This being a new year and all, I sat down with the budget today, and things are not looking good. I’m still not entirely sure what the 10% salary reduction will look like after taxes, but we were playing it pretty close to the bone to begin with. Just a few posts ago I was idly wondering if I could swing a Station Pass so I could play EQ2 and Vanguard, but after looking at the numbers, not only was the answer “no” but in fact I had to cancel EQ2 as well, at least for a couple months. I need to get some regular freelance income rolling in (or have things look up at work and have my full salary reinstated) and until then a monthly game subscription isn’t really in the cards.

I still have almost a full month of EQ2 paid for, over a month of Warhammer Online, and until Jan 31 in Vanguard’s “Come back to Vanguard” promo, so I’m not going to be feeling any kind of a sting for a while (and who knows, by then maybe another source of income will have made itself known). And I’m patting myself on the back for springing for the Lifetime membership to LOTRO, because I’ll have at least that one AAA title to play.

But rather than be glum about this turn of events, I’m looking at it as a challenge. Free-To-Play MMOs are getting better all the time, and micro-transactions rock in that they’re a) micro and b) one-time expenses. So I’ll be looking at a lot of F2P MMOs, and watching for other gaming deals, and getting the most fun I can for the least money. (Right now I’m downloading the ad-supported version of FPS Area-51… about 2 days after I said I’d never play a FPS again… but I figured its FREE so why not give it a try.)

Hopefully I can keep things semi-interesting around here, though I acknowledge it’ll be a challenge when I’m playing some obscure game about sand gardening while everyone else is playing DC Universe Online or something. But I’ll try!!