Here I thought 200 games in my wishlist were too many. Congrats on your results so far.
Comment has been collapsed.
When I hit 500 games in my wishlist, long ago, I thought "this is crazy, I should stop". I was thinking something like "each game I add, I have to take off one". But ofc it never came true.
Comment has been collapsed.
Two hundred? I have over two THOUSAND. I know I'll never play them all, but at least I know that whatever I do end up getting is something I decided at one point "I want to play that."
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm up to 3500 :') Tbf, I tend to use it as a "this looks neat I'll look at it later" thing as well.
Comment has been collapsed.
Two thoughts that came to mind reading your post:
-
Joining PAGYWOSG has been incredibly helpful in resisting my "urge" to enter GA's. Now that I consistently play at least one or two of my wins every month, I force myself to consider if I'd truly enjoy playing the game I'm entering the GA for, because sooner or later I'll have to play it if I win. That has helped me a lot to be more selective with my entries, maybe would also be helpful for you
-
My wishlist was around 1200 games before I went on purge mode, and now sits around 800. It's still a lot, but it went down considerably by following one simple rule: if the game is a sequel, it can only be wishlisted if I already own and played the original. That means taking Borderlands 2 from the wishlist because I own but haven't played Borderlands 1. That meant taking off Dark Souls 2 and 3 from my wishlist because I don't even own Dark Souls 1. This is not a foolproof rule (I know many people suggested I skip The Wticher 1 and 2, for instance, and go straight to 3) but it was an easy hack to reduce my wishlist number. Seeing it go down felt good, and helped me focus on my wins as well. Again, food for thought
Good luck and stay healthy :)
Comment has been collapsed.
if the game is a sequel, it can only be wishlisted if I already own and played the original. That means taking Borderlands 2 from the wishlist because I own but haven't played Borderlands 1
What about the Pre-Sequel though? :P
Comment has been collapsed.
Super good question! Then I'll look at release date and keep that as the source of truth, unless the prequel was meant to be played first, in which case I take the original game off the wishlist, unless I already own it, in which case the sequel goes off the wishlist and the prequel goes in.
I mean, as long as it's simple, it's good 👼 hahaha
Comment has been collapsed.
LOL
If you're planning to play the Yakuza series, 0 is probably actually the best start, although some of the scenes hit different, if you played 1 and 2 before.
Comment has been collapsed.
Prequels are really very rarely meant to be read before the original material; it would be so disrespectful to the original readers/watchers/players... "Oh you 50 million people liked my book? Well here's the book you should have read before, just fresh out of print, and you can... Why are you all yelling?".
Comment has been collapsed.
Just so we're clear ... the "pre-sequel" is a prequel to the sequel (thus the name), not to the first game. In other words, it came out AFTER Borderlands 2, but fills in the gap of what happened to the world between 1 and 2. And yes, there are spoilers if you play it before 2.
Comment has been collapsed.
I've had a problem with playing (or actively doing pretty much anything) since 2020.
You have no idea how much I can relate to this. Probably even for longer than since 2020. I will say though: don't beat yourself up about it. It won't help anyone and it's not your fault.
I wish you good luck on your bundles ascesis endeavour. May you find all the nice games in your library and enjoy them at your leisure! :)
Comment has been collapsed.
2024 is also the worst year of my life.
I feel for you and wish you all the best in the near future.
As far as games are concerned, there was a time (at the end of 2022) when I made the same observation. I must have had 1,300 games on my wishlist, and I always wanted more without having more time to play them.
In 4/5 stages I managed to reach the 50 games mark I had set myself and 2 years later I'm still sticking to it and I'm very happy with it, even if it's a regular battle where I force myself to remove a game when I add one.
As for bundles, it's the same thing, I respect the following rule: I don't take the bundle if there aren't at least 2 games in it that I really want to play.
Well, that limits a lot and I manage to miss out on some titles, but too bad, I'll come across them again later in another bundle... or not :)
Of course I'm sharing less here, but I'm finally making progress with my backlog, which I'm seeing shrink little by little... it feels good!
On the other hand, I'm also participating less because I only want to play the games I want to play. I had no idea what my stat was, after checking, not to mention that in December I had an average of 720 games played compared to 1155 in 2019, which is quite a reduction I think.
In short, I understand you completely, it's not an easy battle, and I congratulate you on your goals and achievements :)
Comment has been collapsed.
Congratulations on achieving your goal! Good luck for the next steps :)
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm finishing more games than I win so I think that's positive? But then I tend to like games that take over 80 hours to complete so that may not last. I'm not sure there are even 2000 games out there I would wishlist but I'm certainly not going to go looking for them!
