What is your worst investment in gaming equipment?

[Frindis]

Mine was some eons ago when, a few days before Christmas, I bought myself an Xbox 360. I opened it on Christmas Eve, played a couple of rounds on a racing game that was included with the console, and never touched the Xbox again.

 

[Pifanjr]

I bought a Wii as a teenager, but Nintendo games are way too expensive so I eventually tried jailbreaking it and ended up bricking it.

 

[Alm]

I bought an HD-DVD drive for my Xbox 360 and that went down in value from about £100+ to about £1. I also once bought one of those one handed keyboards for gaming (like the Razer Tartarus but not that one) and I never got used to it so it just sat in a draw.

 

[BeardyHat]

Think there's some recency bias for me here, because my memory is terrible, but here's what I got.

About 10 years ago, I sold off my desktop and all my associated stuff, 5.1 sound system, monitors, etc and instead bought a used Razer Blade 14", thinking it would be a decent replacement.

It was initially pretty cool, like having a Macbook that could game, but looked semi-profressional. But it wasn't long after that issues started. The backspace key broke off and the space bar started having issues which meant taking it off and reseating it.

Not long after, when my oldest was born, I was in our hospital room with some downtime and noticed it was struggling to run XCOM. Even in a tiny window the entire computer was just throttling and everything was a slide show. Sometime later, after returning home, I discovered that one of the fans had completely died; I replaced it, but it didn't solve the issue, as it turned out something on the motherboard had completely died and the fan would never work again.

The Razer became an HTPC after that and I've never even considered another Razer product after that. Looking at long term reviews of Razer laptops even now, you can see they have QC issues.

 

[neogunhero]

This wouldn't be an investment, but it was my choice to get one, so I would consider it. For my highschool graduation gift, I asked for a MacBook Air. I wanted to be able to do school work and game on it. I loved the metal chassis, the OS was fun to learn, but it was a POS when it came to using anything besides Safari or office programs. I was so dumb to not have gotten a gaming laptop similarly priced.

I bought the new version of the 3DS with the thumbstick when it was new. I had a carrying case and everything. I left it on a plane one year when I was going on vacation and never saw it again, just months after I bought it. Totally my fault, but I still miss it every day.

 

[ZedClampet]

At this point, I might be able to write a book on bad gaming equipment purchases, so I'm having a difficult time deciding. I've whittled it down to the Xbox 360, the WiiU and the Switch, which is a torture device when I try to hold the thing.

I'm going to settle on the WiiU. We had a ton of fun on the original Wii, so when the WiiU came out, it seemed an obvious thing to move to the new system. However, by this time I'd already bought the kids gaming laptops, and they were just not interested in consoles anymore. I honestly think my kids only played one game on it, and I didn't use it at all. For comparison, I played probably 20 games on the Wii including Resident Evil 4. Shooting with the controllers was super fun.

Anyway, WiiU for me.

 

[neogunhero]

At this point, I might be able to write a book on bad gaming equipment purchases, so I'm having a difficult time deciding. I've whittled it down to the Xbox 360, the WiiU and the Switch, which is a torture device when I try to hold the thing.

I'm going to settle on the WiiU. We had a ton of fun on the original Wii, so when the WiiU came out, it seemed an obvious thing to move to the new system. However, by this time I'd already bought the kids gaming laptops, and they were just not interested in consoles anymore. I honestly think my kids only played one game on it, and I didn't use it at all. For comparison, I played probably 20 games on the Wii including Resident Evil 4. Shooting with the controllers was super fun.

Anyway, WiiU for me.

Wii U was super interesting when it first launched. It had so many cool features that people never used. I remember watching the trailer of the two friends in a video call with the tablets while playing a game online together, I thought that was going to be the future of gaming. I guess it kinda is, a lot of people like to do video calls in Discord while gaming together, but doing it from the comfort of your couch was really interesting. I really enjoyed Mario Kart 8 and Wind Waker HD on it but that's about it.

 

[ZedClampet]

I remember watching the trailer of the two friends in a video call

In 1982, my family went to Orlando for the opening of Epcot. They showcased a lot of future tech there. The two I remember most were the Internet and video calls. I couldn't have cared less about the Internet because they described it as being for academics to share information and research. But I was completely entranced by the video calls. They showed two people talking to each other on their televisions. For whatever reason, I thought that would be the most amazing thing ever. Well, I've had video call capabilities for years now, and the only time I've ever used it was for doctor appointments during Covid. My wife and her sister use it pretty frequently, though.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I bought a used Xbox to play RDR1 after getting obsessed with RDR2. Not only did the cd tray crap out within a few weeks, Rockstar then re-released RDR1 on the PS4. At least I was't out much...$60 for the Xbox, $10 for the RDR1 disc.

 

[mjs warlord]

I bought a Wii as a teenager, but Nintendo games are way too expensive so I eventually tried jailbreaking it and ended up bricking it.

I worked with a women whose son decided to have " something " done to a games console ( cant remember which one ) because he knew where to get pirated games at a fraction of the cost of the genuine ones.
He mother was crazy because she had paid for the machine and yes it could play pirated games but for some reason it would not load none pirated games so they now had a pile of stuff they could not use.

