This post was inspired by Aywren’s look at her progress through the Steam Personal Challenge, which was going around the blogosphere around this time last year. I jumped on board with a post about the Steam Calculator, in which I took a look at various stats based on my Steam account. From that post, some stats for comparison:

This account is worth $607.64. If all games were bought on sale, it would be $276.54.

* *Games owned:* 55

* *Games not played:* 5 **(9%)**

* *Hours spent:* 304.5h

Keep in mind, at the time I had just gotten my hands on a computer that was capable of playing most games on the market, and at this point I actually have a far superior gaming PC, so those numbers were all fairly low, but I’m just using the facts for a comparison with this year’s results. It seems that some upgrades have been made to the Steam database page itself, as this year there is more information, or maybe I just left bits out last year. Either way, we’ll start with the side by side comparison. Extra facts to follow.

This account is worth $2054. If all games were bought on sale, it would be $562.

* **Games owned:** 168
* **Games not played:** 34 *(20%)*
* **Hours on record:** 660.0h

As you can see, there’s been a considerable jump between both stat sheets. I’ve tripled the amount of games owned, have a higher percentage of games not played, and have added 360 hours of gameplay. However, some of this information is still skewed, and the calculator developers have said that the Steam API is funky and they can’t explain it away. For instance, all of the Total War games were free to try this past weekend, and they are showing up in my library and are counted towards in that 20% not played. Take those away and the percentage should be something more like 15%, because I very rarely get a game and don’t immediately try it out. However, there are exceptions. Sequels to games I haven’t beaten (Like F.E.A.R.’s sequels that I got in a bundle) will sit unplayed. I picked up Borderlands: The PreSequel a couple of months ago but was already mid-playthrough of another game so it’s been sitting. I do know my backlog needs work but I do slowly but surely get through them as time allows. It doesn’t help that I spend a bunch of hours on MOBAs, MMOs, and console games. Netflix and the DVR eats a bunch of time too.

Anyway, there are some other stats that I found interesting as well, that are now included (or I missed in the past) on the profile.

* **Average price of games owned:** $12.22
* **Average price per hour:** $9.86
* **Average playtime:** 4.9h

I’m not sure how they calculate this average price, because there is a huge discrepancy between the $2k price tag and the $500 sale price. Because I’m relatively cheap there are few games that I picked up for full price, meaning my total cost overall is probably somewhere between the two figures, and I’d wager it’s probably around $6-700. The average price per hour is a breakdown of what the game actually costs based on how many hours you put into it. Looking at that price per hour, it feels like I’m getting ripped off, but there’s a number of titles I have that were gifts, I picked up for free, or were parts of bundles so I got them for pennies on the dollar. The game I have with the most hours put into it was Awesomenauts at 160, and that breaks down to $.06 per hour, which is definitely cost effective. I think more games end up being more cost effective like this, because as we’ve discussed, the stats are entirely accurate or specific. The worst example is RPG Maker VX Ace, in which it shows I have about an hour put into the software, and the price is $70. However, I picked it up in a Humble Bundle for $1. So yeah, you can see where this isn’t entirely reliable but it’s still interesting to look at.

In conclusion, it seems that I’ve kept up pretty well with getting new games and actually playing them. I do know that most of those are still in need of completion though, despite being “played.” I have a good grasp on what my backlog entails and have a plan to keep playing MMOs, MOBAs, and other games that don’t necessarily have a win condition, along with playing through a single player game til completion before moving on to another. It’s been working, my last completed game being Shadow Warrior, and I’m currently working through Fallout: New Vegas.

How’s your account looking?

#steamcalculator #steampersonalchallenge #gaming #backlog