Gaming on a money/time budget

So I'll preface this by saying I'm 30 years old, married, and have a one year old son. Ever since My son was born I've given up(by choice) more and more of my gaming time towards paying attention and playing with him.

I still have games as a hobby but im finding it more and more difficult to pick which games I want to play. I picked up Skyrim when It came out and sunk about 25 hours into it and that was all I could fit.I didn't even finish the main campaign I just couldn't sink the time that was required to get the full experience of the game.

I've had SSX since its release and enjoyed playing that for about a week, but since I can't sink the time(and don't necessarily want to) to compete I'm getting destroyed in the rankings.

I'm enjoying mass effect 3 but looking at my play time since its release i've only got about 5 hours into it.

Normally these Huge games I would look forward to spending as much time as possible but with my current life situation I can't do that. If I had even a passing interest in a game I would have gone out and purchased it.

I'm finding it difficult to adjust my gaming to the situation of both my bank account and my time account, with the death of blockbuster and rogers as a rental spaces the cost is going up and with my son growing up he demands more and more of my time.

I realize that eventually my son may share my hobby but, I don't want to push him, and I'm having a hard time doing my best not to be stingy with the time I spend with him. I don't play any games while he is awake and due to my work situation I'm often in bed by 9 and he is in bed by 8.

I'm doing my best to keep my sanity by having a hobby and not look back and feel like I just ignored my son.

not sure what u could do about time, but in the US, you could check out GameFly or if you're in Canada you could check out gameaccess.ca.

Try playing shorter games like Bastion or Journey. They are awesome and only require a few hours each to beat. Also, I think a game like Civilization V is really fun when you don't have too much time to game. You can just play it for 30 minutes to an hour and get in a bunch of turns and keep playing one game for weeks, that game never ends.

I would recommend picking up a portable system when you have the cash available. Not only are the games much more optimised for shorter sessions, you can keep an eye on your son while playing, and the games are cheaper. Maybe even sell your home console to fund it if you're convinced it doesn't fit into your life any more.

just wait a few month for games. they come down in price pretty quickly.

and as for time, well if you crack that fucker then let me know... just play when he's in bed or wait till he starts school.

I'm in a similar situatinion, I'm married and have a 6mnth old. I try my best to keep up with gaming by not playing some longer RPG's (I'm looking at you Skyrim), instead I focus on shorter games that are more focused and face-paced. I might have to sacrifice a little here and there (Skyrim, still looking at you), but the upside is I don't waste much time with games that I'm not really invested in, lose intrest in as I'm playing, or I just plain don't like. This has totally streamlined my gaming and is actually a plus, and you should look at it that way too. How many times have you completed a game you stoped caring about long before you got to the end, or just got it becasue it was the hot new game and you just wanted to play something, only to find you could care less about what you just accomplished? Look, it sucks that there aren't enough waking hours in the day to do the things you want, but just plan what you play more carefully. As far as money, either make more of it (If you find a way to make more PM me), rent, or pick up used.

Consider investing in a PC. It's more upfront cost, but by strategically using Steam, you can save a LOT in the long run. Deus Ex Human Revolution was, for example, 7$ yesterday and it came out somewhat recently. It's still 70$ (or similiar depending on where you live) in retail on consoles, so it won't take long to recoup your losses, especially considering how cheap PCs are these days. If you're a gamepad guy, most games support them as well. And since your time is more limited, you probably don't need to rush to get games so you can wait for the sales.

You don't need to constantly check Steam for sales either. You can simply check a website that has its sales every once in a while.

@Pinworm45 said:

Consider investing in a PC. It's more upfront cost, but by strategically using Steam, you can save a LOT in the long run. Deus Ex Human Revolution was, for example, 7$ yesterday and it came out somewhat recently. It's still 70$ (or similiar depending on where you live) in retail on consoles, so it won't take long to recoup your losses, especially considering how cheap PCs are these days. If you're a gamepad guy, most games support them as well. And since your time is more limited, you probably don't need to rush to get games so you can wait for the sales.

You don't need to constantly check Steam for sales either. You can simply check a website that has its sales every once in a while.

HR on 360 is 20 bucks on Amazon or 30 in Gamestop. Let's not lie.

