Changing the Game

So, here I am, unemployed. It's a state I've actually been in for over a year now, having been asked to leave my last place of employment in October of 2008. In that time, naturally, financial challenges have arisen and forced me to rethink my spending in a lot of areas.

One of those areas happens to be how and when I buy video games.

When I was employed (and working, incidentally, for a store that actually sold games), I purchased a lot of video games. If a new title was coming out that I was interested in, I usually had it reserved and I'd buy it day one. If there was a special edition available that was always the version I went for, and there were big weeks (particularly around the holidays) where I'd be buying more than one game within a matter of days. Of course, it was more than just new games. If someone traded in an older title that I was interested in, I'd generally pick that up as well. I usually had a list of games in my head that I was looking for, and if one came in to any area store it would be coming home with me.

This led to a pretty expansive collection of titles on my shelf, to be sure, but it also presented me with more games than I could possibly play. Titles sat, still shrinkwrapped, on my shelf for months at a time. Hot games that I "had to have" would be tried for a few minutes, just to say that I played it, and then ignored while I attempted to sift through the dizzying backlog I had created. Games would be started and never finished, money that (in perfect 20/20 hindsight) probably should have been squirreled away was spent, and even now I'm still dealing with an over-abundance of games. Hell, I'm looking at my shelf right now and LEGO Batman is staring mockingly at me. I bought it shortly after its release (something like two years ago now), and I've maybe completed two stages. Which is probably further than I've gotten in Tomb Raider: Underworld, another title I "had to have" when it hit stores.

Now, though, things have changed. I barely have enough money to cover my bills (in some cases less than enough), and I'm sitting here right now hoping that my next unemployment extension goes through without an issue. I'm not in a position to buy every cool looking game that comes out. I'm barely in a position to buy gas and food some weeks. Cue sad violins...

What this has done, though, is drastically change the way I look at releases now. A whole series of questions runs through my head when considering a game: Is it something I'm really going to play right away? Do I really need the stuff in the special edition? I actually check reviews a lot more often now, or ask friends who have purchased it. More often than not I try to borrow games from pals, and the entire process of buying a game has a whole new series of considerations.

First off is whether or not I need to get the game right away to play. Had I waited, for example, on the aforementioned LEGO Batman, I would have saved myself a ridiculous amount of money when you consider what I paid versus what it currently sells for. If I had played through it when I bought it, I generally wouldn't consider this to be an issue (if I play and enjoy a game I feel it is worth the money spent in most cases), but frankly the tiny amount of the game I've actually played doesn't justify the extra money I spent because I "had to have it" right away.

Another consideration is quality. Nobody wants to buy a bad game, but now I take reviews and word-of-mouth much more seriously than I ever did before. Especially if there's more than one option on the shelf. Also tied into this is length and replay value, in the sense of getting the most for my money. I didn't really have an issue buying Mass Effect 2, for example, because I knew that not only is it a lengthy experience but based on my time with its predecessor it's something I'll most likely play more than once.

Another good example of this new consideration is Bayonetta vs Darksiders. Both came out at roughly the same time, both are action games, and while I was more hyped up about the former I was interested in them both. I read reviews, I downloaded demos, and I weighed the options carefully. In the end, I went with Bayonetta. After some hands-on time with them both, as well as the information I had collected, I felt that it was something that I would have more fun with and probably play through more than once. Darksiders, as cool as it is, felt like a "one playthrough" sort of game, the type in which you see everything once and just don't have the need to see again. Also, I knew that a few friends had purchased Darksiders, opening up the option of lending each other the titles down the line.

There was a time when I probably would have bought both, but those days are gone.

I'm also way more prone to wait until things drop in price or go on sale. I bought Metroid Prime Trilogy at a great price by waiting and watching the ads, and the fact is I probably wouldn't have even played it back when it came out. As much as I want Halo 3: ODST, I'm waiting to get a deal on it. I managed to borrow and play through it once, and it's definitely something I want to own (given that I have all the other games in the series), but it's not something I need to spend sixty bucks on right now.

The funny thing is, I don't actually regret this change in my purchasing. I'm still working through the backlog of games I had developed over the years (it actually includes titles from the previous generation, folks), and I think that despite the reasons for it happening this experience hasn't been entirely bad. It's made me separate hype from reality, the promise of a great experience from the reality of the reviews, and in the case of more than one title released in a short time: which one do I want more? Sure, I may have bought substantially less games last year than I have in previous years, but I appreciate the ones that I have bought even more.

The change in my personal world has, in the end, made me a better consumer and a better gamer. I can actually say that I'm playing the titles that I buy, I can appreciate the tools at my disposal like reviews and demos even more, and when I can actually afford a game I definitely appreciate the game itself all the more just due to the fact that the purchase is more of a rarity than it was before.

Someday, in theory, I'll be working again. The trials and tribulations of trying to get employment is another story for another time, but even when I'm punching a clock again I have every intention of keeping this mentality at the forefront of my game purchasing. It's not about buying every game, it's about buying the right ones.