Thanks to everyone who watched and chimed in with their own tips/Steam philosophies!! Also just want to address a theme I've seen in some comments: I still love Steam. This vid is not meant to criticize the platform, or Valve. Every company on the planet uses influence tactics to sell products-Steam just happens to do a particularly good job, but I don't fault them for that. My goal was simply to bring more awareness to some of these strategies in case its helpful for people as they reflect on their own purchasing behaviors. Cheers y'all!
Three very simple rules created by me ;-) * Whishlist games instead of buying them. You will forget about 90% of games that you Whishlisted * Buy games ONLY on a sale! Period! * Buy only those games that you will play RIGHT NOW! Yes, you will HAVE TO install all the games that you've just bought! Don't want that - don't buy them! Pretty easy xD
@@igorthelightI like it and very much in-line with what I do but I am a little more budget conscious (cheap) with the actual decision on what to purchase and what to leave on-list. 😂
I agree we’re being manipulated. I’m old, and good PC games were hard to find and harder to find for cheap. I would buy CD bundles of games. So Steam comes along and saves PC gaming for me personally. Only problem is over abundance of good cheap games. Solution was,I started buying games only when I was ready to play that game. Worked for me.
@@elijah-jones-inbox marketing is essentially psychological manipulation. I had a Marketing for the Web professor who called his class Manipulation 101.
That happened to me with a game called Sense: A cyberpunk ghost story, however after owning it for what feels like years I finished the game this year and I had a really good time. Tbf this year I've sworn off buying games and just playing ones I haven't played, It's how I discovered that Dishonnored is a really good series
I occasionally clear out my Steam Wishlist, removing any game that has been sitting for too long that I know I'll likely never play. It's also gotten easier over time to remind myself that sales will come again, and likely be even better after enough time passes. I'm usually already playing a different game when most sales come along, so knowing that I won't immediately play a new game helps to keep me from making the purchase. The final thing keeping me from buying games on Steam as much as I used to is the desire for actual ownership. When I discover a game that I want on Steam, I first check to see if it's on GOG before adding it to the list. All of these things have worked for me.
@@perseus1293 I think it has to do with knowing you are collecting a library that you can peruse, play, replay, and keep forever at your fingertips that you will never lose or damage.
So, all of these are INCREDIBLY effective on me.... Except consensus. I actually look at the negative reviews instead of the positivity rating. Which is funny because I learned to do that on Amazon and such *because* of the overwhelming number of fake reviews. It has actually helped to not only talk me out of buying things, but removing them from my wishlist in a lot of cases.
@@dutchthenightmonkey3457 I usually have where I'll look up the gameplay on youtube if I'm on the fence. Like if someone is all "The graphics aren't as impressive as they say!!" I'm not going to be moved. But if the reviews say "This game breaking bug is an issue" I'll usually go on that. Then things that are "Actually the plot is bad, it's not at all what is advertised" I go to youtube. It's kind of a balancing act! Though to be fair, with how little space I have on my PC, I can stand to miss a few games here and there that I might enjoy.
three big things help me: 1) knowing that it will be on sale again in three months, probably for cheaper. and if you haven' been thinking about THIS game a lot, that game can wait. your TIME is valuable, not just your money. 2) learning to spot manipulative marketing tactics like fomo, loss aversion, sunk cost, bandwagon, etc. will make you feel insulted when you see them and turned-off from whoever is trying to manipulate you with them. 3) learning what actually craving and wanting a game and being excited for one FEELS like. if I have games that I LEGITIMATELY want at the top of my wishlist, I already think about them constantly until I get them, often months in advance of their release. once there are no more of those at the top, the wishlist feels lighter, and only after a long-time drought of those special games, do the others start to "raise in volume" to become appealing. right now for example, at the top are Silent Hill 2 remake, Compound Fracture, Jurassic Park Survival, Wayward Realms, and Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. (notice none of those have been released yet, or I'd own them.) everything else pales in comparison, and that contrast, shows which games you ACTUALLY are excited to play.
Another one is checking steamdb to see if that sale is even good. Sometimes its the first time the game got a 75% discount, but maybe it usually goes up to 90% and you just never seen it. You can also check if the price has gone down lately or its been the same price for years. That help me get better deals often
The crazy thing is that, while watching this video, I went to the Steam marketplace to see if I could find a deal on a new game! I couldn't stop myself!!
I've grown a resistance to these tactics out of sheer exposure therapy. I've been buying discounted games on Steam for 15 years and I can see how few of them I've actually played. I still buy some games I don't play, but I've been experimenting with rules like "I'll play 3 older games before I buy a new one" and it seems to be working. Playing older games I bought on a whim and not enjoying them also make me less likely to buy new ones.
One thing I also noticed with myself is that the larger my library becomes the more choice paralysis I have when it actually comes down to playing something. This, I think, can also lead to browsing the store again because it serves as an escape from the choice paralysis
I’ll admit that Valve’s strategy for the Steam Deck payed off for them with me. My library only had about maybe 20 games over the last 10 years, all older games that ran on my PC back then. After I got my Steam Deck and getting back into PC gaming with its ease of use, my library is now over 250! And it’s mostly me wanting second copies of games on other systems and all of them tend to get bought as soon as a sale comes up.
They got me too. I had 3 games for the past 7 years. I got a deck 3 months ago and I’m up to about 150 and probably gonna go up another 20 after this summer sale.
I already had a beefy gaming PC and a sizable library, I "thought" getting the Steam Deck would help me chip away at completing that library, but actually what ends up happening is slightly different. While some games are great to play on both platforms, like recently I've been playing Ghost of Tsushima between Deck and my Desktop and cloud sync works perfectly. But the difference in form factor actually ends up splitting your attention a bit. There are still games that are just better played with a Keyboard and Mouse with a large screen, and there are games I might have mostly ignored previously because I wasn't in the habit of playing games with a gamepad. So the end result is I end up having some games that are "Deck Games" and some that you really only want to play on a full desktop. the end result is Valve gets more of my money than before.
@@matthamende6359 right, I use the deck docked for some games, I know is the same power but I just want to see it in a big screen for those games. Metroidvanias, indies and stuff like that, on handheld mode :P or maybe when I'm just grinding. Still loving my deck!
My strat: I add every game that looks remotely interesting to my wishlist, then when a sale comes around or I'm looking for something new, I just check my wishlist for anything 2$ or less right at that moment. If it's 2$ or less and on my wishlist I purchase immediately, no questions asked. The wishlisting keeps you from buying stuff you don't really want, (at least it works for me) and the
Setting a price point alone to filter your purchasing helps a lot. I rarely ever buy games day one. I wait until they’re at least $20 and under and then I decide based on how long they’ve been on my wishlist. If it’s been cheap forever and I still haven’t copped it, I probably don’t want it.
yeah that's a good plan. I did a similar thing with the summer sale. limited the total to £10 and wouldn't spend more than 4 quid on any individual game. ended up with 5 games for £8.50 and satisfied enough to not keep spending
I've made a rule with a few friends We have to finish at least 2 games, either play to completion, or play at least 10 hours and call it a dud. Then get one purchase allowances for a game. It's helped me stick to one or two games at a time. (Bar steam festivals where we play a couple of demos) This all has heavily reduced my purchases, as well as cleaning up my backlog.
I'm OK with having a large backlog of games I haven't played yet on Steam. Knowing I have games I haven't played yet removes the urge to purchase new releases at full price. I find it saves me money in the long run compared to many of my friends who buy each new release at full price. These constant sales and bundles have provided my backlog.
Well put. 100% agree. I have no buyers remorse if I buy a 2 year old AAA game for 75%-50% off even if I don’t play it right away. There’s far worse things to spend $14 on. A meal at a fast food place costs more than some of these great games during a sale.
I'm only 3 minutes in and I realized I've never even thought about digital overconsumption! I don't usually buy games I won't play but there are definitely a few in my library! I'm 100% going to work on being more mindful on what I buy in the digital land.
I like to buy indie games on steam because I want to support the art, even if I don't engage with a lot of the games, the artists will have had another sale and more support for their future projects in development
I thought that I hadn't played a majority of my games but when I checked, over 50% of them I played at least a little. It leaves room to improvement and I try to get through my backlog and hopefully not buying more games to it. Your guide will probably help me with that, so thanks! It is really great video, comprehensive, well done and interesting throughout! I was really surprised to see low view numbers. You deserve so much more!
Maybe it's because of shared libraries adding extra games to my list of ones with playtime, but I ended up with way more than what it says my library is. Counting just the games on the list I had 119 games that have some playtime, and 28 games with none. Very interesting and I feel I'm doing a better job not wasting money than I thought.
You forgot the friendlist. I think this is the most convincing factor. Your friends are basically a free advertisement banner, because you not only see your friends playing games but it's also super easy to watch them play or join them.
Anyone here remebers when Steam seasonal sales had flash sales in it and it not only added another layer of manipulation and you were LITERALLY betting on any game you bought just to see it even cheaper a few hours ahead and the plataform didnt had any form of refunding? I have almost 700 games on my library and most of them i bought around this era (2010 - 2013) and also it didnt had regional pricing ( i live in Brazil) and the store was using mainly dollars as currency ( in Brazil we use Reais as ) and we had to have international credit cards. Im happy Valve chose to ditch this practice but other storefronts like Gog are running those now.
