Our Pile Of Shame Makes Us Despair: Why Do We Actually Need All These Games?

2023 Author: Sheila Hailey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:17

In the past, when I stood in front of the game cabinet at Woolworth or Wertheim (does anyone remember Wertheim?), It was a difficult choice. For such a SNES or N64 game, you finally had to put 140 D-Mark (does anyone else know D-Mark?) And more on the table. It had to be worth it! In retrospect, it didn't always work. In addition to real pearls, I also brought a few real stink bombs into the nursery - but I played them all until I vomited. Clear. After all, I never really knew when I would get my hands on a new game. But even then it was clear to me that later, when I grow up, things will change.

It's different today. I no longer have to ask anyone if I want to have a new game, I don't have to wait until Christmas or save my pocket money for months. If I want to have a game, I just buy it. There is always plenty of choice, thanks to Amazon and Ebay. My ten year old would freak out looking at my game and console collection. Only: I can not play all these games. I can hardly keep up now.

The Witcher 3, shot at top price on Cyber Monday, is still sealed. The same goes for Batman: Arkham Knight and inFAMOUS: Second Son, two games that I bought with my Playstation 4. Next to it is Fire Pro Wrestling World, a title that I, of course, as a wrestling fan absolutely had to have - and since then maybe played for an hour. It's better not to talk about the countless Playstation Plus Games on my hard drive or the Game Cube that I got on eBay and have switched on three times since then.

Start photo gallery (11 photos)

Why is the stack of unplayed games growing and growing? At least not because of lack of motivation - I do not regret a single purchase and I still want to play every game on the shelf. The problem is rather too much wanting too much. But the day only has 24 hours. Acknowledging that is not that easy - especially when you have so much desire. The fact is: Half of the games that have been collecting dust on my shelf for weeks and months will probably remain so.

I will probably sell some of these games again. Above all, however, I want to get used to being more choosy about the purchase - and to come to terms with the fact that I won't actually be able to play every "must-play" of the past 30 years. If a game doesn't turn me on directly, it may be able to wait so I have more time for the games that can't wait. Maybe less is more in the end.

Opinion of Andreas Engelhardt: "It just can't be done"

Only once did I dive into the offers at the notorious Steam Summer sale. The bargain hunter in me captured five titles at the time, including the first two Witcher games. Part 3 was a few months before the release and you had to prepare properly. My total playing time for the five titles: just over ten hours so far.

I haven't even played two of the games, including The Witcher 2. Back then, the child in me thought: "Have, have, have!" The student in me thought: "I'll never get these games so cheap again, I have to take advantage of that.”Today I know that the nasty FOMO had grabbed me. FOMO means "Fear off missing out", just the fear of missing something. This concern of not taking experiences with me and not being able to have a say in conversations kept me frankly in a crippling stranglehold until recently.

Start photo gallery (33 photos)

Due to the flood of games and especially the trend of open world games for several years, I have to bow to the realization that all of this is simply not possible. Unless I quit my job, which is not an option. So now I follow the motto: one step at a time. Specifically, this means: I concentrate on a story game and an endless game that I intersperse in between.

For example, these are currently Death Stranding and Civilization VI. At the moment I feel like buying and playing Jedi: Fallen Order. But I know exactly that Death Stranding will then disappear in the closet and will blame me forever. But that doesn't do the title justice, so I inevitably have to be patient. After all, you're growing up, even if you only deal with the flood of video games.

How do you deal with your Pile of Shame? Have you developed a method to work this off or have you already become a towel? Let us know in the comments!