Video Game Statistics (Summer)

As a nerd, I love statistics. Steam did something new this year. They posted a Steam Replay for 2022 which was full of all sorts of lovely stats!

The game I played the most by far was Deep Rock Galactic (42% of total playtime). It's a 1 to 4 dwarf co-op mining and shooting bug game that I played with Bill and Shane. It was a social outlet for Bill and I where we'd meet up, shoot bugs, and decompress. Shane played on my computer until I bought a copy for him, so some of those percentage points are his.

Which brings me to the next graph: Playtime by Month.

Overall, I was pretty consistent throughout the year. The data's not perfect, though, because Shane uses my account, too. I know for a fact I played more during the summer. It doesn't show in the data chart, because Shane was traveling. The hours presented in the graph were all me instead of shared. I started to play Xcom2 again (9% total year playtime in under 2 months) and was worried I was sinking too much time into it. I forced myself to take a break from it. Also, I started and beat the First Trails game in that time period (8% total playtime). It was the game I played while staying near Carrie as she battled and grieved through Kitsune's story.

A stat that surprised me was the number of games I've played: 48. It made sense when I looked at the games played, though. 

1) Shane. He'll play a game a few times, say he's bored and want a new game to play. Examples: Slime Rancher, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Two Point Hospital, Rogue Legacy

2) Being social with Bill. We've bought and played a number of games together along with DRG. Examples: It Takes Two, Children of Morta, Castle Crashers, Operation Tango  

3) I bought the I Stand With Ukraine humble bundle. The humble bundle dropped a ton of games that I split between Shane's account and my own. Most were flashes in the pan, but there were a couple gems. Examples: Pawnbarian, Hexlogic, Cypher, 911 Operator, Tooth and Tail 

The next data chart will show I don't buy brand new games. I'm not sure what game I bought that would even be considered new, but it was probably a smaller indy game (maybe even something Shane picked up).

I tend to wait for a couple of years and a good sale to pick up a game. Sometimes,  I have a hard time during down a great deal. I have a backlog of games I've never played (some still from that Stand With Ukraine bundle!). That discourages me from buying anything new unless I really, really want it right away (Like Portal 2 back in the day!).

I have had a Steam account for 18 years. It started with buying The Orange Box way back on a Thanksgiving long ago. It started off small with most of my playtime spent elsewhere (like Battle.net), but gained legs over the years. Now, most of my gaming is done on Steam, because it's easy. I have a lot of stuff there. It'd be work to go elsewhere.

While nerding over stats, I poked around on the rest of my account. Steam has achievements which I find fun....to a point. I don't need to play a game to perfection (but I have done it). I like to grab achievements and they add a replay factor to me, but if they're too much work to achieve I won't waste my time. 

The game I've played the most by far is Desktop Dungeons. To be fair, some of that is because I've accidentally left it on and running many a time. My Puzzle Quest 2 playtime should be significantly higher, but Carrie and I used to both log on to play it. Steam would kick one of us, but the game would stay up. It only logged that person's playtime.

Steam didn't originally track playtime, because all the hours I spent playing Team Fortress 2 with my friends doesn't appear anywhere. We used to play Left for Dead (1 and 2), as well. Counter-Strike was a huge draw, but that was began well before Steam existed. 

My most played games tend to fall into several categories. Rogue Legacy is a notable exception, because the 150 hours is cumulative between Carrie, Shane, and I all playing it.

Quantity alone does not determine quality, but there has to be some quality for me to have played all these games so much!

My tastes have changed towards shorter running or at least bite-sized capable games. Hexcells, Tametsi, and Desktop Dungeons are all essentially puzzles. I boot up, focus on a problem, hopefully solve it, and then turn it off if I don't say "just one more...".

Meanwhile, the Total War and Civilization series are all about building massive empires over time. They are LONG games (and taught me a lot of history over the years!). I've barely touched anything like them for at least 5 years. I do remember flirting around with Civ 5 some, because Shane got it on the Switch. Last played was "Oct 3, 2020" so that checks out as "virtual school and stuck at home." I think Shogun 2 was my favorite Total War and that was last played in 2015 (and probably for a minute or two before saying "I don't have time for this" and turning it off!).

At some point, I'll do a "Top 10 Video Games post." I already drafted a bunch of book ones to fill in gaps later on the blog. Maybe an older, bored Shane will look back at the list and try a thing or two and discover some fun ways to connect to his old man.