 

[neogunhero]

In 1982, my family went to Orlando for the opening of Epcot. They showcased a lot of future tech there. The two I remember most were the Internet and video calls. I couldn't have cared less about the Internet because they described it as being for academics to share information and research. But I was completely entranced by the video calls. They showed two people talking to each other on their televisions. For whatever reason, I thought that would be the most amazing thing ever. Well, I've had video call capabilities for years now, and the only time I've ever used it was for doctor appointments during Covid. My wife and her sister use it pretty frequently, though.

My guess as to why video calling on TV's hasn't taken off is that people don't want their entire body lazing about on the sofa being shown on a video call, it's more flattering to just show your face I'd rather my parents didn't see my gut hanging out the bottom of my shirt as I'm fully sprawled out on my couch.

 

[Frindis]

The Razer became an HTPC after that and I've never even considered another Razer product after that.

I owned a Razer BlackWidow keyboard some time back and it was ok but waaaay overpriced. Now I find Razer to be too focused on tons of colors and other stuff you do not really need. I find Logitech to be my new ideal brand for a mouse/keyboard. It is also expensive, but I find the quality to be better overall and so far never had any problem with Logitech products—my Logitech Z550, which is 19 years of age and still working perfectly.

 

[Frindis]

I also bought a Nintendo Switch LED just for Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom and no matter how much I say that I love the game and have around 100 hours in it, it probably was not the best investment I made. Still, I know I am going to play it for hundreds of more hours when I feel the mood for using a controller again.

 

[neogunhero]

I owned a Razer BlackWidow keyboard some time back and it was ok but waaaay overpriced. Now I find Razer to be too focused on tons of colors and other stuff you do not really need. I find Logitech to be my new ideal brand for a mouse/keyboard. It is also expensive, but I find the quality to be better overall and so far never had any problem with Logitech products—my Logitech Z550, which is 19 years of age and still working perfectly.

I've really like their Razer DeathAdder mice, I had a V1 and currently have been using my V2 for 4-5 years now, but that may be the only good product they've ever made. Out of all the mice I've used, it fits in my hand the best, has perfect weight, and is well built, besides V1. By no means the best mouse ever made, but for me personally it's the best I've ever used. PCG tends to rate them very high as well, that was the main reason why I bought the V1 and V2.

 

[Frindis]

@neogunhero I am pretty sure I tested that mouse some years back when looking for a new mouse. If I am not mistaken, I decided on a Steelseries Kana V2 instead. I am mostly interested in a mid-size mouse with a finger/claw grip. I have large hands, but somehow a large mouse just does not give me a good enough grip. After that, I bought a Benq Zowie FK1 and then I ended up with the SHROOOUD Logitech G Pro Mouse.

 

[ZedClampet]

My guess as to why video calling on TV's hasn't taken off is that people don't want their entire body lazing about on the sofa being shown on a video call, it's more flattering to just show your face I'd rather my parents didn't see my gut hanging out the bottom of my shirt as I'm fully sprawled out on my couch.

I definitely agree with you. I would much rather someone just see my face then have to worry about how the rest of me looks.

I think they just had it on televisions because that was the only thing in 1982 that could properly display anything like that.

 

[Zloth]

This

View: https://youtu.be/TWf7TCps5uU?si=duwcUtYL9PiCXqRt


Sounded great. Wasn't really any better than the keyboard.

 

[Colif]

Guess mine was the Wii as really, who wants to move around and play a game... ignores VR. I never really got into it. And I never had the space to use it. Probably gave it to the same friend I gave all my other consoles too at the end. Think I only bought it as it was a Nintendo console and until that stage, I had only bought Nintendo consoles. It didn't take me long to swap to a PS3. I still have the PS3 here somewhere, but I know the PS4 is gone now. I only bought consoles as it was cheaper than a new PC at the time. But I can't afford to do both now and consoles are essentially cut down PC now anyway - Sony and Microsoft anyway.

How about an RX 7900 XT and never play games? Does that count?

Could say my current PC is a bad investment as well, it used to be worth 3k but with depreciation and everything. its now worth $125

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/Colif/saved/#view=cQd6rH

Though to be fair that PC doesn't really exist now. That was what it looked like before I swapped almost all its parts. Some of them several times. Only 3 parts are original and one of them appears to be worth $125 still.

An investment in retro gear would be a

Virtual Boy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Like Zed I seem to go through peripherals more than hardware. And fans, though I have 5 spare 120mm fans now.

TIL there was a bad Microsoft Sidewinder mouse. Guess I must have missed it. Guess they all couldn't be great.
mine probably still works?

though its a little dirty now.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Nothing spectacular for me. There were a few before I knew much about PC hardware, a bad prebuilt or two, the worst was probably when I picked up a second hand graphics card, from Ebay to upgrade a pre built I had at the time. It lasted a couple months before it made some pretty green and pink patterns on the screen and stopped working.

For the last 10 years or so I buy stuff to upgrade my system or setup quite often, so you could just call the whole thing a bad investment. Just bought a foot rest to go under my desk and Im still spending 80% of the time with my legs crossed or leaning sideways in some way. Luckily I dont sit at a desk most days.

 

[Slasken]

This one is easy for me. HTC Vive. I bought it in 2018, and used it for a total of 2 hours, and it sat on the shelf until last year. Sold it for 1/5 of what I paid for it.

I still want a VR headset, but the HTC was outdatet at the time I bought it.