Buying games when we haven't even finished the ones we have.

Why do we (those of us who do this) insist on buying new games when we haven't even finished or completely experienced the games we already own. We basically buy games for the sake of having them in our collection even though we know we aren't going to get around to playing them for a long time. By the time we do get around to playing them, the game costs much less than what we originally payed for it. Why do we insist on doing this? Are we fucking stupid? What gives?

This post really only applies to those of us who have done this or do this. If you don't do this, then this doesn't apply to you. I'm just trying to have a discussion with those of us (including myself) who do this.

We are Consumers. We attempt to consume as much as we can, when we can. Even if it isn't the smartest idea or the ideal time to do so.

At 32 I have the money to buy all the games Iwant but no where near the time to play them. I wish I had this kind of money to buy games when I was a kid with the time to play.

I'm so guilty of this, I have about 7-8 games that I alternate between and I've always got my eye on another game. When I do buy a new game it's usually a game that's been out for a while so it's cheap, or pre owned. I'm currently working on getting dishonoured and splintercell blacklist finished so that will justify getting a couple more games I want.

Because I always want the next newest thing....I really need to stop and catch up on my backlog but I have a sickness lol

I think that's just our human nature lol. We always want the next biggest and best thing.

I have over 65 games in my 360 collection and about a dozen of them I never even played for more than a few minutes. I think the media does a good job of making us think we need the latest and greatest with all of the "preorder bonuses", that we buy into it. At least, that's been the case for me on occasion. On Amazon, I can get same day shipping and some "exclusive" with the Prime benefit, so the ease of not having to even go out and purchase the game is great. Plus, I always feel that if I jump into a great game late, then I'm going to be so behind on MP that I'll get owned in every match. lol

I used to do this regardless of how many games I was playing at a time, suppose it was down to greed and lacking patience. Generally I don't do it anymore. I broke this rule today in fact, when finding Dark Souls II for £20, but for the most part I've slowed way down on purchasing games.

I try to hold back on buying new games until they're on sale. Unfortunately, there are a ton of games I can get for extremely cheap...

I think it's easy to see how fast things can stack up when you can buy 10 games for $10.

Well, I never pre-order or buy games on the day of release. I usually wait a few weeks, and sometimes there is a discount. However, I have no issue with purchasing a game shortly after release, because if a game is worth my time, I want to support the developers and ensure they can fund their next project.

For me its not about getting new games, Its sales. Like the other weekend I bought 4 games off psn because they were having a 5 dollar sale, a couple weeks before that they were having a 99cent sale, and there is a chance that is the only time you will see something that cheap.

I probably possess over 500 games on various platforms. Likely several thousand throughout my life and that doesn't include of course the 3000+ ROMS for emulation. I don't care if I don't finish a game, rather it's all about the value I get from it. Some games I get my money's worth after only 8 hours, depending on cost and how entertained I was during that time. A small percentage is just bad decision making...like paying $33 for Bound by Flames because it was Steam deal and only played maybe 15 minutes of it. Some games I buy just are not what I initially thought or look/play terribly. Some games I put in a lot of hours but am not terribly entertained, like Thief for 15 hours but didn't feel I got $60 out of yet another title like GT 5 I put 15 hrs in and I really enjoyed that time for $60. So it depends. I don't usually buy just to have unless it's something I collect.

It's rare that I get in over 100 hours in any game. I just don't have the time nor can I sit there for hours at a time straight like some people I know do. Plus I have others hobbies to fit in.

I do this all the time, especially if i find a used game that is really cheap. Personally i think it's because i want to own every game, it's like i'm hoarding video games in a sense.

Where???

I remember back when I waited a few months to pickup Valkyria Chronicles. Came out November '08, I went to pick it up around January/February '09. No Best Buys in the city ever received a shipment. EB/Gamestop told me it had already been discontinued and I'd only be able to get it used, but they'd never seen one traded in. Saw the same thing that summer with the first BlazBlue.

Now I pre-order most games and pick them up the day they come out. I have like a 15 game backlog and I don't care, because for games that aren't AAA titles it feels like you either get them on release day or you don't get them at all.

Various sales and what not. HumbleBundle, Steam, PSN sales. Amazon has a lot of used games for around $10-15 each and they usually come in perfect condition if you select that option.

