How many games do you own that you have never actually played?

[baekgom84]

I saw this as a poll on gamespolitics.com and, knowing that I had quite a few games which fit this description, decided to do a quick count. I included sequels but not expansion packs. Out of just over 200 games I own on both Steam and GoG.com, I counted 76 games that I've never actually played.

76. And that's not even including the games that I installed once, played through the tutorial and maybe the first level/mission, and never touched again. That's probably more games than I owned by the time I was 20, and I'm not even 30 yet.

Can anyone else boast a similarly large and depressing figure?

[Sno]

Probably less than ten for me. I have amassed quite a collection of games over the years, but i don't buy something unless i mean to play it. I never really got pulled in by the whole Steam sale thing.

[shammack]

I probably have about ten, mostly from humble bundles. I don't usually buy games unless I intend to play them either, but I will sometimes buy a bundle even if I'm only interested in one or two of the games, if the price is right.

The number of games that I've bought and then played only once for less than an hour is much higher and more depressing.

[Tanukitsune]

I don't think I have any games I haven't at least tried to play, but I like shammack, I have games from indie bundles that I've tried and will never play again.

Oh wait... I just remembered the 1C complete bundle I bought at Gamersgate, I have metric ton of games I don't think I'll even bother to install. I don't even them as part of my collection since I haven't even really claimed them yet, I can even give them away if I wanted to, but I'm sure it's 30-50 games.

[Nappi]

Probably 30 to 40, counting the ones that I have played less than an hour just to check what they are like. Many of them are less interesting games of various (mostly indie game) bundles, but there are a lot of exciting big titles as well. All of them were on sale when I got them.

It seems that the discounts lower not only the price, but also the value of the games for me. For example, I almost quit playing the original Mass Effect after just a couple of hours because I found it a bit boring. I remember thinking something along the lines of "Fuck it. It was only 3.70 €." Had I paid 40 € for the game, I would have given it at least 10 hours or so before thinking whether or not I shoudl quit. I eventually gave the game another chance, and I'm glad I did because Mass Effect is one of the more enjoyable video game series in a long time.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Far too many! But then, I don't think it's depressing that I haven't played them. If I've got better things to do, then I have better things to do! In terms of wasted money, the only consolation I have is that I only buy games in sales, so I haven't spent too much on them. Also, they tend to be indie games, so I've supported the developers.

Those few games that I've played full price for, I've played the shit out of them.

[I_smell]

I don't use Steam or play PC games, so zero.

Actually I guess Kinect Adventures came with my Kinect.

[SecretAsianMan]

Like many others, I also have a bunch of humble bundle games that I've barely touched. Beyond that, I don't have a lot of games I own but have never played. I used to subscribe to Gamefly so that helped out a lot. I felt like I had to get the most out of my money so I'd play through the games quickly then move on to the next. That's actually why I cancelled it. Playing games with a time constraint like that takes a lot of the enjoyment out of it.

On the other hand, the number of games that I own and never finished is depressing.

[Roderick]

This topic totally made me realise something. Because for years and years my policy has been not to buy a game unless I am going to play it pretty much immediately. This has served me very well, since I have almost no backstash of games and I never spend money on something to gather dust.

However, that applies only to physical copies of games, it now hits me. My Steam library is 3/4ths filled with games I haven't even installed yet! What gives? I guess the reason is that I don't care when the game is virtual, and stuff like the Steam Summer Sale is irresistible for stocking up. As long as the game doesn't take up actual, valuable space in my house, but occupies solely a 'possibility space' in a virtual library, it's fine.

I should mention that the reason so many games are left unplayed is that I don't have internet on my main desktop so I can't activate any games on there. Ergo, the only games I can effectively play are on my laptop, which limits them to FTL and Binding of Isaac. Thirty Flights of Loving was already almost more than my machine could handle. Bummer, because I would jump to start playing Legend of Grimrock, Shogun 2, Hitt Man: Blood Cash, &c.

[feelthedarkness]

I'm in a similar boat to the OP. Sometimes I look at my steam list and get shocked like "when did I buy Mount & Blade 2, and like EVERY expansion?" I do believe it's important to support the scene.

[Lu]

's About 10-15 for me. It's the bundles. I normally don't buy stuff I don't intend to play. I do almost wish I could expunge certain games from my Steam list, because they're such turds. Oh buyers remorse.

