Don't get dragged into the Steam Sale!

Last week, I was looking at my Steam wishlist last week, and I was planning on buying the next item there come the next Steam Sale. But now, with the sale on going, I can't help but think about if I should buy the next game on my “to-play” list, but I am still in the middle of one of those games. I realized I still have 100 hours or more before I could install the next one in my backlog and I can't imagine that I would be installing this one soon.

This made me think about my Steam Library, and how much have I spent on it. How many of the games I bought and how many of those games I have actually played. Thankfully steamDB has a calculator [link] to help me see a birds-eye view of my library.

So apparently I have spent around €400 and the whole library is worth almost €700. My average price per hour is also amazing, as I have made the most out of my purchases. I also was able to at least play most of my bought games and that gap is shrinking with each time I close out a game from my backlog.

I'm also glad that I have only bought 1 game at full price (Hitman 2016), and the rest I have waited for a sale later down the year.

This made me curious about other people and how much they spend on Steam? Do they actually play the games they bought? And I was shocked to see how many gamers just give money to game publishers without even opening the game they paid for! [Reddit - link]

One guy has a steam library worth 75,000$, over 10,000 games and 9,000 of those games are unplayed.

I am bewildered as to why anyone would buy something and not use it?

The value of the unplayed games invested in the S&P500 since he was a member (20 years) would amount to almost $200,000 today, and he didn't have to do anything! Instead of paying 70$ for a game he would not play, he should have just placed it in a high growth index fund and it would worth a lot more later.

The absurdity of consumerism is thinking that we can buy happiness, when all it does it give us a momentary high that goes away leading us to seek out the next one.

And this is personally frustrating to me because I have seen many loved ones who thought that they can buy their way through life and their challenges.

One bought a phone for the camera, only to take pictures of the same office window. Another bought a tablet to be more productive, only to spend more time watching youtube instead of writing. And another bought a smartwatch to monitor their fitness only to lightly jog once and never again. And another bought a game on Steam on sale, because reviews said it was a must play experience, only for years to go by and the game is yet to be downloaded and installed on their computer.

WE CAN'T BUY OUR WAY INTO FULFILLMENT!

You want to be a photographer? Then just take pictures! You want to write more? Then just write more! You want to be fit? Then do the work! But you don't need to buy anything to start!

This is the toolbox fallacy, you believing you just need to have a particular tool or thing, and then you can start. But this is bullshit! The masters didn't have the best tools to make their craft, they just made them. Michael Jordan didn't have any fancy equipment, just the will and determination to be the best, and he did. And you don't need the next game they are selling you to feel something, because chances are, you already have it in your Steam Library, all you have to do is download and install it.

I was itching for a tycoon/management game recently, and I was pleasantly surprised that I downloaded Two Point Hospital again. It was sitting in my backlog for years and last week I just decided to play it, and I was glad I didn't go through the Steam Sale and bought a similar game. The 20€ I would have spent on a new game was deposited to my money box where it will acquire interest as I slowly save up for my 3D printer.

SO my point is not “You should never spend your money!”, (I am buying an expensive piece of equipment for an arts and craft project) rather, I am advocating for smarter purchases. We don't eat out when there is food at home. We don't subscribe to streaming when we have CDs and DVDs (and because most movies and TV shows recently are just not that interesting to us). We don't buy new stuff when our old ones work fine. WE DON'T PREORDER GAMES, NOR BUY GAMES AT LAUNCH AND NOT UNLESS THEY ARE ON SALE!

It may be a difficult concept to grasp, but I refer you to Robert Greene from one of my favorite books: 

Half of your mastery of power comes from what you do not do, what you do not allow yourself to get dragged into. For this skill you must learn to judge all things by what they cost you. As Nietzsche wrote, “The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it—what it costs us.” Perhaps you will attain your goal, and a worthy goal at that, but at what price? Apply this standard to everything, including whether to collaborate with other people or come to their aid. In the end, life is short, opportunities are few, and you have only so much energy to draw on. And in this sense time is as important a consideration as any other. Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others—that is too high a price to pay.” 

What is a game's worth? For me, a game discounted to 20€ for 40€ is not me saving 20€; it's me trading 2 hours of work, or half a week's groceries, or parking at the Scandic. It's not just 20€, it's more than that.