Honestly, the constant grousing of gamers about the high price of books and accessories - and don't get me wrong, there are certainly rip-offs out there - tends to surprise me. For a demographic that is for the most part comfortably educated, tech-oriented, and middle-class, it's easy to have plenty of fun gaming with your buddies for under one or two hundred bucks a year, if you ration yourself.

I guess gamers are just cheap. :)