Getting my money's worth from my games

Really? A whole month since the last post? I am letting myself down. In my defense, the semester has gotten busier for me, with volleyball practically every weekend and increasing workload from classes (which I still get by doing minimal effort).

You don't care about that. You care about what I care about; for what other reason would somebody read this blog if they did not?

Anyway, let's get to the point.

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This is totes going to sound cliche, but I had a great idea in the shower: what games have been played so much that they have practically paid for themselves? What games have I gotten my money's worth out of, and then some? Plus, what kind of games have a higher play rate and/or replayability factor?

This thought came from something I said last night while playing NBA Live 2005 with my roommate. NBA Live 2005 is the latest basketball game in my collection, and allowed us to play with more recent rosters than NBA Jam TE does. We also created ourselves, stacked our team and play on the easiest difficulty. It's fun.

But that's not the point. This game is four and a half years old. I am still playing it. It is the Gamecube version, and I paid no more than $40 when it was brand new. That figures to less than 10 bucks a year, and there is no reasonable way I could count (or even guess) the number of games or seasons I have logged in NBA Live 2005, so calculating a per game price is impossible.

Therefore, I might say that the experience is priceless.

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Analysis: Sports videogames last longer for some gamers (especially me) because keeping up with each new version of the game becomes expensive. When brand new games are $60, I try to be mindful of which games I want in my collection. I also have a higher standard for games, and pay attention to which ones I can get my money's worth out of (the last game I bought with my own money was Fallout 3).

Back to the sports games. The newest sports game I own is NHL 09, the older version I have is 06, but I bought that online over a year ago before I had a PS3. MVP Baseball 2005 is the latest baseball game I have, and I don't mind. Trying to keep up with an entire season of real-life MLB is hard enough. I don't own or care too much for football games.

Over the next week or two (or whenever I can update over break) I will feature a game that has lasted (or will last) very long in my collection, has been played to death, and has seen the light of day again, or will beg for more playing time. In short, these are the games that I have gotten my money's worth. NBA Live 2005 is just the first of these games.