My 1500 cents

Call me naive, call me a lunatic, but more businesses need to pay more than market minimum. Workers are more productive than ever. Think about that drive-thru employee is listening to your order while transacting with the person ahead of you. Now that that's in your head, do you remember what it's like to talk to two people at once about different things? Granted, you're not exactly discussing the merits of universal healthcare and basic income with the drive-thru associate, but multitasking in that way requires practice. Now, add money handling and some spot reading for entering these items into a console. Is that skill really only marginally valuable? Is that really what fast food workers did 20 years ago?

What about clerical work? It's true that certain types of knowledge are left to your supervisors and co-workers, like processes, policies, and management. However, so many questions can be Googled verbatim and avoid the labor of old school research. During my telephone customer service job at Zumiez, 15 of us (in shifts of 8-10 people) handled website issues, orders and store feedback for 600 stores across the nation. One phone call could have me using up to 8 different applications. This could not have been done at this level of efficiency 25 years ago, plain and simple.

Most of those store owners and CEOs didn't have to work at that capacity in that position in their time. I'm not saying they didn't have their challenges, but there needs to be a lot more empathy for raising the wage floor. The workforce asks a lot of their employees, and it's insulting to argue against raising minimum wage.

Obviously, opponents of raising minimum wage aren't against paying employees more. You'll hear reasoning that higher wages mean higher prices in general rising. Well, maintaining the status quo has screwed us over. Also, products aren't going to cost $6 per hour more. That is impossible. People might have a few years of tight wallets while the markets adjust, but I am positive about the outcome. Hopefully some opportunists will sock away their extra funds in this period of adjustment.

A restaurant in Seattle did away with tips after making the change in wages. So, while their menu prices have gone up, customers who are satisfied with their servers making a living wage won't be shelling out that much more to eat. Of course, frugal peeps like you and me say they should be cooking at home, and that this is a luxury anyway! However, I don't want that to detract from the case I'm building that the conscientious customer force is growing; there are lots of people who pay more because they know workers get more. This doesn't have to be just restaurants. Consider the consumers who make an effort to buy products made in America because the goods are likely produced under fair work conditions. Whole Foods and Costco don't show any signs of slouching on prices or employee pay. These businesses are certainly targeting those who have the money for it, and the $15 minimum would welcome some people into this group. That oughtta do some good, eh?

Then there are others who currently make under $15 and more than minimum wage, and fear they'll suddenly be out-earned. Are you kidding me? Do you really think your profession's unions and employees won't demand more once they see the world still standing after such a dramatic change? If not, quit your job and apply for the new minimum wage!

One last common argument against raising the minimum wage is that there will be less work to go around. Automation is coming anyway, and businesses have long been shafting employees of benefits by keeping them under full-time status. Also, I've stitched together 3 jobs to make a living before: this new minimum may mean people in that position only have to work 2.

So that's my 1500 cents on minimum wage. Cost of living is going up anyway, and we all work hard and so deserve it. If you are in Seattle, you're all set cause it's coming. Maybe we can next focus on the stingy bullshit 2 weeks annual vacation, or ridiculous heavy-handedness in giving managers bonuses that they don't pass on to their underlings next. Maybe we can abolish or limit exempt (overtime without pay) and keep the deserving managers a little happier.

Gaming Goals in 2017

Part of my frugality includes my 2 games beaten, 1 game bought policy. I didn't do very well last year, achieving 1.4 games beaten for each new one I spent money on in 2016. Well, why not make a plan this time? This list of games I want to play in 2017 is an attempt to balance newly-acquired games and ones that have been sitting around for longer. While I'm at it, I might as well talk about em!

1) Axiom Verge. I saw a preview video a year or so ago, and just got it now cause it was on sale.

2) Infamous 2: First Light. Really fun, if ridiculous, game, and a solid, quick platinum trophy package.

3) Funk of Titans. This looked like a neat platformer of which I only saw a snippet.

4) Defense Grid. I love tower defense games, and haven't seen anything I liked for the current generation of systems. Hopefully this scratches the itch!

I have no idea what this game is about...

5) Sideway. This street-art-style platformer has been sitting on my PS3 for years, and has a very easy trophy rating. The perspective reinforces that you are a 2d sprite sometimes, just like the 3ds Zelda game, so that's cool.

6) Danganronpa. I saw it as a recommendation for a fun-and-easy platinum list.

7) Oceanhorn. I bought it in January, and this top-view adventure game is going to be dope daddy dollars! There have been comparisons to Wind Waker, and that is a good thing.

