To not understand how people afford to play video games

[Birra]

Xbox, PS4, Wii etc. never been interested before but ds has been asking about skylanders so I thought I'd look into it.
I cannot justify that money, how do people do it?
And iPads, iPods?

Well you can pick a 360 up now in the 80 quid range if you go looking. I last saw one in grainger games but their prices change as things get sold. You're better off with a 250 hardrive than a 4.

You can pick games up cheap and an account is free. It's not just a games console though.. you can use it for YouTube, Netflix, Internet and other apps if you want. If he's wanting to play with friends online then an upgrade to gold does cost but there are various lengths and prices.

It is doable on the cheap if you put the time in hunting.

I have a skylander mad DS here, it's a lovely game and he has spent a long time not just playing the game but also making his own games with the little figures. As people have said you can pick up a preowned Wii for not a lot of money. If he hasn't played skylanders before you could save money by buying one of the previous skylanders rather than the newest one. We got skylanders Giants starter set from Argos for £20 which includes 3 figures. Giants and swapforce figures are being sold off cheap now to make room for the new trap team. Smyths toy store have reduced price packs of 3 figures for £4.99 (giants game) and they are on 3 for 2, so he could have 9 extra figures for less than £10. It's not that expensive if you do your homework :)

Moma- yes with hindsight, that would have been a better option

Art- by how, I mean it's too big for a birthday and/or Xmas present, so how would I do it.
Bearing in mind that he really wants Star Wars stuff and Lego and skylanders figures.

I've since learnt that I can do it cheaper 2nd hand, although I'm still wary cos I have no clue!
Gamerchick- I think you're just winding me up now! I have no idea what hard drive 250 means!

I think whether they are justified depends on how much they get played. So then it's more about the games than the console itself. My dh is a big player/collector and we all play games of one sort or another. We have a slightly ridiculous amount of consoles, from the vintage to the most up to date (only gap is the XBoxOne which I suspect we won't buy).

If your seven year old is likely to be the only player I'd look at getting a second hand Wii because as the most 'casual' console it's likely to have more games that he would like. They may not be the most up to date, but I suspect from the OP's posts that she probably doesn't want her 7 year old to be on XBox live or to be playing most of the bog box titles as they really are designed for an adult audience.

Birra you just need to decide what you want to give him. If it's a console then he doesn't get anything else, and perhaps it's for his next birthday too. If he is too young to understand that then don't get him a console, or at least not this year. Sounds like there are other presents that will make him very happy.

I guess OP, different people have different priorities, but also different expenditure and income in very similar house holds.

Often you see on threads like this "how can anyone afford XYZ?" - this is the first I've seen on gaming, but I've seen people ask how can anyone afford a £20k wedding, to buy a house, to drive a powerful new car, to smoke, to eat out all the time, to buy a designer handbag, to have AI holidays in school holidays.

When you drill down to it, what the OP is asking on each thread is really "how can they afford XYZ assuming their income and all other spending choices are exactly the same as mine "

and the answer is always "they can't, either their income is higher than you thought and/or they don't make the same spending choices as you elsewhere."

for the record, we only own a Wii and don't really use it much and haven't bought a game for over a year, but our DCs are small, on the other hand, I have an £800 handbag - which works out as £15 a week over a year, or less than 2 packets of fags a week, or less than 5 boots meal deals a week for those who don't make their lunches for work....

This is a 4 Gb console www.graingergames.co.uk/consoles/xbox-360/g14336-xbox-360-4gb-console

And this is a 250

www.graingergames.co.uk/consoles/xbox-360/g14135-xbox-360-250gb-console-slim-2010

The 4 GB doesn't have much of storage on the hardrive.. its better to install the games rather than play from disc incase the disc gets damaged and won't play.

www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/video-games-tablets/c-797/skylanders-giants/p-7268/skylanders-giants-starter-pack-ps3/

£15

www.game.co.uk/en/m/playstation-3-120gb-slim-163754?attributeName1=Shop%20By&errorViewName=mProductDisplayErrorView&top_category=&pageSize=20&provenance=Preowned&categoryIdentifier=10468&attributeValue1=64

£90 for a PS3

I would get it for Christmas for him.

Unless it's a game I really really want then I buy 2nd hand.

The games I do want I buy at midnight and que up.

Me & dh have enough disposable income to pay for it after paying the mortgage

Why does no one ever answer "because I've got shitloads of money" ?

OK then. I've got a fair amount of money and no DC so I could go out and buy a new console tomorrow if I wanted to.

wishtoremain. I pretty much did.

Ah yes so you did ! Excellent !

I did have shitloads before DC and 3 mat leaves on the trot

Now we rely on generous gifts from parents

I don't have shitloads. Or play video games. I do however have very expensive tastes in handbags.

My money to burn.

Her son is 7.

In a few years she will look back on her own innocence with nostalgia.

Like the parents of a newborn who is never going to drink fruitshoots or watch tv.

Bless

Compared to what else we have spend (£30 a year on childcare at one point, £90k a year on mortgage, £50k school fees) yes I can just about afford to buy a games console! Some women pick careers which earn them a lot. We take those decisions in our teens and go for it.

However I would much rather better off women funded education and school fees for their off spring than computer games!

Yeah coz the two are comparable

You have to work out how much he'd use it. If it costs you £300, he uses it for an hour a day, that's 365 hours a year, so less than a pound a time. I'd say that's reasonable value for money. If he has it for 2 or 3 years, even cheaper. I think because you don't get gaming that you see it as an expensive toy. It can be much more than that. My DS has been into games ever since we got a Wii when he was about 4. We all spent lots of time playing the sports and dance games. He has never watched televsion - he only likes to interact with games (Minecraft etc), which I feel is far more constructive.

If you never spend that much money on presents, then you'll have to insist that he saves up pocket money/gift money for one.

If that was your intention the why start a thread asking how people justify spending money on games then Birra?

I justify it as it gives me sons pleasure. They each have a console in their rooms due to aspergers, varying tastes and the fact they purposely sabotage each other's games eg selling each other's players to accrington Stanley on FIFA.
Meh
Greengrow your post makes no sense. You were waffling on another thread about children having no values if they weren't happy with charity shop goods at Christmas. Am confused?!

I said we don't give Christmas presents in this family on a thread where people were considering getting into debt to pay for presents which seems unwise to me. On this thread here I am saying if you have spare money and money is tight spend it on the education of your children not expensive consoles and that if you are fairly well off the cost of the console relatively speaking will not be a big compared to the children's school fees and the like. It's perfectly consistent.

Actually in the UK the better off you are the smaller the TV you have or no TV and the fewer games consoles as it's a class issue, isn't it? The rich read to their children and ban electronics and the poor spend a fortune they cannot afford on frying the brains of their children with endless computer games. Not surprisingly it is clear which group of children do better at school and in life as a consequence.