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Cole’s Corner – Are Video Games Too Expensive?

Cole’s Corner – Are Video Games Too Expensive?

Cole’s Corner – Are Video Games Too Expensive?

Are video games too expensive? At sixty-plus bucks a pop, that may seem obvious, (although you can still get a bowling game for under twenty bucks). But there is a lot more to consider than just the retail price of a popular game. And, once again, I’m going to do the thinking for you. All you have to do is read this article and hopefully I will have sufficiently brainwashed you enough so you won’t know what the hell to think. And if you’re a bit of an idiot, you may want to have someone read this to you.

I don’t like forking over huge sums of cash for anything. Like many mindless consumers, I fall prey to the magic of consumer finance marketing. With such wholesome schemes as line of credit and installment plans, who can resist buying things with money they don’t have? These concepts make large money transactions convenient, and, more importantly, like they’re not really happening. I just have to admire the concept of “Three Easy Payments.” It’s a testament to the gullibility and state of our society that someone could further exploit human weakness by inserting the word “easy” between a number and a word to create a dangerously effective, bankruptcy-inducing catchphrase.

Cole's Corner - Are Video Games Too Expensive?

Yes, I am holding that catchphrase in contempt, but more so the people that fall for the condescendingly friendly, assured persuasiveness of it. While I admit to preferring installments myself, it’s not due to the catchphrase. I’ve been buying things on installments long before the word “easy” was even invented. Would I buy Grand Theft Auto IX for “Three Easy Payments” of $21.95? Or should I opt for the “One Laboriously Burdensome Payment” of $59.99? All these questions; where is Ron Popeil when you need him?

To answer the original question posed in the opening sentence, video games are not too expensive, relatively speaking. Consider the sixty-dollar-plus purchase price as an investment; similar to buying in bulk. If you amortize the hourly rate of enjoyment extracted from a video game, you will be able to favorably compare it against other forms of entertainment.

Let us agree games typically last more than ten hours. For the sake of generalizing, let’s use fifteen hours as an average. That works out to four dollars per hour of fun. What can you do for four dollars an hour these days? You can’t even find an illegal immigrant to review video games for that wage (Canadians notwithstanding). Consider that in 1993, Streets of Rage 2 cost sixty-five bucks, and Sonic 2 was fifty bucks back then. When you factor in the cost of making a video game, which has skyrocketed since the days of the SNES to anywhere from 20 to 100 million dollars, sixty bucks doesn’t seem unreasonable in the least. So don’t be so friggin’ cheap.

Cole's Corner - Are Video Games Too Expensive?

If you’re a bit of an idiot, then video games can be an exceptional value for you, since it could take you months to complete a game. Now, don’t take this out on the person reading this to you, who may be laughing and pointing at you right now. If you could decipher these letters for yourself, you would see that he’s not making it up.

Note to reader: Stop reading this aloud to the moron. Go ahead and call him an idiot one more time, then give him a little smack. Just blame it on me; enjoy.

By
Cole Smith
SeniorContributing Writer
Date: January 20, 2012

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*

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