8) I am Setsuna. I missed TWO sales on this classic JRPG with Chrono Trigger-style combat, with the rationale that I'd buy it after I did more damage to my backlog.

9) Any Final Fantasy titles because Final Fantasy rules.

10) Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild. Ditto for above.

I look forward to experiencing these titles, and will of course let you know the skinny on how these games treated me. First up: Axiom-Verge-a-go-go!

Games of 2017: January's Task

Happy New Year! 2017 has gone off to a good start: I'm back into Overwatch, and doing a pretty well, after a frustrating Fall. Mei is still overpowered, but some recent tweaks, such as making more loot chests, an extra map, and Mystery Heroes has revived my interest in the game. It's just too bad I still get shitty loot boxes. In related news, January 2017 was my most platinum-trophy-productive month ever! Added bonus: 3 out of 4 of these games were free via PS+.

select item, select action, figure it out!

In the first week of January, I'd already gotten two platinum trophies! Day of the Tentacle was this month's free PS+ download, and I did everything in one session. The actual game is an old-school LucasArts adventure game with tons of light-hearted comedy that totally fell flat on me. The puzzles and barriers in games like this are often obscure and require an extensive memory, so I usually use guides to blaze through. Luckily, kind souls out there write spoiler-free guides so that I can get both the experience and the goodies.

Zap da giant 'nukular' ants

The other game was recommended by my friend, Damon of Videogames and Sushi, and is called Deadly Tower of Monsters. This is a beat-em-up action game that's gimmick is that it's supposedly a cheesy low-budget 70s-style sci-fi flick. The obnoxious director narrates, and the game's setting gives it plenty of permission to be totally random. It was the perfect length at about 5 hours to platinum, start to finish. Luckily, only an hour of that was backtracking, so that's just icing on the cake!

Third on my January platinums list was my favorite game in a while: Stories: Path of Destinies. This game has a lot going for it, including a hilarious narrator that tells the whole story, twists, jokes and all. It's laid out like a book, and throughout the 45-minute game, you get to make 4-5 major choices in the story, resulting in some 25 different endings. In most of the endings, main characters end up dead, and there is pretty much only one happy ending, which you have to piece together the right choices. You'll end up playing the same linear levels, with slightly different goals, and there are parts where paths split, too. However, Reynardo the fox, your badass hero, is quite the menace to his enemies.

Take that, ravens!

The combat in this game flows like the Batman games in that you're surrounded by enemies and take them down, one move at a time. You level up and learn additional combat skills, and I would recommend this game to anyone!

This gun provided a...riveting experience

The caboose on my platinum trophy train was Bioshock 2 on the PS4, which was my first time playing the title. I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I think the warnings I'd gotten about the game were due to the PS3 version's multiplayer, which was cut from the remaster. The trophies are merciful in that you only need to get most of the collectibles, and as long as you stay on your toes, you won't die very often. Even on the highest difficulty, I found myself overloaded with ammo and money. My favorite part of the game was early on, you get to walk through a broken amusement park built by Andrew Ryan, with animated dioramas that show how "the parasite" (government) always steals from the common man's hard work and brilliant ideas. This series' world-building is the best in the biz, and you should definitely try it out, if you haven't!

There you have it, 4 platinum trophies in 31 days. What was your most productive month ?

Free PS+ Games

I started to write a post on recent awesome free games that I'd recommend trophy hunting, when I had a stab of guilt, followed by wonder:

What do developers get out of cheap or free games on PSN (or XBLA)?

Free game, ladies and germs!

My friend ventured a guess that the free title might be a company's chance at getting their name known. Ideally, they would follow up with a larger title after having established a fan base. Word of mouth is a huge force, and I would stake this blog on it! Marketing is expensive, and if you browse the Playstation Store, there are likely hundreds of titles you've never heard of. You'll also see quite a few indie games that don't even have videos or screenshots. Even worse, games that do have videos, but don't even show gameplay. This lacking piece in the marketing puzzle is a waste for everyone because it couldn't possibly be complicated to upload some in-game footage/screens to help sell unknown titles. While I believe in my friends' recommendations, I also say it would behoove The Big Three (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) to make sure that any titles sold on their stores require previews, as pretty much only larger studios can get away with selling a title on sheer star power *cough NaughtyDog, I love you cough*

After that, I did a bit of research. Similarly to above method is the free to play model, where the devs give you all or most of the game, and the studio makes its money off microtransactions and/or expansions. Blizzard's MOBA, Heroes of the Storm is a perfect model of this, and is still releasing both free and paid content and updates 3 years later. A great example for PS4 is the puzzle game Gems of War. I played it for over half a year, so an added bonus is that I got to see it evolve with massive overhauls and updates, while the game remained free. I really like the idea of this scheme, but it gets abused too often. For example, the basic version of a particular game is extremely crippled to the point of being frustrating. Lots of mobile games follow this toxic pattern, where you can basically play 30 minutes per day, or you can only build your town to a certain size until you slowly gather resources or spend time to speed the process. Give me a fully-functional game, and I'll judge your programming prowess from there!

