I've been thinking about this a lot recently. I had used Xbox gamepass for a long time when it was really cheap. You could upgrade a regular subscription to gamepass for a dollar. That went up after a while by a little bit but stayed the same service wise.
They recently changed it to where you can convert, but they reduce your subscription time. It's annoying because I want to use gamepass as a rental service, but if I do that, they convert your entire account to gamepass and reduce your overall time for their regular online services (which is a whole other can of worms)
I'm debating if it's worth it right now. I've experienced a lot of games i likely wouldn't try, because of the service. I've gotta go through and calculate all the games I've played and the price associated.
I already buy most games when they're on a 60% or more discount. I'm wondering if I should/could just stop most of my purchases.. There's a lot of older titles I've always wanted to play.
I'm torn because I don't really spend money on anything else. Maybe some food or treats. It's weird because I'm in this middle zone where I can technically save up for some luxury items, but too poor to save for anything actually significant. So it kind of feels like I'm just perpetually stuck on a hamster wheel. I've been trying to figure out how I can either work less or earn more because right now it's really getting hard to justify just working to exist. It just feels oddly pointless
I feel like the carrot(media and consumption) is getting dangled in front of my face. I chase it in order to feel better about my situation, but it's just a band aid for larger systemic issues that I don't know how to fix. Without consumption, I am nothing (which is extremely sad and messed up now that I think about it.) Any major goals or milestones are just a dream and consumption is the escape from the reality.
That's a good point. It reminds me of a quote that I recently heard that I enjoy.
"You should support indies if you can, but culture shouldn't exist only for those who can afford it. ULTRAKILL wouldn't exist if I hadn't had easy access to movies, music and games growing up.
If you don't have money, you can support via word of mouth." - the creator of ultrakill.