Your Gaming Budget?

Just curious what you all allow yourselves for your gaming addiction? I usually don't worry to much about it myself. I have a job, luckly, that allows me to pursue my hobby pretty comfortably.

But, damn, this last month or two has really done a number on my wallet. Between my pc, my Xbox and GCN and my GBA, I find myself juggling 10 different games. And the buying season, for me, is not even done.

Anyone else feeling my pain?

I feel your pain.

However, I don''t know what this ""budget"" thing is of which you speak.

Ideally, each month I attempt to limit myself to $80 or less, but my willpower is pathetic. Fortunately, I don''t yet have a family or anything, and my job is reasonably well-paying, but those aren''t really good excuses.

sh*t your a bigger man than me, Farscry. My budget is to usually allow myself one game for each system. That comes out to over $200 a month. Of course I don''t end up buying that many games each month usually, but this month alone I''ve dropped about $300 on games.......I''m weak.....

I imagine when I have a real job and I''m not in college... I''ll be able to talk like this... until I get married at least...

Anyone married/with kids wanna comment?

Right now I usually get about 2 or 3 games a month, so usually $100-120 (I only buy games I REALLY want new, like I waited until I could get Tribunal and Bloodmoon for Morrowind for under 40 together!) a month... and that doesn''t even include money I spend on movies and such!

I usually limit myself to 100 bucks a month reserved for gaming. This month I exceed this by ~20 but that is an exception. Works quite well and usually gets me at least 2 new games a month.

Well I used to spend whatever the hell I wanted... but the addition of a few other expensive hobbies and I was having to balance things a bit... and then BAM kid on the way and I''m down to no more then 1 game a month... *sniff* It''s hard going almost cold turkey.

Currently I''ll buy anywhere between 0-2 console games a month and 1-2 PC games. Really it mostly depends on whats coming out..

I don''t have the time to play every game that comes out so I play alot of demos and only buy the games I am reasonably sure fit my bill and will be something I play through..

A couple games I''ll return if they suck.. I have a business account at my CompUSA and they''ll usually let me return PC games even if they''re open..

which is good since I returned ToEE, Generals, Buffy 2, and a few others I can''t even remember the last few months..

I havent bought a gamecube game since Zelda...

I do impulse buy Game Boy Advance Games the most...since I travel alot and they''re usually under $30.. so my GBA collection is pretty large.

Wow - I''m apparently a cheap, cheap gamer. I''ve only bought a few games in the past 6 months, and all of those (with the exception of ToEE) were used. Being a true Gamer With Job, I don''t have much time to play, so I''m really picky about what I buy.

I''ve been catching up with some of the older titles for the GameCube, since they''re really inexpensive now. $15 for TimeSplitters 2? $5 for Aggressive Inline? $15 for BG:DA? Sweeeeeeeet... great games all! I''m holding off on Metroid Prime until it goes down another $5 or so used...

Oh man you peeples make me sick...SICK! I have one income, a wife, two kids under 2 yo, and a new house. I have NO money to spend on games...In fact I have had to force myself to pass on Rise of Nations, Call of Duty, AND Max Payne 2 just so I could justify running our and buying Star Wars: KOTOR the day it is released for PC. Every time a game comes out I have to go through a painful analysis of whether it is worth blowing my entire gaming budget on that title.

So, do you think KOTOR will be worth it?

Yeah I used to buy games alot, then I found out about this crazy new trend called a budget. I also found out about credit card debt. Whoo!

Seriously though, the one thing that has saved me the most money on games is a GameFly or similar service subscription. Keeps me full of games to play and it''s only $20 a month. Then all I have to worry about is buying PC games, which is still pretty bad. Of course, gogamer.com 48 hour madness helps there.

I have found patience is a worthy ally. Lately, games drop in price quite quickly, so waiting even a month will help.

Then you have to look for bargains... And sometimes, preowned games.

Plus, having the rule that you won''t buy a new game until you finish the two you got last week helps. Even if you break it too often...

I basically find that I use eBay as my Gamefly. Buy a game, don''t like it? Sell it within a week or two for 90% of the cost. People pay an astonishing amount of money for things on eBay. I sometimes lose a little money but I consider it a rental on my own time. If I like the game, I keep it.

I am saving for my first home, new car for the fiance and some furniture. My gaming budge is $0/month. I just buy a game 3 to 4 times a year and that is it right now.

Umm, yeah. I, um, kinda buy a lot. And then I watch as they collect dust because I have no time to play them. Or I get hung up in one or two games and the others collect dust.

This is the most expensive time of year for sure.

We have a ""things we want"" budget of $30/month each with rollover to the following month.
It can go to anything, which in my case is usually games.

now limiting myself to 1 game a month. I used to go mental and buy everything and then my credit card company found out where I live and sent the several burly men round to threaten me.

I''ll pretty much pick up how many I want depending what''s released and reviews of ''em, it can be a mixture of both new and used. Only rule I use is I pay cash or debit NOT credit, then I don''t get into trouble.

