Is it the "Newness" factor that is driving you to purchase these games?
Also, when you do purchase a new game, how much time do you spend playing it right after you buy it?
If you are anything like me, you like the newness of a game and you play it a lot in the first week or 2 that you have it. You get really far, enjoy it, but then one day, all the sudden it just isn't fun anymore.
So then you are bored, playing all the games you have in your head before you even put them in. So you know the fun you will have with the game you own before you even put it in and going over that in your head you decide you do not want to play any of the games you own.
So you browse the internet looking at all the Steam games, hoping one will catch your eye. After browsing for 30 minutes and narrowing it down to 1 game you might like, you buy it, for the sake of not being bored and having a new game to play!
Or you go to best buy/<gamestore> and browse their PC section, then XBOX section, then PC section again, then take a PC game with you to the XBOX section, and decide you want the XBOX game and put the PC game back, but when you are in line, you really are thinkin about that PC game, so you leave the line and go buy the PC game and the XBOX game.
Me? I play my xbox360 and PC at the same time while watching TV. <Depending on the game, whether it requires all my attention, or if I can get away with only partial attention to each>.
Even going to college, partying with my friends and playing on intramural teams, games still seem to get old fast with me, unless it has a good online multiplayer with good replay value. <BF2, MMO (but mmos suck now adays, thanks to a watered down game that brought tons of bad players into the community back in 2004), Madden (though some people take it way to seriously)>
I am entitled to my opinions, misspellings, and grammatical errors.
I'm exactly in the same ship as you, there's just so many good games I want to play but in reality i really don't have much time so I end up buying a lot of games and then not be able to focus on one game at a time. Lately, I've been trying to clear my entire collection so that I'm finally at the point where I need to buy a game because I have nothing left to play.
I buy a lot of video games and hardly beat any of them.
I cannot stop buying video games, the best i can do is restrain myself from buying them until they have reduced in price.
I own over 60 xbox 360 games and have beaten 9.
I own over 30 steam games and have beaten 3.
I have a list of all the games I want to buy even before i beat earlier titles within the same series.
Anyone else suffer from this? I can't stop... and the wife is starting to call me out on it.
I buy like 1 game per 1-2months, and only the ones that i've already tried so I know they are worth the cash. Or games which are replayable like: Team fortress 2, Left 4 dead, Left 4 dead 2. I buy much less games which are storyline based because you can't really replay them without going through the steps you have already taken, example: HL2.
Haven't got many games that I haven't beaten (maybe Totalwar Medieval 2), the rest is mostly MMORPG. I'm gonna stop buying those too because the MMO market is getting way too unstable. Players are leaving, games are failing. Heck i still have a copy of Auto-Assault (carmageddon-online) which i cant run because they closed down the server.
Now I've gotten the "Worms Reloaded" game, it's cheap and it's a collection of everything they ever made poored into one 2D online game.
I'm drifting more and more towards co-op shooters and Steam games than these garbage MMO's these days anyway.
YES! Only pc games and only from sales tho. No way I could buy a game for 50 euros, but I will buy 5 little older games for 50 euros for sure!
If there is good sales on steam I will buy a game or two for sure and if there is good games on gamestop buy 3 pay 2-shelf I will buy something for sure.
Just yesterday bought Call of Duty + United Offensive, WH40K Dawn of War anthology and Sacred 2 + expansions for 20 euros. Now I only need to beat the games..
I made a deal with the wife that I would beat five of my older games before I buy anything else.
The kicker is one has to be an rpg and I know she's going to force me to play through fable 2 or one of my random jrpg like blue dragon or lost odyssey.
No because i'm very selective and Imo a lot of videogames are simply boring. So i don't buy them, after an open beta. I canceled 95% of my preorders. (canceled aoc, aion, tabula rasa, potbs, tcos, mo, hellgate london, sto.). Only bought Lotro, VG and OMG... Warhammer online (because this game was better at launch, what a shame... ) Opposite of you. Maybe you' d better sell your computer, your XBOX or play only demos and trials.
I made a deal with the wife that I would beat five of my older games before I buy anything else. The kicker is one has to be an rpg and I know she's going to force me to play through fable 2 or one of my random jrpg like blue dragon or lost odyssey.
Don't play blue dragon, that game was horrible...I love J-RPG but that game just gave me a headache the voice acting was bad and the story was double bad.
The reason why you're unable to finish games is probably because you're buying too many of them in a short time frame.
