Entertainment: 9 Tips for Gamers to Save Money in the New Normal

We may be living in the new normal, but some things never change: gaming can be an expensive hobby.

As of the writing of this blog post, Sony's PlayStation 4 is selling at a retail price of $299.99 (17,700Php in the Philippines). The Nintendo Switch also costs $299.99 and so does Microsoft's Xbox One S at $299.00. The price of a gaming PC varies depending on the specs but they usually cost much more than consoles.

Whatever your hardware is, getting into video games now is going to put a $300 dent in your wallet. If you're not careful, buying the video games for your platform is going to exacerbate that dent.

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic forcing people to stay indoors, gaming is quickly turning into a recreational activity that more and more people are getting into. Some time around April, the World Health Organization recommended video games as a pastime to stop the spread of the coronavirus. And it's working! The numbers don't lie; the video game industry has been making a killing during the pandemic. 

I've been playing video games since I was a kid. Now I'm an adult and I'm still gaming as a way to kill time. Naturally I picked up on some budget-friendly tips and tricks and I'd like to share them with you in this blog post.

Whether you're someone new to the gaming scene or you're a veteran gamer looking for ways to save your wallet, here are some tips on saving money related to gaming so you don't break the bank.

1. Wait for price drops

If you're on a strict budget, buying a video game as soon as it's released should never ever be an option, no matter how excited you are to get your hands on it. Whether you're buying physically or digitally, a brand new video game normally costs around $59.99 (2,900Php). Generally speaking, the retail price of video games tend to drop significantly after six months have passed since its release date. Waiting even longer -- let's say a year -- will cause the price to drop even further. Some games go as low as below half of their original retail price.

There isn't a fixed time period on when games slash their prices. A good rule of thumb is the better a game performs at its launch, the longer it will take for its price to go down, so patience is the key. A terribly rated game like Fallout 76 can go from $59.99 to $39.99 (1,934Php) in a couple of months, while a critically acclaimed game like God of War stayed up at around $59.99 for a good long while.

Protip for Nintendo Switch and DS owners: Nintendo has a policy of NOT dropping the price of their exclusives. So you may be wondering why that Mario game you've been waiting for is still around $59.99. Unfortunately waiting won't do you much good in terms of budgeting if you're a Nintendo gamer.

2. Buy secondhand games

Want to know what's even better than waiting for the price of a video game to drop? Waiting for the price of a video game to drop, and then buying it secondhand! Secondhand sellers will never sell a game above its current retail price. I once bought Fallout 3: Game of the Year edition, which cost $59.99 many years ago, for just around $10.00 (483Php).

Your means of finding secondhand sellers will depend on your location and nationality. For me, websites like Carousel and Facebook groups are how I find out about people near me who are trying to sell their video games. You can even opt to trade games with people even if I don't recommend that.

3. Sell your game after you're done playing

If you bought a video game physically, you can sell the disc/cartridge to someone else once you're done with the game. Since you'll be a secondhand seller, you'd want to price your video game below the game's current retail price to attract buyers.

If you weren't able to follow the first tip on this list i.e. you succumbed to the temptation of buying a newly released game because you just had to have it right away, then this course of action can get you some of your hard-earned money back easily once you're done with the game. I say "easily" because newly released games are still popular so it's not hard to find a buyer. Trying to sell a game that has been out for one or two years already is much more difficult.

Let's say you bought a newly released game for $59.99. A couple of weeks pass and you've beat the game. Congratulations! You go back to the video game store and find out the game is still selling at $59.99 a pop. You can take advantage of this opportunity and sell your disc at around $44.99 (2,177Php). Once you've sold your game, you'd have technically only spent $15 (726Php) on it.

4. Finish your game

This is one of the more interesting tips because it tackles the mindset of a gamer.

Some players tend to play through games only until halfway through the story before losing interest and buying the next big thing. This is a bad habit that has to be curbed if you want to save money. A game with 80 hours of content isn't maximized if you only get to around 40 hours of gameplay, meaning you will look for and buy another game sooner than anticipated, burning yet another hole in your pocket before you have a chance of fully recovering from your initial purchase.

Sounds like an unnecessary waste, doesn't it? Completely finishing your game isn't just the practical thing to do, it's also a satisfying thing to do. You feel more accomplished after experiencing a great big adventure. It's almost the same feeling as reading a book up until the last page.

5. Buy games 150+ hours long

If you want to be a thrifty gamer, you'd want to develop a taste for massive and immersive video games.

