Insane Collector or Steam Gamer?

Marc "AlabasterSlim" Sutherland
January 6th 2010 @ 8:33 am EST

Gamers With Jobs has an article up this morning about the pathological need to buy games simply because they're on sale on Steam rather than an actual desire to play them.

Gamers With Jobs wrote: These deals and insane publisher game packs have turned selective game buyers into sudden onset collectors. It’s not enough for Deus Ex to be snug in a jewel case and shoved into a basement closet somewhere; it needs to be on THE LIST. The ‘My Games’ tab on Steam isn’t just a launch pad for your game library -- it’s a gaping maw, a whisper in your head that there’s comfort to be found in THE LIST. The bigger THE LIST, the happier you’ll be.

I'm not only susceptible to this pattern myself but I'll actually feel a need to buy games even when they aren't on sale. As soon as something from that past that used to be in my physical collection shows up on Steam I'll grab it right away. I can justify it to myself as saying is much more convenient to have it on Steam - no disc to insert, no install process to go through, just a quick download (I live in a city with a Steam content server) and I'm good to go.

What other readers of this site suffer from this problem?

steam, gamers with jobs, steam sale,

RandomEngy Says:
January 6th 2010 @ 11:54 am EST

I'll do it if an old game is super cheap or part of a combo pack. It's a license to chuck out that old box and disc and make my house a cleaner place. I do understand the power of the list (it calls to me) but I'm doing my best to only get games I'll realistically play.

Also figuring out when to buy games based on your interest, backlog length, sale percentage and long-term discount prospects becomes a pretty significant statistical challenge.

Scoota Says:
January 6th 2010 @ 2:00 pm EST

I can totally relate to this. Through the christmas sales I bought sooo many games. I just like having the huge backlog of games in case I feel the urge to go back and play any of them.

I also have this recurring dream that I get trapped in a room with a computer and my steam account, and that's my only salvation. It's probably not healthy.

AlabasterSlim Says:
January 6th 2010 @ 2:12 pm EST

That's a pretty weird dream man.

subedii Says:
January 7th 2010 @ 1:10 pm EST

I can understand the urge to buy now at that price and play later.

For me personally it goes back to when I was a kid and didn't really have access to any games. The nearest game store was out of town and everything was really expensive, and I had very few friends who were into games. In those conditions you learn to play the tar out of any game you manage to get hold of, even if it's utter crap, all the while looking at magazine pictures of all the awesome stuff you're missing out on.

When you reach the point where you can buy what you want and it's all easily accessible, the first natural reaction is usually to gorge yourself on all the stuff you wanted to get, even if you can't actually spare time to play it right now. It's almost like you're preparing for a gaming drought, and you'll be back to not having access to anything and boy won't you be glad then that you've got that backlog.

Plus when there's awesome stuff out there that everyone's talking about, you don't want to be the one left out of the conversation. One of the downsides of having gamer friends and being in a gamer community ironically.

I'm just glad that I've largely managed to get it out of my system now.

Aussie_Nick Says:
January 12th 2010 @ 8:09 pm EST

I suffer from this badly.
Before the Christmas Sales, I had 160 games. And at the end of the Sales 291 .

AlabasterSlim Says:
January 12th 2010 @ 8:46 pm EST

Holy crap Nick! That's a huge difference . How many packs did you buy?

Aussie_Nick Says:
January 13th 2010 @ 11:35 pm EST

Alot All the Telltale games. Most of them were cheap games $10< But yeah after my big overtime pay after christmas. I just went to town

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