Working in this industry, you tend to put a lot of your time into playing games. Really, every waking moment becomes playing games so that I can think up wonderful new topics like this one, or guide a game to death. It takes up a lot of my time. And I would love to say that this is why I’ve played these games so much, but it simply isn’t.
I’ve been gaming long before I got into this job, and I’ve barely even worked on any of the games I’ve listed here. No, these were all played for the love of the game. Mostly, anyway. I wouldn’t have put all these hours in if I didn’t actually like them in some way or another. But were they really worth all this time?
I am well aware the numbers on display here will be rookie numbers to some people, but I attempt to establish a healthy work-life balance, and also have bad memory and may have missed some games.
I’ve always been a bit of a strategy gaming head in general, but grand strategy was something brand-new. It was a gateway into a crippling gaming addiction. Everyone always says it about their favourite games, but I really struggled to put down Crusader Kings 3. Anytime I decided a run was over, I’d just come back for another, this time understanding another game mechanic a bit better.
Does that make all the time I invested in it worth it? I originally played it on Game Pass before finally picking it up on Steam. I played it on a broken CPU that would just crash the game past a certain year. I played it on an old gaming laptop that was screaming in pain with a damaged screen. So maybe it wasn’t worth it for the health of my hardware, but I sure had fun.
Fextralife Wiki
Contrary to the opinion of just about everyone else in the world, Final Fantasy 15 is one of my favourite games ever. Not my favourite Final Fantasy though, if that makes sense. I just love this group of characters so much that, even in the middle of a very broken game and inconsistent story, I just had to spend time with them.
I’ve finished, maybe, three playthroughs of the game? When I played it initially, when all the DLC released, and then again with the Royal edition. Always as thorough as possible. I wasn’t there for the story, but these funky guys. A real group of friends. It keeps calling me back, and it’s the kind of game I could happily take a break in the middle of a playthrough of. So yeah, it was worth it.
Fextralife
So here’s the funny thing about Elden Ring. Even with that combined total playtime, that is all one single playthrough. It’s actually pretty rare I come back to a long game for a second playthrough, and that’s the same here. I’ve never even been tempted to make another character. One-and-done. But Shadow of the Erdtree was very big.
But man, what a game. It is so gorgeous, it has great enemies, I loved diving into the lore and making theories. I actually did get to work on this one, so that maybe inflated my playtime a bit. Eventually, I’m sure I’ll find the time to come back to this gorgeous game. But should it be a fresh file, or a New Game Plus one?
I adore the Xenoblade Chronicles series. I got into it back on the News 3DS of all places, and it’s had me hooked every since. In fact, I played the original Xenoblade and its definitive edition before I ever touched Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And like Elden Ring, it’s all one long playthrough, and I was not quite so thorough as I would typically be.
Torna was an incredible expansion, and I truly do adore the base game of Xenoblade 2, even amidst its many issues. Do I think my time with it was worth it? Definitely? Do I also think everything I did in that game was worth the game? Yeah, that would be a very strong no. Please, you will never see me doing Ursula’s quest again.
I got into Dark Souls a bit later than everyone else, and actually started the series with Dark Souls 3, working my way back to the original Dark Souls after the remaster was released. That does mean I managed to avoid the plague of bugs and performance issues, which I have been well-informed plays into a metacontextual joy of Blighttown.
My very first playthrough was with pyromancies and a giant club. I was basically unstoppable. The supposed difficulty that everyone went on about just didn’t seem to exist. My partner was very quick to inform me that I had chosen a broken build, just to ensure my ego didn’t get too big. And then I just kept coming back for more. And every second was worth it indeed.
In my own mind, Civilization 6 is the game that I’ve played longest, but other playtime stats I have tell me that it isn’t. So I guess it’s just the one I played the most in singular sessions, becauseit felt like days passedwhen I was playing it. Just one more turn.
I got every expansion, every leader. I kept coming back to achieve different types of victories. Warmongering and a tourist haven in equal measure. I loved it all. I very much think it was worth the time investment. My partner looking for help during dinner probably doesn’t agree though.
I loved Pokemon as a child. I like to imagine most people did. I got into the games through a cousin, I grew up playing these games. I still have my very first Infernape from back in Pokemon Diamond. I’ll always love and cherish you, FLAME. I didn’t know how to do lowercase as a child. And then came Pokemon Black.
Even with the issues that have cropped up in every game since, I will always say my time in Pokemon was worth it, but Black really stood out to me. I really distinctly going to Village Bridge at night and talking to all the musicians to trigger extra sounds in the music, and then popping in headphones to fall asleep. That probably bloated my playtime a bit.
I also no longer have my original copy of Black because I sold it before it skyrocketed in value. As a child, I didn’t quite understand the appreciation of value and economics.
I feel like just about everyone will at some point in their lives recall their memories of playing Skyrim. It’s a very easy game to get into. I had a module in college that had us make a mod for the game as part of an assignment. It was just that widely known and assumed that everyone had it. And so yes, I played quite a bit of Skyrim.
I actually bought the game on PC for that assignment, as all of my time beforehand had been on Xbox. I made a character for just about every race. I added characters I made fanfiction of. I played hundreds of hours. I’m taking guesses here since I can’t access my Xbox anymore. My playtime in all honestly is likely much longer.
Skyrim is also the game that got me into writing fiction, which in turn eventually brought me here. So always follow your dreams, I guess.
I was enamoured with Monster Hunter Rise. I had always loved Monster Hunter, but never really got into it. I had played some of Monster Hunter World’s beta tests, but never got the full game. So I took my chance with Rise to finally get in at the beginning after all the love for World. And yes, I thoroughly think it was worth it.
Full disclosure, some of my playtime is also from my partner so they could access online, but the vast majority is me. I actually played the game quite sporadically until Sunbreak came around, at which point it became a daily ritual. There had to be at least a single hunt a day. I needed it. And hey,then I got Monster Hunter Wilds, so I’m fully on the train now.
Sometimes, you play a game so much that it fades into the background. You don’t even think about it. You pick it up every now and then for a quick play, and then drop it again without a second thought. Those hours build up though, and Smash is a great showcase of it. Those numbers make it sound like I couldn’t put it down.
It’s funny though. For the most part, it really was quite casual how much I played it. That is years of time built up. Until I saw the number, I never would have thought Smash was one of the games I have played the most in my entire life. And there it is, at almost 700 hours. Was it worth it? I guess for it to have become such a natural part of my life, it must have been. Even if I don’t really remember it that well.