Do your research and read some reviews to find out about popular titles in gaming that can keep you occupied for more than a hundred hours. Games that last this long usually belong to the role playing genre, like Witcher 3, the Fallout series, or the Persona games. These games are great choices because they can tide you over for weeks or even months depending on how frequently you play.

6. Replay your games

Once you've beaten your game, you might want to check and see if it's something you'd like to replay. Most games nowadays have a new game+ feature which lets you play the game all over again while keeping your latest progress, such as player level and equipment, intact to keep it interesting. Other games have alternate endings which make giving the story another go worth it just to see them.

By replaying games fully, you manage to double the lifespan of your game. A 30-hour game that you can replay will last you about 60 hours in total. Yes, this also means that a 150-hour game can keep you entertained for a whopping 300 hours if you replay it!

7. Take advantage of online sales and freebies

Keep your eyes peeled and your ears opened for any news about games going on sale or are being given away for free.

Physical shops like GameStop and Datablitz don't normally go on sale, but sales happen all the time in the digital world. All you have to do is go to your console's eshop, or for PC players, Steam, to find out about amazing deals.

Games that go free and yours forever is a rarer occurrence, but it does happen. EA made Sims 4 free for a limited time in May last year. Sony made the Uncharted: Nathan Drake collection and Journey games free back when the coronavirus pandemic just broke out. Ubisoft made Assassin's Creed Unity free for a moment to bring awareness to the Notre Dame fire that happened last year.

8. Take advantage of sales... but DON'T buy games you aren't going to play

While it's a good idea to take advantage of sales, you have to make sure you buy games that you're actually going to play. The infamous Steam sale is notorious for making PC gamers buy dozens of video games that they're never actually going to pick up. Isn't it ironic to end up losing all your hard-earned cash when prices are actually lower? When we play our cards right, a sale can actually save us money.

The trick here is to have a target, a game that you actually planned on getting, and buying only that.

9. Don't be fooled by free-to-play games

Free-to-play games seem like the best choice for a gamer on a tight budget, right? After all, it's free, and they're normally multiplayer games so they can provide hundreds of hours of entertainment. There's nothing wrong with playing free-to-play games like Warframe, Fortnite, or Valorant as long as you steer clear of microtransactions.

Microtransactions are a way for the developers of free-to-play games to make some money. They usually do this by selling exclusive weapons or armor in-game that can only be purchased with real money.

Cosmetic items like a fancy hat or a weapon skin are flashy but they can be easily ignored as you play. What's difficult with some free-to-play games are the ones that are "pay-to-win". In these types of games, skill can only get you so far. You're essentially forced by the video game to pay up some real cash just to get an advantage over your opponents. Clash of Clans is an example of a game like this. Sure, microtransactions don't cost a whole lot on their own, but collectively they can total more than $60.00 if you're not careful.

Entertainment: Comparing Mob Psycho 100's Psychic Abilities with Real Life Blessings - An Essay

"If everyone is not special, Maybe you can be what you want to be" - Mob Choir

I used to watch a lot of anime, but I grew out of it in my teenage years. I just don't find it appealing anymore and admittedly, a lot of it's made for a younger audience. Most of the mainstream stuff are Shonen or Moe and I really don't like those genres. I'm not going to get into why I dislike them. Anime that I really enjoy nowadays are stuff like Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, which makes sense because I fall under the Young Male target demographic now.

More importantly for this essay is I also really like Deconstructions. For those of you who don't know, you can check out its long, elaborate definition in the link I inserted. But to put it shortly and simply, a deconstruction is a type of storytelling that picks apart the commonalities of its peers and what makes it work i.e. it's when you "break apart" and analyze a story. Deconstruction isn't a genre of anime -- you can find deconstructions in any medium. They tend to look like parodies but what differentiates deconstructions from parodies is that they're done with the intent of making the viewer think of other similar works, instead of making the viewer laugh through satire which is what parodies normally do. There are two deconstruction animes I currently love: Mob Psycho 100 and Asobi Asobase. I already wrote about Asobi Asobase so we'll just go straight ahead with Mob Psycho 100.

I'd love to get some of the more official art on this blog
but I have to use the license-free images thanks to copyright issues.

Mob Psycho 100 is a Deconstruction anime that's hilarious and epic as much as it's deep. Lady Geek Girl does a great job explaining how Mob Psycho 100 deconstructs the Shonen genre here. If you're in the mood to philosophically contemplate the media you're consuming, you should definitely check it out! That's not what I want to expound on here.

