Video Games are Expensive

Raise your hand if you don't like video games. Raise your hand if you have too much money. Raise your hand if you don't have any hands.

Now, did anyone raise their hand? Wait, really? Please tell me it was for the third one! Oh... okay, well go away. Now for the rest of you. Would you like to save money AND still play new video games?



Cheap Ass Gamer Deals
Cheap Ass Gamer is a list of gaming deals. You get to buy games, and save money. This great website aggregates a bunch of ways you can buy video games cheap. Is Amazon selling Mass Effect for $35? Buy.com has 12 months of Xbox Live for $30? It's the SlickDeals of video games.

If you want to go a little deeper, you can browse through their gaming deals forum, lots of good stuff there as well. It's the FatWallet of video games.

Cheap Ass Gamer Game Trading
More Cheap Ass Gamer? Well, let's start calling it CAG for short. Another forum they have is a game trading forum. Don't trust mailing video games to random strangers on the internet in exchange for their promise that they'll mail you a game?

It's a good thing they have what's called an iTrader rating system. If you trade a game with someone, they give you feedback. It is essentially the eBay system, with no buying or selling. Wait, but people do buy and sell there too. There's no official safeguards in place, but gennerally whoever has less feedback ships first.

I have done a bunch of trades through this, and highly recommend it. Paying $4 shipping everytime you want to trade a game that you're done playing is so much better than paying $50 to buy that new game.



GameFly
If you don't know what Netflix is, you probably haven't heard of the internet. I never knew there was a print version of Table Salt Games... Anyhow, if you don't know, the way it works is this:

The entire catalog is online, and you add to a digital queue, or list of games you want, and they mail them to you. You have one or two out at a time, and as you return them, they mail you new ones. It's amazing.

Now, when I saw it's amazing, I mean Netflix is amazing, and I assume Gamefly works the same way, in all of its awesomeness.



Your Public Library
Did you know that you can check out video games from the public library. This one only works if you live in East Brunswick, NJ. At least, so Dr. Celestino tells me.

Old Video Games
Buying games that are one generation old is really cheap. If you go farther back, they're collector's items, but just one generation back, and they're old news, and people will get rid of them cheap. Graphics aren't good enough for you? They were for everybody else a few years ago.

If you're low on cash, but an Xbox, or a Playstation, hell, even a PS2, or a Gamecube. Play all the games you want, and pay roughly 10% of what all of your classier friends are paying. They'll make fun of you, but you'll have the last laugh, when you can afford non-ramen dinner. (Btw, if you're making fun of ramen, we're not friends)

Stealing
Stealing is wrong. And free.

Photo: Flickr

Godspeed.