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HolyBaikal · Mar 21, 2013

Just curious if anyone else ever experiences this nagging sensation.

Steam sales have instilled the unfortunate tendency in me to buy games even if I don't like them. Almost as a completion sort of thing. I don't quite get it, because a lot of these games I wouldn't buy used for the same price. But I seem to click "buy" really easily with Steam.

It turns out some of these games I really don't like, either. As in, to the point of disliking the game. And having it in my library is just a sore reminder that I wasted money on a game I dislike and don't enjoy in my library beside games I do like.

And the problem with that, is that you can't really do much. You can contact Valve and ask them to remove it, but apparently they're hesitant to do so. Also, there's also the "Steam category" thing, where you can hide certain categories. But having a category for "bad games" doesn't really make one feel much better.

With physical media, if I don't like a game, I can sell it or throw it away or something. Not so much true with Steam games.

Does anyone else feel similarly and have the experience that there are games in their library that you feel are annoying that they're there? And that you wish you could quarantine them to some spot that isn't on your library and would have to be reactivated on your profile or something?

JaseC · Mar 21, 2013

Not in the slightest.

Forkball · Mar 21, 2013

Buying games is its own meta game.

Think of it as an investment to your future child's game collection he will inherit after you die.

glaurung · Mar 21, 2013

I love my wall of games that I will probably never play.

I love each and every button label on that wall.

Keasar · Mar 21, 2013

There is a huge amount of games I have gotten through bundles that I wasnt really interested in playing and many bundles that I bought just for the sake of donating money. So some way of sorting your library and "archive" titles you dont want visible in the main selection would be nice.

Haunted · Mar 21, 2013

Uninstall those games and only show "installed" in your library. Done.

Of course that's only fighting the symptom instead of the disease, but you know. No one can help you overcome that impulse to purchase games you might not like but yourself.

HolyBaikal · Mar 21, 2013

I suppose y'all have the luck of not having a Steam game in your library that you actively dislike.

I wish I could say that.

Not Spaceghost · Mar 21, 2013

Not really but then again I am extremely stingy about the games I buy even if they are dirt cheap (Far Cry 2 was 2.50 but I didn't touch it because I knew I wouldn't play it for more than an hour), but you do remind me why when I buy console games I absolutely avoid digital distribution if I can. You trade value for convenience when it isn't truly necessary, and that has always made me uncomfortable.

water1111 · Mar 21, 2013

If I buy a game on steam (good or bad), I'll finish it, no matter what, who knows, it might be enjoyable at the end.

Visualante2 · Mar 21, 2013

Tell your bank to block purchases from Steam because you have an addiction problem.

StuBurns · Mar 21, 2013

They're normally so cheap I don't really care. It actually irritates me more than I can't remove them from my library than I bought them. If you buy a terrible film by mistake, you don't have it on your shelf with the good shit, I'd like to hide my Steam shame too.

knitoe · Mar 21, 2013

Steam sales makes me feel like a little girl. Hunting for deals, buying them, put them away and never touch them again.

ambientmystic · Mar 21, 2013

HolyBaikal said:
I suppose y'all have the luck of not having a Steam game in your library that you actively dislike.

I wish I could say that.

Self(impulse) control. Learn how to exercise it.

I did after 4(!) Steam Sales when I realised I've only ever played 20% of the games I ever bought on the service.

Salacious Crumb · Mar 21, 2013

HolyBaikal said:
I suppose y'all have the luck of not having a Steam game in your library that you actively dislike.

I wish I could say that.

I have a couple, I just don't install them and set steam to show installed games only.

Stop It · Mar 21, 2013

HolyBaikal said:
I suppose y'all have the luck of not having a Steam game in your library that you actively dislike.

I wish I could say that.

I'm not sure. My backlog is so huge there's plenty of games I may not like in my library that I haven't got to yet. I clearly haven't learned my lesson yet, though.

Anyway, I feel for you, but I think that the games should not be removed, and instead sit there as a reminder to not buy rubbish because it's cheap!

szaromir · Mar 21, 2013

1st world problems.

Xanathus · Mar 21, 2013

I only buy digital games if I am comfortable with the price knowing that I'm just getting a revokable license to play that game. Steam can disable your entire library and declare bankruptcy at anytime (to use an extreme example) and there's nothing you can practically do about it.

voodoopanda · Mar 21, 2013

The only Steam games I dislike are the ones my "friends" got me for christmas/birthdays. I'm looking at you, Duke Nukem Forever.

