Too many video games

In this day and age, simply far too many video games are released. This good and bad.

This is good because: Many options! Get bored with one great game? Jump into another!

This is bad because: If you are the least bit fickle, you'll be overcome by the plethora of choices you have. You'll always have a feeling of missing out on something. You face the Paradox of Choice situation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less

Since 2010 I've been massing a collection of games on Steam through the various sales (even though the game I mostly play is SC2.) If I stopped adding to this pile of games, I think at the rate I'm going I'll be done around 2017 or so, which has finally convinced me to stop buying stuff just cause it's cheap. I mean I can literally play Dark Souls for hundreds and hundreds of hours, and I feel the only reason I won't do it (it's still up in the air for me whether or not I'll try multiple play-throughs after I finish my first) is to superficially jump to something else. And I feel that becoming obsessed with a game and playing it through and through (like so many people are doing with Dark Souls) is the best way to experience a game.

I guess the only way to resolve this is to be ABSOLUTELY discriminating and allow yourself to only buy one game every few months...

I sometimes have these worries too and then I remember there are bigger problems out there and mine are just "first world" problems. It makes me feel bad but puts me back in place.

Oh so true. Since I built my computer earlier this year, I went through steam summersale and boom. Add on top two humble bundles and I'm left with a seemingly unsurmountable pile of games I most likely will never play. I had good intentions though. Wanted to clear the list alphabetically, then I started with AC3 and came to a sudden realization. Although I liked the other ACs, I didn't like AC3. Controls felt clunky and mission design was in certain parts awful. Also, where is the effing duck button? Maybe if I were more patient I could have sunken into the game and perhaps enjoyed it, but the huge pile of untouched games somehow pressured me to try to finish it quickly. That didn't work out well.

Every time I start up steam that huge pile of 49 games grins at me, that half way finished AC3 simling the devilished of them all. I will follow your suggestion and only buy a new game, when I finished the previous one! But what do I do with my pile? Any suggestions?

NOT A PROBLEM

Yes but that is no reason to not be prudent about these things and not try to learn the discipline of avoiding giving in to buying a game just because it's cheap.

I have no idea. It's partially why I made this thread.

You just can't put so much pressure on your self to consume everything. Gamers are especially bad at not wanting to miss out on a potentially great experience, so they purchase all these great games, don't play, then feel guilty for it.

If you want to support devs and want to have a large library, go ahead, spend the $40 on 15 new games, but don't put so much pressure on your self to play through them all. Play a few for the first hour, if your not feeling it, just move on.

If you can skip a few major releases of a genre, then hop back in, you get that sense of 'wow' again, since you didn't see the incremental improvements from release to release.

For instance, I am not picking up GTA5 this year. I played 4, and just wasn't feeling it, so I will skip 5, and in a few years when 6 comes out and I'll give it a try. Chances are, skipping 5 will just leave me blown away by 6.

Too many video games... or NOT ENOUGH HANDS!? *grabs hacksaw and sewing kit*

@runeba: Oh for sure, I think the issue is simiilar to Brad's "handheld game issue." We buy the games on the cheap even if we don't want to play them now cause we're saving them for a rainy day, which will never come. I think the issue probably occurs because

A. As a kid you were limited either by your parents or income by how many games you played.

B. Too much entertainment out there. Now a days there's too much of everything out there to get your hands on not just games. A couple of days ago I was watching Law and Order: SVU on Netflix which is like what a 10 year old crime procedral drama consisting of 200 episodes and I was like why am I watching this? Too much stuff out there that in the end biggest issue comes down to time.

I will never finish all the games I want to finish in my lifetime. I think this makes me sad.

Absolutely true about their being too much entertainment out there. And it's compounded -- or perhaps caused by? -- the technology and tools to create entertainment becoming cheaper, and access becoming cheaper too. I mean, some fantasy book nerd now has the ability to choose to read from thousands of fantasy books at an instant -- not to forget all the fanfic stuff out there. Same thing for cinema/music etc.

One at a time.

I used to buy way too many games in the $15-$25 price range, well after they had come out. I never ended up playing them all.

Now I buy much fewer, but right when they come out at around $45-$60 each. It's working out. I'm playing them, not getting distracted, and having a pretty great time with it. The key is to figure out what you REALLY want to play.

The Paradox of Choice: Why Steam Actually Kinda Sucks.

I hear ya, man.

I let it rain with games, but I don't have much free time now so they are waiting for me on the bench. I felt a few times that I missed some of them, for example I had the franchise Mass Effect on the bench for a while, until I have been influenced to start it sooner.

2014 is looking to be loaded with games I want to play which will make it really overwhelming. I try not to buy too many games at a time because I'm a poor student but I may run into this issue once the new consoles are out.

There is no such thing as too many video games! But I know kind of how you feel, sometimes I never get around to everything I want to play. A lot of the AAA video games that get released are awful similar though, sometimes I'd like to see a bit more variety.

Honestly when I grab a ton of games during a steam sale I know there is no way I will beat everyone one of them, In a sense its like having a library to choose from, there may be some games/books/films you will go back too again and again, but that's no reason to have some extras on the shelf for a rainy day. Its called 'disposable income' for a reason :p

@jgf:

I tend to enjoy games far more when I buy one at a time and devote my free time to playing that one game. When I keep ahold of too many games, I start to become impatient and disinterested in playing them. I sell games that I have beaten or lost interest in playing to get money for new ones. It keeps my library small and fresh and removes the mental pressure that comes with "needing" to play/complete a game.

@awesomeusername: Yes master reggie, I will try my best :D

I ordered a pizza today after coming home from work. I went to the place to get it on foot 15 minutes later, and walked back home holding it up on my left hand.

While walking on the quiet sidewalk, very tired, I passed a grey lighter on the ground. I wanted to bend over and fetch it, but then I thought "I have two lighters in my room that I use whenever I wanna smoke. They're enough." And that made me think of how I care about those two lighters and make sure not to misplace them or ruin them, because they're few and precious, I need them and they're enough.

And guess what? The first thing I did when I got home was un-install six games that I had installed on my PC, keeping only 3, each of a different genre. I will move on to another after spending some gameplay hours with those 3, as if they're the only new games I have.
Then I crossed some TV shows off my 'to watch' list, keeping only a few. Crossed some "to buy" albums off, keeping only a few. Those few will be watched and listened to before I poke my head out for more.

That conviction, that contentment feels really satisfying, it put my mind at ease. Thanks to that grey lighter. More really is less, it's a nightmare, you gotta restrict yourself in order to be healthy.

And yeah, first world problems, I agree.. but they're still problems.

Definitely easy to get buried under games.

Yeah, fuck self control with your money. Just buy anything on sale! We're consumerist whores! Weeee!