Try to sit down and play some of your games and don't buy another until you finished one of your games. I think you'll enjoy your games a lot more if you don't have a stack of other games to play or looking to buy a new game. Also, try to avoid buying multiple games at the same time.
When it comes to entertainment, the wife and I put ourselves on a strict budget because at the start of our relationship we ran rampant at buying a bunch of stuff, much of which for me was video games.
Now I budget for a specific amount that I'm allowed to spend a week, and usually thats not enough for a single game, so I now have to plan out which game I'm going to buy next, unless the game is on sale, or I can buy it or trade it through craigslist.
As most of the time I can trade games that I'm interested in with games I already have, the only games I really need to buy are computer games, or sometimes a console game if I really want to play it but don't want to get rid of the ones I currently have. Thats curbed my need to continuously purchase games.
My bf used to buy new games all the time. In January he bought 11 games for his playstation 3 and he used 2 always download from steam. He is better now and he doesn't buy that much. I am not addicted to buying games because I don't have money now!
Not really sure what could be counted as an addiction. But I have a weird habit of picking up games that I'm not interested of, if they're on sale. At the moment I have 3 games on my shelf that I have never installed, and one that I haven't even opened once. Don't feel like returning them, as I kinda like to see my shelves fill up. It clearly isn't the games for me, it's the boxes. I need the box, and that might become a slight problem when I find myself often interested in many of the lower-budged MMOs that don't offer the boxed version of the game. I just can't get myself to purchase one, if I can't hold it in my hands. So yeah, it's an addiction or some kind of OCD.
My bf used to buy new games all the time. In January he bought 11 games for his playstation 3 and he used 2 always download from steam. He is better now and he doesn't buy that much. I am not addicted to buying games because I don't have money now!
Shiela?
well steam and other online download shops without a doubt make some ppl buy more games, and I d found a guy like him I refer to is trying to regain the fun he had with games as kid, but just dont find games all that fun over all anymore....buy a game start it but cant really make himself play it.
atm he play SC2 and only reason he really stick to it is his old friends play it with him...which is a big part of why games used to be fun, you d talk with friends about them, you just dont do that as much as an adult.
atleast my thoughts on purchase addiction :P but I aint a professional mind explorer
Hmm, maybe I do suffer from addiction. I just bought 7 games including mass effect 2 for 60% off or more. mostly b rated fps games though. gg summer sale is killing me.
im not working right now and im bored out of my mind so i was thinking of getting kotor 1 and 2 and playing ME 1 and 2 straight thru. since i played me 1 forever ago on a different 360 i didnt have the saves. now im waiting for mafia 2 next week so im easily going to blow like 300$ this next month on video games just because swtor is taking for ever to go live.. lol
Thank goodnes not like I used to. Before the last gen of consoles PS3, 360, WII I used to buy every video game I had even a slight interest in so to speak sports titles, rpg's, strategy, racing, wrestling, fighting games the list went on and on but I have another problem you mention in that I often don't finish my games. And it has nothing to do with whether I can beat it or not I usually get to the last encounter and just stop playing. I don't know kind of feel like if I don't beat it it's never over.
The good thing though is that kind of made it easier for me to not buy every game that came out and I think mmo's helped me out with that too, once I began playing mmo's it made no sense to buy games I wouldn't even get to play because I would spend most of my gaming time in an mmo as it both dictated you do so and it was fun enough not to mention the constant charge for mmo's.
Since that time I really only play whatever mmo I like and now only buy other games that are "staples" for me which are generally basketball,football,GTA series, baseball and that's it and even those I don't buy the newest edition of I just stay one year behind them.
Not sure as a family we spend any less on video games though than when it was just my hobby because now the wife and daughter play them as much if not more than me, my daughter alone has close to 100 counting between my ps3 her DSI and her Wii.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Hmm, maybe I do suffer from addiction. I just bought 7 games including mass effect 2 for 60% off or more. mostly b rated fps games though. gg summer sale is killing me.
Im happy to say i havent bought one game since starting this thread.
I picked up 12 games in the two weeks leading up to my post and I've decided to shelve all my new games, make a "to be completed list" and stick with it.
