Akroview

Nowadays we live in a world where everything is digital now, books can be read online, kindles are the new fashion accessory, movies can be streamed online and even the majority of the TV shows that people watch seemed to be streamed from their laptop on their TV. This actually prompted a bill to be passed here in Ireland to tax the people if they owned an electronic device that could have access to the internet and could stream tv shows, since it was costing the government because people didn’t need to buy a TV license to watch their shows on the TV. This didn’t last very long, there was outrage because this affected people that didn’t own a TV too. They had all the entertainment they needed either sitting on their lap or hiding away in their pocket.

This new realm of digital purchasing has been especially prevalent in the gaming world with almost all of the standard edition of games being bought on online marketplaces and through stores built into the consoles themselves. Although this is a handy and easy way to get gamers their games it doesn’t have the same feeling of waiting outside a games store for a midnight launch, call me old fashioned but I still love the excitement of that. (Yes I know..NEEEERRRRDDDD!!!)

But it is the same for all forms of media, there is always a crowd that wants to hold a physical copy of their media, be it CD’s, games, DVDs or newspapers. now don’t get me wrong there is always gonna be a store that sells these in physical form, but there is one media that I find is a rarity to find nowadays, PC games! There seems to be a neglect in physical copies of PC games, now before you jump at my throat I am aware there are stores that sell copies of PC games, but come on, they’re usually down the far back of the store. I also will stand up and say that I do enjoy the effortless clicking of buttons to purchase the next big game, its simple and fast, depending on your internet connection of course. and there are websites such as GreenManGaming that tend to sell these titles at cheaper prices then the likes of Steam and other big online retailers. I don’t trust them as much as I would Steam, if you have ever used sites like GMG that please get in contact with me through my Facebook Page!

I mainly find myself drifting towards bundle websites, sites that give you a bundle of games for a set price. Usually these games are small indie games and are fun to try out, and then sometimes you get bundles from big developers, mainly from sites like HumbleBundle. And this brings me to the main point of this feature, Charity! Humble Bundle has a great system in which you pay as much as you want and then determine how much of your money goes to charity, how much to the developer of the game, and how much goes to Humble Bundle themselves. This is a great feeling that you can get all these great games for a small price and you get to help out a great cause. But with that thought in mind, why not check out some charity shops in your town or area, I had a walk around my local town today and this was the reason I wanted to write this feature!

I walked into the Irish Cancer Society on the way home from the dentist, I usually do this looking at the DVDs and books. The thing I love about charity shops is the fact that the people that work there don’t know what they are dealing with, and I know that you may cclal that mean and bad, but that’s not stopping them from getting business, they have a set price for some of their products, for example it could be like “Books €3, DVDs €5 and CD’s €2”, so whatever they get in they put that price on it no matte what. And this is where the headline of this story comes into play, the people working in these places don’t seem to know the difference between DVD’s and games. They come in the same type of package and contain a disc so they plop it into the DVD section and there ya go, a really cheap game just sitting there. I found 5 games today in a few charity shops, I will list them below, with the price I paid and the price on the likes of Steam and other gaming websites. Also before you start saying “Oh you could’ve torrented some of them, why would you spend money on them?!” Well as I mentioned, all this goes to charity and helps out in a little way so this way its not only gives me a physical copy of a game, but also a nice feeling that my money is going somewhere and not just into the pockets of some CEO!

Listing on website – £5.00 (ish)

I paid – €1

Listing on website – €24.99

I Paid – €2

Listing on Website – €13.99

I Paid – €1

Listing on Website – $20 + (New seems to be over $100!)

I Paid – €1

Listing on Website – £3,999 (Not joking! but used is about £2-£10)

I Paid – €1

I hope you enjoyed this and I hope this encourages you to go and check out your local charity shop and see what treasures it holds for you. Thanks for reading!

DayDay!

Adam.