Same, im from Brazil and I think 90% of my games were bought between 2011 and 2014. Browsing the store back then was anxiety inducing. Since I lived abroad in 2012 I was able to get a better deal and its why I have way too many games on my account. The only issue I still have is the fomo with games being delisted. I regret not buying a few games that are unavailable for many years now.
OK, so I've been around since before Steam was a thing, and not once have I bought a game that was on SALE. My tactic is simple: "Only play one game at a time." That way I only play the games I really want to play, when I want to play them the most. If I'd start another game, I'd have to uninstall the game I was playing, hence I'd really make sure I want to play a different game. That's it. And because I don't waste my money on discounted games, just for the sake of owning them, I can justify buying my games at full price, supporting Devs and innovation when it is most needed, during the beginning of a games life-cycle.
Something I did was make a buy list of games I want to play, regardless of sales. This list is a fraction of my wishlist, which is filled with everything I've seen that looks fun but not necessarily a game I wanted. This helped me a lot. I set it in tiers. I only buy on sale and have to finish a tier before going down to the next. It helped a lot with impulse buying.
Oh my God, you are so right. I had no intention of playing the Final Fantasy 7 upgraded remake, but seeing it go on sale for $40 when the retail price is $70 compelled me into buying it. I probably don't even have the intention of playing it, but I bought it knowing it was on sale and that I might play it down the line. I also have Final Fantasy XIII despite not getting past the first Eidolon boss when I had it on PS3, because it was on sale for $15. I also have Tales of Symphonia that I bought for $5 despite playing and being at multiple times on GameCube; again, I bought it because I might eventually get to it. 😳
I catch myself on that way of thinking but will this be near future or will it happen to be a year later and If so in a year this game will be most certainly on sale again and probably even cheaper as it gets older.
I only ever buy games on sale if I actually do want to play them right now. Sometimes I'll see a game that I've actually been thinking about for a while on sale which is the best thing ever (this actually happened to me today lol). If you see a game that you've never been interested in or even heard of before on sale just don't even bother, even IF it's like 90% off And if something you want isn't on sale, just use steam key websites like instant gaming lol, constant sales!
I love videos like this because they leave me feeling like I'm watching an alien habitat sometimes. I think of the 167 games on my account the only ones I haven't played are ones I tried and hated (Five Nights at Freddy's or Limbo for example) or games a friend bought for me. And those are only about 14-16 games in my library that's about 8% of my library, and less if we don't count the ones I tried and didn't like. So hearing that so many people buy games and never play them is completely insane to me. I guess my advice is this; only buy games when you intend on playing a new game. Don't worry about the sales they come around often enough you won't miss it.
I love supporting game developers. So I will keep buying, hopefully one day I could buy a game for full price to support developer even better (NOT JOKING)
I totally get it, and I do the same myself. I especially support a niche genre that is my number one favourite genre (hardcore "grognard" type strategy/tactical war games/simulations) in hopes Steam will keep offering similar games in the future too, despite relatively low sales compared to more popular genres. Whenever I see such a title I have scouted to be top notch becoming available in Steam, I may even buy it at full price, whether I have time to play it in near future or not.
Any game you see on sale will be back on sale 2-6 more times that year alone. There is no fomo during any sale. And for me, 80% of games on my wishlist end up removed without purchase. That next sale only prompts me to determine if I am actually interested or not. All it takes for me to add it is an interesting screenshot. That is not a commitment in my brain. (Side note, only about 20% of my games are unplayed. All from humble bundles, not steam sales. Humble bundles have real scarcity. That bundle doesn't come back around.)
I kinda stopped buying games directly from Steam, unless a wishlisted game goes as cheap as a pizza or less (That's how I got most Batman Arkham, Yakuza, NFS and Tomb Raider titles). If not, I might unpause my Humble Choice subscription or just get Epic's freebies.
This WAS helpful! Thank you! I had the exact same experience after buying a Steam Deck. You haven’t told me anything I didn’t know already, you just spoke it aloud for me to reconsider. I’ve since gone and cleared out my wishlist. I have more than enough games for the rest of the year and then some. I also tend to leave my current game running on the deck and put it to sleep so that when I power up, I go right into my game, not the store.
I definitely agree with all the points raised about the persuasion tactics. But it's also important to note that although 50% of your games might be unplayed, you're likely spending less than 50% on all the titles, and could even end up spending less money than buying on another store front that never really has sales.
Everyone is different, but I would definitely say I've built up a tolerance for Steam's selling tactics, not that I view Steam as an adversary. One, I've definitely played far less than half the games in my library, and that has put natural pressure to not grow my library much more. This is because the larger the number of unplayed games, the worse the completionist in me feels, and the more the backlog feels like a chore. Two, I've seen titles on my wish list go on sale multiple times, and so I know that I can wait for the mark down to come around again. Unless I'm going to play that game immediately after purchase, there's no pressure. Three, I have had it happen more than once, that I buy a game on Steam only to have it show up in my Humble Bundle the NEXT MONTH, and wow do I feel like crap then, if I've already cracked the game and can't refund it. So, I have more motivation to wait and see. It's gotten to the point where the reward for patience now outweighs the need of the collector in me. I still love Steam as my central repository though, and I will continue to buy games from them. I just don't succumb to those pressures anymore.
Same. My library is so full and my game time is so limited, I don't feel the need to just buy any game. Even though I still play CK2 a lot, I have zero pressure to buy CK3.
I just bought Monster Hunter games cause they were on sale a few days ago and now even after watching this video till the end, im starting to thinking about getting their DLCs. 😂
I have 44 (of course not counting the remastered editions that came packed with the original versions as I count them as one game). Even then, my issue is in getting to play and finish them. 😂
Yes and no. Sometimes I will buy a bundle of cheap games because there are 1 or 2 of those games I wanted, and if the price of the whole set is really cheap, I'll just buy it, knowing I'll try the other ones eventually, half of which I have. E.G. I bought a whole set of popcap games for a bundle specifically for Bejeweled Twist.
I love how the steam sales work... Most of the games I have through humble bundle though. Which works the same way. I have probably 1:6 of playing vs owning, but I've never ever paid a full price for a game on steam. So for those that I don't play that's just extra income that doesn't hurt me. I do not buy my wish list because there is a sale though. I have a price in my head and either it reaches that or not. With 1:6 plaid vs owned I have enough to play instead.
Same for me. I have a hard limit that I will pay for a game. A handful of titles made me go above that limit over the years. I keep the wishlist so I dont need to remember games that interest me until they go on sale and I set it to show only discounted games and sort by price
@@ahmadmanga I used to, but I would never check the cheap games that usually only go to 50%, so I leave it by price but usually just ignore anything below 50% as I get to higher prices
Just found your channel and really enjoying it, you should definitely have more subs. This is easily on the level of much bigger UA-camrs. Watched this because I'm awful with Steam and digital stores in general....the hell of it is, I READ THE EXACT BOOK you talk about YEARS BEFORE I EVER EVEN KNEW WHAT STEAM WAS, so I should've known better, but no. Over the last 10 years of digital gaming I've bought hundreds of games across multiple stores and actually finished (or beaten on another platform) maybe 50. Between that, and having hundreds more games in emulators, I doubt I'll ever play all of them, but I think part of the appeal with emulating especially is the collection and preservation aspect I enjoy. Anyway, everyone here who enjoys Marvel and strategy games should definitely play Midnight Suns, I bought it in the Christmas Steam Sale (and then again on XBOX), and I absolutely Iove it to pieces . I've finished it twice. 😅
Because of the overwhelming amount of pretty good games on Steam, I have become incredibly picky. I will not settle for "Oh yeah, that might be good." No. If we're not talking Citizen Kane levels of excellence or intrigue, I probably won't play it. Not unless it's dirt cheap. The most I've ever spent on a game in my life is 22 bucks and even that was on sale. PC gaming is just extremely economical between Steam sales, Epic giveaways, GOG, Humble Bundle and more, that I know I can't play everything I'm mildly interested in, so the price point isn't an appeal anymore, it's a requirement. The part that makes me sit up and care is a game that speaks to me on a personal level that I've never seen any other do so before. Maybe you can blame that on me playing original Valve titles that have dropped crazy in price but are still unbelievably incredibly fantastic games.
I used to work for a company that went on the street and door to door to sell people charity subscriptions and we often used Cialdini's methods like scarcity and commitment. Funny to see a gamer talk about this so many years later.
I use two personal rules to combat these marketing tactics. I hold myself to one new game per month, which has eliminated impulse buying and makes me focus on games I think I will really enjoy. A lot of research goes into my wishlist, and I usually go into a new month with like 3 games in mind and wait for one to go on sale. The second rule is when I buy it, I have to play it right away for 10 minutes. That also prevents impulse buying, and I get a feel for the game so that I'm excited to play it. Now I get dopamine hits just from adding recommended games to my wishlist, but it doesn't feel like a commitment to buy. I won't waste my monthly purchase on a random guess.
Knowing that all these games are always on key sites usually at a lower price than even the steam sale price made me stop buying. It's like a year round sale.
I'm more than sure that EGS games that are free are probably primarily redeemed, then never played. Similar issue with Humble Choice. I have been grandfathered in since near conception and have so many games that are just not interesting to me, but I add them to my library for the oddball Synthetik that ends up getting played way more than I expected.
I would agree, but what I've found when I have the urge to try something new, I just jump into my library of freely obtained EGA games, and some are quite good. I'm currently playing that donut factory game.
