Online gaming has undoubtedly made the world a smaller place. Just flicking on a console or turning on your PC can allow you to play online games with people from almost anywhere on the planet. While this global community has to been seen as a good thing, it does seem a shame that so many young people are happy to experience the world through the internet and not in person. Perhaps it’s time to put down the game pad and start planning a real trip!
Sell Up and Travel
If you are a keen gamer who is into computers and tech, then you probably spend a fair amount of money on your hobby. Let’s say you have a top notch gaming PC that cost around £800. Then you have a nice laptop that cost around £500. Don’t forget about your other PC – the old one you don’t use much but keep just on case – that’s worth about £250. Of course you buy games too, so let’s say you buy at least five new games a year at full price, that’s roughly another £200. You also subscribe to a few online games for another £50 a year and of course you’ll spent at least £200 a year on your internet access. So, there is around £2,000 that you could (in theory) use to live in India or South America for six months. That cash could send you backpacking across the USA for a couple of months or on a cruise around the Bahamas.
Not so Extreme
Of course that is going a bit far off the deep end, but you can see the point. People spend a huge amount of money these days to sit in their homes and interact with people across the world over the internet, when really the only way to understand these cultures is to visit them in person. Why not try and cut back on your online presence just a little bit – spend a little less on gaming and instead use those funds to visit somewhere real.
Cash In on Retro Systems
One way to free up some cash for a mini tour to a far-off country is by cashing in on your old games and consoles while there is still demand. Retro gaming is pretty big at the moment with a fair demand for certain games and accessories. If you have any old systems you barely use then it’s time to move on and cash out while you can. Auction your old SNES online, clean up that broken Master System and sell it for parts and sell Nintendo Wii games that you played once but then never picked up again. You won’t make enough for a trip around the world, but it’s certainly a start.
A Healthy Balance
The internet has really taken the world by storm and its practical uses are endless, but don’t forget that there are real places to see and real people to meet (face to face) out there. Not everything worth doing can be done via a computer screen and a headset.