Soodanim · Mar 21, 2013

Steam Sales don't stop me from looking up gameplay or review videos. If you buy blind, of course you run the risk of disappointment.

Killzig · Mar 21, 2013

HolyBaikal said:
I suppose y'all have the luck of not having a Steam game in your library that you actively dislike.

I wish I could say that.

Space Siege was included when I bought Alpha Protocol. I know those feels.

Volcynika · Mar 21, 2013

HolyBaikal said:
I suppose y'all have the luck of not having a Steam game in your library that you actively dislike.

I wish I could say that.

I have games I played that I didn't enjoy at all. I uninstalled them, and then proceed not to care about them anymore.

Pureauthor · Mar 21, 2013

I'm one of those (few?) who wait until Steam sales and then only purchase games I've had my eye on for some time.

Tesseract · Mar 21, 2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive–compulsive_disorder

good luck!

ThoseDeafMutes · Mar 21, 2013

No, but I wish there was a way I could "hide" games from my list so they wouldn't show up at all.

DeathIsTheEnd · Mar 21, 2013

I've only found Steam sales annoying because I bought packs which contained games I couldn't play due to system requirements. Fortunately in about a week that'll change at last.

JaseC · Mar 21, 2013

HolyBaikal said:
I suppose y'all have the luck of not having a Steam game in your library that you actively dislike.

Oh, no, I have games that I actively dislike (hello, Fable 3!), but I don't mind their presence. Steam games are like Pokemon...

Palette Swap · Mar 21, 2013

Thanks to sales, meta-games and bundles, I have a number of stinkers in my steam library and honestly, I don't give a single fuck.

LiK · Mar 21, 2013

szaromir said:
1st world problems.

This is a gaming forum.

Tobor · Mar 21, 2013

ThoseDeafMutes said:
No, but I wish there was a way I could "hide" games from my list so they wouldn't show up at all.

Uninstall them and only look at the installed list.

Acorn · Mar 21, 2013

Forkball said:
Buying games is its own meta game.

Think of it as an investment to your future child's game collection he will inherit after you die.

I doubt they would allow a virtual inheritance since they're licenses. Sorry, I know you were joking, just thinking out loud about the lack of consumer laws we have.

SovanJedi · Mar 21, 2013

I sympathise. I'm playing through all my Steam games at the moment (nearly done BTW!) and some real stinkers have made their way to my library without me being fully aware of it. I do have a category to put games I can't be bothered to complete in, though, so I don't get reminded of it every time the library is open.

Hey, at least I don't own Bad Rats!

Like the hat? · Mar 21, 2013

My only regret is that my laptop can't play any of my steam games, so they are all just sitting there.

I NEED SCISSORS · Mar 21, 2013

About 150 things in my 450 strong library are shit. I tried emailing Steam support to get them removed, but they only remove games which weren't purchased as part of a bundle (which is the case for about 90% of my library). But the worst part isn't that i'm stuck with them - the worst part is that people will now look at my profile and think "look at all those games, this man must obviously live in his parents basement, and he owns Flora's Fruit Farm".

Erasus · Mar 21, 2013

I have like 5-10 games out of 150 I regret getting.

SumGamer · Mar 21, 2013

Not really. It help speeding up purchasing decision on the game I'm interested in tho. I did buy some game that I never get around to play. However, if I go through the list then I will want to play them at some stage.

ThoseDeafMutes said:
No, but I wish there was a way I could "hide" games from my list so they wouldn't show up at all.

You could favorite some games to push it to the top and hide the rest.

pants · Mar 21, 2013

Tobor said:
Uninstall them and only look at the installed list.

Easier to move stuff to a category and filter by it

LiK · Mar 21, 2013

Personally, I don't regret having any "bad" games in my list. I rarely look at them anyway. But yea, it would be nice if Steam allowed you to select which games to make visible. Seems like a no-brainer.

But then again, Steam hasn't allowed me to disable Group Event alerts either after all these years.

JaseC · Mar 21, 2013

szaromir said:
1st world problems.

Can we add this phrase to the shit pile already? It's completely reductive, not at all contributive and essentially no different to "Who cares?"

