• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Steam library permanence and sale buyers remorse.

Not really, I have a couple of games that I bought but didn't really like. I just have a category called do not install. So I keep them of my system this way. But yeah, sometimes it's really hard to resist those awesome sales lol.
 

Twinduct

Member
The only remorse I have is buying games like bad rats to pad out my library! Weren't going to join the 1k league with just quality yo :<
 
I think you should give these games a second chance. Obviously you liked something at first when you bought them, so give them a little time. Some games are slow burners like that, they don't grab you immediately.
 
I don't have this issue. Anything I don't like I just move to a separate category and minimize the category. I don't understand why it would bother you so much to do this. This seems like a silly thing to be bothered by.
 

teeny

Member
Definitely feel the same way OP, I have bought so much shit on Steam. I just put everything I actually like into my favourites and ignore the rest. I then have categories within my favourites for searching.

The problem is I also do this with physical media. I have so many games that I have played through to completion that I will never play again and the boxes clog up my shed and the discs clog up my media center.

I got it into my head next week that I am going to sell all of the games I don't like as well as the ones I am finished with but do. If I ever want to play something that I have parted with again, I can rebuy or get it on a download service (or there is always emulation, I guess).
 
Eh, I've bought a few games that I either can't play or just haven't yet.

Like Chernobyl. My laptop can run it alright, but it kind of stutters and I haven't tried playing it for more than 5-10 minutes or so.

I also bought F.E.A.R. 2 on the cheap(like $3, I think?) and have yet to play that.

I bought a few other games I haven't tried yet, but that's mostly because I don't game on PC much. I actually regret buying the two above, if not for the fact that I should be playing them but have yet to.
 

LiquidMetal14

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

Hey, I said that months ago.

At least credit me for the "gotta catch 'em all" mantra!

I try to buy most stuff on sale these days and it works out nice. I also impulse buy games that have online to play with friends but I do have a threshold on pricing for that. I'm not going to do what I did for DCUO on PS3 again. I bought that game because 2 friends on console said that they would play it and they kind of didn't stick to it. That was at the time when it had a monthly fee as well. You can imagine that I wasn't happy to see I couldn't resell that game.
 
I've been pretty good on XBLA with selective thought out purchasing for the last 7 years. I'm fairly new to PC gaming and hope to continue that keen eye and restraint only for games I intend to play.

Bundles are fine and I won't kick myself if I'm not interested in 3 of the 7 games I got in the THQ bundle for instance. So far I've impulsed Civ5 for $6. I'm curious about it and if I end up not liking it, I just remind myself that I spend more on lunch every day.

I'll admit that I'm not used to paying $6 for a full retail game so I see the trap that I can get into here, I just have to remain critical and ask myself if it's worth my time.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
What i'd like is a fake steam front end. I go in and 'buy' games, but all it does is put them in a list. then on the rare occasion I actually want to play a game, *then* it goes and buys it from steam (likely for a cheaper price).

So I'd have all the fun of a silly list of games I'll never play, and a happier bank balance.
 

ChryZ

Member
What i'd like is a fake steam front end. I go in and 'buy' games, but all it does is put them in a list. then on the rare occasion I actually want to play a game, *then* it goes and buys it from steam (likely for a cheaper price).

So I'd have all the fun of a silly list of games I'll never play, and a happier bank balance.
You do know that Steam got a wishlist?
 

TL4E

Member
I almost exclusively buy on steam sales unless it's a game I really like. If there's a collection of games on sale and I like 1-2 of the games there, those 1-2 games usually cover the cost of the package had I bought them separately. The other games are a bonus and I don't lose anything if I don't like them/never play them.

Steam (especially Steam sales) can be like crack for people with impulsive tendencies. That's the price you pay for fast and efficient content delivery.
 

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
1st world problems.
Of course, you're browsing the internet, and you're in the gaming section of a gaming forum. What else did you expect, people talking about starving kids in third world countries?

Now that I think about it, if someone complains about not being able to run the game Don't Starve, is that considered a first or third world problem?
 

mclem

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

To be fair, while my impulse control with Steam is poor, I do have to acknowledge that the one game I've played that I had a very strong dislike to - And Yet It Moves - I bought completely intentionally without just diving in because it was cheap.
 
Yep, I have some games in my Steam account I would gladly have removed completely. Trying to hide them with categories and only showing installed games only works in that particular view. They will still show up in all the community profile lists and stuff like that.

It's no big problem when it's games you have bought with the intention to play, but I avoid larger packs of games because of this, since I don't want to fill up my library and profile with games that I have no intention to play at all.
 

Monroeski

Unconfirmed Member
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. :p

Uninstall them and only look at the installed list.

But then every time I want to reinstall something I have to search through the huge ass list again. Doesn't really solve the problem. I just want Toki Tori and Reaxxion to be gone FOREVER.

Easier to move stuff to a category and filter by it

Definitely the way to go (though I haven't actually done it yet).

Some people just fuckin hoard steam games, its ridiculous. Quality over quantity.

