Buying games addiction FOMO overdrive

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Fully [H]
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Jun 7, 2008
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I think I have more of a fear of missing out buying games addiction problem. I'll buy a game in say 2015 and never get around to sinkng any time into the thing. Always thinking this next game I purchase will fill that Void 5 times out of 10 it never does. Recently with so few games coming out that are good. Alot of games are early access so that is a problem which will shelve the game for months because with say BG3 the save file will never carry over.
 
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I don't have this problem. I only buy games I'm relatively sure will be good based on gameplay video (not cinematic trailers) and even then, I tend to only buy games when I am ready to play them. I do not ever buy games with the intent on getting to them later.
 
I don't have this problem. I only buy games I'm relatively sure will be good based on gameplay video (not cinematic trailers) and even then, I tend to only buy games when I am ready to play them. I do not ever buy games with the intent on getting to them later.
I have 6 games on steam. I bought 3 of them in the last year. I will not buy if I'm not intending to play them right then.

On Epic Games I have way more, but I grab whatever is free when they have giveaways.
 
I have 6 games on steam. I bought 3 of them in the last year. I will not buy if I'm not intending to play them right then.

On Epic Games I have way more, but I grab whatever is free when they have giveaways.

I have done that as well. Only because those games are offered for a limited time and have no cost associated with them. Aside from that, I don't get games I'm not ready to play. I have a lot of games on Steam, a few on Origin, Epic and UPlay. But, I've been PC gaming since well before the launch of these platforms and adopted digital downloads for my games a very long time ago.
 
I admit I have this problem due to the digital age and games being removed from sale for whatever reason. You used to just be able to buy a used copy, and even piracy/abandonware is becoming harder to come by. I have mostly resolved to just say "screw it" since it seems developers and publishers actually have no respect for their own creations anymore. If that is the case, then neither will I. I do greatly appreciate the efforts of game preservation groups, though.
 
I think I have more a "collector" addiction than a FOMO one. I love getting games on sale or in bundles, I literally have a couple of thousands of games and yet I have finished at best around 20%, installed and tried maybe 60%, while others I don't even remember getting lol. That said, I am actually thinking of getting Valhiem that is in EA because some of the videos looked interesting. The only thing holding me back is that the "survival"/building genre games at best hold my interest 6-10 hours before those features generally make me hate the game. ;)
 
I think I have more a "collector" addiction than a FOMO one. I love getting games on sale or in bundles, I literally have a couple of thousands of games and yet I have finished at best around 20%, installed and tried maybe 60%, while others I don't even remember getting lol. That said, I am actually thinking of getting Valhiem that is in EA because some of the videos looked interesting. The only thing holding me back is that the "survival"/building genre games at best hold my interest 6-10 hours before those features generally make me hate the game. ;)
I'm closing in on 1,100 games on Steam and I think I have about the same track record, though I admittedly have tried fewer games (40%, maybe).
 
Top tip: keep a notebook (electronic or virtual) with a running list of games you read or hear about that you'd like to play. Doing this helps in two ways: 1) it helps you narrow down the ones you actually really want to buy, 2) allows you to check the list against sales, thereby saving you money.

I do the same thing with present ideas for the family, which I'm sure has kept me out of trouble scrambling last minute for things for the wife :)
 
I keep jumping back to Overwatch, been playing that game nearly every day since Beta. I bought Cyberpunk 2077, played a few hours the day I bought it and then the next day, and haven't fired it back up.
Bought COD BO Cold War, this one I did play for a few days, probably put 20 hours into it, but I haven't played it since.
Borderlands 3, haven't even fired it up yet, got it back when it came with the AMD 3900X processor.
 
I find that as I'm getting older (36 now) I like the IDEA of playing games more than the actual act of it. I have kids, a job, a house that needs to be cleaned constantly.. all of these obligations add up and I'd rather just be spending quiet time with the wife after the kids go to bed. I don't have the energy at the end of the day to get into something new. If I do play a game, it's usually something old and familiar that I can hop into for 30 minutes and bounce out of with little commitment overall. Sorry is this comment horribly depressing? Am I the only one?
 
I find that as I'm getting older (36 now) I like the IDEA of playing games more than the actual act of it. I have kids, a job, a house that needs to be cleaned constantly.. all of these obligations add up and I'd rather just be spending quiet time with the wife after the kids go to bed. I don't have the energy at the end of the day to get into something new. If I do play a game, it's usually something old and familiar that I can hop into for 30 minutes and bounce out of with little commitment overall. Sorry is this comment horribly depressing? Am I the only one?
I get like 2h a night. That's about it. Quiet time with the wife, pffft. How long you been married? Mine's on the tablet watching a show and I'm leveling my tenth max character in Warcraft. XD
 
Yeah I'm single that is why I have so much time to screw around.
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I get like 2h a night. That's about it. Quiet time with the wife, pffft. How long you been married? Mine's on the tablet watching a show and I'm leveling my tenth max character in Warcraft. XD
LOL right on. I am waiting for my wife to slowly forget I exist but it hasn't happened yet. She has all these 'expectations'...
 
