Probably the biggest piece of gaming news in the last week was the Nintendo Wii's 50 dollar price drop. Yes, now for the new low price of just $199.99, anyone who hasn't already jumped on the motion-controlled Wii bandwagon can finally do so. Just two hundred dollars separates you from a tiny piece of casual gaming heaven.
It's comforting to know that now you can pick up a shiny new console for slightly more than the cost of four new games for that very system. Still, two hundred dollars is a lot of money. Let's take a look at how some other ways certain people could choose to spend that same amount of money.
For a college student, every penny counts. While gaming bliss may rank right up there with the other necessities of college life (food, shelter, booze), it's important to consider how else you could be spending your money.
Food, for example. At my local grocery store, a case of ramen noodles (a staple of the college diet) goes for around $3.50. That works out to about 57 cases of delicious deep-friend noodle goodness that could be purchased with the same amount of money. Think about it, you're giving up 1,371 delicious, ready in just three minutes meals when you pick up that new Wii.
Books are another big part of college expenses. For those engineers out there, you know that each of your many required texts can easily run more than one hundred dollars apiece. Buying a Wii will prohibit you from picking up two of those 
huge books you inevitably never end up using.
Textbooks are no less important for liberal arts majors, though you tend to get more for your money. As an example, for the price of a Wii you could pick up 133 Dover Thrift Edition copies of Oscar Wilde's classic "The Importance of Being Earnest."
Booze is another important factor to consider before dropping two hundred on a Wii. Just think, you could be spending that money on close to a hundred bottles of MD (Mad Dog) 20/20, rather than to be able to play Super Mario Galaxy. Good games may be intoxicating, but not as much so as the world's most famous gut rot-inducing "bum wine."
Check out page two for alternate ways to spend your Wii money on your favorite MMORPG game, in the office, or to keep yourself clean.