Welcome to Random Encounters new weekly column dedicated to budget gaming. If you are anything like me, picking up a sixty dollar game every week or two isn’t something that is really affordable. If you have a wife/husband and kids, along with many bills, projects, dinners, gas, whatever — gaming will take a lower priority on your list of things to buy. Yet the call of the Gamer still roars in your soul; the gamepad or keyboard calls you like the gold calls to an old grizzly miner.

This column will be here to help you game on a budget: Because great gaming does not have to be expensive.

First a little about myself: I am a 32 year old writer/web-designer/musician from the great state of Arizona. I grew up in the desert and claim to have sand in my blood. I have tried colder climates, but when I went up north and it snowed over a foot in the middle of June, I started to realize that the cold and I just don’t get along to well.

I am one of the writers for the Random Encounters website, as well as responsible for the design of the site. (If you hate it, blame me. If you love it, I had help from other people :P.) I have been playing video and computer games since as far back as I can remember: We had an Atari 2600 in my house. When not playing on the Atari, I tended to shoot bad guys on my grandma’s Apple 2e. I also inhabited the arcades from the late 70s on, my young mind being inundated with the sights and sounds of everything from Space Invaders to Frogger to Road Blasters.

I have also been, at various times, a Game Master and a Role-player for various Pen and Paper RPG systems. I also have played various Collectible Card Games in my life, although I have yet to play a game of Magic..the game that started them all (heh.) I still have a full deck of Netrunner cards somewhere… I haven’t played many table top wargames, but I’m interested in them and will include any info I find on them here.

Like I said, I’ve been playing games my whole life.

I know, however, that my passion for gaming isn’t a cheap hobby. Especially when you consider all the outlets that are begging for your hard earned cash. Take all the examples I listed above: Computer gaming, video gaming, Card games, table top games, Pen and Paper RPGS…just buying one out of each category every month could send your budget spiraling out of control. There are just WAY to many ways to spend money right now. (Sometimes I long for the days of my NES and buying one or two games every few months and being forced to finish them. (Because I had nothing else to play..cheaper and more satisfying? Heh.)

So I decided to write this column; let you know how I shop as a gamer with little to no money to spend.

Next week we will get in to the meat of it, starting with Tip 1 of how to be a budget conscious gamer!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Columns, Gamers Pocketbook, Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.