How much is too much?

The past two years ('05 & '06), I've kept a game log of what I've played. Not as detailed as some, mind you, but I will track a game and however many plays I have of a given game. For example, as of today, I've played eight games of Ingenious this year but only one of Balloon Cup. Moreover, it also tells me that I've played a grand total of (as of right now) 75 games so far in '06.

What does that mean? Well, it means I've averaged about one play every 2.5 days. But again, what does that mean? At some point, statistics break down. Is a play of San Juan, for example, the same as a play of Power Grid? Or, is a game of Blink the same as a game of San Juan? I could easily inflate my game play numbers by breaking out Blink and playing about ten hands of that with my wife in one sitting.

I know that many gamers tend to look at Five & Dime lists and say, "Hmmmm, people are playing Game X a lot." And that is valuable to a point. But as we reach the half way point of 2006, we will see a lot of Five & Dime lists for that period, sometimes numbers don't tell the whole story.

Just a thought, but as the old saying goes, there are liars, damn liars, and statisticians!