In a nutshell, Mob Psycho 100 is about Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed "Mob" by everyone around him. Mob is your average middle-school boy. He's a bit timid, frail, and he's also not the brightest. He has a crush on a girl that everyone says is way out of his league, and he works part-time for a conman. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun being Mob but what makes him unique is he's blessed with the strongest psychic abilities in the world. He's the closest thing to God when he lets his powers fly out of control. He can easily throw cars in the air and destroy buildings with his mind alone (I know I said he isn't the brightest but you don't need to be smart to be psychic!) The catch of the anime is that Mob doesn't want to use his powers. Not at all. Other psychics exist in Mob's universe and unlike Shigeo, they abuse their powers whenever they think it would benefit them. Mob's enemies are psychics who see themselves as special. They believe the world should put them on a pedestal to be worshipped for their specialty. They get a dose of reality after their run-in with Mob and they realize they're not so special after all. Mob beats them because his powers are on a wholly different level. Pitting the other psychic's powers to Mob's is like comparing a bunch of ants to the freakin' Sun.

With that said, Psychic Abilities play an important role in the world of Mob Psycho 100. It's become the general identifier of someone's specialty in the anime. The stronger your Psychic Abilities, the more special you are. Mob doesn't see himself as someone special even though he has God-given powers. This drives the other, weaker psychics mad because they've been completely invalidated. Psychic powers don't exist in real life, though. The theme of the anime is to be as down-to-earth as possible, so it'd be nice to have a reference on what exactly does the show pertain to exactly.

Below I've listed some real life attributes we have in real life. I'll try to compare them to Psychic Abilities in the anime to see which makes the best match.

1) Capacity for Violence

What if they're basically just punching each other with their minds?

This is an obvious one because there's so much destruction and fighting in the anime. It's wrong, but the reality is it's easy to get others to do what you want them to do, and get what you want, by using force. This is exactly what the Scar group (Mob's psychic enemies) do with their powers. Although more or less, an individual's capacity for violence isn't necessarily something someone is born with -- it can be trained -- this fits well given that Shonen anime are also basically about fighting, starring protagonists blessed with inexplicably strong powers.

Mob could be a middle-school boy with unholy bloodlust deep within him that freaks out adults like the Scars. They must think they're so tough just because they have a bit of bloodlust in them too. This situation would be somewhat similar to a bunch of fighters (Scar), who underestimate an up-and-coming street fighter with enormous potential (Mob).

I thought of the equivalence of violence to Psychic Abilities during the scene in one of the last episodes of season 2 where Mob scolded a bunch of weak psychics using their powers to break windows and loot abandoned shops. Mob can do the exact same thing, but he doesn't because he's in control of his bloodlust. He'd rather be a productive member of society.

2) Good Looks

Psychics are just a bunch of Narcissists

Psychic Abilities can be a symbolism for good looks because charisma and attractiveness is just something someone is born with. The reality is some people are born more attractive than others. Sometimes this gets into the heads of the charming people, and they start to think that they're more special than everybody else just because of their good looks.

It's possible that the symbolism here is that all the psychics are much more attractive than the general crowd, so they believe they deserve to be worshipped on a pedestal. Mob can be someone so young and so incredibly handsome who doesn't agree with this worldview, and he prefers to work hard to put some meaning into his life. This upsets the psychics because they know very well that without their charisma they're nothing in life. Mob, who has something going on for him while also being the best looking out of all of them, reminds them of their inferiority.

I'm stretching a bit here, but one of my evidences for thinking this is during Mob's fight with Teru, who proclaimed "I am the main character of the story" because he sees himself as so charismatic.

3) High IQ

Einstein may not have been a psychic,
but at least he contributed to society

High IQ works really well as a match for Psychic Abilities because both of these things are mental in nature. Similar to good looks, this is something that people are simply born with. Some people are gifted with high IQs, while others are not so lucky. IQ doesn't change drastically over the course of a person's life.

I thought of the connection between the two because there are so many pseudo-intellectuals online who like to compare IQs as if they're measuring d*ck lengths. Someone would say their IQ is 117, and another would jump out of nowhere to say their IQ is 121. All they do is spend a lot of time comparing IQs and arguing about esoteric topics on the internet instead of doing anything productive. People with high IQs also lack in the EQ department, so oftentimes they act like buttholes.

That goes exactly against one of the core messages of the anime: Just be a Good Person, okay?

I'm also reminded again of the scene where Mob scolds the weak psychics for breaking stuff and asks them a bunch of questions related to being a productive member of society, like if they know how to craft the glass they broke, manufacture the can they stole, or plant the seeds of the tree that creates the ingredients for the soda they didn't pay for. What's the point of having a high IQ if you're just going to spend all of your time arguing?