First game on my list is DMC4, I am about half way through.
lol looks like starting this thread was the perfect way to realize and curb potential addiction. The first step is relization. Now you just have to accept a higher power :P. If your the same rockgod that started the Ryzom threads i think I may understand. I couldn't get back into Ryzom and after that I went on a gaming(buying) spree. I can't even focus enough to beat SC2. I'll have to reconcile. Sometimes I feel like I'm looking for a game to fill in for Ryzom let down. Hell, sometimes I feel like I'm looking for a game to fill in for FFVII still. Is it even possible to make a game that good anymore? I've run into a solution for my temporary scatter brain purchasing addiction though. One of the games i bought, You Are Empty, conflicts with my soundcard, so I'm installing onboard, beating that game, and reinstalling my soundcard drivers again. Nothing like a little forced focus to help me...err ...focus.
A solution to true video game purchasing addicts?(not people like me who are just a bit bored at the moment): play free games? Quakelive 4 life... actaully Quake 2 for life but quakelive works.
Anyone else suffer from videogame purchase addiction?
Hmm, if purchasing Collector's, Limited, Special, Gold or Platinum editions count, then I probably qualify. Although when I do find a rare copy of old games I know to be even remotely enjoyable, I purchase those, too.
I do prefer boxed, cased, or envelope versions of games than electronic, download copies. That is despite purchasing some over Steam, Impulse, and GOG.
I suffer from freetrialitis, which gives me a natural immunity to videogame purchase addiction.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
When I wasnt paying student loans and car payments I was like that. I still hardly ever beat anything, but i just keep replaying my old stuff. WoW has kept me occupied for a while now, though I did pick up SC 2 just because its starcraft really. I have tons of games I havent beaten, Fallout 3 and DA:O among them, working on those now that im bored of WoW.
What I look for is the game length vs money factor when im looking for a game. I know the average FPS will last me only say 10 hours or so, hardly worth the 50-60 bucks. A JRPG or a Bioware/Bethesda game will usually run into the 20+ Hours at least, much more worth the money. Of course there are exceptions when a very very good game comes along, like Arkham asylum.
To curb that impulse you are feeling, you might want to try what I do, Watch a play through of the game on youtube. Yea its not the exact same thing, but after seeing the game beaten, you will probably lose interest in it, and its free.
I have the exact same problem as you.. I have about 60 Xbox games, think i've beaten 5 of them, i just bought an ps3 3 months ago, and i allready own 20 games for that one to, i have mabey beaten one.
There is so manny games getting on the market every month, and i am buying alot of them, sometimes 4 games in one month, and i cant find time to both play and live a normal life...
Mabey i should get in an addiction group to :P, or just try to finnish games before buying new once.
Comments
Is it the "Newness" factor that is driving you to purchase these games?
Also, when you do purchase a new game, how much time do you spend playing it right after you buy it?
If you are anything like me, you like the newness of a game and you play it a lot in the first week or 2 that you have it. You get really far, enjoy it, but then one day, all the sudden it just isn't fun anymore.
So then you are bored, playing all the games you have in your head before you even put them in. So you know the fun you will have with the game you own before you even put it in and going over that in your head you decide you do not want to play any of the games you own.
So you browse the internet looking at all the Steam games, hoping one will catch your eye. After browsing for 30 minutes and narrowing it down to 1 game you might like, you buy it, for the sake of not being bored and having a new game to play!
Or you go to best buy/<gamestore> and browse their PC section, then XBOX section, then PC section again, then take a PC game with you to the XBOX section, and decide you want the XBOX game and put the PC game back, but when you are in line, you really are thinkin about that PC game, so you leave the line and go buy the PC game and the XBOX game.
Me? I play my xbox360 and PC at the same time while watching TV. <Depending on the game, whether it requires all my attention, or if I can get away with only partial attention to each>.
Even going to college, partying with my friends and playing on intramural teams, games still seem to get old fast with me, unless it has a good online multiplayer with good replay value. <BF2, MMO (but mmos suck now adays, thanks to a watered down game that brought tons of bad players into the community back in 2004), Madden (though some people take it way to seriously)>
I am entitled to my opinions, misspellings, and grammatical errors.
I'm exactly in the same ship as you, there's just so many good games I want to play but in reality i really don't have much time so I end up buying a lot of games and then not be able to focus on one game at a time. Lately, I've been trying to clear my entire collection so that I'm finally at the point where I need to buy a game because I have nothing left to play.
I buy like 1 game per 1-2months, and only the ones that i've already tried so I know they are worth the cash. Or games which are replayable like: Team fortress 2, Left 4 dead, Left 4 dead 2. I buy much less games which are storyline based because you can't really replay them without going through the steps you have already taken, example: HL2.
