Grown-up gaming

This has been a year of change for me. So many things are different now than they were a year ago. The biggest of these changes is the addition of my son. I knew that having a baby around would change everything, so since this is a gaming site, I'll note how it's changed that aspect of my life. The change occurred in three phases...


Prior to the baby, I was console gamer 90%, PC gamer 10%. I only played on the PC once I started gaming with my cousins, as we started shooting bugs in Borderlands and laying waste to...well, a wasteland. I pretty much stuck to my PS3 for gaming, though occasionally found time to throw a few Wii casual/active games in the mix. Being an RPG junkie, my games of choice tended to be Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, TES IV: Oblivion, etc.

I found myself transitioning to my pc more to game socially, so I built a new rig about the time that my son was born. Also, I knew my time with the TV was going away. So Phase One of changing my as a gamer began.

The Second Phase happened around Christmas. As we all know, that is the time of year that Steam takes all of our money. I was not immune to this, and I spent a boatload. The problem was that I hadn't been saving, and had been spending a boatload every month since I built my pc. In January, I reviewed my annual expenses from the prior year, and my gaming expenditure trend was quite frightening. Baby expenses were on the rise, and my gaming expenses were competing for those precious resources (e.g. Moolah). So what to do? I'm not going to quit gaming. And I'm not going to withhold necessities from the baby. Oh, what to do? Hey, doesn't Kinto play an MMO? WoW you say? How much? 15$ a month! That's nothing compared to what I currently spend! I'll give it a go! Second Phase...commence.

Download trial. Play 2 hours. Meh, don't like it. Quit. Wait a few weeks. Consider buying ME2. Look at gaming spend trend line. Download new trial for WoW. Kinto sees me playing trial. SURPRISE! Being a good friend (or evil?), he takes me under his wing, we link accounts, and begin the journey anew. Second Phase complete.

I'm now exclusively playing WoW. It's not that other games haven't interested me, or made me want to play. I'm just cheap. And WoW keeps me interested and leaves a few more dollars in my pocket for those unexpected life expenses. I've missed out on releases of games I thought I couldn't live without. FFXIII, ME2, Red Dead, Uncharted 2, Super Mario World Wii, SMG 2, Dragon Age expansions, etc., etc. I like to think that when the greatest hits versions come out, I'll pick many of those up. I've found that I can live without them all hot off the presses. I've also found that I LOVE MMORPG's! Now, instead of what's new on the PS Store that I can throw 10-15 bucks at, I look forward to Cataclysm, and even more so, SWTOR MMO next year. I cannot wait for that one.

So for me, Phase 3 of my grown-up gaming transition has been a move away from console, and single-player campaign's, to PC social MMORPG gaming as my gaming of choice. It's not to say that type of gaming is more mature or grown up. Arguably, it could be perceived as the opposite. But as a true life-long gamer, I believe the most important aspect is to find what brings you the most enjoyment for your buck. And for me, with the lifestyle I now have, I believe I have found it :)