I would that too but I can't afford it. :(

It's called psychological marketing. That's why I wait for GOTY / Ultimate Editions. Why pay all that money for something depreciates in value once the hype dies down? Patience and realizing that these pre order bonuses are ways of playing the consumer for an idiot can help you overcome throwing your money away.

Steam sales are killer, but I usually just get indies or MP games from them so I can play them whenever and they won't take too much time. Playstation sometimes killer sales, like when they had the Ratchet and Clank HD trilogy for $10 and their PS+ deal is overwhelming when linking it across PS3, PS4, and Vita, just so many games. But the summer is usually good to catch up on everything since not much comes out then.

With how cheap games are today how can you not buy them :)

But its like with movies and music or books, its better to have it and not use it then want to use it and don't have it.

circle back to your backlog when you've finished the ones you really wanted to finish. Always works for me.

This, good deals get me revved. Besides, nothing wrong with having a war chest.

many reasons

• when i was younger i wasnt a big gamer. my parents only bought me one or two games a year and i didnt buy multiple systems. i didnt start gaming hardcore until after high school
• when i see deals, i know i better jump on that deal esp when i see jrpgs
• once you have a game, you have it. you dont have to remind yourself to get a game because its already there. you dont get the chance to forget about a game.
• gaming has kept me out of trouble. instead of spending $100 at a bar/club and having a chance to get arrested, id rather spend my money on experiences that wont get me in trouble
• i have a collectors mentality. i love seeing collections of things which reflects me as a person
• i want to see the fruits of my hardwork at my job. even if its one game or one movie....at least i can see where my hardwork goes. having a place is nice, but money isnt always about paying for necessities. its nice to have something tangible to see

Gaming is actually a fairly cheap hobby. The most expensive hobby I ever had was fixing up old cars. So glad I'm no longer interested in that. My other hobby these days since owning a home is landscaping and that can be pretty darn expensive. Buying tools and hardware, plants, blocks..etc. Just spent almost $300 on a freaking 4 stroke weed eater last weekend. Spent $260 this weekend just for the house...new doorknob/lock, firesafe..etc as I consider home maintenance and security kind of a hobby too. ON the games side I spend just over $100 on 8 3DS games, some used but got a lot for my money by comparison. If games was my only hobby, I'd save a ton of money.

you nailed it...... lmao i mean i am 21 but still.... i wish i couldve had all the games .... now i can do it...

I know I will eventually get the chance to play all my games in my collection that I haven't touched.

I agree with all this.

The only time I do this is during the big Steam sales, cause getting 10-15 games for the price of one new game is worth it in the long run. Otherwise there is no need for me to buy a game that was just released when I have 30 in a backlog. I used to multitask game playthroughs, play a litle bit of one here and a little bit of one there until I completed a few at a time but now a days I only play one until I complete it. Its pretty easy to save money and stop buying when you have enough, just stop looking at all the hype. I did and I am enjoying the games that I play I whole lot more.

Probably because you have the money to do so. I'm poor so I always wait for sales and finish all my games.

In a way I find it to be a sickness of sorts or just trying to be a part of the crowd.

Only half a year ago I bought a Playstation. Got about 100 titles that I really want. Ofcourse it's not possible to complete them all, but i still do buy the cheapest ones now to have them in my collection. I'll play them eventually. I'm not in a rush.

I do it all the time. I just like the feeling of knowing all the stuff I have lined up to play, once I've had my fill of the current game I'm playing.

Plus, being in my late 30's, settled and established, and middle class, it's not exactly breaking my budget to drop for a few games when I haven't finished my current one.

I too got loads games not finish

But I will finish them when I got time

Now days I play games for only 2hours

Because of my job that is the reason.

Yeah well.... I wish I had your problems

I actually realized I did this quite a bit, so I have completely stopped. I only buy games that are relatively time sensitive like multiplayer games that will be replaced with sequels within a year or so. Otherwise I wait for major price drops on single player/co-op driven games and my friend and I get them and play together. For most single player games we each by one we're interested in and then swap games once we've finished. It's been working out great and saving me a crap load of money.

i am constantly starting new games so i finish a game once a while in months

the problem is...so many games...so little time...or so little space on my harddrive

I'm guilty of this. I'm always buying new games even though I'm not even close to finished with some of my other ones.