What i like to do is when i see a game on discount and wanna buy it, i tell myself that I'm gonna buy it the next time it is on discount (which is gonna happen again sooner or later since it is on discount now) after i played all the other games which i bought but have not playes yet
For me, I have a few rules: 1 - I only buy what is on my wish list. I can add whatever I want to my wishlist to show the market there is an interest in it for me. However, 2 - I set a dollar limit for spending. Most games have to be between $5 - $10 before I will purchase it. 3 - regardless of the price, I can only purchase items that are on sale. If a new game comes out within my price range then I will wait for it to go on sale unless I REALLY want it which will ensure I play it almost immediately. 4 - Even if it is within my price range and on sale, the bigger the discount the more likely I will buy it. I typically wait for 50-60% off or more but that is left up to my discretion. Even AAA games from Ubisoft and Bethesda get this treatment but I usually raise the price up to about $20 since that seems to be their lowest limit I have seen. 5 - Early Access gets priority, mainly because it is a game I want to see flourish and will most definitely enjoy playing; ie Subnautica, Blasphemous, Stardew Valley, etc. All that being said, I am at a point where I am currently not buying games within the last year or so that I do not intend to play immediately. I do not go for the bundle deals unless the vast majority of the bundle is something I am really interested in. The last bundle package I bought was AC Valhalla with all kinds of DLC. I played that hell out of that game and nearly 100% the achievements. I also only consider DLC if they add more than just cosmetics. I need actual missions and expansions to consider a DLC, not just a new multiplayer skin. Yes, I have those moments of FOMO but I just tell myself wait for the bigger sale or find something even better. If I am unable to pick up something because of my pay schedule, then so be it. It isn’t the end of the world and more games are always coming.
Can't believe you don't have more subscribers. AMAZING quality video and script perfectly executed. I wish I could make content this good. If this isn't just a random additional channel for you and you don't already have a super popular one, don't be discouraged. If you keep making this quality of content, you WILL explode in the future and it will all pay off. You definitely have what it takes. I suspect this isn't your first channel though.
I’m happy UA-cam recommended your videos to me. Great content from a brand new creator. Hope this endeavor goes well for you, you’re off to a fantastic start, keep this up and you’ll be successful in no time. Im rooting for ya, I know how hard it is to break through on this platform.
I am something of a Steam hoarder, and one thing I've done lately that has been surprisingly effective at keeping me from buying more games is scroll through my library and look for games that make me go "oh man I really need to play that." And then think about how any new game I get is going to get in the way of me playing that game. I have a few games I'm playing right now, and a few I really want to get to, so I just keep those games I want to get to in mind.
Great video. It's exactly why I stopped the emails and browsing game sales. I only buy games I know I'll play and stay selective. Only bought 2 games on steam the past year.
I also recognised that I bought a lot more games on Steam since owning the Steam Deck. I don't see that as a problem though. We should stop treating our backlog as some dreadful to-do list and more like a treasure box. If a new game releases and I know I'll definitely play it then I'll gladly buy it. This goes mainly for indie Devs or AA (sometimes AAA) teams that are taking a bigger risk with their game. If the indie game doesn't sell well it won't matter if I play the game in 10 years. They need the support now and the first release year is the most crucial one. I think though that this isn't necessary for big developers whose game will sell well or retain their position no matter what I do. I also hesitate with buying games that are like 5 years or older (love older ames though) unless I know that I'll play them in the next weeks. In the gaming industry these games already had their chance and a push in sales probably won't affect how the game was viewed by high-ups. Now for some strategy I accumulated in the recent years: - analyse your wish list for two months before making big purchases. You will get a feeling for what games go on sale often and which ones don't (Reddit is also helpful with finding this out because people ask there a lot about sales) - if a game has a discount of 70% or more there is a high chance that you'll see it on sale very often - think about a game that you haven't bought yet and desperately want to play. Every time you are tempted by a Steam sale ask yourself if you really wanna play this specific game more than the one highest on your wish list - ask yourself if you're really gonna play the game soon. Chances are that if you buy this game 50% off now you'll find it even cheaper months later Don't stress yourself. Find the right balance and you will feel joy for this beautiful hobby of ours instead of feeling guilt
This is a great point of view, especially the “treasure box” comment. I completely agree, it’s lovely having a wealth of choice readily available to play at a moments notice.
Out of my 310 game I purchased on steam in the last 12 years, only 20 of them I did not like and hid them out of library. I am very careful before buying games. A through research always needed
Great video, and I realized that about the rating system too! Its devlishly effective, often times positive reviews will just be "It was pretty good if youre bored I guess". But if you dont map down to read them all then youd never know.
Thanks for the video! I am one of the people that just get a bigger and bigger library of games on steam, but at least I will launch them one time to see if it works or not hahaha. For some time, and even today I can fall victim of steam's persuasion, and buy games that I don't know if I will actually play, so any tips are actually welcome! Yesterday for example I bought 3 warhammer games because of their sales that were ending.... Ironically, Steam can be too good for our own good as consumers, take it as a bad or good thing.... But I will say that I did develop have some tolerance after some time of buying a bit too much in seasonal sales. With the warhammer games my rationale was: I looked into what games were recommended by people, tried the games that I got free or had demos to have a sample, checked steamdb to see if the price was actually good (super recommended), I reminded myself that the games were of genres that I rarely played even though I liked them, that I had other games that I am focusing, that they would get another sales not long after, and double checked how much I bought this month to see if I actually wanted to use X amount of my budget into games that I knew I would not play immediately. So you could say I have recipe of 5 steps I always do when buying on steam, and add some more as needed. I would recommend everyone to have something like this for avoiding that one click on buy and regretting it. From my experience using Steam, and what I need to remind myself always: - Use the wishlist and emails as reminders just do not take them seriously, you don't need to buy the games immediately or at all. Clean up the list if you found something you don't remember why is there. - Curators are a tool to discovering games, do not use them as actual reviews, instead do your research, and be prepared to refund the games/play the demos for a test sample - Speaking of refunds, use it as much as you need to check if the games are worth it. Play that 1h 30m (just to be safe) and refund it if it was not worth it. Don't mind the people that say it gets better later, games should be good from the beginning - The sales of today is not the last one. Check steamdb, most games have sales frequently, forget about that FOMO - Filter for only the negative reviews and look with care, they tend to have more details, and you can find deal-breakers at times. Do you care about the complaints? Are there features missing? Bad performance/Broken updates? If after all of that you still want the game, then it deserves to be wishlisted! - Be patient! Will you play the game right now? There are a lot of games you own you did not play, why not play them first? Will your pc even run it? Is it better to wait until a hardware upgrade? It will also probably be cheaper down the line! - You should not be timid about removing games from the wishlist and even backlog! A game less that you are interested is a game less distracting you from the actually good games. If a game has annoying practices, too expensive, lots of filler, or somewhat boring.... Even though you think is a shame, you should drop it. Think like this, if you drop the next Assassin's Creed that is basically the Nth AC with the prior games being almost identical gameplaywise, you open space to play a Breath of the Wild for the first time, something like that. Anyways, that is my Steam guidelines hahaha, this will be useful even for me! Good look on Steam and protect your wallets from Gabe!
so many great tips here, thank you for the comment! SteamDB is great, as you mentioned, since it can help to reduce the feeling of scarcity. The point about refunds is really interesting-this is actually something I haven’t done with Steam…I’ll have to keep that it mind!
Fantastic analysis!, I often play a small number of games (2-4) at one time which helps me narrow my focus towards playing select titles to completion before even considering purchasing more, it often feels more rewarding to fully learn a single games mechanics down to the minute details and fully experiencing them. Those things could be useful tips to anyone trying to limit their purchasing and over spending on games they tend to not play.
thank you! totally agree, i talked about this deeper satisfaction through committing to a game in a previous video and it’s something I have to remind myself all the time
Can't really manipulate me into shit when there's no new games that interest me coming out, i only rarely buy indies now. 1:35 I'd say 85% of what i own on steam i have played or will play in near future in some capacity, and hopefully finish if it's a story-driven game. There's honestly such an abundance people are too comfortable buying things and never using them. I worked part-time even when i was a teen and paid for pretty much all videogames i own so i developed a principle of getting my money's worth out of games i buy if i can't refund them in cases like Tekken 8 where company goes and stabs fanbase in the back.
I always make a second pass when I see a wishlisted game on sale to decide wether or not I even still want it, I honestly need to clean out my wishlist because there are so many old games in there that I don't even get notified about anymore lol
I don't understand not playing games that you buy. I have played 100% of my steam games that I had to pay for and completed a fair amount of each if not all.
Simple for me: sales and games I'm even remotely interested in I'll buy, its come in handy too, I actually can't tell you how many times I saw a game and was like “oooh I kinda want to play that” only to find when I go and look it up on Steam I already have it in my library
The biggest turning point for me was realizing that most games goes on sale every few weeks, and often, waiting yields a bigger sale. And so, finishing the games I bought first makes me save by buying new games later at bigger discounts.
Aside from the great message, what a great visual treat it was to watch this. Having said that, i’m gonna go ahead and purchase the 40 games i have in my cart rn
Great video man. Love the outlook you have on these topics and the research you do for them. You should look into doing more “retrospectives” or “introspectives” with video games and how psychology is involved in them.
