Confessions of a Shopaholic

I own too many games. Far too many. While I'm sure, with a concerted effort, that I could at the very least try them all, there's many more than I could ever hope to actually complete. Recent stats suggest that 40% of games purchased on Steam don't ever get played, and that's a statistic that I can relate to. Hell, I'm probably one of those on the other side of that percentile.

I've always been a collector. Perhaps not quite a hoarder, but I've always had large collections of, well, pretty much everything I've ever been interested in. Over the years, as more and more grey hairs have appeared on my head, my attraction to large collections has dissipated somewhat. My DVD collection has been broken up and dispersed, my music collection is digital now, save for a giant wallet full of old discs that acts as backup. There's been other collections over the years, fallen by the wayside. I don't pay any of them any attention now, but I do have a ridiculous collection of games that continues to grow while others fade away.

Most of these games are digital. My Steam account is over-flowing with titles, old and new, triple A and indie. There's literally all kinds of game that I like (and some, many, that I don't). Why have I got so many games? Why do I keep buying games when I've already got more than I'll ever play?

First, some of them are work. Indies and review code, things to try, even simply because it's important to sample their delights, to know what they're all about. The rest, well, there's several reasons. One is Steam sales, the regular flash sales and the huge discounts offered on Valve's shopfront. These events are appearing with increasing regularity, and I'm as guilty as the next person of buying up games that I'd never buy at full price, just because they're cheap. It's a bad habit.

Second there's bundles. At first I was quite enamoured with the collections put up for sale by Humble. Since these bundles became an industry mainstay we've had other, similar collections posted by other sites. There's always a bundle or two on somewhere. They've gone from being an occasional treat to a constant presence. You can always spend a couple of quid and gorge on a selection of indie titles. I've done plenty of this, and I think it's fair to say that now I'm full.

It was this early attraction to bundles that has left me with plenty of eyesores on my Steam account, games I'll never, ever play. Religious games, shitty platformers, bad adventure games, turgid shooters. There's a good chunk of my gaming collection that I'm tied to for life, total rubbish that I'm going to have to scroll through forever when I'm looking through my lengthy list of games. There's no-one to blame for this but me and my... well, for want of a better word, greed.

The same could also be said for my digital console collection, although perhaps to a much lesser extent. I've got a plethora of digital games on XBL and PSN, most of which I've played, but there's not many that I've dedicated the time to that I should have. There's less sales in the console space (though that's changing), although it's fair to say I've downloaded plenty of titles via PS Plus, again, games I'm very unlikely to finish.

I haven't even mentioned my disc-based collection. Still sitting proud on the shelf by my desk. It's shrunk over the years. Where possible I've traded in games for credit so I could re-buy them on Steam, effectively transfering the license from console to PC. Like my CDs, I've been trying to go digital as much as possible. There's still plenty of disc-based games here though, and again, I've yet to complete a chunk of them, with many still sitting on my to-do-list.

It's a matter of time management that's holding me back in some respects. I've got a kids, a house that's falling down, I even like to occasionally dabble with having a social life. But still, I've bought too many games. I've succumbed to the temptation of too many sales, I've snapped up too many bundles. Games have become so cheap and so accessible, their value has diminished so much thanks to current market trends, that I've bought too many. I've had more than my fair share. And I know that I'm not alone.

There's still hope for me, looking forward. After a while, bundles become less appetising (I know they did for me), and I still go out and buy the games that I'm really looking forward to, putting into practice the old reasonings and falling back on old buying habits (that's stellar, I'll buy it full price - not sure about that one, I'll wait for it to be a bit cheaper). I spend just as much money on games as I have in the past, and that's not going to change. But now, thanks to an overweight game collection, I'm looking to thin out the amount of games that I purchase, and to more carefully target the games that I want to spend my precious time and hard-earned money on.

But I'll always have those games that I bought but didn't need, and I'll wear them like digital stretch marks, a sign of a time when I bought more than I should have, more than I could play. I doubt I'm the only one who snapped up more than was required, just because I could. In fact, I know I'm not the only one. If we're not careful, if we don't start consuming what we need instead of buy cheap games just because, we're going to turn Steam into the App store. It's a transition that's already happening. I'd prefer that not to happen, so I reckon I'll change the way I buy games from here on in. I wonder if there's anyone else who feels the same way?