I Own Too Many Games

Steam is both a Godsend and a terrible curse.

More specifically, the easily accessible nature of digital downloads are both amazing and terrible. Between Steam, Origin, Uplay, numerous places offering the ability to buy games that can be put onto Steam, like the Humble Bundle, GamersGate, Green Man Gaming, or even places just offering DRM-free downloads, like GOG. The vast number of these has caused me to own too many games!

They range from AAA titles like Bioshock Infinite or Skyrim, to small indie darlings like Braid or Torchlight, and most of them were bought on the cheap through Steam sales or bundle deals that allowed me to activate them on Steam. However, this excess of games to play made me realise something: I had no desire to play half of these games despite the fact I had nothing to do with my time now that I'm out of school, awaiting to see if I have a place in University waiting for me at the end of September.

So, I had an idea. I had seen someone before vow to play their entire Steam library, in alphabetical order, only to fail when the going got tough and he found a game he couldn't complete. I decided to take up that challenge, and I've always been a person who copes better when my ordeal is made public, and others have the opportunity to scrutinize me, so I am keeping a blog of my progress so far (about 5 games in, just finished The Binding Of Isaac) here: My Challenge Blog

Now, this may seem like shameless flogging of my blog (it is a little bit), but I also wanted to raise a question to the Giant Bomb community at large: have any of you had a similar problem to mine where you own a load of games, all of which are readily available to you, but no desire to play them despite thinking to yourself 'Shit, I'm bored and wanna play a video game!" This isn't the first time I've felt burnt out on video games, but now that I have a goal to stride towards, I'm actually happy to sit down and blow through games I never would've looked at in the past, and I'm playing games that put me out of my comfort zone, but I'm loving all the same.

What say you, Giant Bomb?

Make a elaborate blog listing all the games you own, constantly update it crossing out the games you've finished? GameXXX

You can never own to many digital games, Hell I got over 50.

I have too many games too, though most of mine are physical copies. Still got some 200 games in my ever increasing back log.

... and I have 187, the account is valued over $2k, and I know I don't even compare to others on my friends list. And this is only Steam. I still have my GoG account and my consoles. First step of an addiction is admitting you have an addiction right?

Steam knows exactly what it is doing and reaching the age bracket where you end up having a larger increase of cash coming in yet your time and energy are dedicated to work, life's responsibilities and perhaps a social life, it is a perfect storm. At this point, I have told myself to wait for Steam Summer and Winter Sales and even then, only buy games that reach the 75% discount. I have waaaaaay to much invested and haven't finished many games. Played about 50 percent of them, but need to finish them.

Although you chose to play your Steam game list alphabetically, might I recommend Steam Completionist to help you on your way. Awesome website to track what you are playing, finished and for those who don't know where to start, it can select random games to help you decide.

@teaspoon83: Yeah, think mine is just over 100 games, valued at £1000, and that's coming from a dude with a shitty part-time job who just finished school, so it was all from sales. But, the weird thing is, I regret none of the purchases, because I'm supporting the medium that has given me the most joy over the years.

And yeah, I looked into Steam Completionist, but if I stick to alphabetical order, I can easily keep track of games I've played and finished, and the blog helps too

I have 257 steam games with most of them not even played to never finished.

Every motherfucker on this site has this problem and seemingly half have announced a determination to beat them all and failed. Including me.

It's a good way to make yourself hate games.

It's both a curse and a wonderful treat.

And yes, I do feel that way. I have a ton of games on my steam list, and many of them are installed as well - and I buy them because I want to play them. But it feels like I end up not playing anyway. I don't feel burnt out per say, but I'm also looking for different experiences I've not had before.

They're just more interesting to me at this point. Like Analogue: A Hate Story (a visual novel where you're investigating the logs of a space ship using an AI interface and DOS-prompt), Fire Emblem (strategy RPG) and Animal Crossing.

That said, I've stopped kidding myself with the whole "complete/beat game and then play another" thing. I mean, what's the point in playing something if you're not enjoying it? Few games are so broken I can't get some enjoyment out of them but having a ton of games means that if I'm bored with one or reach a point where I feel done with it, I can just play another.

That also means that the more games I have, the less I'm willing to put up with broken mechanics or to keep playing if I feel a game works in a way that I feel isn't for me.

For example, you said you finished The Binding Of Isaac. Some people play that game for 200+ hours. I played it for ~3 or so (was a decent game to play while listening to the bombcast) but as soon as bosses started repeating and I didn't feel I was progressing anymore, I just felt I was done with it, and played something else. It's an okay game for sure, but I don't see myself doing the same thing over and over just so I can see a credit sequence.

I might just do that.

