How do you afford your games?

[Zaverexus]

I don't get much time to play games, and I only buy one at a time, waiting until I beat it to buy another.
So by the time I finally finish a big fall release I can get the next game discounted from Gamestop or something and the games I want just keep going down in price while I play others.
It also lets the hype go down. I get the game I know I will like first and while I'm playing that I can hear about the other games from my friends and know if I really want it, and hear what Yahtzee says about it.
Plus with so little time I only get maybe four or five games in a year, and some of those are really old titles I hear about and get for practically nothing.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Between Steam sales and Direct2Drive coupon codes, I can't remember paying full price for a PC game (mostly what I play). I still live at home. I don't go many places (so don't spend money on gas or stuff). I know how to budge my money. Oh, and I'm a software developer, so I make a decent check...

 

[Dalek Caan]

Save up and trade in old games. Trading in doesn't always give the best results but it helps.

 

[Flunk]

I'm a professional computer programmer. I'm not a complete ass though, I do lend my games to friends.

When I was a poor University student I used to just buy games 2 or so years after they came out. You can save a tonne by doing that and the games aren't any worse. You can get the best games of 2009 for less than $20 now. A few weeks ago I bought Borderlands complete on steam for $7 (everyone likes a deal).

 

[Amberella]

I have a job and I am good saver when it comes to money. For the most part anyway, sometimes I splurge and buy my sweetie things that I know he'll love. <.<

 

[doomboy29]

Steam sales. Just.....Steam.

 

[swenson]

The way I afford my games is I just don't buy them until they either go on sale (curse you, Steam, for making me spend way more than I should on stupid sales... they're just so tempting... T_T) or the price is dropped to $30 or $20. I still buy new games, but I limit myself to one or two a year. For example, this year I bought Portal 2 for full price (actually, 10% off through Steam!), and next year I'm definitely getting at least Mass Effect 3 at full price. But for the most part, I'm willing to wait for most other games.

Surprisingly, despite being a massive cheapskate, I don't pirate games. Not sure why, seeing as I don't care about other stuff, but for whatever reason I just don't like to pirate games.

Hopefully, some day, people on Youtube will stop being fucking retarded for ten seconds and I'll get enough subscribers to be a Partner and make money that way.

Somehow I suspect you'll be waiting a loooooong time for that...

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I look in the discount areas at Walmart and other stores. Sure they're old as heck, but they're 20$ or less.

 

[McNinja]

I generally figure out some way to have enough money. Sometimes I have random leftover money, other times I have a job, and thus money. I generally buy whatever games I feel like buying, with even out to about one every two or three months. I haven gotten a single video game since Dragon Age 2 came out, and I had that one pre-ordered for me.

 

[iDoom46]

Get a job. Work ass off. Save up for only the games I REALLY want, not every fucking game that comes down the pipeline*.

*- I have friends that do this and honestly don't understand why they're so poor all the damn time!

 

[TehCookie]

I have a job, and still live with my parents to avoid bills. Also I always wait for games to go down in price. I rarely buy a game over $20.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I have a job, and take advantage of Steam sales and discounts for console games.

this, >.> pretty much in its entirety

 

[dementis]

I'm 18 so my one and only out going payment is housekeep meaning I have a stupid amount of disposable income every month

 

[trollnystan]

I don't? So I sacrifice my food allowance on games >_> I've been a very bad girl this year but I blame Steam. Steam and its shiny sales... >_o

 

[Xanthious]

If you are a console gamer with a small amount of patience live within driving distance of a Gamestop (multiple Gamestops work best) and have 50 or so dollars you don't mind letting Gamestop hold on to for a while then there is no reason you should pay for console games at all.

