120 Games, 1 Goal - Pile of Shame: 0

For newcomers, the cliff notes version of this thread: I’m trying to hit Pile of Shame: 0. Originally the plan was to not buy any new games until I’m done with the ones I own, which turned out to be a list of 120 games - that didn’t quite happen, of course. I’ve since bent the rule a bit, allowing $300 a year for new purchases. The initial 120 add up to about 4000 hours of game time (via How Long To Beat) - it’s gonna take me a while. I check in fortnightly with where I’m at, with links to each comment at the bottom of this post. If some of the games on this list are also on you own pile, let’s play them together!


Main Post Explanation

I think I’ve finally hit a point where I need to admit it.

Hi everyone. My name is Chris, and I have a problem: I keep buying games, but never play them.

Don’t get me wrong - I want to. Games are great. They can be fun, relaxing, stressful (in a good way… mostly.) I just can’t seem to do it. Analysis paralysis is a real thing people.

You know how it goes. You get caught up in the hype cycle around current releases. A bunch of press/internet people fall in love with a game, you see it everywhere, you have to have it. You buy it, excited to play it. You might even install it, maybe even (gasp!) start it. But then the next week or two rolls around, and a new game grabs the world’s attention. You begin the cycle anew.

Don’t even get me started on E3, emails from video game companies, Gamescom, tweets, PSX, podcasts, news articles, and the best worst of all, GOTY discussions. It just doesn’t stop… you just don’t stop.

Yes, “you” is actually “me” in this scenario.

That’s why I’ve decided it’s time. Time to take a stand. To say no. Or, more appropriately… not yet. That shelf of games needs to be cleared: that Steam library needs to be culled. It’s time to eliminate that pile of shame.

A bit of background: a few years back, I had similar ideas. I had a bunch of games to play and no idea where to start, so I procrastinated by teaching myself to code and created a pile of shame app. (The app has since been taken down by myself, screw paying Apple $99 a year to keep it up, so don’t worry, no advertising here.) I was quite happy with what I’d created, and after entering in all the games I owned, I had 57 listed. Today, I literally hit 120. Clearly, my efforts didn’t go as planned.

So my fellow game players, this is where I make my post. I’ve drawn the line in the sand. Here is where I say it.

No more buying any new games until I’ve finished the ones I already have.

No more neglecting this pile of no doubt wonderful experiences for the sake of something shiny and new.

No more sitting on the couch for an hour, mulling over what I should spend the spare hour I have playing, only to wind up going to bed.

No more eating Nutella out of the jar with a spoon.

Ok, that last one doesn’t count, I’m probably gonna keep doing that.

I’m making this stand here, on this forum, in the company of some pretty cool people, because to be totally honest… I need your help. I want to say I’ll be stronger, I’ll stick to it, I’ll complete this ridiculous quest I’ve set for myself. But the reality is, I need to be held accountable. That, and I’m hopeful that it will inspire others to follow along, some who maybe will play some older games with me so we can share the joy.

To make things simple, I’m going to lay out the following 4 rules:

  • No purchasing of any new games to play while the pile still has games on it.

  • I can only stop playing a game before I finish it if I never, ever want to do so. Basically, I have to see each game through to the end, or I’m never playing it again.

  • The aim is to finish the games I’m playing, but for some on my list that’s kind of a hard thing to pinpoint. It’s easy for me to tell when I’ve finished Dishonored for example, but Civ 5? Where the bloody hell do you finish with that? I ain’t no Alex Navarro, and certainly won’t be spending 2000 hours trying to win with every Civ (sorry dude.) The idea is to play until I’m finished with a game, so where I’m “finished” will be on a game by game basis.

  • No bloody buying new games to play damn it! I’m a 25 year old trying to save to buy a house (ha) so just no. Don’t do it.

Anyway, that’s where I stand. I want to chronicle the journey, so I’ll be writing and posting my shamelog each Sunday night (Australian time) on my own little blog, and I’d like to also post here as well if y’all want to come along for the ride - as a kind of gut check to keep true to the goal, if you like. Like I said, I’m posting here because even though it’s relatively young, this forum already feels like home to me - it’s full of interesting and wonderful people, who I’m hoping might tag along for the ride. I know there’s gotta be some of you out there with piles like mine - maybe you can join in and try to hit pile: 0 too.


THE LIST

Finally, before I get started, the list that nobody you all have been waiting for: my pile of shame.

