Submitted 3 weeks ago by atomicpoet@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/0ecc0727-084a-4960-bab4-4ceb1b7616b5.jpeg
Why do I play all these games? Because it’s important that they’re played.
Because every game is a story, a world, a moment in time crafted by someone who cared enough to create it.
Because each one teaches me something new—about design, about culture, about myself.
Because in a sea of pixels, there’s magic waiting to be found.
And because, honestly? Sometimes I just want to escape, explore, and lose myself in different worlds.
So yeah. I own thousands of games, and I’ll keep playing them.
The comments of this thread give off major Reddit energy. Sure the post is a little fedora-lordish but why not add meaningful input by discussing the value of games and their stories like the post suggests, rather than bashing a stranger for no reason other than hypercriticalism?
It’s not a crime to enjoy something. Just because someone has a differing view does not make it a wrong view. And honestly if I get downvoted, it kinda proves that lemmings just critisize others and hate when someone is critical of them. Hypocrisy at its finest.
I too have chosen to spend a good chunk of my money on games, and came to, you know the “games” lemmy instance, to talk about them. That’s not hyper-consumerism, its me finding happiness in a world where there’s not much to be happy about. Like op said, it’s a way to escape, explore, and lose yourself.
Exactly!
And it’s highly unlikely that OP is playing 100% new-releases, especially w/ that 200+ installed games, so they’re probably getting a bunch of those well below store price (i.e. through bundles and whatnot). I have several hundred games, many of which I haven’t played, and most of those came in a bundle that included a couple games I did play (and the total price was significantly less than the retail price of the games I did play).
I’m guessing that’s OP’s case, and given how many they claim to have played, I’m guessing they have a lot of time to play games.
You are correct. I have never once bought a new release on Steam.
Black Myth: Wukong tempted me. But I did not cave to temptation.
Sure the post is a little fedora-lordish but why not add meaningful input by discussing the value of games and their stories like the post suggests, rather than bashing a stranger for no reason other than hypercriticalism?
Because the post doesn't suggest anything. It's a random stranger gloating about spending thousands of dollars on games they barely play. No interest in starting any meaningful conversation whatsoever. OP did not say anything meaningful or specific about their favorite "stories" or "moments" in games, and did not show any interest in learning about yours or ours.
It's not a crime to enjoy something. Just because someone has a differing view does not make it a wrong view. And honestly if I get downvoted, it kinda proves that lemmings just critisize others and hate when someone is critical of them. Hypocrisy at its finest.
You or OP can do whatever you want, but if you gloat about your senseless consumption habits online while showing zero interest in starting any meaningful discussion, don't throw out the pikachu face when you get clowned.
I too have chosen to spend a good chunk of my money on games, and came to, you know the "games" lemmy instance, to talk about them. That's not hyper-consumerism, its me finding happiness in a world where there's not much to be happy about. Like op said, it's a way to escape, explore, and lose yourself.
Talk about them then. No one's stopping you or OP—although I imagine it's hard to talk about thousands of games they haven't played 😂
Let me demonstrate: one of my favorite moments in gaming was S ranking Furi's first boss on Furier.
IDK why, but for some reason I didn't know I was actually capable of improving at things. I had this silly idea that people are either born good at something or they aren't, until I picked up Furi in 2017.
I heared the game is most fun on Furier, I find a code that unlocks it, and I start my first playthrough. As if that wasn't enough, for some reason, I decided my first playthrough will be a challenge run: beating bosses is not enough, I will not move on to the next boss until I S Rank the one before them.
Now, Furi has nothing but boss fights and walking segments between each fight. Nothing to fallback on if you suck except your response time and pattern recognition skills—no weapons or skills to unlock, no shop to buy consumables, nothing. I shit you not: it took me 35 hours to S rank the first boss, and the moment I did it, I genuinely felt like a different person.
It was mind blowing. Like, what else can I do? What else can I get better at? I know it's a video game, but my experience is indisputable proof I can improve at least at one thing and maybe even pick up new skills I don't already have.
This lead me to re-examine and rebuild my idea of who I am and what I can do, snapped me out of my chronic depression, and eventually lead to a career change.
I still carry that feeling with me. Every time I pick up a new action game, I get excited about the learning process, and what I can accomplish after 35 hours.
What about you? Is there any moment you always carry with you?
Now, that wasn't hard, was it? Wouldn't it have been nice if OP did this instead of generically gloating about amassing a huge library of games they barely play?
Because the post doesn’t suggest anything.
I mean, I wrote a whole lot of text explaining why I collect so many games.
It’s a random stranger gloating about spending thousands of dollars on games they barely play.
