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?

Greengrow - I think you'll find that today's children need to have a good understanding of how computers work to do well in their lives. Those that don't are being put at a significant disadvantage which is particularly sad when that disadvantage isn't because of poverty but as a result of misguided banning by luddite parents. Everything in moderation is the key.

Very strange question. How people spend their money is their choice. You know you can get wiis now for between £30 to £40 on fb pages with games etc. one lady recently sold one for £15. Not buying the latest is the answer if you havent the money. (Disclaimer i dont own any games apart from an old ds)

The reason why I have 3 PS3 is because they are much more than a games console, they are a media center as well.. They are used as music players, blueray dvd players (my first one of those was eyewatering)
Stores photo's and videos etc as well as hours of entertainment on games :D

My son and his friend run in and out of each others houses playing minecraft, they have a community from schools and neighbours where they talk each others ears off etc

I justify buying them (was bought many years ago to be fair) because we spend on nothing else, my husband has a fantastic job, our rent is

It's all a choice. People choose where they put their disposable income. DH and I don’t drink, don't smoke, don't have a TV, haven't been abroad in 6 years and drive a 10 year old skoda (which is still going strong). But we can afford hobbies. I think everyone is the same.

My children have electronic products, but it certainly is the case that plenty of homes limit them or don't have them at all for the sake of the children.
I certainly agree that most teenagers doing GCSEs as mine are need the internet for research and to print out and do homework and to access the school's website and that kind of thing.

In factr years ago the first person to get a separate personal broadband line into this house was my son and that was cheap as chips compared to his sisters' teenager hobby - both girls had their own horse they kept at stables for their show jumping! Who is to say which is the better pursuit - gaming or riding.

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.

Bit of a broad statment there.............. It did make me chuckle though. Thanks.

Haha, my poor brain being fried from growing up in a working class gaming household. My education could have gone so much further than a paltry physics degree if only anyone ever read to me.

Another class issue? There's a few of them around today!
OP Game and CEX are brilliant for all gaming needs, you can get a loyalty card for game to use to trade in games when they're not wanted anymore.
Don't buy new releases, give it 2 or 3 weeks and the price drops like a brick.
Pocket money is a good way to let them have an account for extras, films etc - we give half cash and half as a voucher or paid onto the account. No extras.
They both got their consoles (xbox and ps3) as birthday presents - we have large families so everyone used the money they would have spent to chip in for the console.
Some games are online only - watch out for deals, the prices can go very low.
Once you get over the what looks like eye watering prices it really doesn't cost as much as you think.

It was a love of minecraft which led to dd when she was 12yo setting up a minecraft server and YouTube channel. She's got an expensive 1k gaming pc and has taught herself to code.

I suspect as a life skill being able to code will see her far if she chooses to persue it.

She's certainly top of the class in ICT.

Green grow, where do we come in? No kids with electronics, but lots for us.... But we are well off oh dear. subverted your very limited view there!

We also have thousands of books but I'm not going to turn this into a mn competitive book thread although I do love them

I was just generalising. We are not a game free or screen free household but I know a good few of them and they tend to be middle class. I'm quite laid back. My mother's view (a teacher) was as long as children were reading any thing that was brilliant -whether comics or Enid Blyton or something more high brow. It's the same these days - children might be reading on line and that's fine too. However we all know computer games excite the pleasure centres of the brain in the same way as cocaine does and plenty of children end up virtually addicted. It's a huge issue for many parents to deal with.

Although the thread has diverted a bit, it sounds as if the OP is asking a genuine question. So, my advice to you if you want to satisfy your DS's desire for a games machine whilst not spending an unrealistic amount of money is:
A) always go for the last generation of console, or even the one before. You can spend far far less that way, and from your DS's POV all games will be new to him.
B) specifically I'd go for a bottom of the range new PS3 or Wii U, which will cost you between 150 and 200 quid, but will come with all the bits and pieces. For around 100 quid you could get a second hand one and for less than 50 quid you could get a PS2, or original Wii, but they might not have manuals, cables or guarantees so perhaps not the best option for a newbie unless you're totally broke.
C) there are shedloads of excellent games for the PS3 or WiiU for around a tenner brand new on Amazon or a fiver second hand in Game/CEX/your local charity shop. Any of the Lego games would be a good start.
D) steer clear of Skylanders or Disney Infinity. Great games, but the collectible mechanism and the need for extra hardware means that they are far far more expensive than any other games. Their main use is to help 8 year old boys learn how to handle their pocket money, and to provide an instant answer to the question "what would Freddie like for his birthday?"

