ARE going to miss out on promotions and raises. You probably won't be fired, but you're still missing out. The same goes for your social life (I also never said losing family), wherein you can easily end up putting extra stress on relationships with your SO due to spending more time playing a game than spending time with him/her.

However, if we're going to villainize WoWI only mentioned WoW, what, once? And that's only because it's the biggest and most famous. I mean, I could have used Guild Wars or Gunbound or RO, but there's not as big a following for them.

A hardcore, overly addicted console gamer would pay far more money throughout a one-year span than a similarly pathetic MMO player, and the consequences of any game addiction would be equal.Except the consequences aren't equal because you can't reach the same heights of addiction with something that is over in 200 hours of play.

To summarize, if Time = Money, then MMO players are among the least screwed.Keep lying to yourself if you like. Just remember that admittance is the first step to recovery.

[Demetrius]

Drinking games... Think about it, alcohol is expensive, especially the massive amounts you need for a good game, then there are the medical bills, failed kidneys and hours you just lose. I spend about $100 a weekend just at my house and about $100 everytime I hit the bars, you can't play pool without a brew! So yeah all externalities included drinking games FTW.

[POS Industries]

This entire paragraph is mostly wrong. It's the addicts who buy it because the casual gamers aren't stupid enough to buy fake money with real money. It takes an addicted point of view. And yes, you can play all day and still not have enough money to buy those purples, or epic mounts, or whatever the hell else people buy. At least not fast enough for these people.

Forgive me for debating the issue with myself there. I like looking at more than one point of view. I believe the propagandistic term for that is "flip-flopper", but I prefer "reasonable and objective". Since I came to about that same conclusion at the end, anyway, I'm just going to thank you for seeing my point and agreeing with me. Let's move on.

Exactly. I may have played DQVIII all night once or twice, but then it was over and I was back to playing casually. With an MMORPG you're NEVER done, it NEVER goes back to casual once you're addicted. It only gets worse as time goes on. Losing two days to a game and then waiting a few months acting like a normal human being before losing another two days, as opposed to spending every damn day like that? Yeah, BIG difference.

...

Except the consequences aren't equal because you can't reach the same heights of addiction with something that is over in 200 hours of play.

Yeah, but with a console gaming addict, you don't have just that one game. You spend two days straight beating one game only to move on to the next, which is another, what, sixty bucks? The addiction is still there, but with an MMO it's typically just confined to the one game, and a $15 monthly fee is way less costly than constant consumption of new games, or even rental costs to fill the need.

Now, while I agree that that is a rather extreme case, you don't have to be 'extreme' to be addicted. I'll point you here: http://www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/mapping.html Look at the charts. Look and be warned.

Right back at ya:

In the same way that one could be a social drinker and not be addicted to alcohol, it is clearly the same with MMORPGs. Just because someone plays an MMORPG does not necessarily mean that they will become addicted to it. And in the same way that people can be addicted to alcohol even though not everyone who drinks is addicted, it is clear that certain individuals can be addicted to MMORPGs even though not all MMORPG players are addicted.

I realize that it's not exactly the point we're dabating, but I'd like to address this statement of yours:

Keep lying to yourself if you like. Just remember that admittance is the first step to recovery.

Please do not hurl personal insults at me or anyone else just for taking an opposing view to yours. It's unbecoming. I happen to only play because it's the only way my old real-life friends and I are able to socialize since we've all become so spread out. Typically, I only get 2 to 3 hours on, get either bored, frustrated, or manage to accomplish my goal for the day and go do something else.

Like feed my internet porn addiction.

[TheSpacePope]

Like feed my internet porn addiction.
Now that can get fucking expensive!

[POS Industries]

Now that can get fucking expensive!

Just don't buy into the paysites, keep some good antivirus protection up, never use Microsoft Internet Explorer, and, for the love of god, don't click the banners!!

[Mirai Gen]

To be fair, there's some damn good, damn safe payable porn out there.

Not that I've ever invested or anything. Just throwing that out there. I still stand by the idea that 40 k is the most expensive gaming habit.

[POS Industries]

And I'm going to go ahead and agree with pretty much everything Mirai just said. I would have to imagine 40k's gotta be pretty costly and time-consuming overall.

[Nikose Tyris]

Free and safe Torrent sites are the way to go on that note.

Magic, I've spent $2344 this year...

Building a computer + Buying 2 computer games, came out to $2356....

Tabletop RPG books, Free cause I DL'd them (but my collection would have cost me roughly 40-50 a book here in Canada, and I have 260 books DL'd just last month)

So, for what I ACTUALLY spend, I'll say Computer Gaming and MMO's are worst, but for practicality on what I COULD have spent if I wasn't a Downloading whore, Tabletop RPGs. Specifically GURPS. (YOU DON'T NEED 200 BOOKS TO GET YOUR POINT ACROSS.)

[Solotaire]

I spend too much on gaming, but I doubt it would rival MMOs or real gambling... I played magic and stopped when I was at a Box a pay form of habit. That wasn't cool, but I stopped that for Videogames... and yeah I haven't saved much, but I feel better about it :)

[Krylo]

POS, the last thing was mostly tongue in cheek, my good friend.


Also, you're both wrong. You go to the paysites that have free video samples.

[POS Industries]

POS, the last thing was mostly tongue in cheek, my good friend.

I suspected as much, but it's hard to tell sometimes.

Also, you're both wrong. You go to the paysites that have free video samples.

Well, that's mostly how it's done, but you still have to be careful about spyware and the like. And, I mean this, do not click any banners under any circumstances. Just take my word for it, okay?

[Nikose Tyris]

D: How could ANYONE even be amused to a free 2 minute clip? I mean, free movies via torrent from free sites like *LINK WITHHELD DUE TO RULES* is way better and safer. D: Not to mention, Good for maintaining a healthy collection.