Comment has been collapsed.
I actually relate to quite a few things of what you said, there's a reason why I actively avoid the recommendation queue on Steam unless it's the sale season when it drops cards, otherwise my wishlist would get completely out of control with the sheer number of interesting-looking games releasing constantly.
Currently going through one of those periods when I don't feel like playing anything for a week or two, for the last few days I've been just opening Steam out of routine and to use Aseprite while listening to long youtube videos. At least I'm catching up with a channel I hadn't watched in months and I'm also drawing again.
And about bundles, the higher prices nowadays are thankfully pretty effective at dissuading me from buying most of the time but I still find myself failing at my personal commitment to buy as little as possible, there's always that one bundle that has a game I've been wanting for some time while also being under $1 per game. The rational part of my brain says no but there's also that other part that screams that it wants it.
Comment has been collapsed.
I can relate. Congratulations on your self-control
Comment has been collapsed.
Juan has earned the power of self-control. 🤘 cheap Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World reference ;)
Honestly though, congrats! It is not always easy to restrain oneself. Especially on SG.
Wishing you a relaxing holiday season and a better 2025.
Comment has been collapsed.
I wish I could whitelist you twice.
You must have vegan powers.
Comment has been collapsed.
Haha, nice one. Amazing movie, isn't it?
also, thought I had you whitelisted long time ago. fixed that problem now 💙
Comment has been collapsed.
It really is an amazing movie. Just when you think you've seen it all and it can't surprise you anymore, it just pulls the rug from under you and then flips the room on you.
Everything about it is just perfect.
Comment has been collapsed.
congrats on reaching those goals. its always a good thing no matter how small they may seem
Comment has been collapsed.
You're embracing your quest for minimalism and it's all good.
Don't feel guilty for wanting to play games though. Trying not to fill the void with stuff is commendable in this day and age of consumerism and capitalist-greed-induced-FOMO, but you should still enjoy yourself. A little hedonism is good for the soul.
Comment has been collapsed.
Congratulations on hitting a personal goal! I think we have a tendency slip into playing games as almost a job, especially if we have sizeable backlogs. It's easy to think that you need to be playing all of the time because doing anything else feels like wasted money or time, but then you just end up kind of resenting the choice. I have to remind myself fairly frequently that the games will still be there, regardless of how many days I take away to pursue other interests.
Take care of yourself first and foremost because a game is nothing without someone to play it.
Comment has been collapsed.
Hey! Congrats on that milestone, been there and did the same these last two years, tried to be more nitpicky with what I enter, but maybe should work on what I buy. Everything has its time and moment, the most important thing is to be okay with yourself. Happy holidays, JMM <3
Comment has been collapsed.
Spending all my points i'm only able to enter around 700 giveaways per month. How do you even enter 1000+? O_O
Comment has been collapsed.
And I've had months with +1500 (last was Aug 2023) and a record of bit over 2000 in May 2020.
There are many factors. For example I used to refuse to enter a 40-50p giveaway because it had 8000 entries; thus those 50p were spent in other giveways, probably with less points, but adding up to the total giveaway count.
Nowadays I see few 50p giveaways, maybe because they're mostly in my library, ignored, or I'm uninterested. This year I've actually spent most of the time having almost 400p when going to bed. I usually see less than 200 available public giveaways. Unless there's an event, or six-eight like now, I have way more points that I need.
Size of library, amount of ignored games, groups and whitelists you're in, blacklists, all affect how many giveaways you see. And maybe the games you want the most are also the most expensive. Maybe you're not interested in small games. It's all a lot different for each one of us.
For me, getting lower than 1000 means that I'm really entering the giveaways that I really want, regardless of if I "waste" points every day.
In the old far past, I was more worried of maximizing my chances of winning because I was tired and ashamed that my library was 90% gifts of my gf. But she was bent on giving me the games I couldn't buy myself. Once I emptied my wishlist so she wouldn't know which games I wanted, and started sending 20/50 bucks gift cards. She was too used to do what she wanted in that regard. All with good intentions but it made me both happpy and uncomfortable.
Now for entering less than 700 monthly.
Comment has been collapsed.
I hope you have a better 2025 and good luck with the job hunt!
Comment has been collapsed.
So a couple of things occur to me - you might be suffering from depression. I know I do and recently had to go back on meds. It's definitely helped!