Steam
1 Assassins Creed: Freedom Cry
2 The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
3 Murdered: Soul Suspect
4 Watch_Dogs
5 The Magic Circle
6 The Talos Principle
7 Deus Ex: Human Revolution
8 Thief (2014)
9 Thief Gold
10 1979 Revolution: Black Friday
11 Braid
12 Metro: Last Light
13 Never Alone
14 Out There Somewhere
15 The Age of Decadence
16 Fallout 4
17 Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander
18 Pillars of Eternity - The White March
19 The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
20 Age of Wonders
21 Endless Legend
22 Civilization V
23 Stellaris
24 Thea: The Awakening
25 Ninja Pizza Girl
26 Crusader Kings 2
27 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
28 Poncho
29 The Old City: Leviathan
30 A Wolf In Autumn
31 Miasmata

GOG
32 Eisenwald: Blood of November
33 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
34 Age of Wonders 3

PC (Other)
35 Torment: Tides of Numenera
36 Tyranny
37 Underworld Ascendant (Kickstarter backed)
38 All Walls Must Fall (Kickstarter backed)

PS4
39 Everything
40 Horizon Zero Dawn
41 Mafia 3 DLC
42 The Sexy Brutale
43 Assassins Creed IV Black Flag
44 Assassins Creed Unity
45 Assassins Creed Syndicate
46 Dishonored
47 Dishonored 2
48 Hyperlight Drifter
49 Lumo
50 Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
51 Tearaway Unfolded
52 What Remains of Edith Finch
53 The Last Guardian
54 Gravity Rush Remastered
55 Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
56 Invisible Inc.
57 The Fall
58 This War of Mine: The Little Ones
59 Deception IV The Nightmare Princess
60 Valkyria Chronicles Remastered
61 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
62 Watch_Dogs 2 (Includes No Compromises DLC)
63 Final Fantasy XV
64 Disgaea 5
65 Far Cry 4
66 Until Dawn
67 Diablo 3
68 Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain
69 Wolfenstein: The New Order
70 Grand Kingdom

Vita
71 Darkest Dungeon
72 Legend of Heroes - Trails in the Sky
73 Suikoden
74 Suikoden 2
75 Vagrant Story
76 Virtues Last Reward

PS3
77 Catherine
78 Heavenly Sword
79 Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen
80 Drakengard 3
81 ICO
82 Shadow of the Colossus
83 Heavy Rain
84 Beyond Two Souls

PS2
85 Drakengard

PS1
86 Spec Ops: Airborne Commando

Switch
87 Kamiko

Wii U
88 Super Mario 3D World
89 Yoshi’s Woolly World
90 Star Fox Guard
91 Pikmin 3
92 Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
93 Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
94 Affordable Space Adventures
95 The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
96 Metroid Prime 1
97 Metroid Prime 2
98 Metroid Prime 3

Wii
99 Super Mario Galaxy
100 Goldeneye 007 (Wii)
101 Metroid Other M
102 The Last Story
103 Pandora’s Tower

3DS
104 Dragon Quest IX
105 Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadow of Valentia
106 Etrian Odyssey IV
107 The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
108 Code Name STEAM
109 Fire Emblem Fates (Birthright, Conquest & Revelations)

DS
110 Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
111 Chrono Trigger (DS)

Xbox One
112 Recore

Xbox 360
113 Red Dead Redemption
114 Fable 2
115 Assassins Creed 3
116 Far Cry 3

iPhone
117 80 Days

iPad
118 Monument Valley
119 The Room 2
120 Valiant Hearts

Bonus Games
121 Tales of Berseria (PS4)
122 Far Cry Primal (PS4)
123 No Man’s Sky Free DLC update (PS4)
124 Runescape (PC)
125 Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
126 Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
127 SteamWorld Dig 2 (Switch)
128 Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
129 Blue Reflection (PS4)
130 Doki Doki Literature Club (PC)

House Move Games
131 Far Cry 2 (Xbox 360)
132 Baldurs Gate (iPad)
133 Planescape: Torment (iPad)
134 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire (GOG)
135 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Steam)
136 Divinity 2: Ego Draconis (Xbox 360)
137 Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Xbox 360)

Bonus Games: 2018 Edition
138 God of War (PS4)

How Long To Beat puts the initial list at around 4000 hours to get through this. So… yeah. This is gonna take a while.


Read each weekly entry below (each links to the corresponding comment in this thread):

The Beginning

Shamelog #000 - It Begins / Loren’s Challenge


2017

Far Cry 3
Shamelog #001 - A Far Cry From 5 Years Ago

Code Name S.T.E.A.M.
Shamelog #002 - Full S.T.E.A.M. Ahead

Watch_Dogs
Shamelog #003 - Watching A Masked Dog
Shamelog #004 - Watch_Dogs Through Gritted Teeth
Shamelog #005 - Putting the Dog Down (+ My Birthday!)