You had me curious so I did an export of my games and did some quick checking. Of the 252 games listed -- 46% were beaten, 39% were played with varying degrees of completion -- which left the remaining 14% of the library unplayed (though many of them being ones I've beaten on other platforms). I was surprised as I typically have a lot of guilt looking at my library lol. I credit a lot of that ratio to the Steam Deck as I can just pick it up and play, and set it back down when needed elsewhere. It's hard to pass up these deals though! Just gotta think about how there's really no downside to waiting until the next sale. *Deep breath, repeats mantra, empties cart*
This was a really solid video that covers something that has been in the back of my mind for quite a while. Odd thing for me: I received my Steam Deck in March of 2022. Since then, my Steam purchases have actually DECREASED, because I have to be sure it will also play on the Deck. I used to buy willy nilly when I only played on my desktop, as it would run anything I could throw at it. Now I wishlist games, ignore the storefront except for the search feature, and only get games that I hear avout elsewhere and REALLY interest me. This excludes my Humble Choice subscription, though. Too often my $13/month gets me at least one good $40+ game. Even more often, it's the only game that I redeem for that month, however.
So I don’t play on steam, however this video has made me really consider how I decide on buying games on sale in Xbox. I hadn’t thought much on buying games on sale for really cheap, however I now have a backlog of cheap games I may never play. While not as extensive as steam xbox and PlayStation do the same. Loving your discussions! Thank you for your craft.
This is an excellent video. You managed to break it down segment by segment and as a Steam user I can relate because I too am guilty of buying a lot of games only to install and play a few select games. Nowadays not so much anymore. Turns out Valve is just too dang good at selling it. I'm still looking forward to the summer sale lol. 😅
A strategy that I'm currently usig is just keep a fixed amount of games in my wishlist, the ines that I really fell in love with them (I'm into old and/or indie games so I keep it 50, if you're interested into AAA title I would recommend to lower that amount) and move the other titles into a document (i use an excel file) that way I won't lose the name for the games that I remove, but also I won't see any notification and discount label I will acrively check Its current price If I'll feel like, displaying to myself an actual interest to get that game.
I think I got more intentional on my game buying when I had been on Steam for less than a year. I recognised patterns in my behaviours that also happened when I got into other hobbies, this time I just caught it faster. I've played 75% my library at least a little (ignoring the stuff that only has a couple minutes on it, because some of them were accidentally booted up). I plan on playing or at least trying all the other games in there. This did remind me to go check on my wishlist though. I know more or less what's on there but it's good to go through it once in a while and ask yourself both why you put the game on there and if you still want it badly enough for it to deserve a spot on your wishlist. Steam also has a more hidden follow feature that I use to put games I might not immediately want but don't want to fully forget. And then there's the games that haven't released that I put there because content creators hyped them up and the steam page sounded interesting when I looked up the game. Now I'm just like: does it need a spot on my wishlist though? I'll hear about when a demo gets released or even the full game anyway. I don't need to have all of those games wishlisted. It's just cluttering my actual wishlist. Why would I want to wishlist 50 games, there's not that much reason to get 50 more games, especially because a bunch of them could take over 100 to complete (farm sims baby). Most of them aren't even released yet. Time to filter that wishlist again and move some of the games to the follow list and just plainly remove some others. Thanks for that reminder.
as a sidenote: I also don't really use the discovery queue anymore. It just isn't satisfying to me and would again just clutter up my wishlist. It can take some effort to keep the wishlist at a manageable number of games
For a lot of steam users, we know that sales are pretty regular, especially Summer and Winter sales being the bigger ones. For us, we stockpile our wishlist in between these two massive sales, and when the sales come, it gives us an excuse to impulse buy a huge haul of games. I haven't bought a game full price on steam in years.
It’s not hard to build a tolerance against it, but they know that… this isn’t to force people into unknowingly spending money. Valve is doing what they always did, designing a brilliant and subtle system to motivate the players (buyers). It works perfectly for the majority… especially new users
I've got hundreds of games on my library and wishlist, every time there's a sale I add the game to the cart and I really think to myself "am I going to play this? will I have time to play this?", many times this little thought exercise allowed me to not purchase a few good games, I just had to make peace with the fact that I will not be playing all the good games out there, and I will need to save my precious time to stuff the I think will be worth it. Also I recommend editing your wishlist from time to time, leave the games that you think that REALLY matters.
being someone who primarily buys games from indie developers, I happily buy games that I *might* play one day, or that I may only play a few hours because I'm just happy to support the devs and they tend to be under the $40 mark, with most being around the mid $20. So even if I only play 30 hours, I feel I got my money's worth. Plus, when you buy a digital game sure its consumption, but its also not creating waste in the same way as over consuming on like clothes, or other physical objects
i was very confused by how so many games are rated so highly on Steam, but that makes so much sense. if no one really liked it, but everyone would still only just reccomend it, it would get 100%. theres no "slightly reccomend" or "slightly unreccomend" so you don't know if people have minor issues that stopped them but might not stop you, or weren't bothered enough by something that would be a deal breaker for you, its inherently lossy in information. i think we should fight Steam on this, a 4 point scale is what we deserve
I've ended up with a sort of psudo rule: If a game is on sale, and I want to buy it, it has to be a game that I want to play then and there. There can't be any "I'll play this after I finish that other game" of "This will be good for a rainy day". So many of these have languished for years unplayed. Instead, if there is a game that I really want to play, and it isn't on sale, I will permit myself to buy it at full price. After all, two unplayed games at 50% off is the same as one full priced game (in theory, reality is naturally messier). And that game you picked up at 50% off might later be at 75% off. This has drastically reduced my game buying habit, but I've noticed that there is one thing I am very much vurnuable to now: the free weekend. I had wanted to play Pathfinder: Wrath of the Rightous for a long time, but it always failed the "play right now" test. But when I tried it during a free weekend, I was massively committed to continuing it. Which was ok, because Wrath of the Rightous is a great game.
I wish every single game had a free demo to try first before taking the plunge of buying it. That would help before buying something that you later regret. By the way... Excellent video. Every gamer needs to watch this.
Thats crazy, i honestly cant understand why would i buy a game and not play it. Maybe as you said i’ve built up a tolerance to it. I have over 300 games and more then 15 years of steam, and the only games i havent played are like random gifts, or packaged experiences. I loved the last strategy you crafted, it might really help people that struggle with impulse purchases!
Thanks to everyone who watched and chimed in with their own tips/Steam philosophies!! Also just want to address a theme I've seen in some comments: I still love Steam. This vid is not meant to criticize the platform, or Valve. Every company on the planet uses influence tactics to sell products-Steam just happens to do a particularly good job, but I don't fault them for that. My goal was simply to bring more awareness to some of these strategies in case its helpful for people as they reflect on their own purchasing behaviors. Cheers y'all!
Three very simple rules created by me ;-)
* Whishlist games instead of buying them. You will forget about 90% of games that you Whishlisted
* Buy games ONLY on a sale! Period!
* Buy only those games that you will play RIGHT NOW! Yes, you will HAVE TO install all the games that you've just bought! Don't want that - don't buy them!
Pretty easy xD
@@igorthelightI like it and very much in-line with what I do but I am a little more budget conscious (cheap) with the actual decision on what to purchase and what to leave on-list. 😂
@@JMulvy Understandable! Buy only when sale is -75% ;-)
And the list must be long so you would forget what is what - that is very important! xD
I agree we’re being manipulated. I’m old, and good PC games were hard to find and harder to find for cheap. I would buy CD bundles of games. So Steam comes along and saves PC gaming for me personally. Only problem is over abundance of good cheap games.
Solution was,I started buying games only when I was ready to play that game. Worked for me.
@@elijah-jones-inbox marketing is essentially psychological manipulation. I had a Marketing for the Web professor who called his class Manipulation 101.
Sometimes I buy a game I might play one day because I want to support the dev.
"That's the kind of game I like to see" makes me want to buy regardless of whether I have the time to play it or not.
Also great to have anything you may want at the ready, a genre play style, setting, tone, or length for any mood at the ready.
At the opposite, I buy games I know I won't play because I used to play them back when I was broke and had to crack them
I do that too
That happened to me with a game called Sense: A cyberpunk ghost story, however after owning it for what feels like years I finished the game this year and I had a really good time.
Tbf this year I've sworn off buying games and just playing ones I haven't played, It's how I discovered that Dishonnored is a really good series
I occasionally clear out my Steam Wishlist, removing any game that has been sitting for too long that I know I'll likely never play. It's also gotten easier over time to remind myself that sales will come again, and likely be even better after enough time passes. I'm usually already playing a different game when most sales come along, so knowing that I won't immediately play a new game helps to keep me from making the purchase. The final thing keeping me from buying games on Steam as much as I used to is the desire for actual ownership. When I discover a game that I want on Steam, I first check to see if it's on GOG before adding it to the list. All of these things have worked for me.
I think the dopamine hit of buying games hits harder than actually playing them for a lot of people. That's really all it is.
Yep, I spend more time collecting games than playing them, but it just feels great having them there in my collection.
Yeah I think so too. It's fun to imagine playing the game, even if you never get the time to actually play it.
i told that to my friend a few days ago and he agreed, idk what it is but buying games feels so good
@@perseus1293 I think it has to do with knowing you are collecting a library that you can peruse, play, replay, and keep forever at your fingertips that you will never lose or damage.
the dopamine hit of having them for free on steamunlocked hit even harder
I've build up a tolerance to these tactics a long time ago. But I only use it between sales 😆
I blame 'cold beer'
😂
Me too , by being poor , never fails
@@TiagoJSGuedes yep. poor keeps us happy. we apprecaite the things we do have.
So, all of these are INCREDIBLY effective on me....
