[LtWorf]

> A $70 AAA game costs less than one mediocre dinner out

Either in USA the cost of life is very strange, or you are making up numbers.

At 70$ per person in expensive western europe it would be a VERY VERY FANCY restaurant.

Also eating isn't a hobby.

You can buy a decent guitar for 500€ and use it for the next 50 years. Which can't be done with games you don't own since they disappear.

[acomjean]

For 2 people $70 is pretty middle of the road restaurant in 2024. ($35 a piece)

I went somewhere (slightly) fancy and it was slightly over $100 for 2 people with drinks. I live in an expensive area though (around Boston)

I think in cost per hour games are a great value if that 70$ game holds your attention for 20+ hours. I suspect 500 Euro gets a pretty great guitar.

I guess you spend money where it’s important too you.

[LtWorf]

You normally count per person not per n amount of people.

[happymellon]

Depends. If I'm considering it entertainment, then it isn't unreasonable to think about how much I would have to spend for it to be entertaining.

I don't normally eat by myself and would be paying for my wife to join me, and therefore it's the cost of two meals.

[The_Colonel]

Wouldn't then it be fair to count 2 game licenses as well?

[behringer]

Absolutely. There are many games I've had to play double for to play them with friends/family.

[weebull]

So it's $140 dollars for 2 in the comparison. Right?

[happymellon]

Depends, a lot of games I buy only require the one purchase for two people to play on the same screen.

[dangus]

Maybe it’s just my phrasing but I consider the “slightly fancy” places you mentioned ($35/person) to be mediocre, not in the “it was bad” sense, just in the sense that it’s nothing particularly special and that it would be a meal that I could easily surpass at home with my own home cooking.

To me a fancy/good/special meal out is something that only a culinary school-trained chef with access to the restaurant supply chain can actually pull off.

I’m also thinking you didn’t include tax and 20% tip. “With drinks” implies at least two drinks per person? Or are we rationing, one per customer here? Do you tell your date they can’t order another glass of wine or can’t touch the cocktail menu, American light lagers only?

$50 a person with two drinks including tax and tip is like an evening at a chain restaurant like Texas Roadhouse or the Cheesecake Factory. Maybe not even that, you might even have to step down to Olive Garden.

Eating isn’t a hobby but eating out with service sure is.

No matter, this is all pedantry on your part. I already showed you that my ~$250/year gaming budget is relatively modest, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t ever stop myself from buying a game I’m interested in.

If you have a single Netflix no-ads Ultra HD account you’re spending about the same cost on content you don’t get to keep the moment you shut the subscription off.

Hell, Amazon Prime charges $140 a year for basically nothing and 200 million people eat that shit up for breakfast.

[LtWorf]

You've never been to europe in your entire life, and here is a rant teaching me how I should behave and do things in my continent, a place where you'd stand out like a japenese in southafrica.