I thought I had a sizeable library with 600 titles (GOG and Steam) and ~150 or so in the backlog.

I've been backlog focused for a few years and occasionally buy and immediately play new titles. It's about 8:1 backlog to new titles. The days of buying big bundles during sales are over.

I'm also blessed with a wife who plays some video games or otherwise tends towards crafty projects after the kid (second one on the way) is asleep which means I don't usually have night time demands on my time other than my own.
 
I think I have more a "collector" addiction than a FOMO one. I love getting games on sale or in bundles, I literally have a couple of thousands of games and yet I have finished at best around 20%, installed and tried maybe 60%, while others I don't even remember getting lol. That said, I am actually thinking of getting Valhiem that is in EA because some of the videos looked interesting. The only thing holding me back is that the "survival"/building genre games at best hold my interest 6-10 hours before those features generally make me hate the game. ;)
You and me both. Definitely have the "collector gene". My game list between Steam, GOG, EPIC, and Origin is 2100+.
 
I find that as I'm getting older (36 now) I like the IDEA of playing games more than the actual act of it. I have kids, a job, a house that needs to be cleaned constantly.. all of these obligations add up and I'd rather just be spending quiet time with the wife after the kids go to bed. I don't have the energy at the end of the day to get into something new. If I do play a game, it's usually something old and familiar that I can hop into for 30 minutes and bounce out of with little commitment overall. Sorry is this comment horribly depressing? Am I the only one?
I’m sure it’s this way for a lot of us. There are games that I will for sure play but maybe 2-3 titles a year and that’s about it.
 
I find that as I'm getting older (36 now) I like the IDEA of playing games more than the actual act of it. I have kids, a job, a house that needs to be cleaned constantly.. all of these obligations add up and I'd rather just be spending quiet time with the wife after the kids go to bed. I don't have the energy at the end of the day to get into something new. If I do play a game, it's usually something old and familiar that I can hop into for 30 minutes and bounce out of with little commitment overall. Sorry is this comment horribly depressing? Am I the only one?
Are you my doppelganger?
 
I find that as I'm getting older (36 now) I like the IDEA of playing games more than the actual act of it. I have kids, a job, a house that needs to be cleaned constantly.. all of these obligations add up and I'd rather just be spending quiet time with the wife after the kids go to bed. I don't have the energy at the end of the day to get into something new. If I do play a game, it's usually something old and familiar that I can hop into for 30 minutes and bounce out of with little commitment overall. Sorry is this comment horribly depressing? Am I the only one?
I don't quite have your setup (although I wish I did) however just time in general is such a commodity and I'm trying to get certain things done in my life.
I've opined on multiple threads on the [H] that really there is generally speaking maybe 1-2 games a year that come out at MOST that I want to play. And honestly there have been spells where it has been two years since there has been a title I consider 'worth playing'. I've been called a 'game hater' or 'not a gamer' as a result of this - but personally I consider myself someone that only has the time for the best of the best. I no longer want to play games to play them - I want to play games that give me a full experience.

Usually for me now that means "relatively short", narrative driven games. I generally prefer 10 hours of really refined gameplay where literally the entire game can just be set pieces that are all very calculated and to reiterate a story that is well written - over 80 hours of some sandbox title. And this is for obvious reasons - I won't be able to put in enough back to back hours to make playing an 80 hour game worth it and that would also take tons of weeks and time to get through for the way I play games. For genres I generally like stealth, RPG, and tactical games (and playing games where I have a choice I generally prefer to play inside of these playstyles).

So I would say just spend your time trying to find the things in gaming you really enjoy and only play those - and don't worry about what everyone else is playing or what their jam is. I listed my stuff just show that I've more or less figured out what works for me - figure out what genres and game types are for you and just be good with waiting a year or two between titles.

===

As for the OP - I would say the way I got over FOMO and games collection in general (I stopped about 10 years ago - I was into collecting rare SNES/PS1/PS2 RPG's) was considering the money in my pocket and what it could be better used on. If you're making 6 figures a year you probably don't care, but I wasn't and I'm not. Even if I was though I recognize that even small amounts of money directed intentionally with care can make a big difference. If you're spending even $300 on games a year that you're not even playing (a number that I would consider conservatively low for a lot of games collectors), that could be used for virtually anything else with greater utility and will add more to your life than essentially burning cash into a cycle that is by design intentionally addictive. I would rather use that $300 to take out friends for food or coffee, invest it in stocks, but shoes and clothes, or more than likely over all of these things, stack up photography/videography tools which I probably where a majority of my money goes. In other words for me it was thinking about the opportunity cost of that money when I really started paying attention to how temporal games ownership pleasure is/was versus other stuff. And I would say that isn't just mentality about "buying games you don't even play" but just about changing the thinking and valuation of money in general. If all the money I make is my time - then I really don't want to waste it.
 
