Banks are failing. Homes are being repossessed. Prices are rising, inflation is growing, the economy is shrinking and the end result is a lot of people are losing their jobs and lifestyles. Life is miserable… but not when I’m in good old Liberty City… well it’s not miserable for me, but it is miserable for the citizens of Liberty City as I breathe a fiery napalm death upon them.
Video games are an escape from reality for some; but why you ask? I’ll tell you why, it’s because reality blows. Read that first line again, same as the headlines on Google News.
Do you know why we know so much about elephants? It is because somebody has to do this as their day job.
I hope it’s not because they like their job or elephants. So you now understand why someone may act passive-aggressive or why they may like fragging their teammates in COD4. It’s because they are reduced to crawling up animal rectal cavities to put food on their table, which is just plain miserable for lack of a better term. If you disagree with that statement, please seek professional help.
For many other people, video games are reality, for the same reasons. Too much crap exists in the world for them to deal with, so they would rather play Mercenaries or Halo 3 all day…. while they don’t go to work, lose their job, default on their car payment, mortgage, and the end result is they get evicted.
Some notes for you son, you can’t play your PS3 when the power company cuts you off, your TV gets repossessed, and the bank takes your house. They aren’t many HDMI inputs on the street, son.
So I’ve come up with a quick list of (legit) tips for the frugal gamer (aka cheap-ass-mother-fucker) to survive this hopefully temporary economic setback. I call these the Recession Tests:
- Download demos and lots of them. Every week for each system, new demos are made available to play and for free. Each of these demos can be a solid hour of game time and you can sort out if you want to drop the hard earned cash on the game or stuff the money back under your mattress or pay your bills.
- Read reviews and lots of them. Like the ones on this site that give you an honest opinion of the game (and only this site you don’t need bother with the others). Find out what interests you, is good, and worth playing. Identify game mechanics you like and expect from a title and look for those mechanics mentioned in reviews.
- Rent games, don’t buy. Do you have a library of hundreds of games? How many of them have serious collection of dust on them? How many titles have you played after owning the game for more than 2 months? Save your money.
- Buy games that have serious replay value for you. Multi-player is normally a big factor for me.
- Region Free - God bless the weak dollar. I live in the UK and earn GBP. So I bought my DS and my DS games in the US. Let me explain this in numbers for you. DS in USD = 130. DS in GBP = 125. GBP 1 = USD 1.8 so that really means DS in GBP = USD 225. So a DS game in the UK runs GBP 22 (aka USD 39) and the same game in the US is USD 22.. why pay more? (shipping can be a pain… as can customs, check for your local rules & regs).
- Swap games with friends. Want two games? Find a friend, have the friend buy one game, you buy another game. Play for a week or two and trade. Caveat Emporium: Find friends who aren’t scumbags and won’t try to steal your stuff. Sharpies are key here, mark your territory. (Caveat Emporium: Urinating or defecating on your games, systems, and/or friends is not a suggestion and will most likely void the warranty/friendship. Please urinate in designated areas only, like toilet bowls and urinals.)
- BARGAIN BINS! Come on now, you don’t need the latest and greatest game on the market to make you happy? Do you really need the best graphics available? Lets be honest, it probably has a ton of bugs in it, might as well wait until the patches come out. Buy used games and stuff off the bargain rack, you can find some real quality titles that may be 6 months old. So you aren’t the cool kid on the block with the latest and greatest, get over it, homeless people aren’t cool.
- XBLA Arcade or PSN Store or Wiiware provide plenty of decent, fun, cheap, and entertaining games. You can download two or three of these games at the price of one new major title. Lots of major studios and publishers directing lots of resources this way and some more interesting game designs and mechanics are appearing in the this market. Indie titles can be some real gems here. Find an up and coming developer or publisher online and try out their wares.
- Mobile Gaming - DS and PSP games are typically half the price of their respective console counterparts at time of release. I got Civilization Revolution for my DS instead of 360 because I can play it on the go. Same gameplay, slight sacrifice in the graphics department, but still a blast. Also, think of how much cheaper mobile games are once they hit the bargain bin! Cell phone games can also be quality entertainment for just a couple bucks.
Remember, we lay out hundreds of our hard earned currencies (thousands in yen) to buy these systems, controllers, peripherals, and then games. This industry won’t die because you don’t buy the latest game at full retail price, EA, Take2, and their employees are still making big bucks.
