“How can you afford to be wasting all your money on that?”
Leading people down into your lair can be a harrowing experience if the reactions garnered aren’t exactly what you were looking for. Though some may be wildly impressed by your Resident Evil 7 Collector’s Edition, complete with spooky house music box and severed finger USB drive, others will give you a bemused look, laced with concern. How can you justify such expenditure, exactly? Suddenly, your finger USB looks smaller, somehow. Shriveled. You’ll probably think twice about showing it off again.
Admittedly, gaming can be an expensive hobby. Retail games typically range from $50 to $60 – twice as much if you’re Australian, in fact – and often need to be supplemented by extra costs such as DLC, additional accessories and occasionally even severed finger USB drives. You have to pay to play online, there are always expansions on the horizon, and even the humblest game can really begin to lighten your wallet if you let it.
The counterpoint to all of this, of course, is that most hobbies in the modern world are expensive. Sports equipment can set you back thousands of dollars, and kitchen utensils come at a steep cost if you want a quality product. Alternatively, you could buy second-hand copies of Madden 18 and Cooking Mama for a fraction of the cost! It’s shrewd business, really.