Just thought I would share an experience of what I'm going thru currently, not a big deal, but since this is "sale" time of the year with Digital Downloads cheaper than ever with things like Steam, D2D, GOG, and even stuff like Buy 2 Get 1 free at Best Buy just thought I would comment on how you can kind of fall into cluttering yourself up and making yourself unhappy making quick, impulsive purchases and putting yourself under a pile of digital and maybe even real clutter.

A little background, I don't have a ton of stuff, but it has started to drain on me and stress me out seeing all sorts of things I purchased that I bought into what others said on how great it would be to have or what an awesome deal it is that you can't miss on because its only $2 or $3 - or so on - and it adds up. In the end I ended up with about 70 games from a well known DD service totally about $90 or so - and I played all of about 2 games overall seriously, and a few others for a limited amount of time. Maybe I would enjoy every one of them, but when I opened up that client every time and seeing a list of 70 games and thinking about how much I wasted on games on second thought I really didn't want and how I'm never going to be able to go thru them all just stressed me out and made me not want to play anything.

I'm reading thru this pretty good book called 'Clutter Busting' and it makes a lot of great points about how you can let others put value on things and make you think you have to have them - and then if the item isn't something that is either a useful tool to you or something you have fun with - all it does is add to your clutter. And if you're making a decision purchasing something when you're in an unhappy state of mind from you're other clutter - that thing isn't going to make you any happier. I'm going thru stuff right now - old CD's, books, DVD's, and so on thinking 'when is the last time I even listened or used this? when will I ever use it?' I've already traded about 20 or so books in at a local used store for credit, got rid of a careful of old computer/electronics parts to an e-recycling place, and going thru sorting various CD's and DVD's to put them up for sell. Oh and gave away that certain DD account to a friend who might be able to use it - no matter how much I spent on it, it wasn't providing me any pleasure.

As of right now I'm down to about all of 5 games digital games - 4 GOG (one given free thru GOG that I really don't want to play - yet :P) and an indie title I put a ton of hours into I wanted to purchase from the makers of since I enjoyed it. I'm not saying to anyone here, don't buy this game or that game. Maybe you can buy 200 games and get something out of each and every one of them - or if you're like me, even one game you're not using is too many. Just a word of warning to those here going Steam or any other version of game crazy - ask yourself - what will I do if I buy this game? Would I jump in and enjoy it, or would it just go into a dozen or more game backlog that you have no intention of ever even starting and just causes you more stress and adds to your clutter? If so, then no matter if its $1 and a 99% off sale - it's not worth the trouble.

For those who went thru my whole story, thanks for reading. :P

Absolutely... I haven't bought anything for a long time now. Have many games that I need to finish first. Sales are sale, they are happening now, and will be happening in future, so I'm not worried about that.

This is something I have long thought to be a problem with these sales. Although, let me say, I think these sales in general are great and I absolutely do not want to see them disappear. However, it is clear people are getting out of control with them. Any time I log into Steam and view the community page during a sale, it is nothing but people purchasing a paragraph of games every single day that will hardly be played.

What does not help is that Valve is learning how to feed off the behavior of gamers. This is the second (or third?) time they have run a meta game of sorts, urging people to buy games and earn achievements, so they can be entered in for a larger prize. Valve knows how to tap into that obsessive compulsive need many have, and is capitalizing on it. I sit and watch friends buy games they were not interested in before, spend hours working on achievements, then tossing the games off to the side to not be played again.

Honestly, I keep thinking of the show titled Hoarders, only this is the digital equivalent and harder to recognize.

You should always watch your finances to make sure things never go out of control.

However, in terms of materialism, the purchase of virtual intellectual properly is probably the most harmless type.

For the environment alone, I'd be quite happy if the vast majority of our materialism became virtual. The planet cannot support everyone in the world having a big ass home and a car, but everyone in the world can have a virtual copy of "Fallout" or a virtual copy of "Imagine Democracy" by Judy Rebick.

