Video Game Overdose

[Airliner]

This is off topic but, I caught part of Laura Ingraham tonight (re-broadcast of an older show, being Independence Day and all) and she
was talking about video games and how some people go way overboard. Anyway, this one guy called in and said how his 11 year old
son is allowed 4 hours of game time on the weekend if he does his chores, homewrok, etc. first. Fair enough; I'd give my kids a similar
restriction myself. When Laura questioned him about how much his son reads, plays sports, etc. he acknowledged that he did that
plenty as well. Sounds good so far, right? Well, the next statement caused Laura to almost fall out of her seat. He said that over the
past 3 years, he has spent between 8 and 9 THOUSAND DOLLARS (US) on video games for his ELEVEN YEAR OLD son! She
said, "WHAT?!!!" I almost fell out of the car! Even with hardware, how do you spend $8-9,000 on GAMES? At $50/game, that's at least
160 games in 3 years. And, I don't think they even addressed what system it was; maybe Playstation or something, in which case,
hardware is minimal.

I can't wait to tell my wife that one! Maybe now she won't feel so bad that I have ONE game installed (FS9). Well, BF2 but, I got tired of
that one after only making Lance Corporal.

I wonder what she'd think if she had calls from Flight Simmers who can spend hours on a single flight! Again, this is a bit different, as
it's more of a real-life simulation environment and not a simple, shooter game like most.

That just killed me, though - $8-9,000!

[Sovek]

owwwwwwie, 4 hours per weekend, couldnt stand that. But thats beside the point, how does one spend 8-9 grand on games, and only plays four hours a
week. someone shoot him. Thats way too much

[jetdude43]

thats not fair i get 2 video games a year and only on christmas!!!!!

[Airliner]

Well, he did say that his son "learns and finishes" them pretty quickly. Must not be open-ended stuff like FS9, BF2 (at 11? I hope not!),
SimCity4, etc. Still, that's a lotta coin to drop on games! Laura said, "Take him on a trip for that kinda money!" Hey, when I was
younger, my folks and I took a 13 day mini-tour of western Europe (selected parts of England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Luxembourg
and France) and it costs something like $2000, including airfare. For a family of 3, that's 6 grand and still 2-3 left to spend on games. I
can't even fathom what this kid has in his collection. I would hope he at least would trade them for credit toward new ones, if
he "finished" them.