I haven’t even told you how much money I’ve spent. And of the money I’ve spent, it’s not exactly a lot. I know people who’ve spent more money on hardware than I’ve spent on games.
No interest in starting any meaningful conversation whatsoever.
And yet, there’s lots of conversation here. You’ve already written paragraphs. Go figure.
OP did not say anything meaningful or specific about their favorite “stories” or “moments” in games
If you want to see posts where I talk about specific games, just go through my history.
and did not show any interest in learning about yours or ours.
If you want to share your story, do so. Actually, you already did.
You or OP can do whatever you want, but if you gloat about your senseless consumption habits online while showing zero interest in starting any meaningful discussion
Oh, there’s sense. Maybe not sense in your prescribed manner, but there’s sense.
don’t throw out the pikachu face when you get clowned.
I really don’t mind the many different reactions.
Talk about them then. No one’s stopping you or OP—although I imagine it’s hard to talk about thousands of games they haven’t played 😂
Yep, no one’s stopping me – which is why I talk about specific games.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if OP did this instead of generically gloating about amassing a huge library of games they barely play?
Just because you’re seeing this post here now doesn’t mean I don’t talk about specific games elsewhere. In fact, if you go through my posting history, you can see all the many times I talk about my experiences with games. Feel free to comment on them.
The reason why you’re commenting here now, and not on my post about Curse: Eye of Isis is because this specific post created an emotional reaction in you.
Or hell, you can look on my Akkoma account. I posted this game about Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death last night:
Found the type of lemming I was referencing. Here I was simply posting an ambiguous critical commment and they go defensive mode for no reason. Hypercritical, overpolitical, and wrote paragraphs about a game to prove a point rather than to express passion for said games.
Why do I play all these games? Because it's important that they're played.
Well, evidently not since you're actively ignoring about 77% of them 😂 And who boasts about their hyperconsumerism on fucking Lemmy of all platforms 😂
Wrong. Not ignored—not played yet.
Come on, none of us will ever play all their games. I’d bet around 2000 of my games on steam are some free keys or other incredibly cheap shit I wouldn’t touch with a 10m-pole. If I’d ever find them again in the library, that is.
Not ignored—not played yet.
Journal, July 3, 2025:
The day opened with a round of Barbie Project Friendship.
I then followed it up with survival horror Amnesia: The Bunker from survival horror specialists Frictional Games.
Next on the list was gay dom/sub dating sim Blood Domination.
Then hard milsim Command: Modern Operations.
I wound down with some relaxing time in art toy Zen Trails.
I have always been partial to variety.
Steam summer sale final boss
23% played? That’s basically 100% by Steam standards. You’ve officially made it.
Yeah, I have far fewer games and have played a lower percent of the ones I have. There are just so many bundles that have one or two games I do want and I just add the rest to my library.
I’m curious, what’s your highest play time on a game? Or maybe top 3 even.
Sure, here’s my top three by hours spent:
Nice. Life is short, play games
*buy
buy, rent, pirate, whatever floats your boat
lol I’ll feel like I’m heading in the same direction😅
you are saying this like you own some kind of extraordinary awsome games only…then you show off a spongebob cartrace, and a robocop game.
collecting is a valid hobby, but stoo kidding yourself that you are buying some high artforms.
That Robocop game has an 87% positive rating, but I got it for 93.35% – for a total of C$4.63.
As for Nickelodeon Kart Racer 3, I have the previous two games and really liked them. It’s a great couch co-op game with my kid. So I got the third one for 92.4% off the original price – for a total of C$4.32.
All in all, I did pretty well for myself.
The RoboCop game is actually supposed to be quite good. I recently picked it up on sale, haven’t played it yet.
This dude wouldn’t buy Robocop for a dollar.
Bro that Robocop game is petty good.
How much have you spent
A few thousand dollars.
Never bought a single game at full price. Almost all the time, it’s at least 90% off. Lots of game bundles abound. And free games are given away all the time.
Oh sorry sir you are not playing these games on a phone or tablet platform therefore you are not really playing true games, you are only consuming mindless entertainment.
That other thread got weird and defensive real fast.
Tends to go that way when the take is so dumb and disconnected from reality. Might as well have shown dick pics with diamond encrusted micro transaction “rewards”.
23% average game completion rate? Or “has been loaded at least once”?
Unapologetically, I’m a non-completionist.
Only complete the games you’re compelled to complete.
Exactly. I have something like 10-20 “complete” games because they either give 100% completion for rolling credits or I really enjoyed the game and ended up completing the achievements anyway. Of the rest, I’ve probably rolled credits on 80% of my “played” games, because sometimes I just lose interest before I reach the end, while still enjoying my time w/ it.
