INFLATION: How does it Impact your Gaming Habits?

[Creamhoven]

Hello dear penny pinchers,

 

I have been observing the price of foie gras and am shocked where it is at these days.

 

Look closely at this graph:

This is not good... This not good at all!

 

Honey, milk, bread, grapes, wine... It's over.

 

Since I have embarrassed myself at an eastern european buffet, I have lost alot of good will and decided to change my ways, and have begun a diet.

 

This saves me money, but with rising inflation, I want to ask you for your advise. How do you save money on gaming?

 

(Please no conspiRatoral thinking and polutical speaking, thanks!)

 

Take good care of yourselves.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Creamhoven

[TheGameCollector]

If you are into new releases, the healthiest way to do it is just wait for games to go on sale and buy those ones. Also only buy as many as you have time to play through. If you already have unfinished games, try to get through as many of those as you can between the new ones you are very excited about. Work more and play less for a while if possible and you'll have more money to spend on games when work life slows back down.

 

You could also get into PC gaming on Steam and go for the ones that are on sale for a very low price. This would give you new experiences for the least money. You can also try exploring more indie titles which often cost less than big budget titles.

 

You can also choose to not stop playing a game after you finish it. You could run through it multiple times and try to become a pro at the game. That allows you to memorize the game and eventually become capable of speedrunning it. My childhood was like this, which is why I am so good at many NES, Game Boy, Genesis and SNES classics.

 

Also don't forget about fan made games. For PC, there are many Sonic games made by fans that are totally free to download for example and you could spend a lot of time playing those. There are also fan made games of many other franchises and a lot of free games out there developed by people who just had the spare time and knowledge to do it.

[Creamhoven]

39 minutes ago, TheGameCollector said:

If you are into new releases, the healthiest way to do it is just wait for games to go on sale and buy those ones. Also only buy as many as you have time to play through. If you already have unfinished games, try to get through as many of those as you can between the new ones you are very excited about. Work more and play less for a while if possible and you'll have more money to spend on games when work life slows back down.

That sounds like a good idea. I've heard alot of games get better with time because they get patched.

39 minutes ago, TheGameCollector said:

You could also get into PC gaming on Steam and go for the ones that are on sale for a very low price. This would give you new experiences for the least money. You can also try exploring more indie titles which often cost less than big budget titles.

Okay, I have to check out steam, their sales and indie titles.

39 minutes ago, TheGameCollector said:

You can also choose to not stop playing a game after you finish it. You could run through it multiple times and try to become a pro at the game. That allows you to memorize the game and eventually become capable of speedrunning it. My childhood was like this, which is why I am so good at many NES, Game Boy, Genesis and SNES classics.

Are you a speedrunner? Maybe I should give it a try, I could make a twitch channel and all my atariage friends could join me.

39 minutes ago, TheGameCollector said:

Also don't forget about fan made games. For PC, there are many Sonic games made by fans that are totally free to download for example and you could spend a lot of time playing those. There are also fan made games of many other franchises and a lot of free games out there developed by people who just had the spare time and knowledge to do it.

I love this idea. They have to be very passionate to make games like this for free.

[Tanooki]

I've slowed a lot of my Switch buying, largely cutting out the FOMO bs I fell into at times with the slimy LRG itself or its model, same with importing games made physical over there too.  I try and look at it with a capable PC do I want a walled garden with a short expiration date on Switch (and if I had it a PS console too) or do I use GoG/Steam and look at those yummy seasonal/quarterly sales where most of it is 50-80% off even the new drops tend to get 15-20% on those as well and those games work over multiple hardware/os generations too.  With a lot of games now trying to screw you for full price on a not always full game to pay more and more for the other bits I've largely backed off the crap that means AAA gaming now from what AAA gaming was 10-20+ years ago.  What used to mean a quality 9/10 type rated game, largely universally loved, just overall well done most would like the game/genre or not admit it's highest quality isn't what AAA means now.  Now it's solely based upon how much money was thrown at it to make it, how much money was thrown at it to market it, and how much money it pulled in after all that cash because even unmitigated pieces of mediocrity to downright turds have been so called AAA releases.   The industry went mega money and mega hollywood on many things to its detriment.

 

So I find the inflation helps more than justify buying smaller studio products, even one to two man projects, B-tier stuff with low budgets/advertising, and only saving the so called AAA stuff for the old school style of AAA like the new Zelda Kirby and Metroid stuff from this year so far.  I'd rather space out widely my new title purchases to save a buck, and double down on discovering something old I once had, or missed out all along and have fun with that because most of it is far far cheaper than the modern stuff, even with deep cut sales too at times.

