this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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Including DLC, micro transaction purchases, etc. If you got a game for free, please also list your non-infinite next best.

For me it's Team Fortress 2. $100 total spent on hats and the Orange Box back in the day, 4200 hours plus of fun, meaning 2.3¢ AUD per hour. Initially I thought DotA2 would be my best but it turns out I've spent a lot more money in that game than I thought...

My worst is God of War: Ragnarok. Bought it full price for $95 AUD, only played 2 hours and hated it, meaning $47.50 AUD per hour.

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[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 5 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 58 minutes ago) (1 children)

Least enjoyment would just have to be whatever is the most expensive game in my endlessly growing backlog. The other half of this question is more interesting, so I want to give multiple answers.

  1. I've got just under 4,200 hours in Terraria and it's still my favorite game! For the $10 it cost me, that's 420 hours per dollar. Nice.

  2. Minecraft would be a close contender. There's no way to track my hours in it, and I don't play it so much anymore, but I have to have at least somewhere close to the 4k I've got in Terraria, if not more. This game shaped my entire childhood back when the Xbox 360 edition first came out.

Those two are great, but they're also some of the best selling games of all time so I'll note some more niche ones as well.

  1. DLC and all, Melvor Idle is a game I spent $25 on (edit: though the full base game is completely free if you don't mind playing through your browser) and managed to put just under 3,000 hours in. Now admittedly this is an idle game, so a large chunk of that time was having it open in the background while I do something else. But it's surprisingly interactive and I'd like to think at least 1,000 of those hours were me either actually playing or planning.

  2. Barony is a game I've put 650 hours in since 2018, and man has it come a long way. Including DLC I spent about $30 on it for myself, though I've also bought the game or DLCs for multiple friends so its probably closer to like $60. It's a permadeath roguelike with next to zero meta progression. Check it out if you're into the genre, its currently on an all-time-low sale for $2 which is a damn steal.

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Barony is soon on my games to try list! I tried Melvor but I struggled to get into it. What do you do in the first say 60 minutes of the game to get started?

[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 2 points 1 hour ago

Melvor is largely a game about making your own goals. That said, if "do whatever the fuck you want" makes you bounce off the game, a more guided approach is to focus on combat.

That's because every skill in Melvor either makes combat easier, or otherwise supplements the skills that do make combat easier. My own ultimate goal in Melvor is usually combat progression, so in the beginning, my very first goal tends to involve preparing for combat using non-combat skills. Melee is the easiest combat type to start with, so Mining, Smithing, Fishing, and Cooking are all important skills to start working on. Mine ores, smith them into weapons and armor, and catch and cook fish to heal during combat. You don't need to worry about other skills until they either become naturally relevant (like finding seeds for the Farming skill after killing a farmer) or until you become interested in them on your own.

Permanent shop upgrades and dungeons will provide you with a generally linear progression path, giving you an immediate goal to work towards next. In the meantime it's all about improving what you need in the moment while working towards your goals. Taking too much damage? Continue mining and smithing to upgrade that iron gear to steel or mithril. Need better food? Grind fishing and cooking until you can cook something better than shrimp. Magic enemies kicking your ass? Time to start working on your ranged skill to take advantage of the combat triangle. Etc., etc.