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General discussionOfficial Stop Buying Games Self-Help Group(863 posts)(863 posts)
(863 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 06, 2015
So... are there like 12 steps or something? How about 12 levels! Level 1: Begin!!!

I think I need help... The ratio of my game buying to game playing is an improper fraction!!!
Posted January 06, 2015
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ddickinson: *looks around for awalterj, the coast is clear*
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awalterj: 'Tis not, I see thee!

Snip.................

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Gnostic: Does kickstarter games count?
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awalterj: I can't say, you make the rules for yourself. I just grabbed the first chair in this round, I don't set the rules. We can listen to each other but you must decide in the end how and if you will limit your collecting.
My angel at my right shoulder points at my bank account.

She then proceed to point the amount of large contribution I made to a few project, especially Star Citizen and the price of the games on sales.

She pull out the excel I had been tabulating my crowdfund games but and points to the total amount I spend.

She wave a colorful banner highlighting for the amount spend, if I can get GOG games during sales for an average of $6, I can own the entire GOG catalog now.

My devil at my left shoulder was going "Oh shiney", "Oh me precious" drools at these new toys.

But he is losing ground to my angel jumping up and down procaming I have more games than I can play in my life time.

So he put a sparking halo on his horns, glue some feathers to his wings and said "This is for a good cause. we have too many evil publishers all arround pushing buggy games with Draconian DRM and overprice DLC that does not make your money worth, do I need to start with these Free to Play, MMO microtransection?"

"Vote with yourr wallet". "Support good dev / publishers before they go extinct". "This is your redemption for these games you optain through unconventional means" "Being tired of buying regional lock consoles exclusive, and playing them on PC emulator? Here is your chance to make a difference." "Where else can you find a better place to campaign DRM free?"

I am really torn up with this indecision.

Angel brandish a muderous club saying "Budget yourself! No more than X amount per month"

Devil decorate the halo stuck to his horns with some LED lightings so it sparkle more
"But it is not like worthwhile projects pop up at a consistent basis per month, sometimes yourr have many worrthy sometimes not at all. Remember you already missed Divinity:OS, Banner Sage, Shovel Knight etc, surely you want to spread your net wider?"

I blame Awalterj for this and hide in a corner.
Posted January 06, 2015
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awalterj: That makes a lot of sense. When I first signed up here, I just wanted to buy a very specific select handful of games that I missed back in the day, or missed due to not playing games for a decade. my criteria for what I "needed" to buy were super harsh. But then I discovered that I didn't even know about many games from the non-gaming decade so I felt the need to close the gap and I started to overdo it, buying obscure indie games and many not-so-classic older games as well as new purchases that weren't even proven to be must-have material.

Ultimately, I ask myself if all this isn't just an excuse and it's just one big weapon of mass procrastination that I chose not because I really missed out on this or that game in the past but because I'm actively procrastinating in the here and now and games are a mighty convenient way to do this.

I mean, why do I need to know about all the games and play everything? Is there going to be a test later?? It's fun and interesting yes, but I think it's mostly just procrastination to me rather than the real passion it used to be when I was younger and valued games above everything.
Your experience with innocently wanting a few games on GOG leading into a compulsive game buying habit sounds a lot like mine. I had lost my passion for games and had been absent from serious gaming for more than a decade, basically my entire working adult life. Then, just last year I built a new video editing workstation computer and realized I now had a PC capable of playing games like the oft-referenced Crysis without breaking a sweat. Out of curiosity, I found GOG, then GOG and the GOG forums led me into discovery of the current world of high-quality digital download games available for nearly next to nothing (in comparison to video game prices I had grown up with in the 80's and 90's).

However, while I do think that part of my current gaming purchase revival has elements of procrastination, addiction, and void-filling in it, it has also led me to rekindle an old aspiration of mine of wanting to create games sometime in the future, and so part of my justification for my purchases is based on the fact that I want to research and experience what has been done in the field during my lost decade. I want to see what works well, what could be improved on, and how the market has responded to certain things. With this as my primary motivation, I do not feel bad about purchasing games as long as I have a specific justification for doing so and I am within my preset budget. Having this purpose in mind, I also do not feel aimless in my actual gaming sessions and I keep an active gaming journal with insights, game design notes, and other such things.

For me, a big part of the equation is indeed sales price. If I feel a game has some sort of element, mechanic, or has extreme notoriety that I can gain insight from, and it is available at large discount, I do feel I will be saving money in the long run by purchasing while heavily discounted.
Post edited January 06, 2015 by the.kuribo
Posted January 06, 2015
I've been battling the buying addiction for a while, and I'm doing a reasonable job, though not a great one.

In July 2012 I decided that I was buying too much, both for myself and for gifting on Steam Gifts, so I decided to stop. From the end of July to the end of October I only bought one $1 bundle and one $0.25 game on Android. Then I was no longer able to resist, and slowly went back to buying. Still, at this point of time I'm resisting most purchases which I'd like to own. I didn't even buy Fallout New Vegas for $2 and Tomb Raider for $4, even though they're on my wish list.