By the way, another great use of the Recession Test is when your lady says, “Lets go out to dinner!” Recession test baby, why don’t you cook instead? LittleBigPlanet is out soon.
Alright cheapskates. I’m hoping this keeps a couple of you off the streets because you can’t surf this site if you don’t pay your Internet bill. If you have any thoughts for how to save money and still keep gaming let us know in the comments section.
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11 Comments
Write a Comment»Great points, Keith! People are going to have to watch spending now a little more carefully and doing these things will definitely help to keep up the gaming.
Great article.
You see Loot NInja is doing a public service by playing games for you and telling you what not to waste money on. =)
I pimp Gamefly something fierce because games are getting pricey.
Thanks Gents
Hear you on that Al. I’m checking to see if there is a similar service in the UK. If not, Blockbuster is down the road.
One of the best and useful articles. Nice shot, to the point, LOL
Hmm interesting and pointless. Not once does it mention the most viable option…piracy. Yes, thievery. Do it
Quote: “Prices are rising, inflation is growing”
Not to get technical or anything…. but technically prices are decreasing and we are starting to experience Deflation. Take gas…the price has dropped significantly over the past month or 2. The national average for Regular is about $2.92, a month ago it was $3.77. It is almost down to the price of a year ago of $2.82. Also, the price of housing has gone down significantly.
Now, it might seem good that the price of gas is coming down, but Deflation in general is what caused the Great Depression. That of course was the worst time economically in the United States, which also had a great effect on the rest of the world.
Now does this mean prices of video games will come down? No, not initially. but if sales start to decrease, game prices drop quicker than normal. most games will still cost $60 during release and the first few months, but that price will start to drop sooner rather than later because of a decline in sales. if this trend were to keep up, video game companies would struggle due to lack of revenue. employees will get fired to reduce costs. that would lead to a decrease in quality of future games as well as customer service. leading to more reduced sales, more firings, more lost revenues, and eventually bankruptcy. this is looking at one specific industry, but this could happen to many different industries, not just gaming.
SO, all in all, times are tough, but reduced spending in general is what will hurt the economy the most. I say that you should not fear to buy the games you love. But of course don’t go wasting your money on a game that you may not like. Support the companies of the games you love by buying said games (at least until you lose your job).
or just do what i do and borrow them from your rich friends.
that was a bit of a read, sorry for that, but remember: knowledge is power (i think)
I play WoW to save money. I don’t even leave my house anymore!
WoQ suxs, that just just one chix opinion.
Does anyone know of a video gamer programmer? I have a good video game and I would like to see how much it would cost? Should I outsource to Russia or India? Programmers are cheap there?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
WoW suxs, that just just one chix opinion.
Does anyone know of a video gamer programmer? I have a good video game and I would like to see how much it would cost? Should I outsource to Russia or India? Programmers are cheap there?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Keith Carter you are a GOD!!!!
@Loots - technically you are partially correct, a decrease in prices can be defined as deflation, but in a this perspective (most people don’t read WSJ or the FT) it is not deflation because the driving points for the decrease in prices is due to consumer confidence, market volatility, and liquidity issues.
Technically deflation includes lack of demand for credit markets, which is quite the opposite of the current scenario. There is high demand for credit markets but low supply. Deflation also includes a slow down in consumption due to consumers knowing prices will become lower, which is not exactly the case. Prices are being lowered because of a lack of consumption but not because consumers know prices will lower but because consumers do not have the purchasing power, there is low cash assets and low lending volumes in the US.
Liquidity and fear are the primary drivers for the markets today.
Your point is taken and “Inflation” is not the best term for it but I don’t think “Deflation” would be accurate either. In the market we are examining (Video Game Industry) I would say there is an inflationary effect as more people are expected to turn to gaming/entertainment during economic downturns. Analyst expectations show growth for 2008 in this industry in which constant prices stand with no correlation to economic conditions. The only price cuts we have seen have been driven from competition and attempts at market share, not from demand decrease or supply increase. If you consider recent times the supply of hardware has lagged the demand (Wii & PS3), which does lead to technical inflation. We are seeing it now in the grey markets with copies of LBP going up on Ebay for higher than retail value.
Also realize titles like Fable 2, Fallout 3, LBP are expected to drive sales higher in Oct thru the holiday season. Doubtful to see price cuts on any of these in the first 6 months unless a major issue occurs.
Good points on buying games on companies you like. Liquidity is short these days, help these guys stay afloat!