Games should be fun, and if they stop being fun, move on.
They said they played 23% of the games, not completed them.
Very similar to my account.
I have more fun browsing and buying games, than playing 🙈🙈😅
Well I’m happy for you if owning so many games makes you happy as it supports a hobby I love.
Personnaly, I think that not finishing so many of your games shows some kind of problem, but I’m not a psychologist. Owning so many too…
I might even have the inverted problem as I feel like it’s an obligation for me to finish a game unless I don’t like it.
not finishing so many of your games shows some kind of problem
If they’ve played 23%, that’s a lot of games, as in, well over 1k. Thy said nothing about how many they’ve finished, but I don’t think “finishing” is all that important.
What I’m more interested in is how much time they have for playing games. What’s they’re lifestyle like that they can play nearly 2k games while also accomplishing other life goals? It’s not an unreasonable amount, just sufficiently high that it raises some eyebrows.
I feel like it’s an obligation for me to finish a game unless I don’t like it.
If OP isn’t finishing any games, yeah, I agree. But there are a ton of games that I don’t find worth finishing, in any sense you define that, but that I still find worth playing.
For example, I didn’t finish Brutal Legend because I really didn’t like the RTS bits at the end. I still love that game and recommend it, but I only recommend it w/ the caveat that the ending is quite different from the rest of the game and it’s okay to bail. That type of game isn’t going to have an amazing ending, so the risk of not seeing the ending is pretty small (and I can always look that up on YT or elsewhere if I want). I did the same for Clustertruck because the ending had an insane difficulty spike on the last level and I just didn’t care enough to finish it.
However, other times I have pushed through, such as Ys 1 Chronicles, which has an insane difficulty spike on the final boss. I am happy I pushed through, because I really liked the world and the ending, which feeds into the next game (in fact, on Steam, it automatically started Ys II after finishing Ys 1). I ended up not liking Ys II as much (still finished), but I really liked the tie-over from the first to the second.
So yeah, I don’t fault someone for not finishing games, but I do think they’re missing out if they never finish games.
What I’m more interested in is how much time they have for playing games. What’s they’re lifestyle like that they can play nearly 2k games while also accomplishing other life goals? It’s not an unreasonable amount, just sufficiently high that it raises some eyebrows.
I’m lucky enough to work for myself at home, do things in my own time. More importantly, my work is entirely data driven—I rarely interact with people.
It is not exciting work. Actually, it’s quite boring. But it puts food on the table, pays bills, and gives me time to do things I enjoy.
Why should anyone be compelled to finish a game?
I kinda feel like I should finish the games that I start, but I often don’t. I don’t get a lot of screen time so if a game becomes hard work or I lose interest - I move on to something else. Feel a bit bad about leaving it unfinished tho.
Nah, finishing games is overrated. By the time you’re halfway through a game, you’ve seen a lot of what it’s going to offer in terms of style and gameplay. For sure, you’ll miss some amazing stuff if you don’t get to the end, but it’s hard to believe you miss as much as the new other game you could have half-completed in the same time.
There are exceptions, and I defintely think completing at least a few games is important. But if I had the choice of only having fully played 20 games in my entire life, or 40 halfway, I’d defintely have learned more, experienced more and enjoyed myself more with the half-assed approach.
Well for me it’s like starting 40 books, 40 movies or 40 songs and not finishing them.
If it’s a story driven game, I would never picture myself not finishing it unless I don’t enjoy it.
Also I see the starting something and not finishing it as a result of the short attention spans generation, but I might be getting old at 38😅
How’s Robocop?
Damn, I thought I had a lot. Just checked and its only 500, with about 60 sitting in the “backlog”
Did you finish all of them? Or at least play them for an hour? If you’re using steam for 20 years, that’s a game a day.
I definitely don’t complete all of them. My goal is to at least play an hour each, but not every game is worth an hour.
The most time I’ve ever spent on a game is around 100 hours.
oji@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The funny thing is, you don’t own them.
atomicpoet@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Say what you will, every game I’ve bought—I can still play. And I’ve been buying Steam games for over a decade.
Meanwhile, none of my GameCube discs work on my Switch.
smeg@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
You can still play them on your GameCube or Wii though, or take copies of the discs and play them on anything that runs Dolphin
Ulrich@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
You can still play it but increasingly games are becoming very different from what you bought.
I’ve started noticing a disturbing trend. More and more games that are older being sold at steep discounts or “free to play” and simultaneously jampacked with invasive telemetry and/or ads/microtransactions. And since Steam won’t let you play older versions, those games are effectively dead.
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
But the vast majority can be played without steam. Mostly by force coughcough but still. I know, still no legal ownership.