First off, a computer game isn't a monthly dedication, but it is something that is purchased usually every three months or so by the casual gamer.
So what? What does it matter what casual gamers "usually" do? The fact of the matter is that games are not a monthly dedication. There's no reason not to buy only what you can afford and live without the games you can't. Even if this means less than one game every three months.
Neither is cable, neither is a residence, neither is internet access, neither is food for that matter.
There's no reason to not live in a building and not survive off of your own muscles. Even if this means your life span is cut down to only a few weeks.
It's not something that once purchased a goal is achieved and it isn't a thought after that.
That depends on how high your income is. If your income is high enough that you don't have to "save up" for a brand new game, then your "some of us don't have the extravagant sums of money to pay for things other than essential modern civilized needs" claim holds no water.
But if your income isn't that high, then saving up for a brand new game once a year and that being the only spare amount of money around, then it's a constant strain on your cash flow, budgeting or no budgeting.
you have to spend money now and then on video games
And if you can afford a gaming PC and a monitor just once, you can afford the video games "now and then."
Um, no, because cash flow can vary quite a bit. The point I was making with the monitor and the PC being one-time payments is that if your cash flow is 1500 dollars a month and you have an excess amount at one point to buy nice electronics, and then you get fired and are forced to get a job that pays 200 dollars a month (obviously an exaggeration for the point), then you no longer have the influx of money and thus it's unreasonable to justify a "you have a nice computer so you should be able to buy video games" argument.
It's easy to download a game without broadband internet access. It just takes longer.
It would hardly be a good investment of your time. Or electricity bill.
I wouldn't say it's a bad investment of your time because you don't have to monitor it, but it would be an incredible waste of electricity.
That is of course you're not hijacking electricity from your neighbor...