A Broke Gamer's New Year's Resolution

In a country where basic needs such as comfortable transportation, decent housing, and clean drinking water don’t come free, gaming is obviously a luxury.

- Jovi Figueroa

THE PAIN OF NOT BEING ABLE TO AFFORD current-gen consoles that cost bigger than your monthly salary, the rush and excitement when Steam slashes up to 80 percent off AAA titles, and putting your three-year-old laptop against the electric fan to prevent it from overheating are all too familiar experiences shared by the gaming community in the Philippines.

In a country where basic needs such as comfortable transportation, decent housing, and clean drinking water don’t come free, gaming is obviously a luxury.

I eat well (mostly junk but well enough that I don’t starve), can afford rent on a small apartment, and can even buy the occasional Starbucks drink; but it took me more than a year to get Overwatch—the only and most recent premiere game that I own on my MSI. Most of the titles I own are 10-year-olds on the Xbox 360 or indie games that I could steal at 70 percent off.

As I await patiently for Nier: Automata’s price to go down (and my monthly expenses to go down, too, to no avail), I can’t help but grind my teeth as developers like Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Rare announce their upcoming titles—which I know will only take me forever to afford.

Gaming is expensive. It’s just too expensive.