Assassins Creed 3
Shamelog #006 - An Eager Assassin
Shamelog #007 - Master of the American Revolution

Tales of Berseria
Shamelog #008 - Tales of Uncertainty
Shamelog #009 - Tales of… Not Much
Shamelog #010 - Adventures in Berseria
Shamelog #011 - Struggling with Sexism(?) in Berseria
Shamelog #012 - Exciting News!
Shamelog #013 - Bittersweet Berseria

Super Mario 3D World (Part 1)
Shamelog #014 - Reflection

No Man’s Sky
Shamelog #015 - A Wander in the Unknown
Shamelog #016 - We (Don’t) Like to Move it Move it
Shamelog #017 - No Man’s Order

Wolfenstein: The New Order
Shamelog #018 - They Did Nazi That Comin’

Runescape
Shamelog #019 - Distractions & Diversions
Shamelog #020 - The Psychology of MMO’s
Shamelog #021 - Divination & Mammoth Feet
Shamelog #022 - It’s About the Journey… and the Friends You Made Along the Way

Far Cry Primal
Shamelog #023 - Caveman Edition

The Witcher
Shamelog #024 - Witchers Work
Shamelog #025 - Grunge & Atmosphere
Shamelog #026 - Digging Deeper in Vizima
Shamelog #027 - A Witching Slog
Shamelog #028 - “The Death of Single Player"
Shamelog #029 - A Satisfying Conclusion

What Remains of Edith Finch
Shamelog #030 - The Magical, Dark Whimsy of Edith Finch

Horizon Zero Dawn
Shamelog #031 - A New Dawn on the Horizon
Shamelog #032 - Happy Holidays!
Shamelog #033 - The Year That Was: 2017


2018

Doki Doki Literature Club / SteamWorld Dig 2
Shamelog #034 - Doki Doki Steamworld

Suikoden
Shamelog #035 - 108 Stars of Destiny

Monument Valley / Kamiko
Shamelog #036 - More Small Games Please

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Shamelog #037 - When Something is No Longer Yours
Shamelog #037 - Echoes of Valentia


23 Likes

I wish you luck on this quest. I tried something like this when I moved to Japan last year. It took me until my second paycheck before I caved in. Listening to podcasts and getting hyped about recent release games while not being able to play any of them is really, really difficult.

Look forward to seeing your updates.

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Best of luck! I’m in the same boat…although I count a lot of small indie titles I’ve picked up from bundles.

Your list has a considerable number of 4X games, so I don’t envy your task!

What I don’t see (and I’m struggling with whether I will pick it up myself) is Binary Domain. :smiley:

@Supa_Kappa Thanks dude, I’m gonna need it! I’ve definitely gotten into the loop of buying the new cool thing, Already spent 2 months with Nier Automata and Breath of the Wild… this is gonna be interesting. Especially when games like Red Dead Redemption 2 comes around.

@nickzippity Thanks man! I’m actually short a lot of indie titles because I’ve found they’ve been the games I’ve played more of over the last few years - being shorter and cheaper, they’re much easier to get into and done haha. Yeah, 4X sure is gonna be a ride, between Civ, Stellaris, CK2… Even before posting, I was like “what am I getting myself into…” I haven’t even heard of Binary Domain to be honest - I’m both curious and don’t want to know, because I’ve officially cut myself off from buying more games! >.<

Oh man, that’s even worse than my backlog. I feel your pain.

My only advice would be to not to afraid to cut a game loose. There’s been a few titles I bought that I just plain didn’t enjoy, so I’ve put them aside instead of trying to power through them.

1 Like

Been slowly working through a similarly long list.

Tricks I’ve found useful is, not playing infinite games alone if I can help it. Stuff like MMOs, or Overwatch, or MOBAs, multiplayer shooters in general can very easily and quickly eat up all your gaming time. So, I try to just play them when I’m playing them with friends. Which, isn’t just a “don’t” but rather, try to use them as a metric for acceptable amounts of fun to walk away from a game.

If I’m playing something, and all I can think while playing it is “wow, I’d much rather be playing Overwatch, even alone,” it’s probably okay to move on. Like… the goal sounds like it’s spending money smartly on games, and cutting down on a sense of waste, but it doesn’t mean time is infinite. It’s a good opportunity to check future titles off your hype list. “Oh, yeah TES7, that’s cool, but I didn’t enjoy Skyrim enough to want to sit through it. It can wait, or I can skip it, and that’s fine.”

Also, hopping at any external opportunity to have motivation to play something in your backlog, like the Waypoint games club made pushing through Binary Domain a really easy choice. Maybe participating in things like “four for February,” where people try to finish a game a week.

