I often talk about my enormous backlog of videogames, and that got me thinking about how it all started. I have been playing videogames since 1998, but my compulsive shopping began in 2014. What happened?
For starters, I must admit that during all my childhood and teen years I always had money issues. I used to buy one single (used) videogame from time to time, playing it and then I used to resell it to buy another. With a total of 20€ in six months I could play five or six different videogames. I was happy that way, even though I could not buy all the videogames I wanted.
Things changed after I turned 18, not because my financial situation got that better, but because of Humble Bundle and other sites like that. with 20€ I could buy lots of videogames without any effort. I cumulated title after title both on my Steam library and on my shelf.
Plus, I was writing for videogames websites. Thanks to that I was more and more aware of what was coming out, when the price would drop and where to make my purchase. So I kept buying. And buying. And cumulating.
Why did my compulsive shopping almost ruin my passion for videogames? Because I was not accustomed to having all those videogames. At the moment my Steam library has the incredible (for me) number of 412 games. And I haven’t played yet most of them. I don’t have a number of the games I have on consoles and the ones I still have to play, but they are not just a bunch.
Sometimes I want to play something, but I just don’t know which game should I start or continue. At the moment I am playing Hades, Cyberpunk 2077, Grand Theft Auto V, Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX at the same time. I have too many games to play and many other interests to follow.
2019 was a dark year for both myself and my passion for videogames. I spent months without playing because I was both exausted of writing videogames news everyday (other than my job) and of my backlog. I did not play anything for over six months (except The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+). After that I decided to start buying less games.
I still love videogames, but I don’t want to feel anymore overwhelmed by my backlog. The gaming world is going so fast, with hundreds of new titles every year, but I just can’t follow this rhythm anymore.
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