The Frugal Gamer

I was unaware of any particular change, but at some point it appears that I have become a very frugal person. I will freeze and shiver under heavy blankets all night long rather than turn my heat on too early in the season. Why buy a ton of stuff to fill your apartment, if you've got everything you need in a box full of good books and your computer? And why would I pay full price for a brand new game, (not to mention the hardware necessary to run new games,) when I can wait for a year or two and get AAA titles at bargain bin prices?!

Don't even get me started about Steam sales... it is unbelievable how I've been able to buy literally thousands of dollars worth of games over the past few years, while actually ponying up only a few hundred bucks. We're talking across years here, I rarely spend more during a Steam sale than I pay for a single steak dinner.

Of course, this has created one small problem for me. I tend to snag a lot of great looking games for cheap, which is great, except that I literally never finish all the games I own. Don't misunderstand me; I'm plugging along, beating games as I can... no, what I mean is that the massive virtual pile of unplayed games continues to grow far faster than the meager pile of games I beat.

Then again, even putting things into two discrete camps like that isn't really accurate. My two favorite genres are RPGs and sandbox games... so beating a sandbox game generally means you've just barely scratched the surface, and RPGs usually have at least two different stories based on choices the player made during the play-through. So even if I've beaten a game, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm done playing it.

Only if I won the lottery would I hope to ever have enough time to catch up on my gaming. Until then, I suppose you could more accurately classify me as a video game collector. Coincidentally, I do (upon rare occasion) enjoy various parts of my immense collection.

Full disclosure: I actually only own about 230 games, with fifteen or so of those being Humble Bundles that I still haven't bothered to redeem. (I hope those don't expire!) Although this feels like a mountain of games to me, especially considering how many of them are 4x sandbox games that literally can take several days of playing to complete a single play-through, I can naturally understand that there are some titans out there whose collection likely dwarfs my own.

So how many games do you own, and how many of those have you never played?

Convalescent

I've had a fairly unexpected turn of events this Turkey Day: an old friend drove 7 hours (one way) to pick me up in order to deliver me to my parents. In particular, this gesture of kindness was because this will be the last holiday season I'll enjoy in the States for a year or two at least.

Thank you, Matt, for your 14 hour donation towards the reunification of parents and son!

As if to add a few more levels to the mountain of gratitude I felt, I was then invited to his home on Friday for an after-Thanksgiving feast worthy of Turkey Day itself! Followed by an evening of board games with friends, I can safely say that this Thanksgiving as a whole has been an outstanding success.

Of course, Saturday I woke up feeling like I was fighting off a cold, and Sunday I woke up feeling like death warmed over. I spent the better part of the week asleep, awakening only for a few hours at a time before succumbing to a fevered dreamworld once more.

I am so thankful to have been visiting my parents' home when this illness struck, as it is infinitely more comfortable than my glorified indoor campground of an apartment. (Everything's in boxes and I'm ready to go just as soon as I can get a sublease signed!)

I'm on the mend now and about to return to Virginia for another few weeks, then holidaying with my folks and off to the Japans in early 2013! Life is good.
I did happen to log into Steam to check out the Autumn Sale. Although I did make a few purchases here and there, overall I felt the offerings weren't that robust compared to previous years. Then again, perhaps this was just to warm us up for the Christmas extravaganza? One can hope.

A funny thing I noticed once again (as this has been a previous thorn in my consumerist side) is how terrible  Steam's UI is for the purchase of DLC. If you're looking at a particular DLC, it conveniently notifies you of which friends already own it, but doesn't actually tell you if you do. A lot of games have a ton of DLC, and it is a huge pain in the ass to go through and figure out which ones you already own. Meanwhile, once you do add a DLC to your shopping cart, the "continue shopping" option takes you back to the store's homepage... very inconvenient if you're purchasing a bunch of DLCs.

I suppose Steam has gotten big enough that a bureaucracy now exists which prevents some common sense upgrades from being implemented quickly and effectively. I'm such a bargain hunter that I slogged through the 50+ clicks necessary to figure out which I didn't already own and make the purchase, but I easily could have said "forget it" and walked away. It is never a good idea to build an obstacle course between your customers and products. Hopefully they'll rework it in time for the Christmas sale?

The Perils of Summer? The only danger was to my wallet.

Steam's sale is coming to a close here in a few hours. The end result is that I spent $95 on various games, buying 24 different titles. There were maybe 15 more that I was on the fence with, but I had to keep telling myself that even though I could save $2 here and $3 there, it would ultimately be better for me to just play through the games I already own but haven't beat. Speaking of beat, there's a really fun game you should check out if you like music. And who doesn't like music?

I wonder if other gamers had an equally hard time of resisting Steam's wicked temptations? I suppose I'm safe until next year's Christmas season, at least... which happens to be less than six months away! Is it too early to start preparing for the Yuletide celebrations?

Oh, the weather outside is broiling...

Perils of Summer!

I was feeling ill last night and had a hard time going to bed in spite of how exhausted I felt.

In the middle of the night, I woke up soaked in sweat and shivering, with stomach cramps. I had felt feverish before so I'm thinking the fever must have broke and long story short, I had a rough night and feel pretty sluggish today. My reflexes are slow and I'm feeling like a zombie.

Just in case anyone's interested, Steamworks is having a huge summer sale (like as big as their Xmas sale) from now until the 4th of July. There are daily specials as well as a ton of games with a reduced price for the whole duration of the sale. Check it out every day and you're bound to see a great deal on a game or two that you'd enjoy.