Why So Cheap?

written on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009

Sorry for the late post. I started writing this article as a history of every buying decision I can remember making game-wise. It was long and rambly and inaccurate and not worth reading.

What I wanted to do was give a background on why I'm so cheap about games as a foundation for tomorrow's article about how I decided to spend some money in a free MMO. But it was too much. Maybe I'll clean it up or reorganize it and publish it later. There was some stuff in there that's worth sharing.

But for now, I'll give you the executive summary.

Most of my life I couldn't afford games. I rented and beat as much as I could. And when I could finally afford them (after I paid off my college debt), there were so many to catch up on that none of what I wanted to play was full price. And eventually that just became my standard.

Why would I pay full price when there is a constant supply of games (be they used, collected, or clearanced) for less?

I guess peer pressure is what makes most people stay current. But I stay current enough with PC games (which sometimes hit clearance prices inside of three months) that I don't really feel the need to do more. Plus I don't want to get a 360 then play it on my old SDTV, so every time I get tempted I remember that and stay away.


Okay. I'm not happy with this article either, but I'm forty minutes late. Tomorrow we'll talk about how World of Warcraft was the extent to which I succumbed to peer pressure and how it screwed me up to the point that I paid $20 for extra bag space in Perfect World. :P