Haven't got many games that I haven't beaten (maybe Totalwar Medieval 2), the rest is mostly MMORPG. I'm gonna stop buying those too because the MMO market is getting way too unstable. Players are leaving, games are failing. Heck i still have a copy of Auto-Assault (carmageddon-online) which i cant run because they closed down the server.
Now I've gotten the "Worms Reloaded" game, it's cheap and it's a collection of everything they ever made poored into one 2D online game.
I'm drifting more and more towards co-op shooters and Steam games than these garbage MMO's these days anyway.
YES! Only pc games and only from sales tho. No way I could buy a game for 50 euros, but I will buy 5 little older games for 50 euros for sure!
If there is good sales on steam I will buy a game or two for sure and if there is good games on gamestop buy 3 pay 2-shelf I will buy something for sure.
Just yesterday bought Call of Duty + United Offensive, WH40K Dawn of War anthology and Sacred 2 + expansions for 20 euros. Now I only need to beat the games..
The kicker is one has to be an rpg and I know she's going to force me to play through fable 2 or one of my random jrpg like blue dragon or lost odyssey.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I used to be but not anymore. Since i started playing MMOS i have stopped purchasing single player video games at insane rate.
My collection for pc games has 250 titles in total.
90% of haters are begging for love. 10% just want a little attention -- Paulo Coelho
No because i'm very selective and Imo a lot of videogames are simply boring. So i don't buy them, after an open beta. I canceled 95% of my preorders. (canceled aoc, aion, tabula rasa, potbs, tcos, mo, hellgate london, sto.). Only bought Lotro, VG and OMG... Warhammer online (because this game was better at launch, what a shame... ) Opposite of you. Maybe you' d better sell your computer, your XBOX or play only demos and trials.
Don't play blue dragon, that game was horrible...I love J-RPG but that game just gave me a headache the voice acting was bad and the story was double bad.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
/stands up
Hello. My name is Whitelantern and I'm a video game purchasing addict.
/sits down
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
The reason why you're unable to finish games is probably because you're buying too many of them in a short time frame.
Try to sit down and play some of your games and don't buy another until you finished one of your games. I think you'll enjoy your games a lot more if you don't have a stack of other games to play or looking to buy a new game. Also, try to avoid buying multiple games at the same time.
When it comes to entertainment, the wife and I put ourselves on a strict budget because at the start of our relationship we ran rampant at buying a bunch of stuff, much of which for me was video games.
Now I budget for a specific amount that I'm allowed to spend a week, and usually thats not enough for a single game, so I now have to plan out which game I'm going to buy next, unless the game is on sale, or I can buy it or trade it through craigslist.
As most of the time I can trade games that I'm interested in with games I already have, the only games I really need to buy are computer games, or sometimes a console game if I really want to play it but don't want to get rid of the ones I currently have. Thats curbed my need to continuously purchase games.
My bf used to buy new games all the time. In January he bought 11 games for his playstation 3 and he used 2 always download from steam. He is better now and he doesn't buy that much. I am not addicted to buying games because I don't have money now!
Not really sure what could be counted as an addiction. But I have a weird habit of picking up games that I'm not interested of, if they're on sale. At the moment I have 3 games on my shelf that I have never installed, and one that I haven't even opened once. Don't feel like returning them, as I kinda like to see my shelves fill up. It clearly isn't the games for me, it's the boxes. I need the box, and that might become a slight problem when I find myself often interested in many of the lower-budged MMOs that don't offer the boxed version of the game. I just can't get myself to purchase one, if I can't hold it in my hands. So yeah, it's an addiction or some kind of OCD.
Not tonight dear...I have a haddock!
Shiela?
well steam and other online download shops without a doubt make some ppl buy more games, and I d found a guy like him I refer to is trying to regain the fun he had with games as kid, but just dont find games all that fun over all anymore....buy a game start it but cant really make himself play it.
atm he play SC2 and only reason he really stick to it is his old friends play it with him...which is a big part of why games used to be fun, you d talk with friends about them, you just dont do that as much as an adult.
atleast my thoughts on purchase addiction :P but I aint a professional mind explorer
Hmm, maybe I do suffer from addiction. I just bought 7 games including mass effect 2 for 60% off or more. mostly b rated fps games though. gg summer sale is killing me.
