Just before Christmas 2002, a campaign was launched to lower the price of games. Propaganda for Fairplay encouraged gamers to stop buying games during a particularly profitable week of the year for publishers in protest at the consistently high prices of newly-released titles. There followed in the gaming media the usual debates about whether we pay too much for games: whether spiralling development costs meant the retail price of games was becoming an increasingly fair deal, why high-street stores were reluctant to engage in any form of competitive price war, and (inevitably) the gaming equivalent of the chicken/egg question - is piracy the cause of expensive games or merely a symptom? The campaign largely failed, especially the boycott of new games, and discussion of the subject of pricing fizzled away again.

The reasons for this are unclear. Certainly, the aggressive stance adopted by Fairplay was not really representative of how gamers felt. While most people felt that games were certainly a little pricey, the outrage voiced by Fairplay, with its talk of conspiracies against the consumer and the like, hardly struck a chord with the majority of the people the campaign was aimed at. Certainly the lukewarm response to Fairplay would seem to indicate that either people were happy to shell out for new titles, or they considered a circumspect approach to buying games all part of the 'sport' of being a gamer - buying magazines, checking out online reviews and forum discussions before splashing their cash. Another factor to consider, especially with PC games, is the burgeoning budget market, which makes complaints about the price of games increasingly redundant.

Get down to your local Game or HMV and walk into the budget section. If your nearest branch is reasonably well stocked, you'll notice copies of Deus Ex available at ?4.99. Take a look around - you'll probably also notice Black and White, Half-Life, Hidden and Dangerous, Shogun: Total War and Virtua Tennis available at prices between five and ten quid. If you're especially lucky you might find that you can take advantage of a 3 for 2 offer, and walk away with some classic games for £20 or less. The cream of PC gaming could be yours for an absurdly cheap price, without recourse to anything sneaky or illegal, simply by walking down to your local chain-store and picking them up. There's simply an awesome range of budget titles available - even if you paid full-price for the classics already mentioned, or simply don't fancy them, there's still loads of games that fall into the 'very good' category - Voyager: Elite Force, Z: Steel Soldiers, Starlancer and Commandos to name but a few.

While this may seem a little like an extended advert for $old Out or Xplosiv, the point I'm trying to make is that in my opinion gamers are being given a great opportunity to sample some fantastic games without paying a great deal of money for them. Twenty quid would probably buy you a mediocre night down the local, yet for that price you could gorge yourself on a feast of very good games. And if you make the odd mistake, it really doesn't matter all that much (certainly not as much as if you paid £35 for Big Red Racing).

There is a slight downside, however, of which I have first-hand experience. Good, cheap, widely available games blur that all-important line which separates the games which you want to play from those that you've heard are good but have never really caught your attention before. The low price-tag is what attracts you to the latter titles, but with the odd exception, you should really back your initial feelings towards them. For example, I rarely play strategy games, RPGs or any games that require a lot of patience. Yet I have Hidden and Dangerous, Deus Ex and Homeworld on my shelves - all budget purchases, and all with a layer of dust on the box. I am not doubting the pedigree of these games, but the fact remains that I would not have played them much even if they were given to me free of charge. Sure, games magazines make extravagant claims about the very best games being essential 'even if you're not a fan of the genre', but this is very rarely true. For me, Pro Evolution Soccer 2 is the ultimate game - my obsessive quest to become better and better has even led to an empathy with online Quake and Counter-Strike players, for whom I had previously reserved only the occasional sneering jibe. But it's a football game, and if you don't like football you probably don't give a shit. Nor should you.

But anyway, the important thing is that they weren't expensive mistakes. And there's still the possibility that I might get round to playing and enjoying them. If I don't, I can always sell 'em on eBay (some poor sap even bought 40 of my oldest and crappest games, including all of my Cupboard of Shame entries). So, er, gamers rejoice! Games are not expensive, they're cheap! Hooray!