I love to have a game collection. When any new game comes I wait for only sometime as it seems to be cheap or reached to my budget I buy it, I have 8-9 game but I also want some new game. But I sell my previous games or gave it to my friend as I clear all the levels or getting lack of interest on it. And also buy some good games from my friends at cheapest price. :)

yup guilty of this.

i have been going through my games and have realised that i havent actually played many of them properly. most of the time they were games i was enjoying but then something else shiny came along.

so i have put down a rule for myself now...only when i have either completed or sufficently played a game can i buy a new one.

so i finished the SP campaigns for BF3 and 4 (poor but short and quick....yes i cheated :P). no interest in the MP side so im not playing that. bought Ys celceta for the vita.

im not going to force myself to finish games though. if i find im not enjoying the game anymore then i wont play it anymore. also some games (like an elder scrolls game) are too big to fully experience in one long go (200 hours clocked up in skyrim since launch).

but i am going to make a bigger effort to play more of my games and give them a good play before i get something else.

next up: ys Celceta and zelda a link between worlds...with some X rebirth thrown in (that game is massive. it could take a while.).

thankfully its pretty quiet on the release schedule at the moment.

Yeah, I'm guilty of that.

I do this all the time, but me it's more of a disorder thing. Like I've got a fear I'll beat all the games I have then won't have anything to play until I buy something and don't really want to be in that situation. So I buy the games I think I will like and backlog them to avoid this scenario.

Man I don't even know why I consistently buy games. I mean when I get one it doesn't usually take me long to start playing it. But all the games I already have keep getting put off.

That's just the way most people work. Games also come in many different variety though so there is no reason you would operate like a robot who goes from one game to another completing all of them 100%

The following is just talking about my game collection in general, including games that were not bought (but still legally obtained, btw).

Some of the time I buy on impulse, mainly because the game is cheap or seems like it will be too hard to get later. An example of the first scenario: in Steam deals, I've bought games in genres I have no or little experience with, justifying my trial of the genre by the low price of entry. Instead of playing these games, I just go on back to Minecraft, Elder Scrolls, the latest Fallouts, or replaying old games. In these cases, I think it's just a case of buying obsession, with games being the target object. Advertisements really do not help.

Other times, I buy games I know I'll like and that I've been anticipating, such as The Witcher 2, and then go on back to the previously-named games, playing them for countless more hours, while the new games just sit there. In this case, the longevity and replayability of older games hurts the prospect of the newer ones being played in a timely manner.

Some games I just get because... they're part of a series I usually enjoy. "Series completionism" would be a good description.

Some of the games in my digital backlog came bundled with ones I wanted, so their presence is mainly just clogging, say, the Steam user interface (so I tend to only look at the list of installed games). I'll likely never play many of these games.

Others are classics that I got for free or that came bundled with the most recent iteration in their series. The first two Elder Scrolls games were free on Bethesda's site a while ago. I've barely played them, mostly because their beginning sections are too difficult.

Due to all of the above, I have a hefty backlog. Some people have far bigger backlogs, which boggles my mind. I actually just made a list today of games I should get rid of. It's probably smaller than it should be, given that I'm not likely to plug in my older consoles again any time soon, and I feel attached beyond warrant to some of my games, so they didn't make the list. But there's one problem with getting rid of games: often, they sell for next to nothing, which makes it seem a greater value to just keep them, despite their practical lack of utility and the fact that they (boxed ones) are a waste of space.

@behardy24: I can't pass up a good deal. ;(

I know the feel.

I believe a person can only keep track of so many games at a time before they run out of time and money to dedicate to all of them.

I don't think there's anything wrong with collecting and having a crap ton of games if you like all of them. At the same time, it becomes kind of pointless when you have a bunch of games that you've never played, or hardly played, or have no drive to really continue playing.

Over the years I've come to the conclusion that buying games you might not fully enjoy is inevitable. But it's up to you to decide whether it's worth it to hold onto this or that game. If you think it would be more worth it to sell a bunch of older games you never play, and get one or two new games that seem refreshing, that's up to you.

But you also should probably hold on to those games that really meant something to you. Those are the ones you'll miss playing a few years down the line, the ones that they will try to do remakes of that are usually not as good as the originals.

People feed into the hype way too much with teaser cinematic trailers, pre order bonuses and season pass bullshit. Titanfall and Watch Dogs are a good examples of thos. Cool games but people were praising them as the 2nd coming when in fact, neither one lives up to the hype. This is why I don't mind watching spoiler gameplay and waiting for GOTY editions.