Embargo On!

Are you still spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year on hobby gaming even in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression?

I'm not. In fact, I haven't bought a game since October of last year. And on top of that, I've been getting rid of board games at practically a 2-for-1 ratio. Part of it is because I was laid off and buying a new game suddenly became tantamount to buying a ski jacket in hell. But also because I'm pretty tired of owning a bunch of games that I either will never get to play for whatever reason or that I would choose something else over if given an opportunity.

We waste a lot of money on games. I'm all for spending money on what makes you happy and supporting businesses in the hobby, but I think I hit my breaking point where a game just has to be DAMN good for me to want to buy it. 

This week's Gameshark.com column started out as a lighthearted "Ten Tips  to Survive the 2nd Great Depression" thing with advice on how to keep a steady flow of games coming in without spending a lot of money. But then I realized that the real message, the one that was from the heart, was that you shouldn't even be worried about buying more games when the whole economy could go belly up. That you've probably wasted a lot of money, like I did, on buying the same thing over and over again or on shelfwarming titles that have a lower ROI than AIG stock.

The funny thing is, I'm not even one of those people who buy 5-6 games a month. Maybe 2-3, but now I'd be surprised if I bought one any time soon.