The last obvious case for some of these deals is that the games are old, and it's a last hurrah for revenue. Through minimal effort, Capcom can get another $5 for Resident Evil V, or the 2 remaining people on planet earth who haven't done so can nab Final Fantasy VII for dat $7.49 PSN flash sale.

Lookout for these bad boys

The PSN store's search method is abysmal, but there's also an overwhelming amount of content there. The final point I want to make about devs' benefits of releasing cheap or free games is that if you're like me and never want to pay full price, one of these sales will also call your attention to a selection, out of the thousands of games currently available to download. A drawback of this is that if too many cheapskates like me wait until a game is free, or heavily discounted, poor ol game makers aren't going to fare well. We have to step aside and let Baller Brians and Impatient Irenes fork over full price and get those developers their pay dirt at release!

However, just cause these games are free doesn't mean the hardworking devs don't get their duck's butter. Kris Graft at Gamasutra found that each game is negotiated with The Big Three and some devs actually get some cash for their efforts.

So, there we are. While you could all easily argue that the PS+ and XBLA games aren't truly free since you're paying for the subscription, I guess you could call me phony. Well, both Heroes of the Storm and Gems of War are Free without need to register anything, so getchu started on that, and let me know if you find some other awesome free titles out there! I'm itching to write about how productive my January was, but that will be in the next post, mein freunds!

Welcome to 2017: New Horizons

It's been a while since I wrote about my frugal ways, and I wanted to assure readers that I'm still cheap. What's more: I survived Christmas and actually gave gifts this year.

Let me remind everyone here of certain conditions: For all of 2016, I made $12/hr, working full time. I took off 6 weeks between jobs, and still earned just over $17k last year. I've lived in my own one-bedroom apartment and currently pay rent of just under $800, plus power and internet. Financial vices: I order pizza or go out to eat once a week (I still give tips!), I spend about $20 per month on coffee beans, and there are some video game releases that I just can't wait for.

So with no packaging, and the
console store directly selling it
...why isn't it 25% cheaper?

I still make impulse purchases and have a sweet tooth just like everyone else. However, (my girlfriend and) I cook, I don't own a car, my phone plan is $2.50 per month, I don't order coffee, I shop at thrift stores to furnish my apartment, and I look at investing and frugality as exciting challenges, a little like trophy hunting in video games. I also don't have children, and my partner doesn't expect lavish gifts (poor girl, hang in there :) ) Almost all of my friends drive, so I still get a social life. Also, we all have PS4s, which means we don't have to individually buy every single hot title. Side note, don't buy digital game releases! No one can borrow them, and they're still stupidly priced the same (or more expensive) than a disc that took material to produce. For the most part, Amazon sells hard copies of new releases for $48 + tax, where the digital versions will cost $60 + tax. Why?

Again, my 2016 income was $17,000, which is certainly above the federal poverty level, but also 1/3rd of the US median income. I have managed to sock away $3000, or 17% of it. I'm bragging about this because I think it was hard-earned, but it's also a reminder of all of my readers and their friends to go over their finances every once in a while, and really think about where your income is going. I even made a spreadsheet of all my paychecks and investments (into Vanguard ETFs), and subtracted stock bought with money I already had invested. Just imagine how well I could do when minimum wage jumps to $15/hr, or if I land a better-paying job!?

If you stopped reading and saying, "I can't do this!" or "He's full of shit!" at me having no children, or you just can't give up your daily coffee trip, that's fine. But don't quit before you start! You can still get on the path to being financially fit by reducing some of your vices rather than cutting them altogether. Maybe some of the other suggestions can help you create savings to invest, or limit your spending. Either way, next time you hear someone who makes $40k or more griping about their finances, you send em on over to this here blog post.

Why is this such a big deal? Post your thoughts, or chat me up next time you see me. I'll let you know in a future post why I'm sold on saving.