I did spend quite a bit of money this holiday season on games ($30+), but a lot of it on Android, where I actually play games, (around $17, for KOTOR, FF4, Castle of Illusion, and Blackwell Epiphany on GOG, which I meant to play on Android but unfortunately can't for technical reasons) and $7.5 for Child of Light on the Xbox, which I play with my kids, so this is money spent on games which actually get played, and I consider that okay. I also spent $10 on game-related utilities (Gestureworks Gameplay and Pinnacle Game Profiler), which I might or might not use, but are meant to allow me to more easily play games (that's not counted in the $30).

I account for Kickstarter separately, but I budget it at (around) $25 per month on average so I won't go overboard. It's been easier lately.

Edit: Although I bought a few games for Android, I'm holding myself back there too, because it would take me ages to go through KOTOR and FF4, so it's not a good idea to make the backlog larger.
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awalterj: What hole in their existence, what void are people filling?
The playing of games. At least for me. When I buy games, I interact with them in my mind at some level, learn what they're about, imagine what it would be like to play them. Then I get some satisfaction from owning them, and knowing that at some point (which will realistically never happen for 99% of them) I will play them.

It's probably more complex than this, but I think it does boil down to "I'd love to be able to play these games, I just don't have the time right now, so I'll buy them anyway and hope that I get to live forever and have enough time to play them."
Post edited January 06, 2015 by ET3D
Posted January 06, 2015
Clean since 25th December, I re-bought COD4 on STEAM, yes I have his issue about buying the same games in different platforms, COD4 I got it on PC Retail, Xbox360 and now STEAM... and also I bought, Sacred2, Anachronox and Daikatana here in GOG.com when I already got them all on STEAM before... Sacred2 I even got it on Retail version too...

I also have no f... time to play not even the half of the games I have, so sad Doctor, what I can do?
Post edited January 06, 2015 by YaTEdiGo
Posted January 06, 2015
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AnimalMother117: You would think the GOG staff would take this thread down or something, since their whole purpose is to sell games...
Based on on the fact that GOG has never deleted threads that would be instantly in deleted in most forums in this world(maybe in this universe), it's obvious they strongly believe in freedom of speech.
Posted January 06, 2015
high rated
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AnimalMother117: You would think the GOG staff would take this thread down or something, since their whole purpose is to sell games...
While our business model does rely on us selling games, we're not going to be so crass about it that we'll be taking down threads and all :) We're not all "Buy or GTFO!" :)
Posted January 06, 2015
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AnimalMother117: You would think the GOG staff would take this thread down or something, since their whole purpose is to sell games...
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JudasIscariot: While our business model does rely on us selling games, we're not going to be so crass about it that we'll be taking down threads and all :) We're not all "Buy or GTFO!" :)
You monsters. :l
Posted January 06, 2015
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JudasIscariot: While our business model does rely on us selling games, we're not going to be so crass about it that we'll be taking down threads and all :) We're not all "Buy or GTFO!" :)
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omega64: You monsters. :l
Yes demonic GOG wants us to cure our addiction of buying games.

How dare you, didn't you already sell your soul to Kean and commit to make everyone buy more games than they can play with the insomia sales?
Post edited January 06, 2015 by Gnostic
Posted January 06, 2015
I don't understand what all the fuss is about. I don't see the problem. I don't have a problem! I can quit anytime, if I want to. Seriously. Just not this year yet. ;)
Posted January 06, 2015
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tinyE: I quit alcohol, cigarettes, and pot.

WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME!?
Is this the thread to buy weed, because I know where to get everything else??
Posted January 06, 2015
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tinyE: I quit alcohol, cigarettes, and pot.

WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE WANT FROM ME!?
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flubbucket: Is this the thread to buy weed, because I know where to get everything else??
Never buy marijuana from the Easter Bunny!
Posted January 06, 2015
Clean since the Nordic second chance sale (The Guild 2 looked so interesting ... )

I'm definitely worse about this with GOG than any other service. It's like I have this picture of myself being broke in the future, with limited internet and nearly unlimited time, and a strong desire to play a ton of games. My GOG library feels more real than my Steam library, so I keep trying to grow it.

I'm not as bad as many (95 games) but still I have way more than I'm likely to play at this point.

Also GOG often has sales that are right in my impulse-buy range (< $5). Just dangerous.

I'm going to focus on actually *trying* some of my many GOG games. Maybe I won't let myself buy any new games here until I've played through something in the same genre in my backlog. Sacred's on sale? Too bad, finish Divine Divinity. Wasteland 2 looks good? Play Fallout 1 or 2 instead.
Posted January 06, 2015
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sergeant_citrus: Clean since the Nordic second chance sale (The Guild 2 looked so interesting ... )

I'm definitely worse about this with GOG than any other service. It's like I have this picture of myself being broke in the future, with limited internet and nearly unlimited time, and a strong desire to play a ton of games. My GOG library feels more real than my Steam library, so I keep trying to grow it.

I'm not as bad as many (95 games) but still I have way more than I'm likely to play at this point.

Also GOG often has sales that are right in my impulse-buy range (< $5). Just dangerous.

I'm going to focus on actually *trying* some of my many GOG games. Maybe I won't let myself buy any new games here until I've played through something in the same genre in my backlog. Sacred's on sale? Too bad, finish Divine Divinity. Wasteland 2 looks good? Play Fallout 1 or 2 instead.
How about playing the shorter games first.
Posted January 06, 2015
I'm Jack's creeping backlog.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionOfficial Stop Buying Games Self-Help Group(863 posts)(863 posts)
(863 posts)