Also, I just spent another $40 on magic cards, furthering my arguement.

[katsielyonz]

Yes I am too in support of the MTG sucks every penny out of your addictive habit. MTG is very VERY addictive and very VERY expensive. Right now my collection is valued at about $20,000. That's just the cards, that doesn't even consider other costs. Every week I go spend about twenty bucks on gas to travel to the closest FNM tournament (which is about an hour from where I live). Then I have to pay even more money to enter the tournament (which can be from 3 dollars for standard to 15 for draft). Then I need to buy food cuz you get hungry after awhile (where normally I just go up the road to Mom's and hit up her fridge for free food). Then, here recently, I have had my car break down 5-6 times just travelling to get there which cost me an exhorbitant amount of money ($2000 is the ball park figure). This isn't including the trips to PTQs which are even more costly; more gas, hotel rooms and entry fees plus food can easily be hundreds of dollars o.0. And it's sooooo friggin' addictive. You get one of those booster packs and your so excited, anything could be in that pack. And the smell of new cards...

But just to lament even more, I don't know how many of you are familiar with MTG but right now the Ravnica block is still in T2, and with the exception of playing monogreen, to stay competitive you typically play a multicolor deck, which requires dual lands. Now these dual lands run about 15-20 dollars apiece and there's about 8 or more dual lands in a competitive standard deck. I make 800 a month. That's friggin' expensive. (I just mooch off of my mom's account for WoW).

[Funka Genocide]

I think I'll agree with Krylo on the fact that MMORPG's seem to take the heaviest toll in a grander sense than monetary. Losing your soul to the machine is pretty expensive no matter how you cut it.

but to take the straight cash angle, personal experience and disregarding a gambling addiction I'd have to say that warhammer and all it's demon spawn are the biggest money munching whores of nerd gamedom.

honestly. I've spent thousands, I think the biggest competitor would be a serious online gaming addiction. Whereas one has to upgrade their rig to continually keep up with graphical specs (I'd say a completley new machine at least every two years) the games themselves are relatively cheap and time consuming. A warhammer addiction never seems to stop adding up, and I've painted entire armies just to give them to friends. So lets take somne averages (that I just made up right now)

new computer for gaming, adequate set up to play top of the line games at least somewhat smoothly.

$2000

new game

$20-$50

subsrcitpion to online game

$10 to $20

so, let's say you subscribe to three different online games, buy on average three games a months and replace your computer every two years.

add in miscellaneous hardware upgrades and internet connection fees and you've got between 2 and 4 thousand dollars worth of expenses annually, dependent on whether or not you get a new system during the year.

now lets say you're really into warhammer and collect it obsessively. Warhammer fantasy and 40k. The rules for both are updated at irregular intervals, but lets' assume once every two years, for about 50 dollars a pop,

now let's assume one army for each collected to two thousand points every three monts (a reasonable turn around time for someone who paints on their weekends and forgets to bathe)

average cost of a 2000 point army is about 1000 dollars, here is an example.

Tau codex(the basic rules for the single army, which are sold in a seperate book)

ethereal blister
$12

9 XV8 battlesuits (1 HQ plus two elites)
$180

2 boxes of stealth suits
$40

4 boxes of Fire Warriors
$140

3 Devilfish
$105

2 kroot boxes
$80

pathfinder squad
$40

3 prinhas

$75

3XV88 boradside battlesuits
$105

hammerhead and skyray
$80

total price= $857

this is a mostly plastic army too, if you were throwing together an old school warhammer army (like my awesome dark elf horde of '96) this could run much higher. so take all this stuff and figure the amount of work possible in a year, approximately 4 to 6 thousand a year, every year. in my estimation. Although, and with this sort of turn around you won't circle back to the same army for a few years, by which time they will most likely have been revamped and new models will have been added.

then again, you'd have to be completely insane to do something like that. I think both of my estimates assume a rather mad individual. I've never spent so much on either hobby myself, I just think that it's theoretically feasible to spend more on warhammer and still get some use out of everything you buy. With videogames you have to sit downa nd play them out, which takes time, plus they don't release too many good games a months, but that entire catalogue of minitaures never gets any smaller! And old models can still be interesting, whereas old games can typically be found for free or are too outdated to hold people's attention.

maybe I'm full of shit though, and I was just bored and wanted to price my ext army. YOU DECIDE!

[Kurosen]

You forgot to include the cost of paint. A full range of Vallejo Game Paint -- a cheaper Citadel Paint equivalent -- will run you about $250.

[Funka Genocide]

You forgot to include the cost of paint. A full range of Vallejo Game Paint -- a cheaper Citadel Paint equivalent -- will run you about $250.

damn, I forgot about that. With the obsessive need to have every citadel color available, plus citadel brishes and modelling bits and pieces (glue, flock etc) and all the spraypaints, not to mention all those esoteric bits of whatnot used for conversions, the price goes up even more. Then of course there's storage and gaming table development, scenery making and so on. Christ! If you actually looked harder there's at least another grand of annual expenses in there!

I need a better job.

[Mirai Gen]

Like I said, 40k.

I mean, shit, they make you buy the 50$ rulebook, then 35$ packs, then 25$ or so mega-units, then the 20$ book, then miscellaneous paints and extra pieces.

[Funka Genocide]

but honestly, how else were you ever going to be able to paint a miniature Legolas?

I know you allw ant you're very own 1/24th scale elf warrior. And that's why Games Workshop will always own your soul.

[Gascmark de Leone]

I'll tell you the most expensive gaming habit I've heard of: a guy really likes flight sims, so he salvaged actual parts of plains and use them to add "realism" to his experience. Craziness, I tell you.