Killzig · Mar 21, 2013

I NEED SCISSORS said:
About 150 things in my 450 strong library are shit. I tried emailing Steam support to get them removed, but they only remove games which weren't purchased as part of a bundle (which is the case for about 90% of my library). But the worst part isn't that i'm stuck with them - the worst part is that people will now look at my profile and think "look at all those games, this man must obviously live in his parents basement, and he owns Flora's Fruit Farm".

This reminds me of that Henry Rollins spoken word bit about being recognized at a thai midget boxing match. What kind of people actively scrutinize someone else's steam games list? Chances are they've got something equally embarrassing on their list. Lord knows I do.

surly · Mar 21, 2013

I haven't felt buyer's remorse over any games I've bought in Steam sales, probably because they're so cheap. But I still recognise that I've wasted money though and so now I'm more selective over what I buy. I used to have an attitude of "well, it's dirt cheap and I'll probably play this at some point so I might as well get it while it's on sale", but I know from experience - and from threads on various forums where people post their percentage of unplayed Steam games - that that attitude only leads to money being wasted and games sitting on my hard drive unplayed.

GraveHorizon · Mar 21, 2013

I'll always have to deal with the fact that I bought two copies of L.A. Noire on Steam. And I do worry about some of the older games I have, which are only going to get more dated as time goes on. And it's not like I played them in the past and have built-in nostalgia for them, they're just older games I thought I should play.

Felix Lighter · Mar 21, 2013

I use the favorites flag and the category flags to organize my games basically into 3 groups, games I haven't played but plan to, games that I go back to often and then the large group of everything. It's a system that works well for me and it lets me see my realistic backlog and my go to games and filters out those games that I'm pretty sure I'll never play or go back to. I don't really feel buyers remorse for any game I've payed $5 to 10 for, even if I only play for an hour or 2, I feel like the price was worth the chance to try something out. However, for those games that I've spent significantly more for, I have a few that I regret.

szaromir · Mar 21, 2013

LiK said:
This is a gaming forum.

JaseC said:
Can we add this phrase to the shit pile already? It's completely reductive, not at all contributive and essentially no different to "Who cares?"

But in this case, I don't think anyone cares what you have in your Steam library. I don't think anyone browses their firends' libraries and comments 'omg he has such terrible games' or whatever. I only look at them to see what they actually play. That's why I think dramatising over having some bad games seems overblown to me.

JaseC · Mar 21, 2013

I NEED SCISSORS said:
About 150 things in my 450 strong library are shit. I tried emailing Steam support to get them removed, but they only remove games which weren't purchased as part of a bundle (which is the case for about 90% of my library). But the worst part isn't that i'm stuck with them - the worst part is that people will now look at my profile and think "look at all those games, this man must obviously live in his parents basement, and he owns Flora's Fruit Farm".

I'd try again. A few GAFers contacted Steam Support last year to remove some games and were informed that while bundled games would be removed, it would also affect the other games included in the bundles.

szaromir said:
But in this case, I don't think anyone cares what you have in your Steam library. I don't think anyone browses their firends' libraries and comments 'omg he has such terrible games' or whatever. I only look at them to see what they actually play. That's why I think dramatising over having some bad games seems overblown to me.

See, you could have just posted this in the first place.

Edit: I'd also like to clarify that I wasn't asking for your post to be made an example.

Omikaru · Mar 21, 2013

Most games I have which I'll never play are surplus from good value bundles. I try to at least play every game I made a decision to consciously purchase, even if I don't finish said game.

I don't care about any of them, though. The only games I ever have visible in my library are ones I've installed, so if I don't want a game I never see it.

Felix Lighter · Mar 21, 2013

Surprisingly, Origin does have a hide game feature.

Thamauturge · Mar 21, 2013

Bought the Total War collection for $12 and haven't played it like at all.

Bog · Mar 21, 2013

knitoe said:
Steam sales makes me feel like a little girl. Hunting for deals, buying them, put them away and never touch them again.

That's what little girls do? I think you're thinking of squirrels.

Acorn · Mar 21, 2013

Thamauturge said:
Bought the Total War collection for $12 and haven't played it like at all.

I've jumped from game to game never fully understanding what I'm doing or why I'm failing. I then give up and play football manager.

water1111 · Mar 21, 2013

Felix Lighter said:
Surprisingly, Origin does have a hide game feature.

the superior DD service

lol

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