Except consensus. I actually look at the negative reviews instead of the positivity rating. Which is funny because I learned to do that on Amazon and such *because* of the overwhelming number of fake reviews. It has actually helped to not only talk me out of buying things, but removing them from my wishlist in a lot of cases.
I do that to but I have to kinda balance it, I’ll get talk out of games that I try later and have a lot of fun with
@@dutchthenightmonkey3457 I usually have where I'll look up the gameplay on youtube if I'm on the fence. Like if someone is all "The graphics aren't as impressive as they say!!" I'm not going to be moved. But if the reviews say "This game breaking bug is an issue" I'll usually go on that. Then things that are "Actually the plot is bad, it's not at all what is advertised" I go to youtube. It's kind of a balancing act! Though to be fair, with how little space I have on my PC, I can stand to miss a few games here and there that I might enjoy.
three big things help me:
1) knowing that it will be on sale again in three months, probably for cheaper. and if you haven' been thinking about THIS game a lot, that game can wait. your TIME is valuable, not just your money.
2) learning to spot manipulative marketing tactics like fomo, loss aversion, sunk cost, bandwagon, etc. will make you feel insulted when you see them and turned-off from whoever is trying to manipulate you with them.
3) learning what actually craving and wanting a game and being excited for one FEELS like. if I have games that I LEGITIMATELY want at the top of my wishlist, I already think about them constantly until I get them, often months in advance of their release. once there are no more of those at the top, the wishlist feels lighter, and only after a long-time drought of those special games, do the others start to "raise in volume" to become appealing. right now for example, at the top are Silent Hill 2 remake, Compound Fracture, Jurassic Park Survival, Wayward Realms, and Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. (notice none of those have been released yet, or I'd own them.) everything else pales in comparison, and that contrast, shows which games you ACTUALLY are excited to play.
Another one is checking steamdb to see if that sale is even good. Sometimes its the first time the game got a 75% discount, but maybe it usually goes up to 90% and you just never seen it. You can also check if the price has gone down lately or its been the same price for years. That help me get better deals often
What's loss aversion?
Never pre-purchase. Never. Uh, period.(.) otherwise I agree entirely.
@@juliofoolio2982 true, don't give in to the fomo about a game everyone will be excited about for a week then forget about.
Making a list of games you want to play next helps too. Helps reinforce that it can wait until the next sale.
The crazy thing is that, while watching this video, I went to the Steam marketplace to see if I could find a deal on a new game!
I couldn't stop myself!!
😂 imagine how i felt when i had to go grab a bunch of screen recordings of my wishlist hahah
@@markmaxwelljr 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah 😅
I thought about doing it, but I held off.
So…What did you find/get?
I've grown a resistance to these tactics out of sheer exposure therapy. I've been buying discounted games on Steam for 15 years and I can see how few of them I've actually played. I still buy some games I don't play, but I've been experimenting with rules like "I'll play 3 older games before I buy a new one" and it seems to be working. Playing older games I bought on a whim and not enjoying them also make me less likely to buy new ones.
One thing I also noticed with myself is that the larger my library becomes the more choice paralysis I have when it actually comes down to playing something. This, I think, can also lead to browsing the store again because it serves as an escape from the choice paralysis
Had hundreds of Games in my backlog, but since I got my SD OLED I've already completed 50+ Game's due to the convenience.
But if you want to play more than half the steam games, don't use steam deck, it's old gen, use rog ally or Lgo to play them all.
My SD has really helped me get through the backlog too.
Another success story! Well done fellow gamer.
They give you the backlog and they take away the backlog 😩
Steam deck is created for you to buy more games😂
I’ll admit that Valve’s strategy for the Steam Deck payed off for them with me. My library only had about maybe 20 games over the last 10 years, all older games that ran on my PC back then. After I got my Steam Deck and getting back into PC gaming with its ease of use, my library is now over 250! And it’s mostly me wanting second copies of games on other systems and all of them tend to get bought as soon as a sale comes up.
Yeah that's why they sold it so cheap, they took a calculated risk that a lot of people like you would do just that.
They got me too. I had 3 games for the past 7 years. I got a deck 3 months ago and I’m up to about 150 and probably gonna go up another 20 after this summer sale.
I’m buying games in Steam Deck that I bought and haven’t played on my switch :(
I already had a beefy gaming PC and a sizable library, I "thought" getting the Steam Deck would help me chip away at completing that library, but actually what ends up happening is slightly different. While some games are great to play on both platforms, like recently I've been playing Ghost of Tsushima between Deck and my Desktop and cloud sync works perfectly. But the difference in form factor actually ends up splitting your attention a bit. There are still games that are just better played with a Keyboard and Mouse with a large screen, and there are games I might have mostly ignored previously because I wasn't in the habit of playing games with a gamepad. So the end result is I end up having some games that are "Deck Games" and some that you really only want to play on a full desktop. the end result is Valve gets more of my money than before.
@@matthamende6359 right, I use the deck docked for some games, I know is the same power but I just want to see it in a big screen for those games.
Metroidvanias, indies and stuff like that, on handheld mode :P or maybe when I'm just grinding.
Still loving my deck!
My strat: I add every game that looks remotely interesting to my wishlist, then when a sale comes around or I'm looking for something new, I just check my wishlist for anything 2$ or less right at that moment. If it's 2$ or less and on my wishlist I purchase immediately, no questions asked.
The wishlisting keeps you from buying stuff you don't really want, (at least it works for me) and the
Yes, this is a good way of thinking. I'm at about 1000 jpn as a limit. That's about 6$.
Setting a price point alone to filter your purchasing helps a lot. I rarely ever buy games day one. I wait until they’re at least $20 and under and then I decide based on how long they’ve been on my wishlist. If it’s been cheap forever and I still haven’t copped it, I probably don’t want it.
yeah that's a good plan. I did a similar thing with the summer sale. limited the total to £10 and wouldn't spend more than 4 quid on any individual game. ended up with 5 games for £8.50 and satisfied enough to not keep spending
I've made a rule with a few friends
We have to finish at least 2 games, either play to completion, or play at least 10 hours and call it a dud.
Then get one purchase allowances for a game.
It's helped me stick to one or two games at a time.
(Bar steam festivals where we play a couple of demos)
This all has heavily reduced my purchases, as well as cleaning up my backlog.
If you're broke, you can't fall for their tactics. Simple, effective strategy
Not a strategy if you're involuntarily broke, simply deprivation for the privilege of buying entertainment
I'm OK with having a large backlog of games I haven't played yet on Steam. Knowing I have games I haven't played yet removes the urge to purchase new releases at full price.
I find it saves me money in the long run compared to many of my friends who buy each new release at full price.
These constant sales and bundles have provided my backlog.
Well put. 100% agree. I have no buyers remorse if I buy a 2 year old AAA game for 75%-50% off even if I don’t play it right away. There’s far worse things to spend $14 on. A meal at a fast food place costs more than some of these great games during a sale.
I'm only 3 minutes in and I realized I've never even thought about digital overconsumption! I don't usually buy games I won't play but there are definitely a few in my library! I'm 100% going to work on being more mindful on what I buy in the digital land.
I like to buy indie games on steam because I want to support the art, even if I don't engage with a lot of the games, the artists will have had another sale and more support for their future projects in development
That is a fair point!
I do that sometimes!
I thought that I hadn't played a majority of my games but when I checked, over 50% of them I played at least a little. It leaves room to improvement and I try to get through my backlog and hopefully not buying more games to it. Your guide will probably help me with that, so thanks!
It is really great video, comprehensive, well done and interesting throughout! I was really surprised to see low view numbers. You deserve so much more!
Thank you for the kind words!
Maybe it's because of shared libraries adding extra games to my list of ones with playtime, but I ended up with way more than what it says my library is. Counting just the games on the list I had 119 games that have some playtime, and 28 games with none.
Very interesting and I feel I'm doing a better job not wasting money than I thought.
You forgot the friendlist. I think this is the most convincing factor. Your friends are basically a free advertisement banner, because you not only see your friends playing games but it's also super easy to watch them play or join them.
Anyone here remebers when Steam seasonal sales had flash sales in it and it not only added another layer of manipulation and you were LITERALLY betting on any game you bought just to see it even cheaper a few hours ahead and the plataform didnt had any form of refunding?
I have almost 700 games on my library and most of them i bought around this era (2010 - 2013) and also it didnt had regional pricing ( i live in Brazil) and the store was using mainly dollars as currency ( in Brazil we use Reais as ) and we had to have international credit cards.
Im happy Valve chose to ditch this practice but other storefronts like Gog are running those now.
Same, im from Brazil and I think 90% of my games were bought between 2011 and 2014. Browsing the store back then was anxiety inducing. Since I lived abroad in 2012 I was able to get a better deal and its why I have way too many games on my account.
The only issue I still have is the fomo with games being delisted. I regret not buying a few games that are unavailable for many years now.
@@ssjbargainsaleFor delisted games, you can likely still buy a steam key for the game online if you really want it, it will probably cost more though
@@natalimoina costs a LOT more. Insane prices. Not worth it
OK, so I've been around since before Steam was a thing, and not once have I bought a game that was on SALE. My tactic is simple: "Only play one game at a time." That way I only play the games I really want to play, when I want to play them the most. If I'd start another game, I'd have to uninstall the game I was playing, hence I'd really make sure I want to play a different game.
That's it. And because I don't waste my money on discounted games, just for the sake of owning them, I can justify buying my games at full price, supporting Devs and innovation when it is most needed, during the beginning of a games life-cycle.