Also, software has so far been exempt from the worst price excesses of luxury goods (I don't think there is yet a software equivalent to a 2 millions bottle of wine).

I agree, its also not just hoarding, but the mentality that you're getting something for a lower price - getting a "deal" on it. For the price of a retail $60 game plus tax, you could literally get a good 40-50 games out of these sales over time. And when you goto videogame forums and talk about games in threads and ask a group of probably a few hundred people on a forum about the games in the sale and what happens?

The cycle usually goes like:

1) Person posts the new sales up and people say "omg xxxx game for $5 (or less) - bought!"

2) Random person asks forum about xxxx game for sale, if its worth it.

3) Usually several responses of "OMG yes I've played this game so much one of my favorites!" or at worst "yeah its great for two bucks its a no brainer"

Then the person buys it, it goes into a pile of unplayed games, or played for a few minutes at most, and then they go on to the next day of sales in this endless cycle. I know all about it, I've done it.

I've pretty much put a spending freeze on what I buy unless it's something I KNOW I will use, even though I'm a sucker for sales of all kind (yesterday I bought a shitload of vitamins I will use, but probably don't *need* because I had about 400 coupons with me.)

I've been struggling with avoiding the new fresh products, like thinking about a 3DS, or a game system, but I'm keeping myself from buying it. I just imagine what I would do if I actually have it. I don't think I have to have it, I might play some games but then be done with it and for what? A few hundred dollars? And right now, in the process of de-clutering, I don't even know if I *really* want it, or I'm just burying my old clutter with something new to feel good with to avoid it. And I have 3 GOG games on my account I haven't even played/finished.

Thankfully i've mostly bought games I really wanted to play and at a price below rental. I treat it as a rental. I make sure to complete it then it gets uninstalled and only appears on a virtual steam list.

I'm pretty good with big sales. I've gone through 2.5 huge steam sales and have bought 3 games. I somehow still bought 9 games this year total and one gift. $30 total and it's not so bad. $30 I've all played a good amount for most. Sub double digits and half the cost of a single AAA title.

I hear ya. I try not to buy games during the whole year, but I just can't pass up sales. Even if I've never heard of the game, I still have to think about it. I have a whole backlog of games that I'd start then get bored with, that I keep making myself want to finish. I don't like having a large backlog, but everytime I see a sale, I think, "It will never be that cheap again".

The good thing with me, though, is that I won't buy a game that's more than $10, and even then it has to be something I really want. I'm debating with myself to buy Audiosurf, which is only $1.40-something. And people say that's a meal and doesn't cost anything, but I'm in college with no job, and that means if I buy the game that's as much as a meal, I probably won't eat. :P

So yeah, I buy sales, but I'm glad I'm cheap. Now back to debating that dang Audiosurf...

Only if you had bought that Guild Wars trilogy. ;)

I know, I know, I'm sorry. But like I said, I don't usually buy games over $10, and I still think it could get cheaper. ;) Now $1.40 on Audiosurf, I very much doubt will go cheaper.

Look, if $90 is seriously rough on your finances, fair enough, yeah, probably buy one or two games and call it good. However most folks waste more than that at the pub every month. I wouldn't look at it from a financial angle in said case. If the virtual clutter bothers you, yeah get rid of it (or otherwise avoid it), but otherwise it's peanuts to a lot of people and it's not real clutter. The treadmill I'm selling sitting next to me, that's clutter. The fucking monster Christmas tree my ex just had to have once upon a time, yeah, that's clutter, I'm selling it.

I do buy nice stuff when it's something I've decided to put into my life. I have a hand made bookshelf for my collection of physical books, I've picked out a few physical DVDs to keep (selling or trading the rest for something I want, probably a kitchen appliance).

I don't need to live a spartan lifestyle, just healthy and with the feeling that I'm not too attached to my stuff. I like the feeling that shipping 4-5 boxes overseas would be all that I'd need to do if I pulled up roots and fuck the rest.

