[sazzy]

So in almost every Steam-related thread, people talk about their massive Steam backlogs, games on sale purchased on impulse, and probably never even installed.

My question is: should Valve or its industry partners care if you buy lots of Steam games (on sale, presumably) but don't actually end up playing the majority of them (due to whatever reason)?

Few points to consider:

1- I, like many others on this forum, almost always buy Steam games when they are on sale.
2- Developers/publishers get your money regardless of whether you actually play the game or not once purchased.
3- Time IMO is the biggest constraint to gaming for college/working/family adults.

My backlog currently isn't that big. But even so, I've stopped buying Steam games even when on sale because I know I'll probably not have the time I feel the game deserves.

My opinion is:

The biggest culprit for massive backlogs are the Steam sales, daily deals, annual sales, etc. My opinion is that Valve should be concerned somewhat, because I imagine people could end up reducing the number of games (on sale) they buy once their backlog reaches a this-is-too-much personal threshold. There's only so much the price of games can come down to.

[SalsaShark]

because I imagine people could end up reducing the number of games (on sale) they buy once their backlog reaches a this-is-too-much personal threshold.

you'd be wrong.

[Randolph Freelander]

Um, what?

You people like buying a lot of games you'll never play, that's your problem.

And I do mean "problem."

[LiquidMetal14]

The hell is this man.........

[sazzy]

you'd be wrong.

I'm ok with being wrong on that.

[stutte]

I don't see why they would care from a business perspective. They have your money and you don't waste their bandwidth to even download it? Score!

[Row]

the size of a backlog is irrelevant to a person that actually has a backlog, as those people have a case of extreme hoarding whether they like to admit it or not

[~Kinggi~]

You kidding? Thats their perfect customer. No bandwidth, much monies on games. Lulz Valve doesnt care about you in THAT WAY

[Wario64]

I have enough games from all platforms to last me a life time. Will I stop buying games? lol

[Hellix]

People just need to have some self-control (including me). If you know you don't have the time or desire to play a game, you shouldn't buy it just because it is cheap.

[KevinCow]

If you bought a game for $5 and never played it, you were never going to buy that game at full price. They got money from you that they weren't going to get otherwise.

Having that game from 2003 sitting in your Steam library unplayed isn't going to stop you from buying Half-Life 3.

So I don't think they really care.

[CoffeeJanitor]

Short answer: No

Long answer: Hell No

[Koroviev]

You kidding? Thats their perfect customer. No bandwidth, much monies on games. Lulz Valve doesnt care about you in THAT WAY

Valve is a strange mistress indeed!

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Um, what? You people like buying a lot of games you'll never play, that's your problem. And I do mean "problem."

/thread

[Orca]

I think there should be some concern that gamers might become disinclined to purchase games new or older games at regular price points, instead waiting for a Steam sale. I mean look at the Steam sales themselves - people refuse to buy the sale versions because it might be a daily deal for a couple bucks cheaper.

I don't think we've seen the same 'race to the bottom' pricing evolution that the iPhone/iPad app store had, but anything that makes gamers not want to buy games should be a concern.

[SalsaShark]

I'm ok with being wrong on that.

People will buy the games they want if they see them at a low price, at least, given how things have gone with Steam; the majority of them will.

It all comes down to a personal experience. What Valve does through steam sales is basically getting rid of one obstacle you might have to be able to play the game you want and making the decision easier for you. I get what you're trying to get at with people not playing their games and whatnot, but to fix this by limiting what they already offer in any way would be really silly, since people would never prefer for an outside source to "hold back" in order for you to go through your unplayed games.

I mean, steam sales are only helpful, it's up to you how you deal with them and Valve shouldn't really worry (though I dont doubt that they're actively researching every little bit of info feedback they get on these).

[Visualante2]

Ultimately I don't think they're going to give a shit while you're giving them lots of money.

But I've noticed I spend way, way less on day one games as a result of my ever ballooning backlog. I have made almost no day one impulse purchases in the past year. I used to do that a lot. Part of that is the economy, but the backlog is the other.

Ultimately every new game is competing with Mass Effect, Hitman Blood Money, Civilisation V and whatever else I haven't played yet. I know the bi-annual sales come like clockwork, and I can pick it up then.

[Fox318]

Steam sale??



