Just the monthly fees I have paid since the game started launching from play.net add up to several thousand dollars. Add to that the pay events I have attended over the years, the fees before play.net, and the money I paid when GS III playtime was charged by the hour and...wow I don't even want to add it all up.
When GS III was charged by the hour, I had a gaming budget. This money was split between GS III and a game called Island of Kesmai (IoK) on Compuserve. IoK had ASCII graphics (a big deal for Internet gaming at the time), but eventually the richness of GS III won out for me.