Buying games just to say you've played them

[ArithianFlame]

Looking over my recent Steam purchases I was reminded of all the games that I bought for the sole purpose of being able to say I've played them. Not "I can't afford to pass it up at this price because it looks fun" but just for being in the loop. The "gaming culture icons" so to speak. Games such as Mass Effect, Darksiders, and Portal. Heck, I even grabbed some old Tomb Raider stuff to figure out what my father was playing when I was a kid. Being mainly a multiplayer kind of person myself I really tend to not delve too far into single player stuff.

Is anyone else here guilty of that, and if so which games? And which one was the hardest to buckle down and slog through?

 

[Maximum Bert]

I am careful of not buying games I like but I know I wont play now as it got ridiculous so whatever the price I just dont buy if I feel it will go unplayed.

I do struggle with some games mainly fighters again recently where I have an unhealthy obsessio with buying almost everyone that is released even though its impossible for me to play them all enough to do them justice.

I have just resigned myself to their being some I will never finish. Recently I purchased Fear Effect on the PSX but I still havent touched it, its a game I wanted to get when it was first released but never got around to. I will give it a go one day though.

These days my purchases have decreased dramatically now I only buy about 6 games a year whereas at one time I would be snapping up any deal with a game I am vaquely interested in and then only playing a fraction of the purchased titles.

 

[hazabaza1]

Seems like a real dumb thing to do.
If enough people talk about a game I'll check it out, and I might buy it if it looks good, but if I look at a game and think "that looks awful" I won't buy it just to play it.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Looking over my recent Steam purchases I was reminded of all the games that I bought for the sole purpose of being able to say I've played them.

People can just look at the hours you put in individual games and know you haven't though... unless you turn them on while doing something else.

 

[TehCookie]

I'm guilty of buying games if it's a good deal, but I want to play them... eventually. As for being in the gaming loop I play them at a friends house because I'm not paying to play games I'm not interested in.

 

[ArithianFlame]

Looking over my recent Steam purchases I was reminded of all the games that I bought for the sole purpose of being able to say I've played them.

People can just look at the hours you put in individual games and know you haven't though... unless you turn them on while doing something else.

Perhaps I wasn't clear: Buying games to actually play at some point and then say you did (*after completion).

 

[Zhukov]

Well, I bought Duke Nukem Forever on release because I wanted to see how its story would end. Not the game's story I hasten to add, but the story of its development.

Oh, and I bought Planescape Torment because people kept throwing about phrases like "best story in all of gaming" and I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Do those count? Because that's about as close as I can think of.

 

[lacktheknack]

I tend not to do that. If I buy a game, it's because it looks fun and I want to play.

This has resulted in much awkwardness when I say I'm a video game fan and the person I'm talking to starts bubbling gleefully about Mario this, Zelda that, Metroid the other thing, and I have to carefully say "Well, I was more of a Tomb Raider kid..."

 

[mateushac]

Well, I bought Mass Effect 1 and 2 just so I could see what the hype was all about. Turns out both of them sucked.
On the other hand I also bought Fallout NV on a sale just to see if it really was that much of a major improvement over FO3 and I was delightfully surprised.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I bought the first Modern Warfare literally just to have some idea of what was going on with these Gray-slash-Realistic-slash-purportedly-inspired-by-modern-political-tensions-and-climates shooters. I maybe played an hour or so of multiplayer before deciding I hated the community as a whole and didn't want to bother with anything CoD related ever again.

I at least went through the solo campaign. I remember appreciating the gunplay on a mechanical level; but the story and its elements felt utterly boilerplate.

"Oh hey, look! It's another shady deal between the US and Russia, and the Brits are once again cast as the sneaky sorts! How original! Oh, look! The American soldiers all talk like they're compensating for something and say 'Oorah' a lot!"

Yeah. Boring as fuck to me.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I bought Shaq Fu for a buck. Didn't actually play it and I don't even know if it even works, I just want to be able to say I own it.

I also got a secondhand copy of Deadly Premonitions, because I heard it's one of those 'so bad, it's good' games and I like that sort of thing. I've yet to play it tho.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

I usually buy my games a year or two (then usually wait another couple of years to play them) after they're released, can that still be considered "in the loop"? Not that I buy them just to brag that I did, it's because I genuinely want to experience a game that so many others say is fun (which has been a let down quite often).

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Why would I do that? I buy games that I want to play. And then I play them.

You should really play Portal, Mass Effect and Darksiders. Especially Darksiders 2. One of the most underrated games ever.

 

[4RM3D]

Nope, I don't care how popular a game is. I only care about price, quality and genre.

 

[gigastar]

I at least try to play all the games that i buy.

If only i could remember which ones i havent played yet...

 

[laggyteabag]

I never buy games just to say that I've played it because I just don't have enough money to go out and do that, If a game gets a lot of good hype and praise I'll look at some reviews and then I'll decide if its worth the purchase.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Bioshock Infinite, back when I had money to blow. Found it to be exceedingly boring. Apparently the pretty art direction didn't mask what ended up feeling like a cookie-cutter shooter.

On the plus side, it was the PS3 version that came with Bioshock. That I found to be much more enjoyable.

 

[Iwantstuff]

Got Bioshock 1 and 2 for ten bucks off a Steam sale less that a year ago. Still haven't even touched them, but I figured for that price I had an obligation to pick them up.

 

[Sectan]

Never done it for some status symbol, but I picked up the Thief games on a whim since I had finished Dishonored. The series was on sale and everyone talks about how much of a classic it is. While the controls and UI were a bit of a barrier I still really liked it. I'll have to install it again in a bit here.