[JonCole]

I've got 344 games on Steam and have only played 71 of them. I have a ton of games on XBLA and PSN that I've never played, probably around 30 if I had to guess. I have about another 30 boxed games for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, GC, and DS that I've yet to play.

That being said, I've followed a fairly strict rule to not buy games that I'm not going to immediately play. Having made that decision, I'm only ever decreasing my backlog which is a step up from it growing out of proportion formerly.

[juv3nal]

Less than 5 if we're not including things I've only spent 10min to 2 hours with. But if you count those I'm probably up to the 50% or higher mark. I generally try anything for a few minutes.

In other news, apparently I own Runespell: Overture? WTF is that?

edit: nevermind. I actually have played that and for more than 2 hrs even. Generic fantasy name is generic.

[darthbator]

I own probably a mind blowing amount of games I'll never play on steam. Those holiday sales are the worst (best)! When something I am interested in costs less then a sandwich it's really hard to say no. Or to convince yourself that you'll get to it some point later. It's interesting how people do that with bits and not physical games. I have almost no games still in their shrink but I have tons of steam games I've never even opened.

[Rxanadu]

Practically 60% of the Humble Bundle purchases I've made in the past (e.g. And Yet It Moves, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Gratuitous Space Battles, etc.)

[Henroid]

Probably a dozen or so. It's actually a bunch of acclaimed hits (Deus Ex: HR, Bioshock, Arkham Asylum) that my PC isn't able to run and I've been snagging things when I can for when I get a new computer. Which I've been mixed lazy about and SOL financially on. I try to get the most out of every game I buy so I don't buy very many.

[Orv]

I have an astonishingly large number of games I've bought on Steam sales that I only ended up playing for an hour or two, but I don't think I have any I've never played.

[Sno]

Is there an argument to make about Steam having inadvertantly harmed the relationship people have with their games?

[Henroid]

Is there an argument to make about Steam having inadvertantly harmed the relationship people have with their games?

Steam treats video games like objects.

[Sno]

*Gonna just delete this.*

Edit: Whoa, i posted this in the completely wrong thread.

[Gormongous]

Steam treats video games like objects.

Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women, man!

The only game I own that I've never even played a second of is Team Fortress 2. My friend made me buy early one morning when the price suddenly dropped to like $2.50, but I had bad enough memories of Team Fortress Classic to put it off until the whole hats-and-drops business turned me off permanently. I was raised thrifty enough that I actually feel guilty about this, sometimes.

Everything else I own I've played at least an hour of, which is a point of some pride. Even something awful like Spellforce 2, which I bought solely because I was impressed by what I now realize is a fairly generic Eastern European fantasy art style, got maybe four hours of my time before I called it quits.

Oh, except for Fallout: New Vegas. I want to play it badly, but every time I boot it up, I quit the moment I get to the appearance screen. I just get this unbearable feeling of disgust at the thought of having to mold another Bethesda putty-face into something that won't give me nightmares. I think I have a mental block.

[darthbator]

[elmuerte]

Let's see. I have 220 games on steam. I guess also around 200+ physically. Some digital only in PSN and quite a bunch non-steam (e.g. GOG, TellTale, etc.). But I don't think it'll reach 500 (I have a bunch of duplicates), or maybe I do, but I'm not going to waste time counting.

I think I haven't even given 50 of them 30 minutes of play time. Most of them are from bundles (either humble or sale).

There's also a shit load of them I never finished, and probably never will.

[Tanukitsune]

If there is anything you can learn from this thread is that indie bundle are lethal for your backlog.... and yet we can't resist them.

[miffy495]

Far too many! But then, I don't think it's depressing that I haven't played them. If I've got better things to do, then I have better things to do! In terms of wasted money, the only consolation I have is that I only buy games in sales, so I haven't spent too much on them. Also, they tend to be indie games, so I've supported the developers.

Those few games that I've played full price for, I've played the shit out of them.

Pretty much this for me. It got to the point that when I paid full price for Darksiders 2 and hit a game-breaking bug at 7 hours in, I started a new game and played a good amount past that. Then school started and I stopped playing, but I do intend to go back soon-ish. Compare that to something like Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, which I got at a massive discount and still haven't installed. Game looked fun enough, but between school and trying to maintain relationships with actual humans, I don't often get around to playing things like that until a long time after I purchase them, if I still remember to play them at all.