I use a tracker to try and fight this, showing how many games I've started and also achievement progress in them in aggregate.
But I also buy a lot of books I intend to read later, so I almost think it's inherent to digital copies? The less friction in storing them the easier it is to buy aspirationally.
Personally, I have a ton of unplayed games because of Humble Bundle. Like I would buy the bundle for 1 game, and the other 9 came with it. For some of them I would redeem the coupon just in case.
So true... out of the 5 games I have bought on steam, I have played 2 (one fully), and installed and just played briefly 1, and two other never even installed.
Nearly all of my "unplayed" Steam games have been played plenty by me, just not through Steam. Sometimes I think about how my Steam account contributes to statistics that are used to drive narratives like this where "not time-tracked by Steam" = "unplayed game bought by an insane collector." But chances are that narrative is overwhelmingly right most of the time, so whatever.
The title is a misreading of the data. It's not that "most people who buy games on Steam never play them". It's that most games people buy remain unplayed. A tiny, tiny minority of people who buy games of Steam never play games they buy on Steam.
EDIT: Apparently, this error was introduced by the HN submission! The title of the article on the website is: "Most people who buy your game won’t play it". This matches the data presented by the article.
Like courses on udemy. Most people buy a ton of courses probably for the feeling of having bought a course. Which translates apparently to already halfway there becoming that expert the courses promises you to become. Or they build a catalog and sell the account (on udemy).
I wish more game developers adopt the “no sales, period” policy of Factorio.
Here’s a relevant quote from the developer.
> Not having a sale ever is part of our philosophy. In short term, they are good and bring extra money, but we are targeting long term. I believe that searching for sales is wasted time, and people should decide on the price and value, but putting option of wasting time to search for deals or waiting seems like bad part of the equation.
I get why people put games on sale. It gets you on a list on steam and gets people to talk about you on Reddit and gets emails sent to everyone who’s wishlisted your game. It boosts your profits and I get it.
But let’s be honest, these techniques benefit the developer not the player. The developer profits from the players FOMO when a sale happens. The player thinks he has accumulated a glorious Steam library when in reality he just wasted tons of money on games he wouldn’t even ever launch.
If any thing the domain of this website already tells you everything you need to know. It’s all about marketing, aka moving money from your pocket into theirs with psychological maneuvers.
> I too participate in video game tsundoku. SteamDB has a tool that will show you how few games in your collection you have actually played. Here is mine. 2/3rds of my games were never played.
My library has quite a few games I haven't played, but most are from bundles that cost as much as or slightly less than the other bundle parts I actually did want. A couple are from friends posting keys from bundles, and then I got sidetracked by something before seeing if whatever game was actually as interesting as it sounded.
The only one I actually properly paid for and haven't played is Elden Ring. Because I got sidetracked for too long between buying it and finding out it wanted admin access (for some anti-cheat rootkit) to play at all rather than just to enable competitive online things I wasn't interested in. Which I didn't feel like doing on a machine that also had non-game stuff on it.
I'll bet kitchen tools are big on this. How many people buy a specialized appliance like a bread maker and then use it once or never at all? If you don't use something regularly, it's easy for it to end up tucked away in a cabinet where you never think of it again.
Man, those unopened hobby product photos just look like spending addiction. I still remember someone on r/headphones who had like 30 different AKG headphones.
I buy lots of potentially interesting games when they go on sale. Especially single player (or at least with a single player option) so I don't have to worry about servers sitting down for a lack of players.
I won't say it's not hording, but there are also some other reasons you can't well untangle from hording:
- buying games you played pirated before (now that you can afford them), but you already played them so no need to play again
- buying games you played at someone else place, lend to you etc. Again you already played them but want to give back to the authors.
- buying games you will play later, and once you play them you have new games which you will played later -- leading to some constant amount of unplayed games (and some you end up never playing 'cause time)
- early access titles you already bought but will most likely only play on release
- buying very story driven games (mainly short indi games) where through watching someone else play you already now (and enjoyed) all the story but want to give bac to the authors anyway ("someone else" could be twitch, or you room mate, doesn't matter)
I have a few of this cases in my Steam library.
E.g. Little Misfortune for the last case or Hades 2 for the early access part or Dave the Diver for the I will definitely still play it part (very soon TM, jokes aside probably starting Wednesday).
Also one point I didn't include as it's kinda hording: Game bundles where you want all games but one, think the last game is still nice but anyway will never play it as there are too many other even better games.
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[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 84.4 ms ] threadBut I also buy a lot of books I intend to read later, so I almost think it's inherent to digital copies? The less friction in storing them the easier it is to buy aspirationally.
It is not a game thing. It is a human thing.
First from "guitar acquisition syndrome" can now become "game acquisition syndrome"
EDIT: Apparently, this error was introduced by the HN submission! The title of the article on the website is: "Most people who buy your game won’t play it". This matches the data presented by the article.
I'm buying games that I pirated as a kid.
Here’s a relevant quote from the developer.
> Not having a sale ever is part of our philosophy. In short term, they are good and bring extra money, but we are targeting long term. I believe that searching for sales is wasted time, and people should decide on the price and value, but putting option of wasting time to search for deals or waiting seems like bad part of the equation.
https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?p=159659#p159659
I get why people put games on sale. It gets you on a list on steam and gets people to talk about you on Reddit and gets emails sent to everyone who’s wishlisted your game. It boosts your profits and I get it.
But let’s be honest, these techniques benefit the developer not the player. The developer profits from the players FOMO when a sale happens. The player thinks he has accumulated a glorious Steam library when in reality he just wasted tons of money on games he wouldn’t even ever launch.
If any thing the domain of this website already tells you everything you need to know. It’s all about marketing, aka moving money from your pocket into theirs with psychological maneuvers.
> To see your own stats go here: https://steamdb.info/calculator/
Ahah, piker ...
The only one I actually properly paid for and haven't played is Elden Ring. Because I got sidetracked for too long between buying it and finding out it wanted admin access (for some anti-cheat rootkit) to play at all rather than just to enable competitive online things I wasn't interested in. Which I didn't feel like doing on a machine that also had non-game stuff on it.
How much of your closet is filled with stuff you haven’t worn in at least a year.
How much of your freezer is full of stuff you’ll never eat.
How many of the books on your bookshelf will you actually read before you die?
I buy games I might play, my kids might play. And sometimes to repay my younger self debt.
- buying games you played pirated before (now that you can afford them), but you already played them so no need to play again
- buying games you played at someone else place, lend to you etc. Again you already played them but want to give back to the authors.
- buying games you will play later, and once you play them you have new games which you will played later -- leading to some constant amount of unplayed games (and some you end up never playing 'cause time)
- early access titles you already bought but will most likely only play on release
- buying very story driven games (mainly short indi games) where through watching someone else play you already now (and enjoyed) all the story but want to give bac to the authors anyway ("someone else" could be twitch, or you room mate, doesn't matter)
I have a few of this cases in my Steam library.
E.g. Little Misfortune for the last case or Hades 2 for the early access part or Dave the Diver for the I will definitely still play it part (very soon TM, jokes aside probably starting Wednesday).
Also one point I didn't include as it's kinda hording: Game bundles where you want all games but one, think the last game is still nice but anyway will never play it as there are too many other even better games.