Basement guitar heroes and warcraft e-warriors are being forced to scale back like the rest of us because of the bad economy.
With most of the population clinching their wallets, gamers are struggling to keep up with newer systems and new release games coming out regularly.
Chris Gerhard, senior in history, said gaming on a budget is hard to do without friends.
"If you want to play a brand-new game, you have to either buy it or know someone who did," Gerhard said. "It gets difficult when all your friends are trying to save money."
One option is to buy previously owned games, systems and accessories through GameStop.
The retail chain buys used games and equipment and sell them back at reduced prices.
Ashley White, associate at the TigerTown GameStop location, said the service the store provides gamers is unmatched.
"If they want to buy a new game and they don't have the money, but they have old games, they can bring them in and sell them to get something else," White said.
Another option is to use the service GameFly.
Like Netflix, GameFly allows members to rent games and have them shipped to their homes for a flat rate every month.
A member can chose to rent two games at a time for $22 or rent just one at a time for $16.
White said she was a member once, but wasn't impressed with the service.
"You pretty much only get about two games a month with them, because it takes them so long to send you a game," White said. "I just don't think they have it priced right."
Gerhard previously had a membership with GameFly as well and said the availability of games at GameFly is also a frustrating problem.
"If you want a new game, it better be in your queue a month before it drops," Gerhard said. "GameFly is bad about never having enough new releases for the demand, which is annoying."
For students needing to scratch the itch to game between classes, a game room is open on the first floor of the Student Center from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Opened shortly after the Student Center was open to the public, the game room offers a wide variety of gaming systems to those willing to post a student ID as collateral for equipment.
Matthew Alwin, junior in software engineering who works in the Student Center game room, said temporarily turning over your ID also ensures only Auburn students can use the game room, which boasts three PlayStation 3s, two Xbox 360s and two Wiis.
"There are different games for each system, most of which are set daily, but we switch them out depending on what people want to play," Alwin said. "There's a PlayStation 3 that plays mostly fighting games and an Xbox that plays mostly sports games, and that's generally how we divide it up."
Outside of the game room is a Dance Dance Revolution machine, a Pacman machine and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.
Gerhard said the game room is a nice feature, and he would probably use it more if he lived on campus.
"It's a hassle to stay on campus just to play video games when I want to go home, but I like that I can try out a game I want to buy there," Gerhard said. "We really don't have a lot of options to save money and still play, but it's getting better."
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