4) Money/Social Class

Psychics and the Bourgeoisie have one thing in common:
They're entitled

Out of all the items on this list, I think this is the one where I really stretch out. Regardless, I still see plenty of similarities between what the show's trying to say about Psychic Abilities, and our real life "power" of Money/Social Class.

Status is something we're born with. If we're born middle-class we'll probably die as middle-class. Likewise, if we were born as part of the lower class, we'd probably still be lower-class when we die. Moving up or down a status is actually quite difficult. Obviously, moving up is a lot harder than moving down. Our status carries money, and money is power.

I thought about this when I realized Teru was a popular kid in his own school. Normally it's the rich kids who become popular. The privilege associated with rich individuals give them the upper hand when it comes to sports, getting respect, and talking to the opposite sex. I also see a similarity between Psychic Powers and Money in the last episode of Season 2. Toichiro became so strong because he saved up his powers for over 20 years, kind of like how you can save money up.

5) Mental Illness

This looks nearly identical to that one scene in the opening!

This is the last one on the list because I like to save the best for last.

Mental Illness connects with Psychic Abilities because they're both psychological in nature (duh), and they both play a part when it comes to a person's emotions. Nowadays the term "Mental Illness" is used way too much, to the point that the term has lost both its meaning and value, and maybe that's one thing Mob Psycho 100 is trying to show.

There are many self-proclaimed psychics in the show, but a lot of them are fake. These psychics can be seen as "man-children" who just want to be seen as unique by society to get special treatment. The Scars, although they really do have psychic powers i.e. they really do have mental illnesses, think they deserve special treatment for it. Not Mob. Mob might have a really severe mental illness that he can't control, but he doesn't let that get to his head as him being "entitled". He understands that his mental illness isn't something to be celebrated. In fact, he sees it as a curse, so he tries to live his life as if it doesn't exist.

I thought of this connection between mental illnesses and psychic abilities because of the traumatic experience Mob had with his little brother, when they were bullied. Mob unconsciously used his powers to kill the bullies, but he badly injured his little brother in the process. Ever since that incident, his brother Ritsu's been afraid of him whenever he has episodes. Ritsu doesn't want his brother to be stressed out because he might explode again.

As someone who is mentally ill, I can say with certainty my sisters really don't like it when I have one of my episodes. They try to steer clear from it as much as possible.

Conclusion:

I know just last week I said I made a really long blog post, but apparently this one is longer than my blog post about why video games are a good way to waste your time. What have we learned from all that I've written about Mob and the show's Psychic Abilities?

I think it's safe to say that the author, One, did a good job of choosing Psychic Abilities as the "power type" that makes the special characters in the anime, well... special. Since Psychic Abilities have a lot in common with a bunch of other attributes like the ones I listed above, its very easy to relate to the anime. The show clearly wants us to relate it with our own lives, so it let's us see what we want to see since Psychic Abilities actually don't exist in real life. We're allowed to fill in the gap on what would it really be in real life.

What do you think the Psychic Abilities represent in Mob Psycho 100? Is it different from the ones I mentioned in the list? Let me know in the comments below :)

Entertainment: The Logan Effect (aka the Post-Hero), and where it can be found in other similar works of fiction

There's been a certain trend in entertainment lately, wherein instead of starry-eyed, young, energetic heroes are found under the spotlight, rugged, bearded, tired old men have been the protagonists of stories. Wisecrack's video perfectly sums this up in what they have dubbed the Post-Hero, but they did this by only mentioning Logan, God of War, and The Last Jedi; I can name several more protagonists and shows that fit the archetype and aesthetics as they're more prevalent than it seems.

Images used to create this edit belong to their respective copyright users. Images used below are labelled for reuse.

I've personally dubbed this trend The Logan Effect even if Logan wasn't the first work of fiction to exhibit it. The reason behind this is because Logan might just arguably be the most well-known piece of media if I were to make a complete list. The Logan Effect is categorized most predominantly by an aged, bearded protagonist, well beyond his prime in terms of fighting. He is someone with nothing left to lose. He will often be accompanied by a sidekick that is youthful, and act as an idealistic foil to the  rugged protagonist's cynical outlook. The protagonist of the story and the sidekick will not get along at first, -- there may be some serious fighting between them during the story -- but in time they warm up to each other to make for some endearing character development moments. Also much like how Logan increases the amount of gore compared to its predecessors, those that exhibit the Effect will be bloody. Very very bloody.