I don''t really have a gaming budget per-se, but I do allow myself a budget of $400 per month to make what I call ''purchases''. Basically this category goes into everything that is not in my food & entertainment budget. So it could be anything from games to a TV to toothpaste. So really how many games I buy per month is just and inverse relation to how bad my breath smells that particular month. Oh and of course I have only actually stayed within my budget one month out of the 15 months or so I have been keeping it

I''m pretty ruthless when it comes to trading in games. I try to be realistic about it, I think to myself ""Am I really going to play this again now that I''ve finished it?"" The answer is almost always no so off to EB it goes. I figure if I REALLY want to play it again I can rent it or re-buy it later when it''s way cheaper. If I buy a brand new game play it for a couple weeks and then take it back to EB I can usually get $30 - $40 bucks store credit for something else. If I buy two games new, keep them for a few weeks and then trade them both in I''m usually very close to getting another new game for the trade-in value plus five or ten bucks.

So quit squirreling your games away! Guys like Sway who own over a dozen Gamecube games they''ll never play again because ""They look so cool lined up against my wall"" drive me crazy.

I have a budget of $200 a month. It just for two categories Games and Anime! Then again I don''t buy too many games a month, if any... mostly money go toward finishing one or other Anime series... I should cut down though... I think I ran out of room for DVDs...

My trying-to-buy-a-first-house budget has kinda taken over my gaming budget; I''m down to a PC game every couple of months (mostly older or used) and a console game every 8 months or so...

It''s actually been turning out fairly well, lately. I get distracted really easily by new games, but now that I''m not buying many, I''m getting a whole lot of use out of all the older pretty game boxes I''ve got squirrelled away on my computer desk...

I''m pretty ruthless when it comes to trading in games.

I''ve never traded in a game. I''d rather just give them to one of my friends who wants them. Or keep then on my game shelf all lined up so eveyone can see how cool I am with my 70 PS2 games of which I have finished about 2

"hubbinsd" wrote:

Oh man you peeples make me sick...SICK! I have one income, a wife, two kids under 2 yo, and a new house. I have NO money to spend on games...In fact I have had to force myself to pass on Rise of Nations, Call of Duty, AND Max Payne 2 just so I could justify running our and buying Star Wars: KOTOR the day it is released for PC. Every time a game comes out I have to go through a painful analysis of whether it is worth blowing my entire gaming budget on that title.

So, do you think KOTOR will be worth it?

Good choice, IMO. Of the other three you mentioned I''ve played RoN and CoD, and while good, KotOR killed ''em both in the fun dept.

I can usually only afford 2 PC games a month, IF I can get them for less than $50. And I do sneak them into the house without my wife seeing or there would be trouble.

""I thought we were saving money for a new dining room set!""

""Uh, right honey, of course.""

KOTOR is pretty damn awesome. The one complaint I have about it is that the game is pretty damn easy, and fairly short for an RPG. But I highly recommend playing through twice. I played through it on the lightside, and then watched my roomate play through it as a dark jedi.

*SPOILER***

Did anyone else find it absolutely hilarious and amazing that they let you have the wookie kill the Mission? Oh man I couldn''t believe they let that happen, one of the coolest things in a game ever.

I did not know that Stric9, I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Also, how do you get him to do that? Do you have to be evil?

Yeah you had to be evil, like MUHAHAHA evil!

But you know I would have never found that myself, it was my roomate. It was the roomate i tell you!

But then again, that opens another can of worms, is my roomate evil? Damnit Pyro look what you''ve done, how will I get to sleep now knowing I have an evil roomate!

Around $100 a month. I have a wife and two kids with a good job. I trade in anything that doesn''t completly wow me or fit a genre I don''t have. I get about three new games a month doing this. I finished Tron 2.0 and immediatly put it on Half.com, got $30 for it, so I actually only spent $20 on the game. Trading in and selling games does a good job of mixing up the numbers when your trying to justify your purchase.

Having a wife you can play games with helps out a lot. It''s how D&D Heroes got onto the credit card.

""Like Baldur''s Gate?""
""Yep""
""We can play together?""
""Yep""
""Use the card.""

But now I''m stuck, we''re almost done with D&D Heroes and I thought we would move on to Rainbow 6, but AHHHH!! No split screen co-op!!! DAMN!!!

Evil roommates are the best kind!

For my budget, it really depends on what else is going on, but I don''t recall ever spending much more than $100 in a month for games. I''ll browse the used sections at EB and Blockbuster and pick up older stuff for cheap at Best Buy - like a couple of weeks ago I got for the XBox BG:DA for $15 and Morrowind for $20. I usually sell mine if I''m not going to play them again, either on eBay or another forum. I never trade in, they seem to give horrible value.

But now I''m stuck, we''re almost done with D&D Heroes and I thought we would move on to Rainbow 6, but AHHHH!! No split screen co-op!!! DAMN!!!

Too bad about that one, it''s a fantastic multiplayer game too. I''d recommend looking into Return of the King, maybe just for a rent. Apparently the coop has a very ""Golden Axe"" kind of feel to it.

Hoochie and I plan to devour that game.