It may have gone from really expensive to less expensive, but it's still expensive.

A gallon would be about USD 5.50 around here too.

And we are supposedly oil self-sufficient.

Yup, I totally agree with you, posted before on this as well, and when you look at inflation, we are actually paying less for games than we did back in the 80's..

also think about this, go to a movie and get snacks - for just 1 person thats going to be $20 at least, for 2 hours works out to be $10 per hour of entertainment.

Even a short 8 hour game for $60 is a better value for your money :)

I was like 4 or 5 when I first saw that ad in the Sears Catalog. I couldn't read all the words but I understood Ninja Turtles.....Good times....

And if I recall correctly, I begged my mom to buy Eternal Champions which was like $69.99 when it came out in the 90's. My brother still resents me for it to this day because he hated that game.

Americans like to hear themselves complain, thats for sure.

everywhere else games ARE expensive.

But the same is true for most technology. I mean the computers we get nowadays are way more powerful than computers just 10-15 yrs ago, yet prices have not gone up. When beta first came out, 1 hr tapes costed about 15 bucks if I'm not mistaken. We get much more than that for much less than that nowadays.

Technology kinda runs on a world of it's own when it comes to prices, as costs go down insanely fast (well this can be argued especially when games nowadays are starting to have insanely high budgets) and prices for the customer stay relatively flat (technically they fall due to inflation).

But anyway, it's very true what was said. Cost of living of everything around us has gone up and stuff like video games have become much more accessible. And as someone mentioned, I hate going to the movies and spending, say 20 bucks for 2 hrs of entertainment when I buy a lot of my games for 20-30 bucks and I get so much more enjoyment outa them.

The reason the price has gone up so slowly is because if the game went up with inflation the industry would bury itself. DVDs and VHS have been the same price and one day Blu Ray will be in the same price range, reason being no one is going to pay 40-50 bucks for a movie.

how much gallons are in a full tank of a normal car? 15?

I think that may have a lot to do with the fact that technology in general has been making a huge push to become more and more mainstream over the years.

Somewhere between 13 and 17 I think. So, yeah, about that. A gallon is something like 3.8 liters.