The High Cost Of Being A Gamer: $30,000

[JWAN]

I probably spend around $100 -$250 a year so that's about $7,500 over 30 years

how the hell do you spend $30,500, compared to other hobbies like sports you cant play sports for 30 years straight.

Thats a large amount of money.
Does that count building computers?

 

[Mythbhavd]

Well, I suppose it's better than spending it on something useless like cigarettes.

 

[milomalo]

since i began to work i buy one game every two weeks... and thats a year now... and i have 21... but i have been a gamer since i was a kid like 7. so 30K falls short and

Gosh, if I could have all the cash I've spent on video games up to this point in my life back...the games I'd buy...

that will be cool

 

[Sackwak]

Golly, i spent over $1000 this year. 13 PS3 games including GH:WT bundle. In Australian Dollars

Yipes

 

[Xojins]

Perhaps I'm one of the only gamers left that just borrows most games from friends :X

Edit: I also had a question: are only mods allowed to post new threads here?

 

[bluemarsman]

I doubt that i have spent more than $3000 on games in my life.

 

[Blade3dge]

$30,0000 over 30 years is nothing. I can make 800 a week working at a supermarket stacking shelves... Add up how much a coffee every morning costs, add up how much buying lunch costs rather than bringing your own, driving to work rather than catching public tansport, alcohol, smokes... Add those up over 30 years and they will make what we spend on gaming look like pennies. All this survey tells me is gaming is one of the cheapest hobbies you could ever have.

 

[Cahlee]

I dont care, it's oney well spent. I enjoy it. Although I doubt I've spent a grand this year, $750 at a stretch.

 

[AdjectiveAnimal]

I'd believe it - I spend probably over $2k a year on games, then figure in new consoles every 4-7 years, a new pc every 3-4 years ... and I've been in it since the late-70s. Yeah, I can see $30k pretty easily ... oh, God, I've squandered my child's first semester of college!!!

Piffle. Who says the kid's going to college? (Hey, maybe that'll be the next big "movement", WiiU! The only college education we plebians can afford!)

I have to go to college, because according to my dad it's either that or I'll be "Toting an AR and running through the sand." WiiU sounds like a nice option. =)

 

[AdjectiveAnimal]

Perhaps I'm one of the only gamers left that just borrows most games from friends :X

Edit: I also had a question: are only mods allowed to post new threads here?

No, anyone can, and welcome to the Escapist.
EDIT: Wait, you've been here a year and don't know that?

 

[TerraRising]

So, $30,000 over a 30-year span? $1,000 a year, on average. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

 

[Blade3dge]

Perhaps I'm one of the only gamers left that just borrows most games from friends :X

Edit: I also had a question: are only mods allowed to post new threads here?

My friends borrow games from me... It's a wonderful life...

 

[Xojins]

Perhaps I'm one of the only gamers left that just borrows most games from friends :X

Edit: I also had a question: are only mods allowed to post new threads here?

No, anyone can, and welcome to the Escapist.
EDIT: Wait, you've been here a year and don't know that?

I've had an account for a year, but I didn't really start posting until relatively recently. I used to just watch the Zero Punctuation videos, but I like to see what people think about things.

 

[SimuLord]

Let's see...assuming that $1,000/yr for 30 years expense count is right, that's $2.74 a day. Two dollars, seventy-four cents. Even a kid making minimum wage at McDonald's can earn that in half an hour, never mind someone working in a career field with education and experience (at the US median household income of ~$56,000 a year, or roughly $27 an hour, an educated worker working a 9-to-5 job has made his gaming money for the day by 9:06 in the morning.)

Even someone making half the abovementioned median income (someone who, say, is in his twenties in an entry-level career-field job) makes his daily gaming bread by 9:12 AM. Now then, who among us wouldn't love to go into work and mark the time every morning where we've supported our gaming habit? If anything I'd be motivated to work harder if it weren't so damn easy to keep a gaming habit that it only took 6-12 minutes for me to earn the money to get what I want.

Besides, non-gamers often spend more on Starbucks coffee if they're into their double-whip no-caf soy lattes (or whatever the fuck Yuppies order at coffee places---I'm more of the Dunkin Donuts on Causeway St. in Boston "gimme a lahge coffee, regulah" type) than gamers spend on consoles, games, and PC parts and upgrades, and all they get for it is crappy coffee and a short-lived caffeine buzz (or not, if they order decaf).

 

[Dechef]

$30,500 over 30 years? A bit over a grand a year? Pfft. That's small potatoes compared with golf, hockey, or skiing. Come to think of it, isn't that about the same as buying a latté every morning for the same period?

I'll dispute the "high cost" part of the title, but I do agree that in the aggregate there's a lot of money in the games industry and that number is heading upward.

-- Steve

About 3 bucks per cup, then yes it's about the same. Now, if you buy all those games AND a latte every day... Here's another interesting comparison: if you play World of Warcraft, you'd spend roughly 10.000 over the same period of time.

 

[luckshot]

yeah compared to a lot of useless things gaming is pretty cheap then

like people that buy coffee from a coffee shop on their way to work for $5.00 and another at lunch, add that up and after 30 yrs they've spent over 100k on coffee

 

[[Gavo]]

I'm going to say that this figure probably goes top PC "enthusiasts"
who buy every new thing that comes out onto the market.

 

[Pimppeter2]

erased