Video games make you feel better about our economy's death spiral

With the financial markets still reeling, Americans are looking for distraction. NPR.org says that movies have often filled the void left by rough economic times, but these days video games are taking the pain out of all of our money going down the drain.

And video games are a better investment than movies, lasting longer and providing more hours of entertainment. In fact, video games are probably a better investment than a house or stocks at this point.

Now, nearly 80 years later, Americans looking for a cheap way to distract themselves from tough times aren't turning to theaters. Though movie revenues are up slightly, the number of movie tickets sold has remained fairly constant for the past decade.

By comparison, overall video game sales are up 43 percent from this time in 2007. Since its release on Aug. 12, fans have purchased more than 2 million copies of the football game Madden NFL 09, according to the National Purchase Diary (NPD) Group.

David Riley of the NPD Group says part of the reason video game sales are rising and movie ticket sales aren't is that a movie only lasts a couple of hours -- it gives you less "bang for your buck."

Since most people affected by the economic downturn already have computers, this makes a good bit of sense. But, I don't know that those really suffering are going to go out and buy an Xbox, even with the reduced price.

[nintendoeats]

And, of course, with the Wii's comical level of popularity all of that money is going to Japan. Beautiful.

[john55440]

My favorite cheap distraction is a long (5+ mile) walk in a local (1,000 acre) park. The only expense is gas; car parking and park usage is free. It's good for the body, and exercise is supposed to be helpful for depression.

[Dalkorian]

If you're close enough to the park, consider biking instead. That eliminates the gas expense and is quite liberating.

Of course that won't work if you're 50 miles from the park ...

I'm lucky in that I live about a mile from the beach. A long walk on a beach usually does it for me, no matter how stressed I am.

[AzizG]

First time commenting - much respect for you Dave, from what I can gather.

I disagree with your last sentence: "I don't know that those really suffering are going to go out and buy an Xbox, even with the reduced price."

I went to a high school on the border between Washington, DC and Maryland. The school was a melting pot, attracting 300 out of 4000 upper middle class kids, and placing them right next to the other 3300 lower middle to welfare kids. Do you know that the most expensive cars, video game systems, TVs, shoes, and clothing that I saw were always owned by kids from poorer families.

I don't know how significant my own limited observations were as a young chubby dork, but I quickly learned to go to their houses to play games and watch TV. There would always be tons of Cheetos and Koolaid, stuff my parents new better than to feed me, and I loved it. The video game system was simply the cheapest and most effective babysitter their parents could afford. Net cost to their parents would be $50/month for two years if you factored the cost of 2 game rentals per week, and a full system with multiple controllers.

I don't think a downturn economy = less video game system sales for the poor. I think it means the opposite actually.

Now my upper middle class friends, the online computer gamers who build their PCs from scratch and only with the best video cards and parts, they are not gaming as much as they used to. They have to work too much these days, so it's rare that we'll get a game going together. Most of them are freaked out that they'll become addicted to a game and wipe out their productivity.

--my two cents.