I buy some just to support the developer if they are small.
Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
131–140 of 225 posts
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#132I’ve bought a bunch of games just to support the creators, to vote with my dollar and say: I want more of this. Dwarf Fortress comes to mind as an example. I’ve got to sit down and learn to play it. Will probably take a week!
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#133The title is a misreading of the data. It's not that "most people who buy games on Steam never play them". It's that most games people buy remain unplayed. A tiny, tiny minority of people who buy games of Steam never play games they buy on Steam. EDIT: Apparently, this error was introduced by the HN submission! The title of the article on the website is: "Most people who buy your game won’t play it". This matches the…
The article glosses over what I'd have to believe is the biggest reason - some games, in particular older AAA games, are discounted so aggressively that it seems silly to not purchase. Like 5-15% of the original retail price.
It’s never silly to not buy something you’re not going to use. Particularly once you realize there will be an identical sale or discount in 6 months.
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article glosses over what I'd have to believe is the biggest reason - some games, in particular older AAA games, are discounted so aggressively that it seems silly to not purchase. Like 5-15% of the original retail price.
It’s never silly to not buy something you’re not going to use. Particularly once you realize there will be an identical sale or discount in 6 months.
It absolutely makes sense to buy things you may (emphasis on may) never use, especially if it never "expires". Insurance is a great example.
People are buying these games knowing they're adding to their backlog and likely won't get through the whole thing, but the price is so low that the chance they'll want to play the game someday is enough.
I'm one of these (apparently rather typical) consumers and will buy almost any modern-class AAA game if it's $5.
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article glosses over what I'd have to believe is the biggest reason - some games, in particular older AAA games, are discounted so aggressively that it seems silly to not purchase. Like 5-15% of the original retail price.
It’s never silly to not buy something you’re not going to use. Particularly once you realize there will be an identical sale or discount in 6 months.
My argument is the value quotient is so insane that the primary friction to purchase is likely more down to the UX of the storefront to complete the purchase, rather than the purchase price itself.
So in that vein, it doesn't matter if there will be another identical sale. The psychological things "in the way" to complete a purchase are virtually non-existent if you had even a minor passing interest in the title the first time you see it at that fire sale price.
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#136I have a huge backlog of games I’ve bought on sale knowing I would enjoy them, but never got around to playing them. It’s well over 50% of my game library. The problem for me is that a good game that you really like can easily eat multiple thousands of hours. It’s just a time consuming hobby. And it takes a lot of effort to get started on a new game. I can’t help but think “wouldn’t I rather spend that time improving…
Literally thousands?? A 40-hour work week for a year is ~2000 hours. Out of curiosity, what's your rough 'playing schedule'?
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#137Taking a segue, I am a 50+ man who hasn't played any games in my working life. I did play Prince of Persia 2 but never crossed level 1. Played Doom in the network mode with classmates. Now I want to start exploring games. I am on Ubuntu with Intel graphics. I am ready to invest in a joystick or gamepad. What games do you guys recommend to me? Also any hardware accessories, other than GPU's, that is? I just tried Stea…
Hands down one of the best games I have ever played was Subnautica and I highly recommend it without knowing your preferences. It’s a deep sea exploration / builder with a story that gets crazier and crazier. It’s also very approachable and mostly easy to play.
Thanks. Looks interesting... Will definitely try this one
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#138This makes me wonder how much consumer spending as a whole is on products that people never use. It's not like this psychology is unique to gaming. Could it be as high as 50%?
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#139I won't say it's not hording, but there are also some other reasons you can't well untangle from hording: - buying games you played pirated before (now that you can afford them), but you already played them so no need to play again - buying games you played at someone else place, lend to you etc. Again you already played them but want to give back to the authors. - buying games you will play later, and once you play…
Also collections. I almost finished Tomb Raider II.
Re: Most people who buy games on Steam never play them
#140I wish more game developers adopt the “no sales, period” policy of Factorio. Here’s a relevant quote from the developer. > Not having a sale ever is part of our philosophy. In short term, they are good and bring extra money, but we are targeting long term. I believe that searching for sales is wasted time, and people should decide on the price and value, but putting option of wasting time to search for deals or waiti…
The reason factorio devs can take such a stance is that they crowd financed the game over a decade ago when doing that was viable, and since then the game has achieved cult status. Sure the game was officially released in 2020, but it had been in Early Access since 2016. Ironically I bought it and never played it. I only bought it because I played a clone of the game called "Dyson's Sphere" made by a Chinese develope…
> FOMO happens typically when a big game is released
FOMO around sales: I've bought a bunch of games when they were on sale even though I was not going to play them right away, simply because I didn't want to end up wanting to play them later and have to buy them full(-ish) price. And then I never played them anyway.