My other guilty possession is my 3x36 gallon tubs of physical PC games. Yes it's a lot, after I convinced myself to part with all but a few of my comic books, DVDs, and a lot of other crap, I shouldn't feel too bad about it. I get my catharsis from buying another GOG that I probably won't play, but it's a game I like and won't clutter anything up (except a massive hard drive and not by much).

Not yet, but they are working on it. Check out the DLC total price--and note that this is with a temporary 50% discount. :)

This, so very much this.. Granted I do like stuff, too.. Stuff is fun, stuff is nifty.. the trick is to manage and control your stuff, which I don't.. (working on it)

For me, so far on this year's Steam Sale, I've spent .. maybe.. $60, and that netted me:
Fallout: New Vegas
Mount & Blade full collection
Elven Legacy full collection
Majesty 2 Collection
Majesty Gold
Magicka DLC
Terreria
Sanctum
Beat Hazard

Most expensive single thing? $15 for New Vegas. How much will I play them all? Who knows, but so far I've gotten my moneys worth out of Beat Hazard, Terraria and Sanctum, plus I already knew I liked Magicka, and I write a blog on cheap games.. so it's a win/win/win for me.

Things like GOG, Steam, etc. are not really digi-clutter, because the games are there, they're organized, they're neat and tidy and out of the way. If I don't get around to playing Majesty until sometime next year, meh, it's there waiting, and I paid like nothing for it.

If you think about it, spending .. say I spend a total of $100 on the digital game sales this summer. That's going to give me probably at least 20-30 games to play, if I get an average of 2 hours entertainment per game, that's 40-60 hours, so I'm spending between $1.50 and $2.50 per hour of entertainment. (I've personally for my 9 purchases logged about 19 hours.)
Bar: $2.50 will get you a beer.
Arcade: $2.50 will get you 6 tokens, an hour of game play at best.
Movies: $2.50 will get you a 2nd run show, if you're lucky.
Outdoor activities: $2.50 will get you 1 gallon of gas to get wherever you need to go.
Indoor: $2.50 will get you 2 Redbox rentals. (which you still need to drive to pick up and drop off)

So, from the entertainment budget standpoint, these sales are one of the best values for entertainment/hour.

You have a point and I've not bought anything from the current Steam sale. From the last sale I bought a ton of cheap games, but I still haven't played them all. After I realized it, I became much more consoderading about the games I'm buying: Am I really gonna play that? Do I really like that?

The best proof on the point would be FPS for me: I've bought Rainbow six 2 and Painkiller Black, but still haven't played them through, while both are installed. Playing them feels just mundane and not pleasurable. I bought because they both were in sale at the time and both games got good revies. Yet I still knew I haven't greatly liked an FPS game since Duke Nukem 3D.

I agree on the prize/value ratio of entertainment that comes from games on sale. What I do is wait for games that I've wanted to play for a long time to go on sale, and then purchase those. I have a notepad where I've written down a budjet, and I will NOT go over that budget. My budget this year was 70 euros, and I've laready bought a ton of games I've wanted to own for a long time. My computer is still crap, so I've got things like Crysis and Far Cry 2 waiting for me when I get my new PC in about a month or so. I still have games left over from the christmas sale that I bought and haven't played yet but it's okay!

This gives me a chance to play exactly what I like at any given moment. Wanna play RPGS? Log onto GOG and download arcanum (which I did a week ago). Fell like shooting someone on the face? Started playing Killing Floor on my Macbook. Want to do some good, old-fashioned P'n'C adventuring? Fire up the Monkey Island episodes I just got. The point is that you don't have to play everything, every time, all the time... I now have a huge catalogue of games that are a button press away and I think these games will last me 5-6 years! I'll never run out of things to play!

Plus, I'm disciplined enough to not play more than 2 games at a time. More than that and one of them just will be left unfinished