They're either impulse purchases and steam sales with the thought: I'll get to them eventually.

same here. So the thing is I maybe buy 2-3 games a year at full price. And I am about 2 years behind the actual releases. I totally do not mind it. I am getting so much bang for my buck this way.

Join the club.

@xymox: The point you bring up about Isaac is interesting. A good friend of my mine is one of those people who has sunk countless hours into Isaac and, while I could never see myself going that far, I feel like the bosses randomise enough to not feel like a drag, and even if they appear too often, I was basically at the point where I was beating the first two floors without taking any damage, but I guess that repetitive nature kinda goes hand-in-hand with the roguelike.

Dark Souls would be the same for me, there gets to a point where I will consistently stall out, but I've done it so many times that I can get to that point with relative ease. My problem before would be that I would always just get fed up with it and move on to another game. This challenge will now force me to sit down and try to complete.

And about the "not enjoying it" aspect, luckily, I don't really find games unenjoyable. Yes, some can have issues, such as Aquaria, which I thought to be kinda boring towards the end, but I don't think I've encountered a game I've considered flat-out unplayable. Though, I was a dick and bought my friend Garshasp when he attempted this challenge

I have 269 steam games, 55 of them have landed in the "wasted money" category.

Exactly. I've stopped pretending at this point, though the "Stuff I am never going to play" tab in my steam library probably needs to be bigger than it actually is. By comparison, games that I own in the physical realm for not-PC seem like a surmountable task in comparison.

on the plus side when you reach the saturation point of 700+ steam games the sales get a lot more manageable.

I seem to have commitment issues. I'll get home from work and not feel like starting a new game just because I assume it's going to be some sort of investment that I'm not feeling up to at the moment. That leads me to replay old games or games that I can just jump into and go without really caring about what's going on.

For me, a lot the games "owned, but never played" came from bundles. I have a shot attention span for most games and I like to try a lot of games.

If I played 1h for each dollar spent on them, I believe it was worth it. I look up HowLongToBeat when making a "serious purchase"

Playstation Plus has put my PS3 in the same situation. I've got folders set up for Worth Playing, Trash and Never Played. The Never Played folder has twice as many games as the Worth Playing and Trash folders combined. Stuff like Vanquish, Darksiders, Far Cry 2 and Spec Ops The Line are in the Never Played folder. And that's just the stuff I've downloaded but never played. There's also the stuff I didn't bother downloading, like Battlefield 3, LBP Karting and Saints Row 2.

I've accepted that I don't need to play everything and I don't need to have everything accessible just in case I feel like playing it.

I'm at 180 with only 80 or so installed. I at least don't feel like the worst after looking at the other comments.

There's a Steam badge that levels based on how many games you own.

I've seen a few of these:

For those interested, I've updated the blog, with Bioshock Infinite being the next game, which I'll be playing on 1999 Mode

@limpingfish: Woah...that's a tad insane. Most I've seen at 200+ games

Yeah it's out of fucking hand for me, I have like 300 games on Steam or more. I have everything organized into categories based on genre and even have separated out some of my favorites... I'm still petrified by choice every time I start Steam. I still feel like I can never find a game I can stick to.

I'm quickly closing on 400, I recently decided to finish my games in the order I purchased them.

I'm on Half Life 2 episode 2, I should get around to Bioshock Infinite in about 3 years...

Meh i'm slowly getting through them, i've got somewhere over 250 on steam. If you throw in PSN and XBL and the VITA, probably another two hundred on top of that. Probably about 200 on IOS and Android - but they don't really count.

Here's what you need to do people, there is a lot of psychology going on here and you need a management plan:

Make up a list in front of you that you can edit; in notepad or on paper or whatever. Make columns or sections or headings or whatever titled A, B and C and D

Ok first you need to go through one by one and eliminate the games that you will never finish but you have got everything you will out of them, those games are done now. You enjoyed them for what they were and they don't require finishing. In your mind those games are now finished.

The games below will go into Column D.

• Out of date triple A games that you honestly know you will never finish. Or finished games that you have left lying around out of love, though you have wrung everything meaningful out of them. This includes Indie darlings.
• B grade games that have nothing new to show you in the gameplay or story department.
• Old games you keep around for nostalgic reasons that you never play.
• Games that are of little value other than time wasting - i'm talking dual stick shooters, runners, tower defense, puzzle or multiplayer only.Excluding whatever proportion of your favourite's that you have played at least once a week in the last month, these games go into column C. I'm not necessarily regarding these games as "time wasters" but games that aren't overly story or progression driven. Peggle, Counterstrike and Solitaire fit into this category. Games you play when listening to the Bombcast.
• Anything you know in your heart you are done with but leave lying around installed. You need to be aggressive with this.