Hopefully that description isn't too vague for the readers. Below are some items in fiction that portray the Logan Effect (i.e. they're basically a bunch of stuff with violent old men as protagonists).

1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)

Admittedly, this one is slightly stretching it, since the only thing this video game has that can be called Logan Effect-ish is the protagonist. However I do actually think that this is the very first instance of the Logan Effect, way back in 2008. I also believe that this was the very first instance of an action video game protagonist over the age of 50 (Snake isn't actually above the age of 50, but his rapidly deteriorating physiology definitely seems like it).

Metal Gear Solid's 4th entry into the series introduced us to Old Snake. A war veteran way past his prime due to being a war machine born from a test tube. Snake is thrust into the battlefield once more to finish a long war to prevent the proliferation of giant war machines capable of launching nukes. Old Snake was the same protagonist for two of the previous main installments into the series. He still exuded a tough professional sort of personality in the other games, but it was in Metal Gear Solid 4 that we got to see him tired of fighting, and of humanity's insatiable greed that relentlessly innovates and lubricates the gears of war. Old Snake's combat skills have gotten rusty due to aging; he isn't as spry as he used to be.

2. The Last of Us (2013)

This video game has a very strong resemblance to Logan, and I daresay Logan actually took some inspirations from this video game (Even the director of the video game tweeted how much Logan reminded him of TLoU's protagonist, Joel). The Last of Us would probably win against all the other items on this list if we were to pit them against each other based on which one exudes the most Logan Effect.

The Last of Us brings us to a dystopian world brought to ruin by a horrifying fungal infection that turns people into faceless flesh-eating zombies. We play as Joel, an old man who was there when society succumbed to the disease. For most of the duration of the game, he's accompanied by Ellie, a sincere spunky girl. Very much like Logan, Joel and Ellie travel together across the dangerous country because Joel has been tasked to deliver Ellie to the destination safe and sound.

3. Bioshock Infinite (2013)

Bioshock Infinite is another 2013 video game that exudes some Logan Effect, more or less. It's a bit more steampunk and sci-fi than the average story with the Logan Effect, but it checks out because of the reluctant hero and endearing character development between hero and sidekick. The one major crime that nearly disqualifies it from this list is the fact that the protagonist doesn't don a beard.

We play as Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent turned private investigator. He's tasked with taking a woman, Elizabeth, from where she's kept, to Booker's employers so that they can wipe away his debt. The whole task becomes a lot more complicated when Booker finds out that Elizabeth is held captive in a floating city, and she turns out to be far more special and extraordinary than Booker could imagine.

4. Samurai Jack (2017)

Samurai Jack's fifth and final season makes it on this list thanks to its brutal fight scenes that reflect how much the show has matured with its audience, much like how Logan did. Jack's mighty new beard also definitely helps to have it on the list. Although the show's promotional material only show Jack as the protagonist, he's also accompanied by a sidekick after the first half of the season that gives him a new perspective on things.

The show made a big splash on the internet when news of an M-rated fifth and final season of the classic cartoon was going to be aired on 2017. Much time has passed since the happenings of the previous seasons of Samurai Jack, wherein we saw the noble samurai, flung into the future by the evil entity Aku, travel wide and far to find some way to travel back in time. His search has proven fruitless, and Jack has begun wandering the world as a mere husk of his former self while being relentlessly hunted by Aku's fiercest warriors.

5. Red Dead Redemption (2010)

Red Dead Redemption perfectly encapsulates the Post-Western genre, which is where the Post-Hero borrows heavily from as mentioned by Wisecrack in their video. As such, even though the protagonist of our story here doesn't have a sidekick, its story, themes, and aesthetic all make it ooze with so much Logan Effect.

The star of our story is John Marston, an ex-outlaw who quit his life of crime to live his remaining days as a family-man as far away from violence as possible. John's past bites him in the back when government agents force him to work for them to track down the remaining members of his gang, otherwise he won't see his family again. John Marston reluctantly goes back to the path of violence one last time to safe his family and the life he's worked so hard to build.


And there you have it. That's a short list of items I've seen that reminded me of the Post-Hero, and subsequently, Logan. I'm sure if I thought about it more I'd add some other stuff to the list, but I'm afraid I'd be stretching it already. All of the titles I mentioned above work well with a Logan Style Trailer which is a trend in video editing lately. A beautiful perfect example is the video below.



Do you have any other titles that you believe captures the same essence of Logan, or the Post-Hero? Leave a comment below and let's talk about it :)