A reader is concerned about the current energy and cost of living crisis but admits there may be other reasons to sell your console.
Every time I turn on the television or check a news site, things seem to get worse. First it was just the energy crisis, then it was the pound against the dollar, and now it’s the mini-budget that’s going to make it all worse. I am not a rich man, but I would not have said that he was poor before. And yet, in the last few months I have really started to worry about my financial situation and what exactly I am spending my money on.
I am sure I am not alone in this. Families across the country and the world are in the same position and forced to deal not only with the situation as it is, but with politicians who do nothing or actively make things worse. The only attempts to help are condescending websites that tell you not to have the heat on as much or to shower faster, as if that would make up the difference.
Clearly not just anything will do, but I’ve tried to think of savings everywhere I can and that’s why I made the decision to sell my Playstation 5. Not really because of the energy costs, though that’s a factor, but simply because the games cost too much money to buy (and you can probably get quite a bit for selling the console).
However, I admit that this was not a decision entirely due to the cost of living crisis. That’s why I decided to do it, but once I started thinking about the decision I realized that it was easier than I expected and that I had actually started to fall out of love with video games. I don’t know if I would have sold the PlayStation 5 without this as a catalyst, but now that it’s happened I feel almost… relieved?
I started to realize that there was a problem when I couldn’t get into the Elden Ring, despite enjoying the previous Dark Souls games. There were two issues, the first was how long it would have taken me to finish the game, and the second was the fact that it was all so familiar, despite technically being a completely new franchise.
I’ve run into this same problem with so many games recently (Elden Ring probably didn’t help me because I bought and played Demon’s Souls not long before), where everything starts to seem so predictable and repetitive. That’s not to say the games aren’t good, but things like Horizon Forbidden West and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart made very little impression on me, simply because everything seemed so familiar.
There are indie games, I know, before anyone says that, but even so, truly imaginative games get lost in a sea of Metrodivanias and roguelikes. In my experience, indie games are hardly more original than AAA games, they’re just repetitive with different things.
I don’t want to put anyone off, because I still consider myself a gamer and enjoy reading about the industry and its games, even if the idea of everything being owned by three different companies only adds to the sense of decline and homogenization.
My hope is that once this latest financial crisis is over, I’ll probably buy a new console and have fun seeing what I missed. I don’t know if we’ll be on PlayStation 6 by then, but right now it feels strangely liberating to be without a gaming machine.
In these tough times I don’t need to spend £70 on a video game and if interest rates go through the roof next year I don’t want it to become a choice between paying the mortgage or playing the next God Of War.
By Reader Westley
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