[Creamhoven]

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I've slowed a lot of my Switch buying, largely cutting out the FOMO

Fear of missing out

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

bs I fell into at times with the slimy LRG

Limted run games

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

itself or its model, same with importing games made physical over there too.  I try and look at it with a capable PC do I want a walled garden with a short expiration date on Switch (and if I had it a PS console too) or do I use GoG/Steam and look at those yummy seasonal/quarterly sales where most of it is 50-80% off

80%... Thats is quite a bit.

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

even the new drops tend to get 15-20% on those as well and those games work over multiple hardware/os generations too.  With a lot of games now trying to screw you for full price on a not always full game to pay more and more for the other bits I've largely backed off the crap that means AAA gaming now from what AAA gaming was 10-20+ years ago. 

Yeah, maybe I'll skip om AAA altogehter.

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

What used to mean a quality 9/10 type rated game, largely universally loved, just overall well done most would like the game/genre or not admit it's highest quality isn't what AAA means now.  Now it's solely based upon how much money was thrown at it to make it, how much money was thrown at it to market it, and how much money it pulled in after all that cash because even unmitigated pieces of mediocrity to downright turds have been so called AAA releases. 

 

Very true.

 

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

 The industry went mega money and mega hollywood on many things to its detriment.

This, so much this. I'd rather read a book or watch a classic movie.

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

So I find the inflation helps more than justify buying smaller studio products, even one to two man projects, B-tier stuff with low budgets/advertising, and only saving the so called AAA stuff for the old school style of AAA like the new Zelda Kirby and Metroid stuff from this year so far.

Yes. I apprechiate small teams making games with a heart.

13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

  I'd rather space out widely my new title purchases to save a buck, and double down on discovering something old I once had, or missed out all along and have fun with that because most of it is far far cheaper than the modern stuff, even with deep cut sales too at times.

Okay, this is good advise.

[Tanooki]

You think 80% is a lot, look at the current sales on quality titles on GoG (up to 90%) as it's higher.

https://www.gog.com/en

[zzip]

I'm spending a lot less on games mostly because this generation has been rather lackluster so far.   Inflation hasn't been an issue there.

[+Gemintronic]

AAA games coming out half baked by default has been the deal breaker.

 

What keeps me buying are smaller indie games like Vampire Survivor and pre-packaged DOSBOX games on GoG.

[Creamhoven]

14 hours ago, Tanooki said:

You think 80% is a lot, look at the current sales on quality titles on GoG (up to 90%) as it's higher.

https://www.gog.com/en

90%? This is madness that means a 60$ title would cost 6$???

 

2 hours ago, zzip said:

I'm spending a lot less on games mostly because this generation has been rather lackluster so far.   Inflation hasn't been an issue there.

That is both good and bad to hear.

2 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

AAA games coming out half baked by default has been the deal breaker.

Yeah it's comes off as quite lazy...

2 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

What keeps me buying are smaller indie games like Vampire Survivor and pre-packaged DOSBOX games on GoG.

I'm going to look at those.

[jhd]

 

I have not purchased any "new" games since retail support for the PlayStation 2 ceased.

 

It has even been several years since I purchased anything used at either a second-hand shop or a garage sale.

 

So, I would have to say that inflation has had no impact on my game purchases. 

 

 

[Creamhoven]

8 hours ago, jhd said:

 

I have not purchased any "new" games since retail support for the PlayStation 2 ceased.

 

It has even been several years since I purchased anything used at either a second-hand shop or a garage sale.

 

So, I would have to say that inflation has had no impact on my game purchases. 

 

 

How do you do it? D:

[Tanooki]

When you have enough stuff at home and other things to do, that stuff can last years, decades even.  I could just middle finger the entire mess right now, and pretending I never got a single everdrive (yet still having my few multicarts) on top of the hundreds of titles I have (a number unfinished or not finished in decades) and I'd be perfectly fine not feeding into the industries dickery just fine, which would mean no inflation impact.

[Creamhoven]

On 5/31/2023 at 11:11 PM, Tanooki said:

When you have enough stuff at home and other things to do, that stuff can last years, decades even.  I could just middle finger the entire mess right now, and pretending I never got a single everdrive (yet still having my few multicarts) on top of the hundreds of titles I have (a number unfinished or not finished in decades) and I'd be perfectly fine not feeding into the industries dickery just fine, which would mean no inflation impact.

Okay. Maybe we had so much great stuff, that a decline was unavoidable. These nuckleheads these days with their greasy merchant fingers never felt any serious push back in their whole lifes.