im not working right now and im bored out of my mind so i was thinking of getting kotor 1 and 2 and playing ME 1 and 2 straight thru. since i played me 1 forever ago on a different 360 i didnt have the saves. now im waiting for mafia 2 next week so im easily going to blow like 300$ this next month on video games just because swtor is taking for ever to go live.. lol
i have a perfect solution, Quit your job, No money= No games
Thank goodnes not like I used to. Before the last gen of consoles PS3, 360, WII I used to buy every video game I had even a slight interest in so to speak sports titles, rpg's, strategy, racing, wrestling, fighting games the list went on and on but I have another problem you mention in that I often don't finish my games. And it has nothing to do with whether I can beat it or not I usually get to the last encounter and just stop playing. I don't know kind of feel like if I don't beat it it's never over.
The good thing though is that kind of made it easier for me to not buy every game that came out and I think mmo's helped me out with that too, once I began playing mmo's it made no sense to buy games I wouldn't even get to play because I would spend most of my gaming time in an mmo as it both dictated you do so and it was fun enough not to mention the constant charge for mmo's.
Since that time I really only play whatever mmo I like and now only buy other games that are "staples" for me which are generally basketball,football,GTA series, baseball and that's it and even those I don't buy the newest edition of I just stay one year behind them.
Not sure as a family we spend any less on video games though than when it was just my hobby because now the wife and daughter play them as much if not more than me, my daughter alone has close to 100 counting between my ps3 her DSI and her Wii.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Im happy to say i havent bought one game since starting this thread.
I picked up 12 games in the two weeks leading up to my post and I've decided to shelve all my new games, make a "to be completed list" and stick with it.
First game on my list is DMC4, I am about half way through.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
lol looks like starting this thread was the perfect way to realize and curb potential addiction. The first step is relization. Now you just have to accept a higher power :P. If your the same rockgod that started the Ryzom threads i think I may understand. I couldn't get back into Ryzom and after that I went on a gaming(buying) spree. I can't even focus enough to beat SC2. I'll have to reconcile. Sometimes I feel like I'm looking for a game to fill in for Ryzom let down. Hell, sometimes I feel like I'm looking for a game to fill in for FFVII still. Is it even possible to make a game that good anymore? I've run into a solution for my temporary scatter brain purchasing addiction though. One of the games i bought, You Are Empty, conflicts with my soundcard, so I'm installing onboard, beating that game, and reinstalling my soundcard drivers again. Nothing like a little forced focus to help me...err ...focus.
A solution to true video game purchasing addicts?(not people like me who are just a bit bored at the moment): play free games? Quakelive 4 life... actaully Quake 2 for life but quakelive works.
Hmm, if purchasing Collector's, Limited, Special, Gold or Platinum editions count, then I probably qualify. Although when I do find a rare copy of old games I know to be even remotely enjoyable, I purchase those, too.
I do prefer boxed, cased, or envelope versions of games than electronic, download copies. That is despite purchasing some over Steam, Impulse, and GOG.
Edit: BBML FTW.
I think every gamer suffers from that "addiction"
I suffer from freetrialitis, which gives me a natural immunity to videogame purchase addiction.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
When I wasnt paying student loans and car payments I was like that. I still hardly ever beat anything, but i just keep replaying my old stuff. WoW has kept me occupied for a while now, though I did pick up SC 2 just because its starcraft really. I have tons of games I havent beaten, Fallout 3 and DA:O among them, working on those now that im bored of WoW.
What I look for is the game length vs money factor when im looking for a game. I know the average FPS will last me only say 10 hours or so, hardly worth the 50-60 bucks. A JRPG or a Bioware/Bethesda game will usually run into the 20+ Hours at least, much more worth the money. Of course there are exceptions when a very very good game comes along, like Arkham asylum.
To curb that impulse you are feeling, you might want to try what I do, Watch a play through of the game on youtube. Yea its not the exact same thing, but after seeing the game beaten, you will probably lose interest in it, and its free.
I have the exact same problem as you.. I have about 60 Xbox games, think i've beaten 5 of them, i just bought an ps3 3 months ago, and i allready own 20 games for that one to, i have mabey beaten one.
There is so manny games getting on the market every month, and i am buying alot of them, sometimes 4 games in one month, and i cant find time to both play and live a normal life...
Mabey i should get in an addiction group to :P, or just try to finnish games before buying new once.
Gonna try finnish Heavy Rain today, wish me luck