Ya see kids, Gamestop has a 7 (might be 14 in some stores) day no questions asked return policy on used games. That's right you can "buy" *wink wink* a used game off the shelf and seven days later you simply return it and either get your money should you need it, or another game. In the event you aren't done with your game you either wait to "buy" it again in a few weeks or get your money and mosey on down to another local Gamestop to purchase said title. While technically there is fuck all stopping you from rebuying the same title you just returned I find cashiers look at that somewhat poorly and if you plan on using Gamestop as a gaming library with a hefty deposit it's best to make nice with the employees.

Outside of a few dated sports titles I paid less than 5 dollars a piece for I haven't paid for a console game in a long time and I've played most of the bigger titles to completion. Sure Gamestop holds onto my 50 dollars and I do have to remember to go back each week but even if you look at your 50 dollars as lost it's still a far better value than a service like Gamefly. Sure some people might think it's kinda crumby but I love the idea that I more or less game for free when it comes to my Xbox and PS3.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Being an unemployed student in England. My game allowance doubles up as my food allowance. Looks like 7p noodles are on the menu again for the next few days.

 

[robert01]

A combination of prostitution and steam sales. Mostly steam sales.

Toss a little illicit drugs sales and you got my meth-od.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

So today while sitting down and paying my car bill and insurance I had a thought about the Escapist. For days now I have read nothing more than what new games people are going to buy come fall, and i wondered how do you afford your games? The last game i bought new was Shogun 2 Total War and thats it, I find myself playing games like Age of Empires and Medieval 2 Total War, and Team Fortress 2. I cant seem to find the money to buy all these new games, and also have a problem with spending 50-60 dollars on new games. So, in all how do you afford your games?

You might not like buying used games, but if you don't have the 50-60 bucks to buy them, then it is really the only way to get games cheap, other than waiting a year or so for the price to drop.

I do it by waiting until I have money from my birthday or Christmas. Also, I have been know to ration food so I didn't have to buy as much food so I could save the money for games.

Example:

Last year around my birthday, I pre-ordered got four new games. Halo Reach, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, Fable 3, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and all of them I got collector's editions of, except Halo Reach. So of courses I was paying 80 dollars for them instead of 60.

The reason I was able to do it, is that first I used a small bit of college loan money marked use in buying food(I ate around half of what I normally eat, which with how I eat is a good thing for me to do), plus during my birthday I got a little over 100 dollars from family members, and finally, I used the 20 dollar game credit bonus I got from Amazon for pre-ordering Halo Reach on the Castlevania: LoS collector's edition, and I also got a 20 dollar credit from pre-ordering the collector's edition of Star Wars: TFU2 on my pre-order of Fable 3's collector's edition.

Now, when Christmas rolled around, I got a little over 350 dollars from family, plus just before Christmas, I graduated from college, and got around 450 dollars in congratulations checks from family.

Most of that 800 dollars went towards gas money and fixing my car. But there was enough leftover, and I had a third 20 dollar game credit from Amazon from that round of four pre-ordered games earlier, that I ended up in a four month span:

Pre-ordering Dragon Age 2, used the game credit on getting the Dragon Age: Origins: Ultimate Edition for 30 bucks instead of 50, I also got both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 for 20 dollars each on Amazon, and I pre-ordered and got Pokemon White.

Oh, and I still had some money saved up that when my friends all decided to come together and all get Borderlands and play together, I used the saved money to get the Borderlands Game of the Year Edition.

So, you wanted to know how people like me afford games, that is one way we afford games.

I highly recommend saving up for new games you want and pre-ordering them. I probably would have only got a half to maybe three-fourths as many games as I did get if I hadn't had those 20 dollar pre-order bonus game credits from Amazon.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Steam sales. I haven't bought any games for full price in a long time, and because I'm saving up for a new computer, I got to skip out on both Deus Ex 3 and Skyrim. It's not going to be fun.

 

[sabercrusader]

I'm still a minor so I live in my parent's house. I get $10 a week for doing chores. I don't really have much of a life so most of my money goes to video games. But I do need to save up for a car so I will have to majorly cut back on game spending until I actually get a job.