Its actually really fun to look through my catalog and see what games I want to play after I purchased them for cheap.

Right now I'm eyeing the Sherlock Holmes adventure games and I never would have bought them at full price or without the steam promotion.

[sazzy]

Um, what? You people like buying a lot of games you'll never play, that's your problem. And I do mean "problem."

That's why I've stopped buying new games, on-sale games, used games etc. I have enough great games right now till last me till the end of the year assuming I play every day (unlikely as hell unfortunately).

I don't see why they would care from a business perspective. They have your money and you don't waste their bandwidth to even download it? Score!

I agree on that. But let's talk about the long-term perspective on this as well, instead of just the short term profit gain.

The core of my argument is that once people get to a certain size of the backlog, they will stop or reduce the number of games they buy. After that, price reduction won't have an affect on the sale volume. And there's only so much the games can reduce in price.

the size of a backlog is irrelevant to a person that actually has a backlog, as those people have a case of extreme hoarding whether they like to admit it or not

Hardcore gamers tend to be collectors from my experience.

[SalsaShark]

Ultimately I don't think they're going to give a shit while you're giving them lots of money.

Even then, people get way more exposure to games thanks to steam, so those who could complain of something like "ugh everyone bought my game but barely any people played it" would have had a much, much difficult time in that same regard without Steam.

[Derrick01]

It's up to people to cut that shit out, not the company.

Like I've already decided my budget for this sale is $40-$50 and I will not spend 1 dollar on those shitty indie games they put up as daily challenges. I will not budge from that either since I actually have self control. I'm not cursing Valve for offering great deals.

[Dibbz]

Um, what? You people like buying a lot of games you'll never play, that's your problem. And I do mean "problem."

Before I built my rig a couple months ago I used to wonder how people managed to buy games on steam and apparently never get round to playing them. Well I gotta say it's hard to resist some of the sales they put on and am already knee deep in games I haven't played in a while.

It's really hard to resist any decent game for £1-9 for me.

[CoffeeJanitor]

I agree on that. But let's talk about the long-term perspective on this as well, instead of just the short term profit gain. The core of my argument is that once people get to a certain size of the backlog, they will stop or reduce the number of games they buy. After that, price reduction won't have an affect on the sale volume. And there's only so much the games can reduce in price.

Pretty sure the crazies with no self control are going to keep buying games regardless

[Dog Problems]

It's up to people to cut that shit out, not the company. Like I've already decided my budget for this sale is $40-$50 and I will not spend 1 dollar on those shitty indie games they put up as daily challenges. I will not budge from that either since I actually have self control. I'm not cursing Valve for offering great deals.

Yeah, I won't be doing that again either. But I didn't think they were that bad.

[Grayman]

Valve did seem to do that potato sack promotion last year to make people play the games they just bought. I don't think developers mind too much but I do wonder if they get stats on purchases, installations, and play times. Developers of free to play games, MMOs, and other community heavy games may worry about the backlog more than single player game peddlers.


I must say that I have cut down on watching daily and even weekend deals but that is because I reached a peak sale point. I reached a point where I will never buy game x because I have games a-w already and am now only looking at new games on sales. So i reached a point where no matter how good a sale gets on stuff I passed up once I am never buying because I bought so much else.

[MuseManMike]

The only responsible party is you. Christ, people. Valve is great, but they are a business, and those people are their best customers.

[Koroviev]

The only responsible party is you. Christ, people. Valve is great, but they are a business, and those people are their best customers.

Best customer, worst gamer (T_T)

[bigace33]

I actually find it fun collecting games for cheap on steam. I don't even go hard and have amassed like 80 games from steam, and tons more from other digital services like Amazon. I literally have enough games to play for years with out purchasing another game.

[shintoki]

It's up to people to cut that shit out, not the company. Like I've already decided my budget for this sale is $40-$50 and I will not spend 1 dollar on those shitty indie games they put up as daily challenges. I will not budge from that either since I actually have self control. I'm not cursing Valve for offering great deals.

Nonsense, you will buy them and you will never play them. It is known.

[Koroviev]

Nonsense, you will buy them and you will never play them. It is known.

Such is the nature of man!

[drkOne]

Having a backlog won't stop you from impulse buying. As long as the sales are good, people will buy it.

