Maybe I'm particularly pathetic, but WoW hasn't only curtailed my game purchases, its curtailed my purchasing in general as well.
I used to be a steadfast console gamer, checking the review sites every week and eagerly heading to EB each Wednesday to check out the latest and greatest. I'd pick up between 3-5 games a month.
And then I found WoW. And as others have posted, I haven't felt any compelling need to buy anything else since then. It's not that I've made a conscious decision to save money, it's just that the desire to play anything else is gone. I'd much rather hop online and help one of my friends kill a few murlocs than play the latest and greatest single-person console game.
But wait, there's more! I used to participate in random consumerism just to cure my boredom. Have a rough week at work? Feeling restless? Nothin' a new iPod can't fix. Feeling a little blue? Why not forget about it for a while with some new clothes.
These days? When I've had a rough week, or I'm feeling restless or blue, I find that I can get the exact same satisfaction by heading to the WoW auction house and buying myself something useless and pretty as I can by buying something in RL. My virtual consumerism is every bit as fulfilling as my RL consumerism was. And it's a whole lot cheaper.
So thank you, Blizzard. You've probably saved me from thousands of dollars' worth of crap that'd just be sitting in a closet somewhere.
The difference here is that DDR isn't your "typical" peripheral game. It's an obsession. None of the peripherals you mention above had the soft of following that DDR does. You don't see the Power Glove in Sketchers commercials on MTV.
You can buy cheap DDR pads from the mall, but there's a whole industry of much better pads, really great pads, and custom, homemade pads. Cottage industries like this don't crop up without the following to support them.
It's not unusual for people without room in their house to drag a TV out to their garage to play. There's DDR clubs at colleges. DDR's been used in high schools as an alternate gym class activity.
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Maybe I'm particularly pathetic, but WoW hasn't only curtailed my game purchases, its curtailed my purchasing in general as well.
I used to be a steadfast console gamer, checking the review sites every week and eagerly heading to EB each Wednesday to check out the latest and greatest. I'd pick up between 3-5 games a month.
And then I found WoW. And as others have posted, I haven't felt any compelling need to buy anything else since then. It's not that I've made a conscious decision to save money, it's just that the desire to play anything else is gone. I'd much rather hop online and help one of my friends kill a few murlocs than play the latest and greatest single-person console game.
But wait, there's more! I used to participate in random consumerism just to cure my boredom. Have a rough week at work? Feeling restless? Nothin' a new iPod can't fix. Feeling a little blue? Why not forget about it for a while with some new clothes.
These days? When I've had a rough week, or I'm feeling restless or blue, I find that I can get the exact same satisfaction by heading to the WoW auction house and buying myself something useless and pretty as I can by buying something in RL. My virtual consumerism is every bit as fulfilling as my RL consumerism was. And it's a whole lot cheaper.
So thank you, Blizzard. You've probably saved me from thousands of dollars' worth of crap that'd just be sitting in a closet somewhere.
The difference here is that DDR isn't your "typical" peripheral game. It's an obsession. None of the peripherals you mention above had the soft of following that DDR does. You don't see the Power Glove in Sketchers commercials on MTV.
You can buy cheap DDR pads from the mall, but there's a whole industry of much better pads, really great pads, and custom, homemade pads. Cottage industries like this don't crop up without the following to support them.
It's not unusual for people without room in their house to drag a TV out to their garage to play. There's DDR clubs at colleges. DDR's been used in high schools as an alternate gym class activity.
DDR is a Whole Thing.