Did you know: You haven’t played 1/3 of your Steam games?

This isn’t news, I found it in a post on Forbes from April 2014, but it’s something I’ve been wondering about for quite awhile. I mean, I have a pile of Steam games that I buy for basically nothing and while I do get around to playing some, there is an ever-increasing pile that I simply haven’t touched.

I did a count about a week ago and I’m right at about 1/3 unplayed as well. For me this is for a few reasons:

1. If I’ve heard good things about a game, it looks interesting, and it’s like, a couple of bucks, I’m an adult and I’m gonna buy that game.
2. I’ve purchased a few bundles containing older games and found that I really disliked going back in time with them. So that’s bumped up my ‘not played’ count.
   • For example, I bought a Star Wars pack (it had 5 or 8 games & sequels) and even though it makes me a bad person, I know, I just can’t stand playing Jedi Knight. It hasn’t aged well.
3. I’m going to get to them. Seriously! I tried Arkham Asylum and really hated it until I broke down and bought a decent PC gaming controller (it’s awesome with a proper controller, duh). I own all the new Batman games on Steam, so I’m going to play them eventually. I will, shut up!

The thing is, I don’t honestly care about not playing all the games I own. I don’t want to spend a pile of money on them, that’s clearly wasteful, but if I buy Balder’s Gate: Enhanced Edition for $3 and don’t play it for a few years, who cares? It’ll be there when I’m ready for it.

Until then, sleep tight little Balder’s Gate.

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Decided to not just write about retro games

Dear reader, as you can tell I haven’t written anything on this blog in… oh… 2 months. This hasn’t been because I haven’t been playing any games. I have, though not enough. I just haven’t felt like playing any retro games, which was the original point of this blog.

So, in the interest of expanding my publishing (and seriously, excuses for playing videogames) I’m going to start writing more about my gaming experiences in general.

First off, it seems like Steam sales are addictive in a really insidious way: like, $10 for Arkham Origins when I haven’t played Arkham Asylum or Arkham City (from previous Steam sales)? Definitely! Get in my pocket…

I want to think about that one a bit more.

Wow, I’ve been terrible lately

Well, dear reader. This has been the first big gap that I’ve had in the life of this blog.

Basically, I’ve been getting killed time-and-writing-wise by my Master’s thesis, sucking up all my energy for writing. BUT I’m almost through that and will be back to a much more consistent cadence.

So, sorry for the weeks-long gap, but I’ll be back.

queenofcharms.com

Post #6: a new milestone

If I decide to publish this post in the order than I’m considering right now, it will be my 6th. I’ve started a few random blogs over the years and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this far. This site is also closing in on 100 visits in less than 10 days! That’s basically super-stardom as far as I’m concerned! I did have one post on Tumblr get reblogged like 5 times, so I’m not completely ignorant of the pitfalls of Internet stardom. But generally speaking, from here on out it’s all open road.

Now for some self-guided Q&A

First question: how dare you?

Well played.

Sorry, this was clearly recorded on a potato. I couldn't find a better version.

What have you learned so far?

Well, I had originally thought that I’d play old games and write about them.

Turns out that I’m writing pre-reviews, which is a freakin’ blast. My brain is terrible at remembering things and I’m really just trying to Alanis Morissette* each of the Pre Games without thinking about them too much. ‘Cause that seems like cheating

*by that I mean: stream of conciousness-ness

You’ve reached 6 posts, previously unattained by anyone, anywhere. How?

Even though I’m REALLY bad at them and other people know WAY more than me, I genuinely dig old games. Everything about them is cool! They’re old and all nostalgic-y; they’re a little hard to find; and I’m learning that games have been a part of many our lives.

*clinks expensive stem-ware filled with expensive champagne in a toast*

Blogging is hard

So I love playing videogames. I’m even writing my Master’s thesis about videogames. I like games now, but I LOVED them as a kid. Or at least, I really loved them in retrospect – probably something that happens to one as one gets older… the application of past love to things done in the past… (there’s probably a germanic verb conjugation for that)

ANYWAY

In the name of this love, or assigned love (or past love magnified by the passing of time or past frustration forged into love by a longing for youth) over the last few years I’ve been slowly putting together a collection of retro games/ systems. Chiefly NES, but I picked up a Genesis and even brought all my OLD OLD Coleco stuff home from my parent’s house. However, and to my everlasting shame, I’ve never really spent any time with the old favourites. I own Super Mario 3, BUT I’VE NEVER PLAYED IT, for example. There are lots of reasonable excuses like “being lazy”, “being busy”, or “I’m tending my WoW garden so leave me alone”, but it really came down to convenience. Modern TVs don’t have coax connections and having system upon system set-up in addition to XBox, Wii, Bluray, etc. takes up a buttload of space.

So imagine my happiness when I came across the RetroN 3. The damn thing plays 3 different systems worth of games! 3 SYSTEMS! It has wireless controllers and modern (well, not, like, HDMI or anything, but rather the respectable composite & s-video) video outs.

So I bought this thing online, waited for it, set it up, and tried it out.

Fail #1: the wireless controllers are rubbish (I’ll tell that story another time). Well, OK, that’s annoying, but no problem. The RetroN 3 has input for legacy controllers…

Fail #2: using the NES controllers still has WAY too much lag! I don’t know if you remember old games, but what they lacked in video quality, they made up for in speed and need-for-super-quick-movements-to-avoid-the-BOUNCING-KILLER-ENEMIESOFDOOM!

So. I’m back to my legacy systems and the not-doing-it-ness that comes with them, from me.

Though it isn’t THAT bad, it will just delay the population of this blog. And hey, this really is the epitome of a first world problem 🙂

EDIT: I tried again last night and don’t hate things quite so much.