[SatelliteOfLove]

Y'all are saying "what? no." but alot of publishers freak out about completion % metrics and they DO affect the games we browse in the future.

Valve I'm sure enjoys that their sales are timed and priced perfectly to stimulate sales yet again, though.

[Wolf Dawgz]

Well they do have those achievements during the sales that encourage you to play your games. Although that just adds to peoples' backlogs from free games.

[gryz]

they do care and they want you to have a backlog. you having a backlog is basically you giving money directly to gabe for no reason.

[BY2K]

Does anybody know when the Summer Sale starts? I need to plain ahead.

[iNvid02]

last summer sale I bought a lot and built up the backlog

a few of the games ended up being disappointing and pretty much useless purchases which I'll never touch again

since then i've learned to ignore the OMG IT'S ONLY 5.00 ALERT that goes off and just see if I really want the game

the following winter sale I bought one game

it's definitely your own issue to deal with

[balladofwindfishes]

Well they do have those achievements during the sales that encourage you to play your games. Although that just adds to peoples' backlogs from free games.

Yea, these have gotten me to play a lot of games.


I'd say 75% of my Steam Backlog comes from Humble Bundles.

[24FrameDaVinci]

Say what? Steam is targeting the financially irresponsible kid who buys their games at a discounted price but will never play the damned thing.

[Holy Wars]

I can't wait to buy a bunch of games I don't want to earn some points I can use towards DLC for games I don't want.

[GillianSeed79]

I'm the kind of person who finds having a backlog overwhelming. If I have more than, say, three or four games in my backlog I won't make any new purchases until I finish at least one game. I'm actually stoked I finished two games in my Steam backlog last week. I'm relatively new to Steam, so I used to get that sale high when you'd see a game priced at 75 cents and a few grams of belly button lint and just click buy.

Now, actually, the funnest part of the Steam Summer and Winter sales for me is trying to hold out and maintain self control. I just picture myself having a staring contest with Gabe while he's twirling knives and petting his MLP action figures. It's sooo hard sometimes, but resisting that impulse buy of a game you only have an interest in because it's 75 percent off can be satisfying.

[Quadrangulum]

I've been buying less but not because of the size of my backlog. In my case, experimentation in buying cheaper and/or obscurer titles has been an incredible failure. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that I've cared for less than 5% of the games that I only purchased on price and word of mouth.

[amtentori]

I will attempt to give your OP some serious thought unlike others in the thread :P

Let's say your premise is true.
Valve wants to sell you games.
You might buy less games as your backlog increases.

Valve would care if this is the case, but the solution is not to reduce the number of sales, but instead to encourage you to play more games so that your backlog decreases!

Social media integration, achievements, community aspects, etc. are all things that can encourage playtime in addition to what is offered by a game itself.

[Orayn]

It would be interesting for Valve to spark interest in little-played or frequently unfinished games by putting them on sale again and having some sort of achievement-based promotion like the Potato Pack, Summer Camp, or what have you.

Not necessarily as part of an organized event, but a one-off extension to a daily deal or mid-week madness. You know, to encourage people to play those games instead of just buy them. They could hand out coupons maybe.

[zerokoolpsx]

Who's buying the games? Are they forcing you to buy the games?
Valve isn't gonna care about other people's enormous backlog.

[KittyKittyBangBang]

My problem is I buy games on steam I know I will never play. I really have no intention of ever playing Alpha Protocal, but for $2.50, why not? Its nice to know its there if by some miracle I run out of other things to play

[Tain]

why would i want to be encouraged to play shitty games?

[Instro]

Perhaps they should start Steam Sales Anonymous.

[DR2K]

So do you want Valve to block you off once you reach a certain amount of backlog games? It's anti-consumer and it's bad business. Valve shouldn't have control of your nuerotic need to horde games with no intention of playing them. Delete you backlog and see if that helps.

[HoosTrax]

My justification is that I will eventually get around to playing all of them at some point. When I retire. In a few decades.

Ok, but in all seriousness, I do try to get to all of my games at some point, even if it's to find out after a few minutes of playing that it's not for me. Even if I end up liking half of them, still seems like a good deal to buy a dozen or so games for the same money as a single AAA new release. Taking a leap of faith on a daily deal that's only good for 24 hours and that you probably won't have time to demo is the tradeoff you make.

[Raitosaito]

I don't get this. . .