How to be a ‘gamer’ on a budget

Jeffrey E. Cassady
Assistant Features Editor

With housing, food and booze to pay for, it’s not very hard for the average college student to get dangerously low on cash. It’s sometimes hard to believe that a student would have any extra money to spend on recreation after paying living expenses.
Despite the money problems associated with being a college student, some University of West Florida videogame enthusiasts have found a way to get their gaming kicks without having to do anything as drastic as getting a second job or selling their internal organs on eBay — buy old games.
“ Waiting is one of the best things you can do to save money,” said Bryan Parsons, a senior engineering major and self-described budget gamer. “Usually a new game will sell for about $50 when it comes out, but fall in price a few months after release because of poor or sagging sales.”
For instance, “Beyond Good and Evil,” a critically-acclaimed adventure game that was released last year, fell from $49.99 to $19.99 less than two months after its release, according to www.gamespot.com. This is the best time to snag games, Parsons said.
“ It’s not very hard to play games on a budget,” said Richard Bulosan, the general manager of GameStop, a videogame retailer in Cordova Mall. “There are plenty of games that retail for under $20 that could keep anybody on a tight budget busy for quite a long time.”
Sony’s “Greatest Hits” series offers affordable games to cash-strapped PlayStation 2 gamers. If a game has sold well and has been out for more than a year, Sony will often drop the game’s price to $19.99 and add the title to its “Greatest Hits” lineup, Bulosan said. There are more than 50 “Greatest Hits” games to date, including “Enter the Matrix,” “Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec” and “Grand Theft Auto III.”
The Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Gamecube also have their own lines of bargain games.
Frequenting pawn shops and scouring the used bins at game stores are also great ways to save money, said Luke Baden, a first-year computer science major. Used games are usually $5 to10 cheaper than they would be new.
“ I also suggest buying used games for some of the older systems like the original PlayStation,” Baden said. “Most of the time, they’re cheaper than the ‘Greatest Hits’ games on the newer platforms, and you get a lot of bang for your buck.”
Baden said that old PS1 role-playing games, such as “Final Fantasy VII,” are good choices because they can take up to 40 hours to complete, have involved back stories and boast creative character design.
Retailers such as EB Games, Babbage’s, Games 4 Games and GameStop sell pre-owned videogames. Prices and warranties differ from store to store.
“ If you don’t mind getting rid of your old stuff, selling or trading in your used games can also save money,” Bulosan said. “Many people do that in order to get newer games.”
John O’Neill, owner of Games 4 Games on Bayou Boulevard, takes a “quantity over quality” approach to bargain gaming.
“ I base everything on price, not whether or not the game is necessarily good,” O’Neill said. “I ask myself if the game is good for the price.”
O’Neill said that he could walk into a game store or pawn shop, buy five used games, and spend just slightly more than he would have if he bought one new game at full price.
“ Granted, not all of the games that I’d buy are AAA titles,” O’Neill said, “but, when I’m spending $12.99 or less per game, I’m not going to complain. They’ll still keep me occupied.”
O’Neill also checks reviews on the Internet to see what other gamers are recommending.
“ It’s a good idea to go to ign.com or gamespot.com to check reader reviews of certain games,” O’Neill said.
While O’Neill said that he enjoys reading professional reviews, he trusts reader reviews more because many of them are written after a game drops in price. Reader reviews are a better indicator of whether or not a game is worth what it’s currently selling at, O’Neill said.