See I'd look at the cost of a holiday and think, that much for just a week? I could get months and months worth of gaming for that!

I still play on my super nintendo (had it since for over 20 years now) and across the yrs decided to pay off my student loan and buy a house was a priority but now I am in a position where I can finally upgrade and will be treating myself at xmas to a PS4. I cannot wait so excited

i work checkout at a big store, little boy, aged about 9 came in yesterday and proudly handed me £49 that he'd saved, all by himself, from pocket money, birthday money and doing chores/jobs for family to buy himself the latest Skylanders Trap Team game.

perhaps you ought to start talking to your DS about saving his money for a console.

i game, dh does, my kids do.. the consoles belong to DH and I, we buy they kids games to play on them so that they can enjoy our hobby with us.

Just because its not a hobby YOU enjoy, doesn't mean it holds no value. I'd rather spend my £10 a week on games and game purchases than clothes, shoes, magazine and other such shite.

Its about what interests you.. or in this case, your kids.

You shouldn't stifle your kids because its not something you like to do.. they're not you, they're themselves.

LadyIsabells

its wrong of you to tell someone to steer clear of a game just because you dont like it.

as a family we own all 4 skylanders games (ds doesn't know i've bought him trapteam yet though) and the first Disney Infinity game. I also own the tablet version of Skylanders lost islands.

they're perfectly good and fun games, and the figures are easy enough to get discounted or second hand if you know where to look.

I think the Skylanders games are great (the bit where I said they were "great games" was a bit of a clue). But for the OP, who is struggling with the concept of spending loads of money on games, and anyone else who wants to stick to a tight budget, they are definitely best avoided.

Green what utter rubbish and massive generalisations.

And it's the second thread on which you have said 'it's a class issue'

And that's just today isn't it?

Double staff discount, vouchers. Dh working his arse off. We love gaming, its our only vice but we wait for special offers and buy second hand often. We play separately and together and we enjoy it. Makes life a little more bearable that you can pretend to be someone else and doing something completely unreal for a little while. Don't get me wrong I love rl time spent baking and playing with ds and dd too though.

Just doing the sums now:

we bought the dc an Xbox 360 two Christmasses ago, for about £250. Joint 'big' present.

So by this December, the actual console will have cost about a tenner a month between three of them, which in terms of play value is quite good.

That's without allowing for the hours dh spends on it when they're in bed. I did my gaming on a PS 20 years ago & have long since lost interest, apart from the occasional zombie shoot'em'up after a rough week at work .

In fact, the kids have all agreed that they don't desperately want or need a new console this year (waiting for price to drop on Xbox 1), so it'll be down to about £7/month if it's another year until we upgrade. Less than a pound per child per week.

They each get a new game for birthday or Xmas, so another £30 or so, per child, twice a year - all other games are bought 2nd hand for pocket money or by trading in - so that costs us another £180pa altogether - say round it up to £1.50 a week each on games.

Their martial arts class is £7 each per week, & swimming lesson £6, so all told, we spend something like £2-3 each week on gaming for each child, & 5 times as much on physical stuff.

Gaming's cheap, really. It's not a massive priority in this house, & you could obviously spend far more, but it's quite possible for it to be very good vfm.

We've got 2x iPads, iPhones, ps4, wii, wii u etc etc. we like gaming and our children like gaming. Got the wii u couple of days ago as the latest mario karts can't be played on the wii.

Not really thought about how we afford it, we both work, have fairly high earning jobs... Not really difficult to work out, just up to the individual what you spend your money on

Don't burgle me!!!!!!!