During this process you will probably find a range of games that you really do feel you need to finish, these will go into column A:

• You quit at a particularly hard part.
• You played too much too fast and got burnt out on it and haven't returned
• You lost your progress at a point and couldn't deal with replaying a section.
• You are "saving it for later"

Ok now add any other games that you are actively playing and happy with to column A.

Ok now here is where it gets trickier, let's start with

column C.

It's hard to put a number on based on you're tastes or gaming habits, but i feel you should probably have no more than ten games in this category. Five is a good number.

There should also be a low amount of overlap in this category, If you have three online fps for example there's probably a good chance you dedicate most of your time to only one of them. Unless you are into just one genre in particular in this category, you should be looking at only having a few varied high quality "time wasters".

column A.

Ok it's time to show no mercy.

Firstly you are likely to have one to three new games that you are actively in the process of playing as you fancy, set these games apart from the others at the top of the list. If you have more of these you need to choose the three you play the most and put the rest at the lower part of the list. If you have none of these read on.

The remaining games likely need to be cut down further. The main thing you are looking at is having few games of the same genre. I don't know about you may operate differently, but i find my game of choice is generally picked based on my mood of genre. Sometimes it's strategy time, sometimes it's shootin dudes in the face time. You need to choose three games here that you are most interested in finishing. A helpful technique to doing this is to go through the list putting one game vs another until you half your list, and then do the same with remainder until you have three games. Add these three games to the top of the list with your new games.

So now you should have a list with six games you have picked out at the top.Now put the remaining games into column B.

You should now have something that might but not necessarily looks something like this

So the idea here is pretty simple and works in all aspects of life. If you have a small list of manageable information to work off you will always achieve better and feel better than staring at a huge chaotic disorganised list.

So here is a few tricks to how you display your steam list which most people are probably unaware of. Firstly you need to take care of column D.

You need to uninstall anything in column D you have installed. OR copy the files and back them up somewhere so you take away the ability to view them in your steam list while you have the "installed games" option checked. This is important.

The next step is to right click one of your Column A games from your steam list and click "set category..." - It's pretty straightforward from here, i'm sure you can think of something better than Column A.

Arrange all your games into the above three categories or some approximation of that which you feel happy with. As i said, ensure your steam list shows "installed games". Another thing i find helpful when deciding what to play is to change your view mode from "list" to "grid". Something about the visual cues of the images help with the decision process.

Stay on top of trying to finish games on your A list, if you really wan't to push at your pile of shame. tell yourself you can't play games from column B until you finish one on column A.

From here the idea is that as you complete or finish with games from Column A, you move them to Column D. Some games in Column A you might find aren't necessary to complete in order to be finished with them. (For instance in the example above Total War Rome 2 is likely to supercede shogun 2. Grid 2 may eventually move to Column C when i've had enough with the single player.

As you finish a game in Column A, move one from Column B to take it's place. Either stay on top of keeping a manageable list, or audit it every so often. In the case of a steam sale, you might just create a category for all steam sale games at the top, because you know there's going to be like 20 extra games there.

Hope this helps someone, It's probably not a technique that will work for everyone, but I think it sure beats the hell out of listing 250 games alphabetically with the intent to force your way through the list.

edit - holy shit this is long. I should just run another pass over this and put it up as a blog.

Well, I have barely any games, so if ever you guys feel the need to relieve yourselves of this burden, I'm your man.

@photomic: I'm kind of in that boat, but at some point there are exaggerations. Like donating to humble bundle can mostly be for the charitable side even if you register the games, and for PC there are many bundles where you end up with titles that are of no particular interest. That inflates the overall count a lot (I'm at 300 or so on Steam, but more than half of it is "well its cheaper (or a dollar more) just to buy this group of games rather than the couple I want.....".

Having a large number of unplayed console games while pre-ordering the next-gen is a bit more dicey. But that has been reduced as a consideration, as I have gone through and found out how poorly a lot of the items in my back catalog (which were purchased inexpensively) actually hold up. Play an early X360 title (maybe Turok) and realize that it would probably get a 1/4 of its current metacritic now. That issue comes up in some "classics" even.

That collection makes it feel odd to purchase the genuinely interesting stuff coming up, but at some point it is necessary to realize that maybe you purchased a lot of stuff that is not worth the time to look at (e.g. Steam Star Wars complete pack is a bad value without fanatical Star Wars devotion). And maybe try to be a bit better about it going forward instead of looking at pricing.

"Beating my Steam collection in alphabetical order" sounds like a great premise for a daily twitch stream. Also a great way to get people to troll you by sending you free bad games.

im over 200 mrGREEK360 on steam.

@rebgav: Yeah...did that to my friend, sent him Secret Of The Magic Crystals just for a laugh. And my initial thought was to stream it, but my internet wouldn't handle it, so a blog was the next best thing.

Side note...1999 Mode in Infinite is no fucking joke!