Games in December: 2016's last update

Last week, I guest starred on my friends Zack and Damon's 100th episode of their podcast, Videogames and Sushi. During the show, we talked about memorable gaming moments in 2016. At the time of this post, the episode is still in editing, but it will come any day, now! That means I can spill the beans. My favorite titles of the year were Doom, Overwatch and Final Fantasy XV. Doom scratched an itch that was building over the years. If Halo is too corny, Destiny is too boringly desolate, and Battlefield is set too far back in history, then Doom's gritty setting, fast-paced gunplay, and minimal story exposition worked to make it stand out among the flood of FPS games on the modern systems.

♪Movin with the payload♪

Blizzard doesn't make bad games, and Overwatch is no exception. My passionate gripes have simmered down a bit since November. An overhaul to the still-kinda-sucky loot system upped the frequency of treasure boxes to unlock content faster. I still feel that some characters need some reductions (Mei and Junkrat), and the game is old enough now that everyone you play against is a master at playing it. That's not a technical issue; it just makes the game harder, and less enjoyable for me, personally.

Final Fantasy XV was such a fantastic experience, and I really felt like the product met its ambitious plan. I would have liked to see more diversity in humans and even some other races, and there were some questionable gaps in storytelling, but the positives so completely outweigh the negatives that this was one of my most enjoyable parts in a great year for gaming.

My 2 games in, 1 game out policy came out to a shameful 1.4 games completed for games bought. This should of course be as close to 2 as possible. A few things influenced this: completed is only counting games I can confidently sell, as I've finished storylines and extra accomplishments to get the platinum trophy or 100%; and the flash sales where I just couldn't resist buying indie titles that were $3-7. In reality, for the 1000 hours I spent gaming this year, I played more like 50 games and spent about $300 total.



I would also like to thank my readers for taking me to 3,000 views at the beginning of the year, all the way to almost 6,500! In terms of blogging 2016 was gaming-centric because there really weren't many positive things to say about the year. Next year has a promising video game lineup, but I also hope to find other things that make me happy to write about, and make you happy to read about. Peace out yall!

FFXV: Expectations met PLUS

Final Fantasy XV is a masterpiece. The battle system is fun, if simple, the music is some of the best, and the characters are the most thoroughly developed of any game in the Final Fantasy legacy.

Prince Noctis warping around the battlefield

Battles: Random encounters, which I never minded, are completely gone, and your conflicts seamlessly transition into a hack and slash fest, with some dodging and weaving. While you only ever control one character, the AI characters are battle-competent. However, there's always a weakling in the bunch, and, while not as frustrating as Edge from FFIV, Prompto is 99% why I ever used items. The camera proved to be a pain because trees and bushes block your camera view, and setting the distance to far just loses so much of the battle intensity. Luckily, you get treated to at least 5 different battle themes that do a lot for fighting in FFXV.


Even though you unlock popular tracks from past games in the series to jam to as you explore, FFXV's own soundtrack is gorgeous and quite operatic. I thought the series took a massive dive in memorable music tracks after Nobuo Uematsu left after FF IX, and composer Yoko Shimomura has brought the quality back with a vengeance, after almost 10 games.

food looks hella real, and this is one of Noct's favorites

Despite having "fantasy" in the title, this game has details of everyday life almost on par with GTA V. You can fish, cook, take photos, go on pleasure drives, and listen to old FF game music as you do so. The 4 friends banter spontaneously, and you get a great sense of their personality in some of the most natural character development I've ever seen in gaming. I truly cared about all the peril my characters were in during the story, and a particular scene at the end of the game brought on the man tears.


Aside from the quips and quotes in and out of battle, the smaller details are the random amount of actions your bros take during car rides: Prompto (the wisecracking photographer) will turn around and stand up in the car, waving his arms while telling a story, Ignis (the level-headed nerd) will drink his favorite coffee, Ebony, and hand it back to one of the passengers before placing it in the cup holder, and Gladio (the warrior who centers the party's emotions) will whip out a book and read. Although you can teleport between points on the HUGE map, watching these very varied interactions make the game feel very organic.

The other thing to down vote about this story is the dreadful relationship between Prince Noctis and Princess Lunafreya. Not only do the two never meet up, but they are completely unromantic and don't even seem like good friends. It was the worst-written part of the experience, and the Kingsglaive movie that came out didn't really shed much light on their relationship beyond establishing that they were childhood friends. During the game, you get even less of that, as you two basically write dry letters to one another. Who signed off on that?

However, besides the occasional battle camera flaw and the poorly-done man-woman relationship, there are plenty of other things to gush about and enjoy from one of the top games in the series. This game is a must for people who want something for a new console that isn't an FPS. I'd recommend Final Fantasy XV to anybody.