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.

My biggest problem is all the stuff that shows up from indie bundles. You pick up a fair number of games you don't want in the first place, and with indie games in particular there are a lot that I WANT to play but that are short and/or simple so I won't want to play them again after the first time. With console games or non-Steam PC games I can pick up something that I KNOW I only want to play through once, like Enslaved, then sell it when I'm done and thus reduce my clutter. Dungeon Siege III on Steam, though, I'm never getting that off the list, even though I enjoyed it and completed it once and got everything I wanted out of it.

I'm getting better at impulse control on Steam stuff but the fact is that my gaming habits of late lean much more towards trying out a wide swath of different games rather than getting one and playing/replaying it to completion. It's not really just lack of impulse control that has made my Steam list so long; it's that of late I have more interest in picking up 10 indie games I can try all of in a month rather than some 100 hour RPG that will be all I play for a long while.
 

Dynoro

Member
I have plenty of games in my library I either don't like or would never play again but for the price I paid I don't really care. If I paid less than a fiver for it then its negligible anyway if I got 30 minutes or an hour of enjoyment out of it.

As many have previously mentioned; the 'installed' filter is very handy. I keep about 40-50 games installed at a time and just refer to this as my 'games to play' list. I don't even see games outside of that filter so they don't bother me.
 

Monroeski

Unconfirmed Member
It would be nice if Steam would let you gift away games you own to someone else.

I understand that they don't do it because they likely make more money otherwise, but it seems like a money-making idea to just let me remove games completely as well; then if I ever did get the impulse to play the game again I'd have to give them more money to do so.

Would probably increase their customer service calls a fair bit, though, with people who are trying to get games re-added for free or for a discount.
 

Wok

Member
What i'd like is a fake steam front end. I go in and 'buy' games, but all it does is put them in a list. then on the rare occasion I actually want to play a game, *then* it goes and buys it from steam (likely for a cheaper price).

So I'd have all the fun of a silly list of games I'll never play, and a happier bank balance.

Isn't it the whishlist feature?

You do know that Steam got a wishlist?

Beaten.
 
I find it hard to experience buyers remorse over purchases under $5, which is my typical price point for buying anything on Steam.
 

Casimir

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

In a sense you can. From the Steam Library list, right click and select 'Set Category'. Create a new one like, 'Bad Decisions' or maybe 'Aliens: CM'. Then after you've set all of the hidden games to that category, you can collapse the Category label so only the label; not the games are visible.
 

daninthemix

Member
Yes I have trillions of Steam games I have yet to play, but the point is...one day I might want to play them.

And I'm not particularly bothered about not being able to sell some game that only cost me £2.50 in the first place.
 

szaromir

Banned
But then every time I want to reinstall something I have to search through the huge ass list again. Doesn't really solve the problem. I just want Toki Tori and Reaxxion to be gone FOREVER.
just type in the first 3 letters and the list will narrow down massively.
My biggest problem is all the stuff that shows up from indie bundles. You pick up a fair number of games you don't want in the first place, and with indie games in particular there are a lot that I WANT to play but that are short and/or simple so I won't want to play them again after the first time.
I have a simple solution for you. Don't activate the steam keys and simply play the DRM free versions which are offered in vast majority of those bundles for vast majority of those indie games.
 

Monroeski

Unconfirmed Member
I have a simple solution for you. Don't activate the steam keys and simply play the DRM free versions which are offered in vast majority of those bundles for vast majority of those indie games.

I'm talking about the Steam indie bundles.
 

allansm

Member
I have a few. I got almost all of them in indie bundles, the majority in that 5 games for $5 bundles that steam sold in 2011. It was my first sale, I was impressed with the cheap price and tough it was better to buy the bundles than the individual games I wanted... Seeing bad games in my library is not what annoys me the most, the worse is to know that I supported such games.
 

Durante

Member
In the past few months (starting with the Christmas sale) I got much better at not buying stuff on Steam that I will almost certainly never have the time to play. I don't know what exactly changed (I like to think it's general maturity), so I can't make suggestions, but it feels good.
 

jmood88

Member
I've never understood the people who can't control their spending just because something is on sale. Why buy something you have no interest in just because it's cheaper than normal?
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
I've never understood the people who can't control their spending just because something is on sale. Why buy something you have no interest in just because it's cheaper than normal?

Because demand curve.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I was looking through my library the other day and it was mostly cool games. I've really only bought into one bundle over the years (it was one of those humble bundles) and that is where the few bad games come from. I think Shank was one of them, but it came with Jamestown so it's cool.

I can say with complete and total confidence I will never buy a Steam Indie bundle.
 
I have 2 categories, one for me and one for my gf. Then I set the filter to installed games. Every other game might as well not exist since I dont ever see them. Not sure why this isnt working for you OP.
 
The only "regret" I have in my Steam list is installing The Wonderful End of the World which I got for free during that Christmas Sale two years ago, and purchasing the King's Quest bundle, simply because I found out that I have to go through hoops to play them. :/
 
Top Bottom