@James_Giant_Peach said:

@Pinworm45 said:

Consider investing in a PC. It's more upfront cost, but by strategically using Steam, you can save a LOT in the long run. Deus Ex Human Revolution was, for example, 7$ yesterday and it came out somewhat recently. It's still 70$ (or similiar depending on where you live) in retail on consoles, so it won't take long to recoup your losses, especially considering how cheap PCs are these days. If you're a gamepad guy, most games support them as well. And since your time is more limited, you probably don't need to rush to get games so you can wait for the sales.

You don't need to constantly check Steam for sales either. You can simply check a website that has its sales every once in a while.

HR on 360 is 20 bucks on Amazon or 30 in Gamestop. Let's not lie.

Not where I live. Either way, the point still stands.

I'd say start playing mostly arcade games. They're cheaper and don't take tons of times and generally well worth the money.

Buy ME3. It's a 20-30 hour long game.

But the real value comes from the unlimited bitching you'll get to do on forums afterwards. Now that's a value proposition.

In the same boat as far as trying to game with limited time/budget. I spend a lot of time in the office and don't make too much so that combined with having to pay off student loans have made me become a more selective and frugal gamer.

The first thing I did was I stopped buying games at release unless it was really a must-have game for me (this past year, that meant NCAA football and Uncharted 3). Everything else - wait. Within a couple weeks the price of almost any game will drop to $40 and many others will drop to $20 if you're willing to wait 6 months to a year. This is especially the true for single player games. I don't really do competitive online multiplayer so I don't mind that the community for a game might be gone by the time I get around to playing it. Some websites offer price alerts which can really help out so you don't have to waste time searching various ads to see when a game's price drops to what you're willing/can afford to spend.

The other thing that has helped me is, as other people have suggested, looking at more downloadable games. They tend to be shorter, which is good if you don't want to put in the time investment required for a game like Skyrim (I splurged when it dropped to $40 a few weeks ago and I both love and regret the decision because I start playing and the hours disappear). Some suggestions: Grab Super Meat Boy and that's hours of entertainment for $10-15 and there's no real story line that you have to worry about forgetting if time constraints force you to put it down for a few weeks. Bastion is great and you can blow through it in just a few hours. NBA Jam brings back some old school arcade fun and games are done in 10 minutes.

If you're not too fussy, why not just buy old games instead of new ones? Most games eventually go down in price, and I've been taking advantage of this a lot myself, I tend to purchase a lot of PS2 games on Amazon. You don't have to go that far back as well, if you're lucky you can sometimes pick up titles from last year fairly cheap.

thanks for all the responses guys

PC - This isn't really an option because of the start up cost and its been a while since I had a gaming PC and since I gave it up I haven't really missed it.

Games on Release - This is just going to have to be a habit I break, I've found more and more as of late that paying 60-70 dollars cdn for a game at release just isn't worth it, but since i've spent the last year buying games its going to take a little bit to iron out. Deus Ex HR and Gears 3 MW 3, are games that I'm looking forward to but those are probably the most recent new releases I haven't bought that i'm looking at.

PS2 Games - This was my gaming hay day, back when I lived with my folks and worked and had no wife or GF, I played the hell out of this generation, I do have a backwards compatible ps3 and still keep my copies of God hand and Yakuza 2 on hand just in case I feel the need to go back but that doesn't happen often.

XBLA/PSN - I played the heck out of Bastion and Super Meat Boy, this was still at the point when my son was unable to move on his own and just sat there making cute cooing noises so I would just sit him down facing me away from the TV and play away to my hearts content. I keep up on downloadable releases and play the heck out of Trenched(Iron Brigade). But I haven't seen any releases that currently look that interesting to me. except maybe trials revolution.

ME3 - Currently enjoying the heck out of it, I have a different take on this series than most since there is a family tie there, and I play them to see what a family member gets up to, and what they do for work and are extremely passionate about.

One thing I have definetly found with this change in the way I approach my hobby has been the depth of my interest. Before it was purely about the game as an end product, but now as my interest has evolved I find myself looking more into the process of making games, the people behind the games, the business of games and so forth.

I actually spend a fair bit more time during the week reading about the games industry than I do actually playing games.

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