The problem with this is that it will increase the actual useful backlog. I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Thanks, and I know that helps some people, but anything I think I might enjoy I already bought.

I'm just a sucker for a bargain and a hoarder.

You're not entirely lonely there, pal :)

call me a buccaneer who should be charged as a violent criminal and thrown in for 7 years, but i'm more like "stop going to emuparadise to see all the ps1 games i used to play on a real console".

By the way, one of the reasons I'm not buying more games is that my Galaxy Tab S is so badly supported. Broken Age and Grim Fandango can't even be bought for it, and Icewind Dale is apparently completely broken on it, according to reviews. So I can't even succumb to temptation.

for a gog.com T-Shirt that sounds like lawsuit territory, though.

"NO-DRM or GTFO!" is not a GOG specific t-shirt.

Yeah you're right. I had put the gog.com logo on the chest in the centre and that's why I was thinking like that.

Ooh sounds interesting. Show us the results when finished :)
(then you'll find 7 other buyers I guess ;)

Oh Dear,GoG is trying hard to tempt me with the latest release. I have 20 more days to go to get a clean month. Must Resist.

Currently trying to resist Bioshock Infinite for $4 at GMG. It's on my wishlist but I know I won't play it any time soon.

Bought Unrest on Indie Game Stand for $0.25. I'll probably never play it, but it's a Kickstarter project I supported with $1, and I like to have the chance to check the result of these projects I back below game the game tier.

I fail. I sinned. I only last 1/2 month.

I have installed and played all my recent purchases for at least one hour or more so that's an improvement, sure. The addiction is only temporarily dormant at best though, kept in check by artificial means (having to buy extra gift code).


All activities drain energy but things like sports or creating art (all in moderation) give you energy back. After creating art, I'm completely exhausted. More than from doing sports but at least I have something definite to show for in the end and that motivates and gives enough energy back to keep the circle going, as long as I don't overdo it.
Games on the other hand give me nothing back in terms of energy or sense of achievement, only temporary instant gratification that evaporates quickly - or instant annoyance if I get stuck. It does require some energy to play a game, in some cases a lot if it's a challenging game but I don't get any energy back because the results are just zeros and ones on some save game file and the skills one levels up in-game are practically always useless in RL self improvement. Playing games makes you better at playing games, that's usually it. And any motivation resulting from gaming seems to only be usable for more gaming, not for other things.

Something like Spacechem is surely an achievement to beat but it's not fun enough to motivate me so I temporarily gave up on it, the game feels like doing computer programming work without getting paid. I guess it's a satisfying game for coders to whom this is a fun version of their daily work but not for me.
Even if I have a ton of fun as e.g. with Halfway, I still don't get any energy back from playing the game. Playing games seems like a good way to get rid of boredom and surplus energy which means it's perfect for kids who always have too much energy but nowadays boredom and surplus energy are alien words to me.

Some people also get energy from socializing, as an introvert (who often gets mistaken for an extrovert because I'm not the least bit shy) it mostly drains mine so I try to avoid socializing as much as possible and only spend time with people if we can do something like play ping pong or other such activities.
When I play with my friend's young kids, that is a lot of fun but drains my energy extremely fast even if we do something constructive like building a LEGO DUPLO tower. I literally have no idea where parents find the energy that is necessary for being around kids, imho that take an unearthly amount of energy. They say they get energy back but I can see with all of them (no exceptions) that it costs them more than they get back, meaning it requires you to have a surplus of energy or you'll burn out.


I'm more balanced nowadays than I used to be, mostly involuntarily due to lower energy. I usually overdo whichever thing it is I'm focusing on. Most of the time, that's one thing at a time. But I'm pacing myself more nowadays.
I had good enough grades in elementary school, even nailed a 6.0 out of 6 once. In middle school, I still managed high grades. My annual final grade was 5.875 one time which means I even beat the valedictorian future teacher type class president and our resident math & chess genius and I didn't even have to break a leg doing so, just did the homework earnestly. Getting good grades in many cases hasn't all that much to do with raw intelligence or industry, it's often more a matter of "meta gaming" the system - as a fellow player you surely know what I mean.

During that time, I had only limited access to PC & gaming so I had enough time to do the homework. In high school, I realized that school grades are largely irrelevant later on just as long as you get the diploma in the end which allows you to go to university. And most of the high school knowledge won't be useful in life or will get forgotten quickly except for English, Latin and chemistry which I considered the only truly useful subjects - but that depended on the teachers to quite some degree, physics could have been great with a better teacher, ours was a total bore.

And when I bought my first PC of my own (with my own hard earned money) in the second year of high school, homework time got largely substituted with gaming time. I still played the guitar every day so that didn't suffer but school got redefined as a place to sleep at after long gaming nights. I showed up to classes late many times but I somehow didn't get into trouble for it because even if my grades got a lot worse and even though I dozed through most of class, I still participated in class more than most of the other students. I also drew a lot during class which might have been mistaken for taking notes, although I suspect most teachers knew full well what I was doing. As long as I strategically woke up and made an attempt to participate in class, teachers were sufficiently satisfied even if most of what I said must have been quite off-topic and tangential, occasionally nonsensical.
In the end, I somehow managed to graduate which seems like a miracle to me now. I had absolutely no control over myself in regards to gaming and grades fell below class average which is quite a long fall but it didn't bother me as I knew that with real effort, I could get good results - and everyone else knew that, too.
Once I started my university studies, I cut back on gaming drastically and in the 2nd year stopped entirely so I could fully focus on leveling up actual skills.

So you're quite right about overcompensating, I did play too much during my high school years and then didn't play games for about a decade. Nowadays, I started playing games again (in moderation) because all play and no work as well as all work and no play is bound to not end well, for anyone.

I'd like to substitute gaming with better "play stuff" because even if it's play mode, I want to do something that gives me something to show for. Otherwise it's not fun to me. Everyone defines fun differently. Hanging out with friends for a beer is not fun to me, it's a waste of time and energy to me, even more than playing games. I'd rather just sleep because that doesn't drain energy, although too much sleep can do precisely that. Life is complicated, just like Spacechem :)

The notion that life is simple is only uttered by blissfully ignorant hippies who are trying to shortcut BS their way to that conclusion, unaware of the fact that the path to simplicity is long and hard. I do believe that life is simple but only once you reach mastery in at least one thing - and from that point on you can truly see the underlying commonalities and simplicity in all things. In some cultures, this is called enlightenment and I can subscribe to the idea of making that the number one life goal.
I want to get to that point and I believe playing games is doing diddly squat in that regard. As I said, I think games are great for balance if you have surplus energy and doing stuff for balance is essential but if you don't have surplus energy then even balance activities should be something that gives back energy instead of only draining it. If you feel games aren't draining your energy then that's super - for you.