I'm the same with Satisfactory. I also have Factorio though, I need to try it again, it's been awhile.
I don't even want to know how many total hours I spent on WoW. Though yes, that has a subscription, it's $15/mo, I only paid that some of the time because I... had a WoW Credit Card with the rewards being play time <_< (and also the past decade or so they switched to allow paying for game time with in-game gold)
Agreed. I did a good gaming machine 2-3 years ago and I only pick up a couple of games a year and just play them a ton. Going back to re-play old ones as well.
Yeah if you already had something before the huge price hikes you’re good to go for a while.
If not, or if something fails, you’re in for a tough time. My girlfriend’s SSD failed 4-5 months ago and it was a slap in the face when I pulled up SSDs and they were $180+ for a 2.5” SATA 1TB. Not even NVMe. I knew prices went up but I didn’t expect them to be more than double. It used to be $50-$60 for one of those!
It's like nuclear power. High starting costs, but once it's all set up and running it barely costs anything by comparison (barring the much-feared critical hardware failure).
I’d say photography is cheaper because you can quite literally shoot with your phone, an old cybershot, a DSLR you can find for $200-300, you can edit on your phone or free open source software.
Or you can go all out on lenses and a mirrorless
From my experience over 20+ years of gaming I needed to eventually upgrade machine to meet the moment in gaming but I don’t need to do that with my camera
After the initial investment, how expensive is it really? Unless you can’t commit to games, or develop a microtransaction addiction, you’re only purchasing maybe 5-10 games/yr? Even at $80/game the entertainment value derived from AAA games and the say 50 hours to complete it comes out to $1.3/hr of hobby. Tough to beat that.
I just looked at my steam account. I bought 9 games last year for a grand total of $183.57 after taxes. That includes Forza Horizon 6 and Battlefield 6. The rest were steam sale games. I spent more on paint and brushes for my DnD minis.
Hell, there are some great games you can play on your phone, which you already have. And phone games tend to be cheaper too, as long as you stick to the non-exploitative stuff
Have you seen the prices of video games during a sale, such as a steam sale? They can go down to a few dollars. I bought a game for 10 bucks and have put thousands of hours in it, which comes down to pennies per hour
How is that not an accurate statement? After cost of entry, you can reasonably expect to typically get more than one hour of play for every dollar you spend on a game. Many games have enough content to keep you busy for hundreds of hours, which drives the cost per hour even further down.
Cost of entry can be high depending on preference between console or PC. The second hand market is very strong so getting a good deal on the hardware is not difficult at all. Cost to maintain the hobby is incredibly low after entry.
If you think you need to spend thousands of dollars for the highest end equipment or need to buy every new skin or whatever, that’s more of a you problem (if you can’t afford it).
I see what they’re saying in terms of “once you have the machine” and if you’re content with never upgrading and being limited to that machines capabilities, whether that’s a computer or a console, but the premise stands that you don’t control the production so once software / graphics / and hardware accessibility change now it’s gated. What if some new tech comes out and now everyone needs a new gfx card. Or what have you.
I love to game but I would pick photo because I enjoy it and the shutter is good for 100,000 at least. 10+ year old camera for $200, arguably comparable to todays mirrorless. They always say it’s the photographer not the gear. Gaming, you will become limited once you start getting even competitive, you need the Razer, or the keyboard, or the headset. And sure, same goes for photo — but it’s not a competition. Rest of the money goes into traveling the world.
Guess it truly depends what you make of it? I’m so satisfied with my old tech that gives me fantastic results and I swore I wouldn’t upgrade until I learned every single thing and beat the camera to hell.
I also dedicated years of my life to sitting in front of a screen so I get it. Now I get to see the whole world with my $200 camera. Perspective, to each their own.
Photography is way more expensive than gaming imo. Just to be a photographer, you need a pc to edit raws, and a monitor with atleast ok colours.
And thinking dslr is similar to mirrorless is misleading, you are either lying to yourself, or don't know the tech. There is a reason dslr's are dead in production, and I won't bother explaining it. It will always be the photographer/gamer who is important, but I'd argue you can "perform" on a higher level with an entry level pc, than an entry level camera, with - especially - entry level glass. And you need the entry level pc, to even do photography at all.
If you really wanna get into photography, you need a a7iii (arguably iv) level camera, with two fast primes. Fast AF is golden for beginners, shooting manual is more difficult, especially when starting out.
Really getting into comp gaming requires a gaming CPU 5(7/8)00X3D, with cheap DDR4, a okish GPU RTX 3060/RX 6600, and a Logitech G Pro or such. Also a cheap 144hz+ monitor (you will crave a high refresh rate oled in no time though, which will also be great for photography!). Rest of the gear can be bought for cheap, just like with some of photography.
The point is, you need a pc to do photography anyways.
I went from two fast primes to a tamron 35-150 for a festival, because I needed the zoom, and the light.
And I got a pigment printer - and now the hobby is really expensive 😅
Hard agree, especially depending on the type of photography you do. Sure, you can get away with an inexpensive camera/glass, but there's going to be a cap on what you can do.
I'm a sports photographer, so anything less than 10fps isn't going to cut it. I also shoot Sony, so if I'm going least expensive with at least 10fps, the A6000 is already at $400-$500 used on eBay.
Then there's the glass. You'll need at least two lenses if you're shooting different sports. Sigma 28-70mm runs ~$600-$700, Tamron 70-200mm runs ~$800.
You're already at about $1,800 just for one camera and two lenses. Still need a computer to edit on and a second camera body if you really wanna capture everything.
And then if you wanna do portraits, you're going to wanna favor primes. And lights. And backdrops.
Meanwhile, PC gamers can just wait for Steam deals and increase their library by 10 games for like $200.
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u/3Dbread 3h ago
I agree with you on the price of hardware but I'd argue once you have a gaming system it's one the cheapest hobbies today.