Secondly, I love all things video-game oriented and looking at new games makes me happy, as does adding games I'd love to play.To be fair, I've gotten way more selective about what games I'm willing to add to my library and here on SG, I only enter for wishlisted games. Of course, with a whole bunch of trains, I find a few new ones to add, but on the whole, not that many.
Sometimes I clear out my wishlist on Steam - usually during sales. If a game has mixed reviews or I realize that it's not really my cup of tea, I delete but who cares how many you have?
Thirdly, now that we're both retired, my budget is greatly diminished so my bundle buying is very limited. And I hunt for deals way more than I used to. And I pass up way more bundles these days - it definitely has to have more than 3 or 4 that I want to make it worth using my meager monthly budget (but at least we both recognize that this needs to be a line item - his on playing bridge and me on games.)
Lastly, it makes me truly happy to gift games to people that really want them. That's really the only downside of a limited budget - if a bundle has one or two games I want, I'm no longer buying it and gifting the rest. Like with Choice, when I realized I could have just bought the few games that I really want for way less than $120 a year, it was time to stop. Fortunately, I have a ton of leftover keys, so I can indulge my love of gifting for a while longer.
I guess my only advice is to let go of your "metrics" and just enjoy your life as best you are able to. Life is pretty short overall so maybe consider just enjoying your SG entries for games, let your wishlist get as big as you'd like and consider reaching out to your doctor for meds if depression or other issues are making your limited time here kind of miserable.
Comment has been collapsed.
congrats! hope you a better 2025!
i knew i have lost control when my wishlist hit 1000 games
Comment has been collapsed.
You are absolutely right! We want, not need. But this is not bad - it is normal. Do not set unattainable goals and do not be disappointed when you do not achieve them. On the way to a big goal there are always small deeds! Rejoice in small victories! And as for the large number of games in the collection - this is support for their creators - style, ideas and just good people. Happy New Year!
Comment has been collapsed.
Good on you. Hope you’ll have a better year.
I’ve missed gaming a bit this year, but won’t change anything for the growing up and experiences I’ve had over the last roughly 14 months.
Comment has been collapsed.
I would say reducing to only what you truly believe will add to you is good.
I had an account in SG years ago (same steam account) and used to enter most stuff, but it was pointless. So I deleted the account and stop using SG all together. Ever since I came back I only enter what I truly believe I will enjoy and if I win I know I'll very likely end up playing it and be happy with it:)
I enter 100-300+ a month. And still think maybe I should reduce a bit more^^
Also reduced a lot buying bundles and games with high discounts when i still have so many to play and aren't in my TOP wishlist.
Still buy slowly though :p
GL on your journey!^^
Comment has been collapsed.
congrats on finishing more games! at one point i had 300+ on my wishlist but now every time I check it, I keep removing games that i add on a whim after watching streamer play it with their friend while thinking 'i don't think i have anyone to play with' and games that i have no interest anymore.
you have a great time during the end of this year too JMM and i hope you're getting better :D
Comment has been collapsed.
That's a real neat milestone! And don't be too harsh about yourself, if you enter these, you're at least curious of those games, and that's not necessarily a bad thing !
Comment has been collapsed.
Here's hoping good employment finds its way to you in the new year, here's hoping for frankly a better year for all of us. Hoping your able to get support in facing whatever pitfalls come at you, I know what the voids can feel like, how you throw anything and everything at them just to try to keep your head above water, even if you don't know if it's for the best or not. Whittling down a backlog sounds like a good way to take control of something seemingly insurmountable.
Between work and a tiny internet allowance per month I fear my backlog will wait a while, if it weren't for my old retail collection & GOG I probably wouldn't play much at the moment. I know it won't always be this way so that makes it ok.
Cheers for the giveaways and good news about your DIY accessory repair, I'm staring down the prospect of having to do something similar in the future so it's good to know it's do-able.
Comment has been collapsed.
I'm not for that long here (next May it will be just 3 years), but I came to two additional limits that makes my giveaways entering more "healthy" (not taking into account depression, when it kicks in - I stop entering anything, not only giveaways, lol):
1) Before entering the giveaway I'm asking myself a question "Will I buy this game, if it will be on 90% discount sale?". If my answer is "No" - that is an easy skip for me. (I'm also asking my self if I see myself actually playing the game... But as practice show sometimes I can convince myself that I will... But then find thirteen excuses why not right now, but sometime in the future...)
2) A limit that appeared by itself randomly, but I like how it effects my behaviour: I'm not allowed to enter more giveaways then I have games in my filter list. As of now I've entered 12,515 giveaways and I've 18,042 game in my filter list. So I have plenty "slots" to spare, but I always keeps in mind that there is a virtual limit for me.