Anyrate, best of luck!

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@Ali_D Yeah I imagine I will come across that at one stage or another. I’m definitely going to give games a fair shake, but if they just simply aren’t for me, I’m not going to hate play them.

@Anime You’re so right, I know I’m going to have to make that call with a few of these on this list. Thankfully I’m much more into single player campaigns and stories, so no long bouts with COD to come at least :smiley: though I did get massively into Rocket League.
That is a good point also, you’re right in that this is partially about trying to not waste money on new games as well, I’d rather not buy them for full price then not play them for 5 years (if at all) lol. I imagine by the time I finish with this lot I’m going to have a new list just as long, except this time around I can just go and buy those games for cheap when I want to play them :smiley:
Yeah definitely will for sure - I’m hoping that I’ll end up being able to rope someone into co-oping Far Cry 4 with me for example xD

@nickzippity man, I just realized why I hadn’t heard of Binary Domain but it sounded familiar haha, when @Anime mentioned it. Yeah, happy to skip this one, but will be happy to listen along to the podcasts still!

No one should have to play that much Assassins Creed.

I think you need to let yourself off the hook bud.

2 Likes

Haha yeah I know, But I’m one of those weirdo’s who likes the modern day story stuff. I’ve played all of Ezio’s games. We’ll see how far I manage to get haha

I haven’t done anything nearly this formal, but in recent years I have been opting more to quit games if I’m not enjoying it. I played a couple hours of Bioshock 1 but then had my fill and never went back. Same with a few Deus Ex games. I even left Persona 4 right before the very final secret boss because it was frustrating and I’d had enough closure by that point.

To me, all that really matters is if I want to play more or I think there’s more the game has yet to offer me. It seems like few games actually offer a good reason to finish them, aside from getting more of that game. Given that, I only play for as long as I want the game.

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I do anticipate that will end up the case for at least some of these games - it’s the finally getting around to deciding that that is the key :stuck_out_tongue: Definitely don’t want to be playing games if I’m not enjoying them - they are meant to be for fun after all - but hopefully this approach can help me get to that sweet guilt free point haha

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I feel the same way to be honest. I don’t feel guilty about abandoning games, and the fact that I’ve abandoned a game doesn’t mean I don’t like it or didn’t take away anything of value.

Wow dude, I was doing the same thing except I had 300 I hadn’t played, but my goal was just to play them all, not complete them all. Completing them all will take a very long time man. Good luck!

One thing I would say is maybe be lenient with yourself on the complete part, some games just aren’t enjoyable or good, no sense putting yourself through torture. Another thing I decided to do to keep me honest was to record a YouTube video of each game when I played it. Not hard with OBS. But that’s just for PC, which is where I am doing my version of this. So now I have a YouTube channel with like 120 videos of different Steam games. Mostly just the game and no voiceover or commentary.

Anyway have fun and good luck! And try to stay away from those Humble Bundles!

Looking forward to hear of your progress on this journey.

God speed sir, and good luck to ya!

I’m in a similar boat of having way too many games but I constantly keep buying more. I should probably do something similar as I probably have enough games to keep me busy for the rest of the year at least.

You have good taste in buying games, there’s some real good ones in here. My advice is to prioritize your list, putting the ones you want to play the most at the bottom. That would help you burn through a bunch of games which you may quickly realize you never want to finish.

You could also do most-to-least interested and then checkering your priority list between games you want to play and games you’re cold on now.

But don’t spend too much time doing that, or you won’t get started :slight_smile:

Good luck man. Im trying to do the same thing. I kept buying things on sale and expensive collectors editions. I usually tell myself i have to beat one before i buy another but always fails. It would take hours for me to make a list.

I think you should probably have more goals. Smaller goals that help you contribute to your bigger goal. Like maybe try to start 10 games a month? That’d get you through 120 in a year. Of course it’s OK to not complete your goals, but it’s a start. In my experience giant projects with 1 goal don’t tend to last very long.

Also, it seems foolish to own a Switch and suddenly decide to stop buying games. You’re going to have nothing for that platform. Consider making an exception on new purchases of Switch games.

I feel this. My steam library just hit 191 games. That’s just my Steam Library. They new Waypoint Bookclub podcast proposal gave me an idea though. Im randomly picking one game a month and playing through it in that month. I pick the game with a random steam game picker I found online(best of three). I have a friend who I share my Steam library with, so we’re going to play through it at the same time. This month we got the original Red Faction.

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@chasezane that is a really cool idea to do your own mini game club with a friend! Have fun!

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