I'd like to open up a topic about something that's been on my mind for quite some time now. Ever since I was young, I loved PC and video games. I grew up with every console to come out since the original NES, and I've almost always played PC games. It's a passion that's very close to my heart. For me it's about the escapism, the sense of fun and excitement, that can break up the monotony of one's daily routine. However, I seriously wonder how much longer I'll be able to stay in the PC gaming scene (for various reasons, I've pretty much left consoles, but that's another story.)
As I mentioned, I've been pretty involved in the hobby, reading the magazines, following websites, developers, and I've loved listening to game podcasts. There's just one problem, it seems to me that PC and/or videogaming, can become quite costly. I now there are a lot of ways you can game on a budget. But still, I think it's far more pricey proportionally, to many other pastimes. This economy has taken quite a toll, and I've had to do a lot of personal soul searching, about what I want in life, and how much I should try to fight against the financial reality that most of the country is facing right now.
It dawned on me that there are tons of ways to play games on the cheap. The hardest thing might be to realize that I won't necessarily get to play the latest hardcore games anymore, or keep up with the breakneck pace of technology and its often prohibitive costs. How many cores per PC are we up to now?
I'd love to hear from anyone who has had similar thoughts about how to adjust their involvement with this hobby, how they might adapt to keep gaming within their budget. Here are some ideas:
Those are just a few possibilities. I think it would be a great idea to start a PC Gamer's Survival Guide, where we can figure out how to keep going when one's spending money isn't as abundant as it used to be.
Stop eating, sell your car, sell your organs, etc.
Seriously though, it can be hard. Aside from doing something that is "illegal"....... downloading the games for free from torrent sites..... there are very few options.
What I used to do in the past is have a bunch of friends who share the same hobby. One of us would buy a game, someone else would buy a different game, then when we each got tired of playing that game we would swap.
Also my greatest factor for buying games is re-playability value. I always search the reviews of games/game forums and look for words like "replayability", "sandbox", and "modding". If the game has those three attributes, I get it (often times even if the reviews are negative) because I know I will probably save alot of money on not having to buy a new game in the future. For example Civ 4, which was released in 2005, and I bought originally for $50 (I think) plus the Beyond the Sword Expansion for $30..... so total $80. I played the Dune mod few days ago, and am starting to, 5 years later, finally get bored of the game. So $80 = 5 years of entertainment.....
I did the free to play games, but eventually I just got tired of not being able to get the really cool stuff without forking over lots of money.
Steam sometimes has free weekends, where you can play a game for free on the weekend.
Yeah, I know that there's are a lot of other things I could do to pass the time, many other good books to read, or contemplating my navel.
But the fact of the matter is that for what I 'need' to play games like Elemental provide. Mental areobics, a waste of time, or being lazy--you decide
I know, it's only rock and roll, but I like it
I've gone through this thought process a few times, but I admit that I've not been very consistent in following through whenever I did make a decision. Often, just when I have decided to not buy any newly released games and wait until they hit the discount bin, an exciting title comes out that I just have to play. Even when I plan on buying only major titles in the genre, some never heard of game pops up that sounds so good that I simply must have it.
But sometimes I do succeed, and that's when I try out open source software and look for discount offers in my local store or at GamersGate. I'm no longer so much in love with the latest graphics, so that helps (I still bought a new video card for 250 Euro last year). There are plenty of gems to be had, and when a game has been out for a while, it usually has been patched and there are plenty of reviews. The downside is that the communities aren't always active anymore, which makes the whole experience a little less exciting. Being part of a new, evolving community is fun.
I've also had a phase where I bought mostly handheld games for the DS and the PSP, in an attempt to get more bug-free games and to get away from having to upgrade my computer every so often just to be able to play games without stuttering or other performance issues. This worked quite well for a while, but I started to miss more complex strategy games that aren't so common on handhelds, although they have a neat selection of turn-based strategy titles.
I've also gotten into Go, the Asian board game, figuring that it's a timeless strategy game, and that all I learn about it is "forever". I still play Go, and I believe it truly is the most fascinating strategy game, but it's abstract and like you I grew up with video games (got my first computer in the early 80s, and had an Atari 2600 before that), so the "need" for video gaming surfaces frequently. Go also didn't save me any money! I gathered a nice collection of books and imported semi-precious Go stones form China. Oh yeah, and a 12kg heavy Go board also. I could have bought quite a few games just for that! (Thankfully I resisted the temptation to buy Japanese shell and slate stones.)
I guess none of this is very helpful! The best approach is probably to just pick up older games when they are discounted. A year or two, and there are also games that age really well and that can be played for years. Dominions 3 is a good example, but also Age of Wonders 2 or the Civ series. Anything that's designed in an open way, allows modifications and supports randomization.
Wait 2 years before buying games, be selective about the ones you buy, and focus on those with editors/mod tools with decent user reviews and you can get plenty of good strategy games without needing to fork out much money. Since you're two years behind you can get a fairly cheap computer which will play all the games very well as well. You don't need that expensive a computer to play the latest games either, providing you're ok with not running them at maxed settings with perfect framerates.
Also whatever you do, don't pre-order, as a game which sounds ideal may turn out to be far below what was promised (e.g. reading the fiasco re elemental makes me relieved I decided to wait for the reviews before considering an exception to my 'wait ~1 year for the 50%+ sales' rule).
There are also a growing number of older games being released for free - Mechwarriors 4, C&C 2 Tib. Sun (and the earlier C&C games), and Arena (TES) spring to mind, for example.
I agree with some of the others who have posted here. Wait 1-2 to purchase your games. You get better games (i.e. patched), cheaper price, and the hardware needed to run the game is less expensive. Also, on the hardware side things have improved greatly. I'm using a 4-5 yr old PC and have yet to find a game I can't play. The trick is to buy a new "gaming" PC 6-12 months after the latest consoles are released. This ensures your PC is slightly more powerful and most games have cross-platform development.
On the subject of "free to play", you are correct there is great value in these games but discipline is required. They do a good job of extracting cash. I'm up to $80 on LOL. On the bright side, though, you are only paying for games you truly enjoy.
The digital distrubution market is very competitive. There are always sales going on. Hell, look at Direct2Drive. Every single day until Sept 30 they put 2 different games on huge sale, and every week until then they also have a selection of games for $6 (this week, King's Bounty: Armored Princess down to $6 from $35).
Weekend sales are very common on Impulse, Steam, D2D, Gamersgate. Even the proprietary stores like EA's online store, have deals. Over labor day, everything on EA's digital download store was 40% off, so you could pick up Battlefield Bad Company 2 for $18.
Other than shopping for good deals, look for games that keep you busy longest. My two biggest time drainers currently (well, as much time as I have after work ) are Starcraft 2 and EVE Online. EVE, despite being an MMO, actually allows you to pay the monthly subscription with ingame money, and even though you can't make enough for that at the start, after 3-4 months you should be able to start being able to pay for your subscription just by playing. Some F2P games aren't terrible, either. Dungeons & Dragons Online is pretty good. Even though not all of the content is available for "free", you do earn store points by playing and you can wait for store sales on the content packs so you can pick them up. They're not very expensive, and definitely provide good value. Turbine's other MMO, Lord of the Rings Online, is also going F2P with a similar model.
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