Too Old-School/Cheap?

I had a conversation with a co-worker the other day concerning the  Steam Holiday Sale.  I was spreading the Steam-love, telling him some of the great deals I had seen online (specifically Dead Space 2, Avadon, and the GTA Bundle).  He looked amused at my glee (I love spreading cheapness) and replied, "gravy, you're too old school, man."

This surprised me.  "What do you mean?  Most of those games were released this year"

"But they are all played out.  You've talked about both Skyrim and Saint's Row 3.  Why don't you just get one of those?  And Avadon?  A turn-based game?"

This required a bit of thought.  "If I wait I can get them cheaper.  By this time next year Saint's Row 3 at the very least will be $15 on sale, and if Skyrim doesn't some out with an expansion pack it will be too.  Also, back off of Avadon.  If you tried the demo you would see why I like that companies' games."

"So you're just a cheap-ass, then.  You don't want to support a game while it is hot."

"A cheap-ass?  No.  Yes.  Let me explain: I am both old school and a cheap-ass, I don't see the value of jumping into a game at a $59 price point.  That doesn't mean I'm not supporting the game (it's not like I'm buying them used), but I like to put more value on my money."

"What about the multiplayer component you are missing-"

"I don't care about multiplayer.  Get back to work."

I don't care about multiplayer.  I haven't cared since I took advantage of a 48 hour Gold Pass on Xbox Live and was asked nearly continuously if I was a "Nigger", a "Spic", and a "Faggot", all because I was actually competent at the game (which was the original Saint's Row, by the way).  That was enough for me.  Ever since voice chat has become a norm in multiplayer games it I've been turned off by what I've heard.  My coworker doesn't see this, as he is a professional gamer (on the side) and generally only practices and competes on closed servers, so any verbal jocularity he experiences in these environments can be put down to verbal sparring, instead of a hate filled rant because I played better than my opponent for five minutes.  At this statement many would no doubt berate me, saying that this is how things are now, so I need to cheerup or piss off.  I've opted to piss off.

And old school?  Proud of it.  The day I can no longer play a game for the old school content that it offers, be it story, gameplay, controls, or graphics, is the day that I tell the whole gaming world to piss off.

Steam Sale Reconsidered pt 1

No sooner did I hit the "Publish" button did my wife walk into the room and ask about the Steam sale.  Apparently, now I can get "something" from the store.  The only problem is there is less than fours hours left in the sale (though on the Steam frontpage the countdown timer says "New Deal Starts In", which is maddening).

When I purchase games, I tend to spend more time (and frankly, have almost as much fun) mulling over my choices, adding and subtracting from my cart innumerable times.

This is going to be a long morning.

GTA 3? Again?

 So I'm not sure how this happened, but I somehow managed to miss the fact that Grand Theft Auto 3 has landed in the App Store.  You know, life was just so less complicated before twenty minutes ago.  Here I was, getting ready to dump Alan Wake into my Xbox, when I noticed that the damn game was $4.99, which is exactly $5 less than Chinatown Wars (and $2 less than Infinity Blade II).  Dammit.  Do I really need this game?  After 3.4 second of deliberation I can confidently say "yes" to that question.  The only real issue is how I am going to explain this to my wife...