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Jaicee on 12 October 2023
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SvennoJ said:

I had to pay for my own internet and phone bill as well. I played Everquest from 1999 on, first on dial up. So that was $9.89 a month originally for the EQ subscription (989 studios publisher), paying for ISP access (35 guilders a month), plus paying local phone costs which Everquest drove up to avg 200 guilders a month. Then you had to buy the expansions separately as well. So about $1,400 a year to play Everquest before expansions. $2,380 in today's money.
Plus I was playing on a 9,000 guilder PC at the time. About $4,000 back then, now $6,800.

But it was all possible because I got a good job while still living in cheap accommodations right out of university. My living costs were 10% of my gross income. My rent was 300 guilders a month ($136 at the time) including utilities. I didn't have much though, but enough to play games in!

Btw I always find it funny Americans complaining about sales tax. It was 19% for us in 1999, nowadays it's 21% in Europe! I live in Ontario now where it's 13%. But I also remember getting 6.5% interest on my standard bank account back then...

There are still some people keeping the tradition going


Most screens had this running


Sweeeeeeeet! I mean about your setup and the peeps still keeping such a cool tradition alive (), not the expense, fucking yikes!! I could never have afforded that in my life. I guess the sales tax here feels pricey to me 'cause I don't really make that much money and because it just seems unnecessary. Why not a system of progressive taxation that's rooted in people's ability to pay? Well, public policy opinions aside, I actually wound up getting most of my Super NES (and also Genesis, Neo Geo, Jaguar CD, and 3DO, old NES, and other games of this general era) games in a single clearance sale at a FuncoLand that went on for months from 2002 well into '03. It was the closeout period before their full rebranding as Game Stop. They massively discounted a ridiculously extensive library of classics for all kinds of older systems that they had left over to the point where you could acquire all but the rarest and most prized of titles for like $10 or less. Thinking I might never get another chance like this, I shot the wad on my first sighting of the clearance tables. Fortunately, the sale continued for many more months and I was able to repeat visits. By the time it was all over and Game Stop in that area was officially born, I'd acquired just about everything I'd ever wanted before from that era in gaming. One of the smartest investments I ever made!

First time I played EverQuest, which was also in '99, I enjoyed the miracle of a DSL connection which...just YaY for that! Even more luckily, I was still 17 at the time, so the basic cost of living was still being covered by my parents. I was working though and had my own income, to that end.