Something I did was make a buy list of games I want to play, regardless of sales. This list is a fraction of my wishlist, which is filled with everything I've seen that looks fun but not necessarily a game I wanted. This helped me a lot. I set it in tiers. I only buy on sale and have to finish a tier before going down to the next. It helped a lot with impulse buying.
"How steam trick you to buy a game" me swiping for hours in the shop
Oh my God, you are so right. I had no intention of playing the Final Fantasy 7 upgraded remake, but seeing it go on sale for $40 when the retail price is $70 compelled me into buying it. I probably don't even have the intention of playing it, but I bought it knowing it was on sale and that I might play it down the line. I also have Final Fantasy XIII despite not getting past the first Eidolon boss when I had it on PS3, because it was on sale for $15. I also have Tales of Symphonia that I bought for $5 despite playing and being at multiple times on GameCube; again, I bought it because I might eventually get to it. 😳
i buy games on sale so i can play them later.
I catch myself on that way of thinking but will this be near future or will it happen to be a year later and If so in a year this game will be most certainly on sale again and probably even cheaper as it gets older.
@@exvocturain't that the truth
That’s a horrible tactic, you just spending money on games you probably will never play. Also you create that horrible feeling of having a backlog.
I only ever buy games on sale if I actually do want to play them right now. Sometimes I'll see a game that I've actually been thinking about for a while on sale which is the best thing ever (this actually happened to me today lol). If you see a game that you've never been interested in or even heard of before on sale just don't even bother, even IF it's like 90% off
And if something you want isn't on sale, just use steam key websites like instant gaming lol, constant sales!
*Do* you, though?
I love videos like this because they leave me feeling like I'm watching an alien habitat sometimes.
I think of the 167 games on my account the only ones I haven't played are ones I tried and hated (Five Nights at Freddy's or Limbo for example) or games a friend bought for me. And those are only about 14-16 games in my library that's about 8% of my library, and less if we don't count the ones I tried and didn't like.
So hearing that so many people buy games and never play them is completely insane to me.
I guess my advice is this; only buy games when you intend on playing a new game. Don't worry about the sales they come around often enough you won't miss it.
I love supporting game developers. So I will keep buying, hopefully one day I could buy a game for full price to support developer even better (NOT JOKING)
I totally get it, and I do the same myself. I especially support a niche genre that is my number one favourite genre (hardcore "grognard" type strategy/tactical war games/simulations) in hopes Steam will keep offering similar games in the future too, despite relatively low sales compared to more popular genres. Whenever I see such a title I have scouted to be top notch becoming available in Steam, I may even buy it at full price, whether I have time to play it in near future or not.
I've come to bind myself to principle of "buy a game that I want to play right now" so that I just don't have a bloated library
Meanwhile my epic game store played ratio is like 2 out of 150+ games
At least most of those are free weekly games (for me at least)
Any game you see on sale will be back on sale 2-6 more times that year alone. There is no fomo during any sale.
And for me, 80% of games on my wishlist end up removed without purchase. That next sale only prompts me to determine if I am actually interested or not. All it takes for me to add it is an interesting screenshot. That is not a commitment in my brain.
(Side note, only about 20% of my games are unplayed. All from humble bundles, not steam sales. Humble bundles have real scarcity. That bundle doesn't come back around.)
And often sales later are for higher knockoffs.
I kinda stopped buying games directly from Steam, unless a wishlisted game goes as cheap as a pizza or less (That's how I got most Batman Arkham, Yakuza, NFS and Tomb Raider titles).
If not, I might unpause my Humble Choice subscription or just get Epic's freebies.
This WAS helpful! Thank you! I had the exact same experience after buying a Steam Deck. You haven’t told me anything I didn’t know already, you just spoke it aloud for me to reconsider. I’ve since gone and cleared out my wishlist. I have more than enough games for the rest of the year and then some. I also tend to leave my current game running on the deck and put it to sleep so that when I power up, I go right into my game, not the store.
I have over 3600 games and I have no regrets. Also, really great video man.
Now play one of them
@aldershot8008 thanks for watching!
I definitely agree with all the points raised about the persuasion tactics.
But it's also important to note that although 50% of your games might be unplayed, you're likely spending less than 50% on all the titles, and could even end up spending less money than buying on another store front that never really has sales.
Everyone is different, but I would definitely say I've built up a tolerance for Steam's selling tactics, not that I view Steam as an adversary.
One, I've definitely played far less than half the games in my library, and that has put natural pressure to not grow my library much more. This is because the larger the number of unplayed games, the worse the completionist in me feels, and the more the backlog feels like a chore.
Two, I've seen titles on my wish list go on sale multiple times, and so I know that I can wait for the mark down to come around again. Unless I'm going to play that game immediately after purchase, there's no pressure.
Three, I have had it happen more than once, that I buy a game on Steam only to have it show up in my Humble Bundle the NEXT MONTH, and wow do I feel like crap then, if I've already cracked the game and can't refund it. So, I have more motivation to wait and see.
It's gotten to the point where the reward for patience now outweighs the need of the collector in me.
I still love Steam as my central repository though, and I will continue to buy games from them. I just don't succumb to those pressures anymore.
Same. My library is so full and my game time is so limited, I don't feel the need to just buy any game. Even though I still play CK2 a lot, I have zero pressure to buy CK3.
I just bought Monster Hunter games cause they were on sale a few days ago and now even after watching this video till the end, im starting to thinking about getting their DLCs. 😂
MH changed my life, enjoy!!
@@markmaxwelljr i will, thanks!
This video was incredibly high quality. This guy is super underrated
I'd love if the Steam client let you filter unplayed games so you can go through your backlog easily.
You can make a dynamic collection in your steam library which filters on unplayed!
except that most of my backlog isn't unplayed technically it's played once for a short time then stopped and never touched agian.
@@KeinNiemandthen go to library and sort by time played
Y’all are just too impulsive. I’ve had a Steam account for many years and I own like 50 games total, all of which I purchased on sale
I have 44 (of course not counting the remastered editions that came packed with the original versions as I count them as one game). Even then, my issue is in getting to play and finish them. 😂
Yea I have friends over here with 500 games and I’m barely at 60 with the only ones bought at full price being cheap indie games.
Yes and no. Sometimes I will buy a bundle of cheap games because there are 1 or 2 of those games I wanted, and if the price of the whole set is really cheap, I'll just buy it, knowing I'll try the other ones eventually, half of which I have. E.G. I bought a whole set of popcap games for a bundle specifically for Bejeweled Twist.
I have over two thousand games after 12 years...
I love how the steam sales work... Most of the games I have through humble bundle though. Which works the same way.
I have probably 1:6 of playing vs owning, but I've never ever paid a full price for a game on steam. So for those that I don't play that's just extra income that doesn't hurt me.
I do not buy my wish list because there is a sale though. I have a price in my head and either it reaches that or not. With 1:6 plaid vs owned I have enough to play instead.
Me too with the "price in my head" idea. Wishlist is just for easy access to see if a game's sale reached that price.
Same for me. I have a hard limit that I will pay for a game. A handful of titles made me go above that limit over the years. I keep the wishlist so I dont need to remember games that interest me until they go on sale and I set it to show only discounted games and sort by price
@@ssjbargainsale I sort by discount percentage!
@@ahmadmanga I used to, but I would never check the cheap games that usually only go to 50%, so I leave it by price but usually just ignore anything below 50% as I get to higher prices
@@ahmadmanga percentage sucks! A hard cap in your head fare better like $20 hard cap, $15 soft cap, etc etc
Just found your channel and really enjoying it, you should definitely have more subs. This is easily on the level of much bigger UA-camrs.
Watched this because I'm awful with Steam and digital stores in general....the hell of it is, I READ THE EXACT BOOK you talk about YEARS BEFORE I EVER EVEN KNEW WHAT STEAM WAS, so I should've known better, but no. Over the last 10 years of digital gaming I've bought hundreds of games across multiple stores and actually finished (or beaten on another platform) maybe 50. Between that, and having hundreds more games in emulators, I doubt I'll ever play all of them, but I think part of the appeal with emulating especially is the collection and preservation aspect I enjoy.
Anyway, everyone here who enjoys Marvel and strategy games should definitely play Midnight Suns, I bought it in the Christmas Steam Sale (and then again on XBOX), and I absolutely Iove it to pieces . I've finished it twice. 😅
Because of the overwhelming amount of pretty good games on Steam, I have become incredibly picky. I will not settle for "Oh yeah, that might be good." No. If we're not talking Citizen Kane levels of excellence or intrigue, I probably won't play it. Not unless it's dirt cheap. The most I've ever spent on a game in my life is 22 bucks and even that was on sale. PC gaming is just extremely economical between Steam sales, Epic giveaways, GOG, Humble Bundle and more, that I know I can't play everything I'm mildly interested in, so the price point isn't an appeal anymore, it's a requirement. The part that makes me sit up and care is a game that speaks to me on a personal level that I've never seen any other do so before. Maybe you can blame that on me playing original Valve titles that have dropped crazy in price but are still unbelievably incredibly fantastic games.
Literally me
I used to work for a company that went on the street and door to door to sell people charity subscriptions and we often used Cialdini's methods like scarcity and commitment. Funny to see a gamer talk about this so many years later.
