Steam Conundrum

Skerries

would you rather build up your collection slowly or if someone handed you the complete Steam games collection account would you take it?

I personally would like to build up my own collection and feel its my own choosing as opposed to feeling impartial to an account I just got for nothing

Pushtrak

The first option would be better as it would avoid the horrors of so much time spent trying to figure out what to play next. And when playing a game, if you didn't have lots of other games, you'd be more likely to keep playing one that isn't all that great *right now* but gets a lot better. And when you stop playing something, it's often a case you don't go back. Not for a long time, anyway. Though, heck, being given the keys to the whole set? I'd not turn that down. I'd get over the 'challenges', I'm sure :pac:

cherryghost

I'd take the entire collection no brainer.

Turtwig

Entire collection.
I like to think of steam as very similar to Netflix - you pay a small amount for access to a very large library of content. Gaming isn't supposed to reflect the mundane reality of life. It's meant to be a form of escapism. So what if we don't finish every game? Or only try one. The point is that when we have the free the time available to us any distraction, any world, that we choose to immerse ourselves in is instantly available on demand. If you feel like a racer you can play it. If you feel like delving yourself into an rpg epic you can do that too. Competitive, maybe even professional, gaming? That's there too. Cooperative teamwork? Yup, all there and accounted for. General messing around? Anything! Anything you want to do you can do. There's no rule that says we must finish our games. I know I've seen tonnes of blogs go on about how awful it is that people have unfinished games. Maybe it is? But I don't see why we ought to finish every game we play? As long as we have fun isn't that all that really matters?

Games aren't lifetime tasks they're distractions from it that we can use whatever way we see fit. Some games we'll enjoy so much that we'll waste hours on. Others we'll become addicted to so much that we may no longer love playing them but find we can't stop. Others we'll hate with a passion and wish we could take the hours we spent on them back! The thing is escapism is always there and if we want more than escapism that's there too.

Overheal

take it all, theres a favorites bar after all.

NTMK

The entire collection


if only to end destruction of my bank account by steam sales

Kiith

Definitely take it all, and just hide the crap you don't want to ever play.

Grimebox

Does anyone else who voted "Build up my own account" want to chime in? I really don't get this

Banjo

There's nothing stopping you from doing both. Except common sense and basic economics

ShadowHearth

I would take a whole collection. It would save me a few quid, not that many at this stage! :pac:

Taylor365

I wouldn't take it all.

I remember when i was young i had 2 or 3 games for the Sega. Played them to bits!

Now i have loads of games (around 30ish) and don't play many of them at all (alot unfinished or not even started).

I don't know whether its an age thing or a matter of too much choice = indecision/lack on interest.

Magill

Taylor365 wrote: »

I wouldn't take it all.

I remember when i was young i had 2 or 3 games for the Sega. Played them to bits!

Now i have loads of games (around 30ish) and don't play many of them at all (alot unfinished or not even started).

I don't know whether its an age thing or a matter of too much choice = indecision/lack on interest.

Its age...

super_furry

Get stuff for free or don't get stuff for free?

I'll take the stuff for free please.

Grimebox

Well as someone who pirates games regularly, I will give far more time and effort to a game that I actually invested money in. I think the same applies to how you spent far longer playing those 3 games in your youth. You didn't have the money to buy what you wanted so they were far more valuable to you

Dravokivich

Wait... what's the catch?

EGriff

Is the complete steam collection a thing? Or did someone just buy every game that's for sale on there one by one?

Or is this just a hypothetical question.

I don't get it.

Judging by the steam sale thread some of you people are going for the whole set manually.

Monotype

The entire steam collection? Are you sure this isn't dodgy?

Zillah

I'm assuming it's just a hypothetical.

Frankly I find the question completely bizarre. It does, I suppose, reflect the attitude that led to Steam spamming me with digital trading cards. I found that really bizarre too. Steam isn't a collectors hobby to me, it's not an activity, it is a online store through which I buy computer games. If its anything else to you then I can't help but feel you've drunk the marketing kool aid, to borrow an Americanism.

Full catalogue for free, please.

Dacelonid

I built up my own collection and half the charm, is organising them into categories, and then changing my mind and doing it a different way etc, so thats half the fun.
But also I can hardly find anything in my own collection as is, it would be impossible to find a game to play if someone handed me the full catalogue

Antar Bolaeisk

EGriff wrote: »

Is the complete steam collection a thing? Or did someone just buy every game that's for sale on there one by one?

Or is this just a hypothetical question.

I don't get it.

Judging by the steam sale thread some of you people are going for the whole set manually.

They gave out the entire Steam collection to some people either during the last Summer Sale or the sale before. There's also journalist accounts which come with access to all the games.

C14N

I'd take the whole thing. I can see the whole idea of it being fun to build up a collection but Steam is never like that, at least not for me. Steam has always been about getting as close the the first scenario as possible with as little money as possible by using sales and stuff. Almost since the beginning, I've had a massive backlog of games that I still haven't gotten to play yet. I think that's what Steam is about for me, there will always be something else on the shelf ready to go for when I finish my current game.

Sarky

Call me sentimental if you must, but I like the fact that I've slowly grown my own collection of games. Every item on the list is something I wanted, and enjoy playing. I've a lot of history behind the 7ish years I've been on Steam as Sarklor. Great victories, crushing defeats, friends made, achievements unlocked, potatoes gathered... I've invested a lot of time and effort and emotion (and money) into that account. I'm damn proud of it. Just accepting some other account would feel... I dunno, parasitic in a way. I'd feel kinda like a pirate, I suspect.

Besides, there was buggerall in the last sale or two that I didn't already have >_>

Fnz

This thought experiment doesn't outline any negative repercussions for the gifter or the recipient of the collection. Not sure I understand why people would opt to pay for games over getting them for free. The money saved could be spent elsewhere. You could set up a curated list from the selection of games if you want something that actually reflects your tastes. You could always set up a second account if a curated list, alone isn't good enough.

I don't think deriving pleasure from spending money to collect things is a mindset to be encouraged.

Sierra Oscar

Wouldn't mind one of those Steam 'gold accounts', although I think Valve have been phasing them out over time.

Still though, building up a collection and tailoring it to your gaming habits is nice.

BlitzKrieg

sort of tested this on a friend.

I needed to cut down on games a few months ago so I gave my steam account to a friend for 4 months. He had a very small steam account with just the valve games on it, I had an account with a couple hundred titles.

It was interesting to look back and see that he had installed 10+ of the games in one quick flurry and but only played and completed 1 (Walking Dead)

(as for how I could see that, I just checked my profile page on steam to see last played games and for how long etc)