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I don't quite have your setup (although I wish I did) however just time in general is such a commodity and I'm trying to get certain things done in my life.
I've opined on multiple threads on the [H] that really there is generally speaking maybe 1-2 games a year that come out at MOST that I want to play. And honestly there have been spells where it has been two years since there has been a title I consider 'worth playing'. I've been called a 'game hater' or 'not a gamer' as a result of this - but personally I consider myself someone that only has the time for the best of the best. I no longer want to play games to play them - I want to play games that give me a full experience.

Usually for me now that means "relatively short", narrative driven games. I generally prefer 10 hours of really refined gameplay where literally the entire game can just be set pieces that are all very calculated and to reiterate a story that is well written - over 80 hours of some sandbox title. And this is for obvious reasons - I won't be able to put in enough back to back hours to make playing an 80 hour game worth it and that would also take tons of weeks and time to get through for the way I play games. For genres I generally like stealth, RPG, and tactical games (and playing games where I have a choice I generally prefer to play inside of these playstyles).

So I would say just spend your time trying to find the things in gaming you really enjoy and only play those - and don't worry about what everyone else is playing or what their jam is. I listed my stuff just show that I've more or less figured out what works for me - figure out what genres and game types are for you and just be good with waiting a year or two between titles.

===

As for the OP - I would say the way I got over FOMO and games collection in general (I stopped about 10 years ago - I was into collecting rare SNES/PS1/PS2 RPG's) was considering the money in my pocket and what it could be better used on. If you're making 6 figures a year you probably don't care, but I wasn't and I'm not. Even if I was though I recognize that even small amounts of money directed intentionally with care can make a big difference. If you're spending even $300 on games a year that you're not even playing (a number that I would consider conservatively low for a lot of games collectors), that could be used for virtually anything else with greater utility and will add more to your life than essentially burning cash into a cycle that is by design intentionally addictive. I would rather use that $300 to take out friends for food or coffee, invest it in stocks, but shoes and clothes, or more than likely over all of these things, stack up photography/videography tools which I probably where a majority of my money goes. In other words for me it was thinking about the opportunity cost of that money when I really started paying attention to how temporal games ownership pleasure is/was versus other stuff. And I would say that isn't just mentality about "buying games you don't even play" but just about changing the thinking and valuation of money in general. If all the money I make is my time - then I really don't want to waste it.
I'd be curious to know some examples of the games that qualify. Especially interested to see which RPGs fit into your criteria, as that seems like super short list.
 
I'd be curious to know some examples of the games that qualify. Especially interested to see which RPGs fit into your criteria, as that seems like super short list.
At this point it is a super short list. One of the games that contradicts my criteria that I consider to be the best tactical RPG I've ever played is: Divinity Original Sin 2. My big problem with it is basically the issue as described in the post you quoted. I've gotten to Act 3, but as it's a 100+ hour game (for completionists) then I still haven't seen the end and I've had it for 4 months. It does make me look forward to Baldur's Gate 3, another Larian title - but they can take their sweet time developing it. As obviously I'm not getting through their previous title any time soon.
Nothing else recent has really interested me. I was a big Square RPG fan, but we're talking way back when as in SNES era. I don't think they've really had a title that I consider to be "great" since then.
There are plenty of games with RPG mechanics that are great but few pure RPG's these days that are. I'm a fan of the original Mass Effect trilogy.
 
At this point it is a super short list. One of the games that contradicts my criteria that I consider to be the best tactical RPG I've ever played is: Divinity Original Sin 2. My big problem with it is basically the issue as described in the post you quoted. I've gotten to Act 3, but as it's a 100+ hour game (for completionists) then I still haven't seen the end and I've had it for 4 months. It does make me look forward to Baldur's Gate 3, another Larian title - but they can take their sweet time developing it. As obviously I'm not getting through their previous title any time soon.
Nothing else recent has really interested me. I was a big Square RPG fan, but we're talking way back when as in SNES era. I don't think they've really had a title that I consider to be "great" since then.
There are plenty of games with RPG mechanics that are great but few pure RPG's these days that are. I'm a fan of the original Mass Effect trilogy.
Cool. I was specifically thinking of the Original Sin games as being pretty good based on community reviews, but also definitely being LOOOOONG.
 
I buy games that interest me and I know I'll play them at least once to twice a week.

Then there are those time sinks...

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I buy games on heavy discount and then hopefully get around to playing them. Have a massive backlog currently. Unfortunately I also play time sinks like Monster Hunter so everything else gets pushed back.
 
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