I use two personal rules to combat these marketing tactics. I hold myself to one new game per month, which has eliminated impulse buying and makes me focus on games I think I will really enjoy. A lot of research goes into my wishlist, and I usually go into a new month with like 3 games in mind and wait for one to go on sale. The second rule is when I buy it, I have to play it right away for 10 minutes. That also prevents impulse buying, and I get a feel for the game so that I'm excited to play it. Now I get dopamine hits just from adding recommended games to my wishlist, but it doesn't feel like a commitment to buy. I won't waste my monthly purchase on a random guess.
Knowing that all these games are always on key sites usually at a lower price than even the steam sale price made me stop buying. It's like a year round sale.
I'm more than sure that EGS games that are free are probably primarily redeemed, then never played. Similar issue with Humble Choice. I have been grandfathered in since near conception and have so many games that are just not interesting to me, but I add them to my library for the oddball Synthetik that ends up getting played way more than I expected.
I would agree, but what I've found when I have the urge to try something new, I just jump into my library of freely obtained EGA games, and some are quite good. I'm currently playing that donut factory game.
Majority of my games have stories and I’m glad I prefer those kind of games because that makes me play all the games that I buy.
No matter what my wishlist stays at around 100 games, I wishlist as often as I buy, OFTEN.
What i like to do is when i see a game on discount and wanna buy it, i tell myself that I'm gonna buy it the next time it is on discount (which is gonna happen again sooner or later since it is on discount now) after i played all the other games which i bought but have not playes yet
For me, I have a few rules:
1 - I only buy what is on my wish list. I can add whatever I want to my wishlist to show the market there is an interest in it for me. However,
2 - I set a dollar limit for spending. Most games have to be between $5 - $10 before I will purchase it.
3 - regardless of the price, I can only purchase items that are on sale. If a new game comes out within my price range then I will wait for it to go on sale unless I REALLY want it which will ensure I play it almost immediately.
4 - Even if it is within my price range and on sale, the bigger the discount the more likely I will buy it. I typically wait for 50-60% off or more but that is left up to my discretion. Even AAA games from Ubisoft and Bethesda get this treatment but I usually raise the price up to about $20 since that seems to be their lowest limit I have seen.
5 - Early Access gets priority, mainly because it is a game I want to see flourish and will most definitely enjoy playing; ie Subnautica, Blasphemous, Stardew Valley, etc.
All that being said, I am at a point where I am currently not buying games within the last year or so that I do not intend to play immediately. I do not go for the bundle deals unless the vast majority of the bundle is something I am really interested in. The last bundle package I bought was AC Valhalla with all kinds of DLC. I played that hell out of that game and nearly 100% the achievements. I also only consider DLC if they add more than just cosmetics. I need actual missions and expansions to consider a DLC, not just a new multiplayer skin. Yes, I have those moments of FOMO but I just tell myself wait for the bigger sale or find something even better. If I am unable to pick up something because of my pay schedule, then so be it. It isn’t the end of the world and more games are always coming.
Can't believe you don't have more subscribers. AMAZING quality video and script perfectly executed. I wish I could make content this good. If this isn't just a random additional channel for you and you don't already have a super popular one, don't be discouraged. If you keep making this quality of content, you WILL explode in the future and it will all pay off. You definitely have what it takes. I suspect this isn't your first channel though.
I really appreciate the kind words! this is indeed my first channel-hearing feedback like this gives me motivation to keep going working 🙏
I’m happy UA-cam recommended your videos to me. Great content from a brand new creator. Hope this endeavor goes well for you, you’re off to a fantastic start, keep this up and you’ll be successful in no time. Im rooting for ya, I know how hard it is to break through on this platform.
thank you for the kind words, glad you found your way to this video!
Most of my unused games are humble bundles. Now I'm even picky about those because I don't want more clutter
I am something of a Steam hoarder, and one thing I've done lately that has been surprisingly effective at keeping me from buying more games is scroll through my library and look for games that make me go "oh man I really need to play that." And then think about how any new game I get is going to get in the way of me playing that game. I have a few games I'm playing right now, and a few I really want to get to, so I just keep those games I want to get to in mind.
I'm already careful with my purchases and I'm watching this to arm myself with the knowledge of how to be even MORE careful.
Great video. It's exactly why I stopped the emails and browsing game sales. I only buy games I know I'll play and stay selective. Only bought 2 games on steam the past year.
I also recognised that I bought a lot more games on Steam since owning the Steam Deck.
I don't see that as a problem though. We should stop treating our backlog as some dreadful to-do list and more like a treasure box.
If a new game releases and I know I'll definitely play it then I'll gladly buy it. This goes mainly for indie Devs or AA (sometimes AAA) teams that are taking a bigger risk with their game. If the indie game doesn't sell well it won't matter if I play the game in 10 years. They need the support now and the first release year is the most crucial one.
I think though that this isn't necessary for big developers whose game will sell well or retain their position no matter what I do.
I also hesitate with buying games that are like 5 years or older (love older ames though) unless I know that I'll play them in the next weeks. In the gaming industry these games already had their chance and a push in sales probably won't affect how the game was viewed by high-ups.
Now for some strategy I accumulated in the recent years:
- analyse your wish list for two months before making big purchases. You will get a feeling for what games go on sale often and which ones don't (Reddit is also helpful with finding this out because people ask there a lot about sales)
- if a game has a discount of 70% or more there is a high chance that you'll see it on sale very often
- think about a game that you haven't bought yet and desperately want to play. Every time you are tempted by a Steam sale ask yourself if you really wanna play this specific game more than the one highest on your wish list
- ask yourself if you're really gonna play the game soon. Chances are that if you buy this game 50% off now you'll find it even cheaper months later
Don't stress yourself. Find the right balance and you will feel joy for this beautiful hobby of ours instead of feeling guilt
This is a great point of view, especially the “treasure box” comment. I completely agree, it’s lovely having a wealth of choice readily available to play at a moments notice.
Out of my 310 game I purchased on steam in the last 12 years, only 20 of them I did not like and hid them out of library. I am very careful before buying games. A through research always needed
Great video, and I realized that about the rating system too! Its devlishly effective, often times positive reviews will just be "It was pretty good if youre bored I guess". But if you dont map down to read them all then youd never know.
That is one of the best videos i‘ve seen recently good work 🎉
Thanks for the video! I am one of the people that just get a bigger and bigger library of games on steam, but at least I will launch them one time to see if it works or not hahaha. For some time, and even today I can fall victim of steam's persuasion, and buy games that I don't know if I will actually play, so any tips are actually welcome! Yesterday for example I bought 3 warhammer games because of their sales that were ending.... Ironically, Steam can be too good for our own good as consumers, take it as a bad or good thing....
But I will say that I did develop have some tolerance after some time of buying a bit too much in seasonal sales. With the warhammer games my rationale was: I looked into what games were recommended by people, tried the games that I got free or had demos to have a sample, checked steamdb to see if the price was actually good (super recommended), I reminded myself that the games were of genres that I rarely played even though I liked them, that I had other games that I am focusing, that they would get another sales not long after, and double checked how much I bought this month to see if I actually wanted to use X amount of my budget into games that I knew I would not play immediately. So you could say I have recipe of 5 steps I always do when buying on steam, and add some more as needed. I would recommend everyone to have something like this for avoiding that one click on buy and regretting it.
From my experience using Steam, and what I need to remind myself always:
- Use the wishlist and emails as reminders just do not take them seriously, you don't need to buy the games immediately or at all. Clean up the list if you found something you don't remember why is there.
- Curators are a tool to discovering games, do not use them as actual reviews, instead do your research, and be prepared to refund the games/play the demos for a test sample
- Speaking of refunds, use it as much as you need to check if the games are worth it. Play that 1h 30m (just to be safe) and refund it if it was not worth it. Don't mind the people that say it gets better later, games should be good from the beginning
- The sales of today is not the last one. Check steamdb, most games have sales frequently, forget about that FOMO
- Filter for only the negative reviews and look with care, they tend to have more details, and you can find deal-breakers at times. Do you care about the complaints? Are there features missing? Bad performance/Broken updates? If after all of that you still want the game, then it deserves to be wishlisted!
- Be patient! Will you play the game right now? There are a lot of games you own you did not play, why not play them first? Will your pc even run it? Is it better to wait until a hardware upgrade? It will also probably be cheaper down the line!
- You should not be timid about removing games from the wishlist and even backlog! A game less that you are interested is a game less distracting you from the actually good games. If a game has annoying practices, too expensive, lots of filler, or somewhat boring.... Even though you think is a shame, you should drop it. Think like this, if you drop the next Assassin's Creed that is basically the Nth AC with the prior games being almost identical gameplaywise, you open space to play a Breath of the Wild for the first time, something like that.
Anyways, that is my Steam guidelines hahaha, this will be useful even for me! Good look on Steam and protect your wallets from Gabe!
so many great tips here, thank you for the comment! SteamDB is great, as you mentioned, since it can help to reduce the feeling of scarcity. The point about refunds is really interesting-this is actually something I haven’t done with Steam…I’ll have to keep that it mind!
watched two videos of yours, very well done. Subscribed to hear more in the future. Great work!
Fantastic analysis!, I often play a small number of games (2-4) at one time which helps me narrow my focus towards playing select titles to completion before even considering purchasing more, it often feels more rewarding to fully learn a single games mechanics down to the minute details and fully experiencing them. Those things could be useful tips to anyone trying to limit their purchasing and over spending on games they tend to not play.
thank you! totally agree, i talked about this deeper satisfaction through committing to a game in a previous video and it’s something I have to remind myself all the time
I’ve played all my games for atleast a hour not counting the free ones
Can't really manipulate me into shit when there's no new games that interest me coming out, i only rarely buy indies now.
