Sunday, July 6, 2008

Don’t Buy Computer, Video, or Board Games Unless You Have Time to Play Them

Ever since my parents bought me the second installment of King's Quest for our Tandy 1000 when I was 10 years-old back in 1987, I have loved playing strategy computer games. During college and law school, I didn't have time to play any PC games, so a few years ago, after the bar exam, I went on a major spending spree at Best Buy.

First, I bought The Sims. Omigod, was that ever a mistake! I loved playing that game so much, I had to buy all the expansion packs because my Sims needed vacations! They needed pets! They needed gardens! They needed magic!

After my Sims progressed up the corporate ladder, got married, had kids, and moved into the biggest house in the neighborbood, the game became redundant so I moved on to more exciting things...like running my own farm in American Farmer...my own restaurant in Diner Dash...my own coffee house in Coffee House Chaos. After I got bored with those, I tried to upgrade to The Sims 2, but fortunately my old, out-of-date computer didn't have a fast enough processor or else I'd probably still be controlling the lives of my Sims in Sim City.

My computer died last month so I had to buy a new one. My new computer has a really powerful processor and tons of memory so it would be perfect for playing games like The Sims 2, but I am not going to buy any more games. My PC game playing days are over, and I'm not remotely interested in Xbox games or Wii games.

While games are a great stress reliever, they're also a huge waste of time and money. The $150.00 I spent on PC games could have been put toward my student loan debt; furthermore, all the time I spent playing them could have been used for more productive activities like decluttering my house or getting my finances in order.

Oh, well. Play and learn.