Breja: I feel like I have to add that I just did a little rough math, and it looks like playing something for 6000 hours would take me a little over 8 years. And we're talking about playing that one game and nothing else.
Turns out I didn't quite realise what we're really taking about when writing my previous post. This isn't just "some real gamer shit". This is hardcore, weapon's grade, real gamer shit.
Well, it's a little over 8 years that I've had the game. Purchased Dec 7, 2016 (screenshot Capture). At first, I played casually, because usually I wait until a game is fully patched before purchase, but I got it and played around some. It was when the patch came out that added survival that I got this insane idea and my hardcore journey began (can't recall when that patch came out, but prior I really played casually and after it was a big part of my life).
It was Dec 2019 when I reviewed the game (screenshot Capture2) and I had over 3,000 hours then. And it wasn't long after that, in fact my memory insists it was around X-Mas that I learned something about my F4 experience for those entire 3,000 hours. I was getting serious FPS lags, like everywhere, even in "empty" places. And I always just assumed it was my laptop not being beefy enough. But around that time, I lost internet access for an entire afternoon and evening. So I had to play that day in offline mode.
What a difference. To this day, no one has been able to give me an explanation why, but that day I played and what a difference. I still had some FPS lags, but they were where you'd expect them, where lots of people got them, like in Diamond City or on top of the Corvega Plant. The next day, my internet returned... and so did the awful FPS drops.
So, from that point until just last year when I got this new laptop up and running, I played Fallout 4 exclusively in offline mode. And for whatever reason, Steam doesn't calculate those hours. So, despite playing it about the same rate all those years from 2019 to 2023 about the same as I did before, my "official" hours in game was still just 3,000. I feel almost certain that I played AT LEAST as many hours in offline mode those years as i did those first years. So a conservative estimate would be twice 3,000, or 6,000. I have, since getting this laptop running and playing again in online mode, added another, I dunno 500 or so hours. So, yeah, I really believe 6,000 is a conservative estimate, probably 7,000 is a realistic one (I don't think it's really crazy like 9 or 10 thousand though)
But what a ride. It makes the gaming experience COMPLETELY different. Example: You've got 130 hours in, you come across some legendary bad ass that is a real threat, but playing the "normal" way, you just do your best, knowing if you do die, you can just reload.
TOTALLY different when you know you must restart. You will use anything and everything in your inventory to try and stay alive. Running away becomes an actual, necessary strategy at times. When you've got a hundred or more hours into a game, trust me, the adrenaline rush is REAL. You are in a fight that you really are putting everything you've got into it. It just seems more... I dunno, real. Or something.
When I started this insane idea I didn't realize just what a project this would be. In hindsight, I really wish I would've kept track of the number of games I've died, the methods I died (some have been hilarious, although they don't seem hilarious at the time). Instead, the only notes I kept and still have were my notes regarding "records" I would break, based entirely on level attained. I used level instead of quest progression because I will often role play different characters different ways, so level is at least a reasonable tracking of how long I've had in individual games before dying.
I remember the first time I broke 20 without dying (which took a while lol) I literally celebrated with a drink or two. The first time I made it to level 50 without dying, I remember thinking... okay, I might just have this, I'm turning into a tank... WRONG. lol
According to my notes, this game I'm on now is the 7th time I've made it to level 70. Funnily enough, of the prior 6 only made to 80 twice, as my two highest levels before dying are level 88 and level 84. I remember the 88 one well, because I really, really thought "Okay, I know I've got this, I am a tank." Nope. I ran into a group of bad ass robots that killed my ass so fast I didn't react fast enough to drink some Nuka Cola Quantums, Refreshing Beverages, and every piece of health replacement foods and drink. And I'm not making that up, when you're facing restarts... I have literally taken everything in my inventory to try and stay alive. More than once.
For me, it's just a really really awesome way to play. And after I have a "big one" and die, I'll pick up another game for awhile to get it out of my system. In 2022 I remember completing a game of Two Worlds and another game of Morrowind. In 2023 I played two full games of Gothic 1 and one complete game of Gothic 2. But, I always come back to this. It's sort of like now a question of whether I'll ever actually do it before I die or not. But honestly, even if I don't, this insane ride has been the most fun I've ever had with a computer game.