I have been extremely lucky to have a job which allows me to keep extremely up to date with all the latest, high-profile releases. I realise how lucky I am when I look behind me and see shelves full of Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii titles, my Steam/GOG/Origin library, or when I remember the boxes and boxes of classic titles stored under my bed, in wardrobes, in hall storage closets. But I realised recently that I actually appreciate very little of any of it.

It was a very jarring thought to have; I have all these titles, but why? I have certainly enjoyed what I have played, but that’s the rub; I have a large collection that I have barely touched. It’s something I obviously take some amount of pride in, but it’s also something I should be deeply ashamed of. Hell, you can check out my Steam library here: http://wastedonsteam.com/gbp/id/dekka So many titles with zero hours played. It’s fucking criminal, really.

I have essentially wasted so much money on stuff I wanted, but had never gotten around to actually enjoying, critiquing and appreciating. Well, today I take a step in somewhat addressing this.

For the next 365 days, I intend to not buy a single game.*

This includes anything that could be construed as a sale, bundle or classic purchase from eBay or Amazon Sellers. Not a single scrap of my income will go towards game purchases for the next calendar year. Gifts will be permitted though.

Why start now? Well, it’s holiday season; lots of big-name titles I want are coming out. I think it’s best to start at the toughest time of the year, no reason other than that really. Plus there are the various sales from GOG.com and Steam to tempt me. But I shall persevere!

Instead, I’m going to spend that time playing and appreciating what I have. For example, I have barely touched Forza Motorsport 4 since release, I really enjoyed it but it got brushed aside in the avalanche of subsequent releases. No point buying Forza Horizon, in my opinion, until I’ve accomplished what I want in that.

I realise that this is a very “first world problem” to have. I fully understand that this post will draw some amount of ridicule, ire, maybe anger? I don’t know, I can’t predict the response. What I do hope though, is that people in a similar situation to me, those who buy games just to have them, who have to have the latest purchases, will see this post and try to appreciate what they have. I am in no way advocating any kind of financial responsibility or admonishing poor spending decisions, because I can barely keep my own finances under control.

Throughout the upcoming year, I intend to do a blog post a week, which is a significant increase in my output, an average of one post every year on various personal blogs. They’ll mostly be covering old-ish ground compared to the rest of the community and may be poorly-written even compared to this post’s standards, but I hope that they’ll be at least a little entertaining for readers. This one is being attached to the off-topic forum, future entries will be linked to appropriate forums. If you're interested in following this series as it progresses (hard to know right now, I know) then maybe follow me? Otherwise you'll see them pop up on the forum feed on the front of the site (I'm guessing.)

I don't really have a closing line for this, so here's some music:

*There are some exceptions to this; I have had pre-orders in for a long time, and have been completely budgeted for them. These are the Wii U console, Persona 4 Golden, SimCity and Assassin’s Creed Liberation. Outside of these four purchases, there will be no others.

The tl;dr version: Asshole duder in somewhat stable financial situation is not spending vast sums of money on his hobby for a year. Will blog about the pointless experience. Woo.