Comment has been collapsed.
Dude, congrats on making progress. I'm with PonBaron on finding smaller goals along the way. I only have so many spoons in a day to spend. It helps to have that sense you're getting somewhere, and it sounds like you're making several manageable changes that will add up.
Comment has been collapsed.
For 2 years I've tried to enter less and less giveaways. My target was entering below 1000 giveaways per month. But for all these months, I've always been between 1000 and 1500. Even if now I see less and less giveaways open for me.
I don't look at stats all the time, in fact only once in a while, but actually both in October and November I finally entered less than 1000 each month. Little thing, it seems, as 1000 per month is still a lot. It's still 33 per day. But well, start with reachable goals and one by one you'll eventually get there.
Another important thing is how I choose which games I enter for, or get in my wishlist. I used to think "it's good enough to enter my library". Now I look at it from another perspective: "will my library be better with this game?" - "do I really want to play this game if I only had 10 games in my library or leave it to the end?"
It sounds silly, but it's important for me. I've been 10 months without buying bundles (except for charity in Fanatical once) but I failed last month and this one. I was also dragging an accidental Choice renewal from Dec 2023, which I decided to not refund so I would still get a few games each month. But today I cancelled it. I also hope to not buy any bundle for a long time after new year. I need to find something else to do when feeling that emptiness than buying more games. I have way more than I can play in 10 years. But there are still games I see and I think "I want to play that, I want to try that seemingly original gameplay".
Which leads me to my wishlist. I was about one year fiddling with it so it wouldn't surpass 2700 games. When bored, I actively searched for games to add to it; then one day I decided I was tired to add and delete and be always on the edge of going over 2700. So I started with that previous thought "will my library be better with this game?" and I deleted almost 200 games in a few days. But apparently I've reached a point, about 2450 games in my wishlist, where it's harder and harder to delete games. I wish it would be like 1000 at most, but right now I think I'll struggle to just go below 2000.
And all this is ludicrous. I had quite a lot of games; suddenly I get a job and my library size skyrocketed. After years of frustration and calculating how much money I could spent, if one buck per game was too expensive for a bundle, etc. I had enough money to buy all I wanted. Problem was that there was too much that I wanted. That emptiness is like a black hole. Throw things in and it will still eat more, ask for more. It's neithersane nor healthy, but I can't control it, and I have worse things to worry about. Then the year ended without job, I looked at how much I spent and I was really horrified how I lost control. So my already big enough library now it's too much, yet the emptiness... Well, no cheap excuse for that. It happens.
At least SG has been "good" (depending on the perspective) to me this year, giving me way less games than expected by statistics. And even with breaking my commitment to not buy bundles this year on November, I've acquired less games than any other year. Still I would slap myself. I don't "need" more games. No one needs more games. We want, not need. And each one for different reasons, in different amounts, with different choices. I know people who buys, plays, repeat. I've had a problem with playing (or actively doing pretty much anything) since 2020. But this year I've finished more games than in the previous 4 years together. I'm stuck again, my only constant is being inconstant, mood is unstable and probably many of you can relate. Society today is crazy and we pay the price.
So well, after all that wall of text that most of you haven't read, for that little achievement here you have four giveaways from Tiltify. They'll run until 18th and need level 3+. I recently emptied my blacklist so except 4 people you all can access them.
Bot protection: remove one of the words from the game title from the code.
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/fqfrostpunkzlt/frostpunk
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/cnastickyzd/sticky-business
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/rRcampus7iE/two-point-campus
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/8dscornIkX/scorn
You all have a great time during the end of this year. It's an order. For me nothing will change with adding 1 to the year, but I hope you all have at least a better 2025 than this (horribly horrible for me) year.
Now off to repair the pedals of my PC wheel... 2 years waiting to properly fix it, and suddenly them are selling replacement cable. Serendipity.
Edit: thanks everyone for your congrats, good wishes and sharing your similar experiences. Yes I'm depressed and medicated, but depression is not the major problem.
And for those interested, I fixed the pedals, tested with its control panel. I ran lots of laps at Magione to check things were really ok, but I couldn't get to 1.26, only 1.28 and no matter what I did, tyres were cold. And then a 10 lap event on Spa Francorchamps as reward for me. I won it, of course, with 36 seconds advantage over the 2nd place (on easy, I'm a bad pilot). Assetto Corsa is a bad game but a great simulator. Wheel is still thrilling to use.
Comment has been collapsed.