1:35 I'd say 85% of what i own on steam i have played or will play in near future in some capacity, and hopefully finish if it's a story-driven game. There's honestly such an abundance people are too comfortable buying things and never using them. I worked part-time even when i was a teen and paid for pretty much all videogames i own so i developed a principle of getting my money's worth out of games i buy if i can't refund them in cases like Tekken 8 where company goes and stabs fanbase in the back.
I too have a gaming "problem." Good problem to have though. Great video. These human psychology behaviors can be applied to more than steam store.
Steam offers great value with a seamless UI, it's just good marketing.
I always make a second pass when I see a wishlisted game on sale to decide wether or not I even still want it, I honestly need to clean out my wishlist because there are so many old games in there that I don't even get notified about anymore lol
12:20 This. This example perfectly encapsulates how I felt. Everyone raved about how good the steam was after I had finally gave it a shot.
I don't understand not playing games that you buy. I have played 100% of my steam games that I had to pay for and completed a fair amount of each if not all.
I have a ton of games i haven't tried. So cheap.
Simple for me: sales and games I'm even remotely interested in I'll buy, its come in handy too, I actually can't tell you how many times I saw a game and was like “oooh I kinda want to play that” only to find when I go and look it up on Steam I already have it in my library
It's hard to resist a 95% sales or $1-5 for a classic game that you've heard about since childhood.
The biggest turning point for me was realizing that most games goes on sale every few weeks, and often, waiting yields a bigger sale. And so, finishing the games I bought first makes me save by buying new games later at bigger discounts.
Aside from the great message, what a great visual treat it was to watch this.
Having said that, i’m gonna go ahead and purchase the 40 games i have in my cart rn
Jokes on you the only game I've ever bought was portal and it was $2 at the time of purchase.
Great video man. Love the outlook you have on these topics and the research you do for them. You should look into doing more “retrospectives” or “introspectives” with video games and how psychology is involved in them.
Just found your channel and love the amount of research in your content, rare algorithm W haha. For sure subbed!
You had me curious so I did an export of my games and did some quick checking. Of the 252 games listed -- 46% were beaten, 39% were played with varying degrees of completion -- which left the remaining 14% of the library unplayed (though many of them being ones I've beaten on other platforms). I was surprised as I typically have a lot of guilt looking at my library lol. I credit a lot of that ratio to the Steam Deck as I can just pick it up and play, and set it back down when needed elsewhere. It's hard to pass up these deals though! Just gotta think about how there's really no downside to waiting until the next sale. *Deep breath, repeats mantra, empties cart*
This was a really solid video that covers something that has been in the back of my mind for quite a while.
Odd thing for me: I received my Steam Deck in March of 2022. Since then, my Steam purchases have actually DECREASED, because I have to be sure it will also play on the Deck. I used to buy willy nilly when I only played on my desktop, as it would run anything I could throw at it. Now I wishlist games, ignore the storefront except for the search feature, and only get games that I hear avout elsewhere and REALLY interest me. This excludes my Humble Choice subscription, though. Too often my $13/month gets me at least one good $40+ game. Even more often, it's the only game that I redeem for that month, however.
So I don’t play on steam, however this video has made me really consider how I decide on buying games on sale in Xbox. I hadn’t thought much on buying games on sale for really cheap, however I now have a backlog of cheap games I may never play. While not as extensive as steam xbox and PlayStation do the same. Loving your discussions! Thank you for your craft.
This is an excellent video. You managed to break it down segment by segment and as a Steam user I can relate because I too am guilty of buying a lot of games only to install and play a few select games. Nowadays not so much anymore. Turns out Valve is just too dang good at selling it. I'm still looking forward to the summer sale lol. 😅
i’m looking forward to the summer sale as well 😅 thanks for the kind words!
Please make more videos, best channel I’ve found in months
A strategy that I'm currently usig is just keep a fixed amount of games in my wishlist, the ines that I really fell in love with them
(I'm into old and/or indie games so I keep it 50, if you're interested into AAA title I would recommend to lower that amount)
and move the other titles into a document (i use an excel file) that way I won't lose the name for the games that I remove, but also I won't see any notification and discount label
I will acrively check Its current price If I'll feel like, displaying to myself an actual interest to get that game.
I value your opinion and the research you put into your work, we are looking forward to seeing more from you.
I think I got more intentional on my game buying when I had been on Steam for less than a year. I recognised patterns in my behaviours that also happened when I got into other hobbies, this time I just caught it faster. I've played 75% my library at least a little (ignoring the stuff that only has a couple minutes on it, because some of them were accidentally booted up). I plan on playing or at least trying all the other games in there.
This did remind me to go check on my wishlist though. I know more or less what's on there but it's good to go through it once in a while and ask yourself both why you put the game on there and if you still want it badly enough for it to deserve a spot on your wishlist. Steam also has a more hidden follow feature that I use to put games I might not immediately want but don't want to fully forget.
And then there's the games that haven't released that I put there because content creators hyped them up and the steam page sounded interesting when I looked up the game. Now I'm just like: does it need a spot on my wishlist though? I'll hear about when a demo gets released or even the full game anyway. I don't need to have all of those games wishlisted. It's just cluttering my actual wishlist. Why would I want to wishlist 50 games, there's not that much reason to get 50 more games, especially because a bunch of them could take over 100 to complete (farm sims baby). Most of them aren't even released yet.
Time to filter that wishlist again and move some of the games to the follow list and just plainly remove some others. Thanks for that reminder.
as a sidenote: I also don't really use the discovery queue anymore. It just isn't satisfying to me and would again just clutter up my wishlist. It can take some effort to keep the wishlist at a manageable number of games
Thanks, the out loud strats might helps a lot ❤
Thanks for explaining all this. I'll try to watch out now.
Not me buying a game while listening to this video because i was reminded to look at my wishlist during the summer sale.
For a lot of steam users, we know that sales are pretty regular, especially Summer and Winter sales being the bigger ones. For us, we stockpile our wishlist in between these two massive sales, and when the sales come, it gives us an excuse to impulse buy a huge haul of games. I haven't bought a game full price on steam in years.
Good video. you should consider adding the title of the book in the description.
It’s not hard to build a tolerance against it, but they know that… this isn’t to force people into unknowingly spending money. Valve is doing what they always did, designing a brilliant and subtle system to motivate the players (buyers). It works perfectly for the majority… especially new users
I've got hundreds of games on my library and wishlist, every time there's a sale I add the game to the cart and I really think to myself "am I going to play this? will I have time to play this?", many times this little thought exercise allowed me to not purchase a few good games, I just had to make peace with the fact that I will not be playing all the good games out there, and I will need to save my precious time to stuff the I think will be worth it.
Also I recommend editing your wishlist from time to time, leave the games that you think that REALLY matters.
being someone who primarily buys games from indie developers, I happily buy games that I *might* play one day, or that I may only play a few hours because I'm just happy to support the devs and they tend to be under the $40 mark, with most being around the mid $20. So even if I only play 30 hours, I feel I got my money's worth. Plus, when you buy a digital game sure its consumption, but its also not creating waste in the same way as over consuming on like clothes, or other physical objects
i was very confused by how so many games are rated so highly on Steam, but that makes so much sense. if no one really liked it, but everyone would still only just reccomend it, it would get 100%. theres no "slightly reccomend" or "slightly unreccomend" so you don't know if people have minor issues that stopped them but might not stop you, or weren't bothered enough by something that would be a deal breaker for you, its inherently lossy in information.
i think we should fight Steam on this, a 4 point scale is what we deserve
thanks for including the game name on every clip
Steam summer sale right now, some really good games are 90% off! Shut up and take my money! 😅
This is really good, lot of great info and good understanding of psychology here.
I appreciate the kind words!
I've ended up with a sort of psudo rule: If a game is on sale, and I want to buy it, it has to be a game that I want to play then and there. There can't be any "I'll play this after I finish that other game" of "This will be good for a rainy day". So many of these have languished for years unplayed. Instead, if there is a game that I really want to play, and it isn't on sale, I will permit myself to buy it at full price. After all, two unplayed games at 50% off is the same as one full priced game (in theory, reality is naturally messier). And that game you picked up at 50% off might later be at 75% off.
This has drastically reduced my game buying habit, but I've noticed that there is one thing I am very much vurnuable to now: the free weekend.
I had wanted to play Pathfinder: Wrath of the Rightous for a long time, but it always failed the "play right now" test. But when I tried it during a free weekend, I was massively committed to continuing it. Which was ok, because Wrath of the Rightous is a great game.
I wish every single game had a free demo to try first before taking the plunge of buying it. That would help before buying something that you later regret. By the way...
Excellent video. Every gamer needs to watch this.
At least Steam has their refund policy
@@MusicJunkie37 That is true. Just as long as you don't play a game for more than 2 hours and if it was purchased less than 2 weeks.
@@Bubbleb2 Yep. I think GOG has an 30 day refund policy even if you played it for longer than 2 hours.
@@MusicJunkie37 That is good to know.
fantastic video. I had the same experience when I got my deck. wish I saw this before the latest summer sale.
Thats crazy, i honestly cant understand why would i buy a game and not play it. Maybe as you said i’ve built up a tolerance to it. I have over 300 games and more then 15 years of steam, and the only games i havent played are like random gifts, or packaged experiences. I loved the last strategy you crafted, it might really help people that struggle with impulse purchases!