I had a conversation with a couple of my friends not too long ago about gaming and where it was in my life. I enjoy heading out to play games, be they board games on a Friday night, weekly roleplaying games, or heading out for a miniatures game with my buddies. As I'm certain nearly every aging gamer discovers, there comes a time where your limiting factor for the games you play ceases to be your financial situation and becomes your time.
I remember when I was in high school - we had nothing but time. Other than going to school and working on projects (which, frankly, never took all that long), we didn't have much on our plates. Sports would take their share of time, but most of our time was our own. We could do with it what we wanted. We could go play games whenever we wanted, and once we learned to drive, the major obstacle there was removed. I remember weekend gaming sessions that would start at noon on a Saturday and roll straight into the evening, then early hours of the morning before we all passed out exhausted.
But we did not have that much income then. Oh sure, we didn't have to worry about bills to pay or things like that, but our level of income was pretty low. I remember having to consciously consider whether I was going to buy a new bunch of cards for Magic or a roleplaying book I wanted to check out. I had all the time in the world, but not enough money to do what I wanted.
College was similar - now without a job I had even less money than high school, yet being on campus with gamers gave me that much more time to play games. We ended up doing things like pooling all our magic cards together and making "booster packs" of our collections, doing drafts, then mixing them all up and doing it again. Most of our time was spent playing roleplaying games because they were far cheaper per hour of entertainment than miniatures.
Now, though, I'm on the opposite spectrum. I have the income to purchase games I want, but I still find myself not buying everything that I want. Not because I cannot afford it (though I am a bit more careful with my spending now), but rather because I look at games and say, "Will I actually play this enough to make it worth it?"
Two games come up immediately as examples of this: Uncharted Seas and Infinity. Both of these are games that have had popularity in our group recently, but I have refused to purchase anything for either game simply because I know I have a limited amount of time to game and I will not get my money's worth from either one. The problem is, with rare exceptions, our group is very fluid in what we enjoy. Uncharted Seas was supposed to be "the" game for a while with several people trying to convince me to play it, but now, less than one month after I played my first game of it (with a free box I won at Warstore Weekend, so I don't feel bad about it), it has already been shoved aside for the next great new game: Infinity.
One of the touted benefits of Infinity is its affordability - you do not need to purchase much to have a full list ready to go with the game. But like I said, it's not the money that's the issue - it's the time. There are several games I would rather play when I go out with my friends to grab a game. Malifaux (a game I nearly passed up because I was not convinced of its longevity, actually) is my game of choice and has been for quite some time. Until I become disillusioned with the game as I was eventually with Warmachine and Hordes (and I am certain I will eventually become disillusioned with Malifaux too, be it a year from now or five), I cannot see myself trying to spend the little time I have to game on something else.
