Last night I bought a video game for myself. ‘Bought’ – as in ‘spent money on.’ For the first time in years! And I didn’t even have to leave my couch!

The whole “Microsoft Points” system is an ingenious way to inject a little confusion into the buying process so that you’re never really sure how much money you’re spending, and are therefore likely to spend much more. $1 = 80 points.

Those free downloadable Xbox360 Marketplace demos will be the end of me. I shelled out points for Bejeweled 2, Jewel Quest (for Tammy,) and of course Geometry Wars which is just brain-meltingly awesome and absolutely worth the five bucks.

Oh Microsoft, you’ll make an honest gamer of me yet. Of course once that firmware hack is out in the wild, all bets are off. But for now you win!