Well, another year has come and gone and in the time it took us to orbit the sun, I got up to a good deal of gaming! I’ve been pretty active this year on my blog as far as attempting to study both Japanese and C++, but when I wasn’t up to education I was for the most part either parenting, working, podcasting, or gaming. While the kiddo naps, lets take a moment to brag about our (my) nerdiness!
In October of last year, I realized that:
[I’ve] Added it up, and I’ve paid over $655 for the more than 111 unplayed games in my collection. That’s a pretty bad back log. I’ve played 14 games this year. If I stopped buying games today, I own enough I can continue playing at this pace for the next 8 years and never play a game that I’ve already played…
That said, a good number of those games were part of Humble Bundles, where I acquired a large number of games I don’t even care to try..
But given how many games I own that I’d like to play again when Laz is old enough combined with the assortment I’ve never played that I’d like to get around to…. I think I’m at a weird point in my life where it makes sense to cease spending on this hobby I enjoy so much.
… and so I went into 2016 with the decision to not buy any more games this year. How did I fare with that?
It took me 12 days to buy my first game. I was able to pay for it “for free” using my Steam Wallet due to having sold trading cards… so it was easy to rationalize buying Influent since it aligned with my language learning goals, and was technically not being purchased. I live in an electronic world however, and next thing I know I’m buying bundles left and right, and even buying consoles. I am weak willed. And weak bodied, but that’s irrelevant. Stop shaming me.
So just what did I end up acquiring this year?
Well… console wise I was given a Nintendo Mini Family Computer, and I bought an Xbox One S. I figured that due to my previous job giving me free copies of Gears of War 1, 2, 3, 4 and Judgement as well as a slick Gears of War 4 custom engraved Elite Controller (and already owning Xbox One controllers) that it was worth picking one up on boxing day to one day show my kid the games I worked on. Check back in on Wednesday for our next podcast, where I’ll talk a little bit about what it’s like having a mini Famicom.
Game wise… well… are you ready? Alright… well… in alphabetical order, here’s the games that I acquired that I have managed to find time to play start to finish:
| Battlefield 1 | Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright | Gears of War 4 | Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns | Influent (Japanese Kana) |
| Parasite Eve | Pokemon Yellow | Rocket League | Total War: Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai Collection | To The Moon |
Not so bad right? That’s only 10 games! Ok… well… prepare yourself for the list of games I’ve acquired (free or purchased) and have not had a chance to touch at all:
| 80 Days | Adventure of Link | Alpha Centauri | Assassin’s Creed III | Assassin’s Creed Unity |
| Atlantis no Nazo | Atic Atac | Banjo-Kazooie | Banjo-Tooie | Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts |
| Balloon Fight | Battlefield 4 | Battletoads | Battletoads Arcade | Bioshock |
| Bioshock 2 | Blast Corps | Broken Age | Bumping Sumo | Call of Juarez: Gunslinger |
| Castlevania | Catherine | Chroma Squad | Cibele | Cobra Triangle |
| Columns | Command & Conquer | Command & Conquer: Generals | Command & Conquer: Renegade | Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun |
| Command & Conquer: 3 | Command & Conquer 4 | Command & Conquer: Red Alert | Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 | Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 |
| Company of Heroes Complete Edition | Company of Heroes 2: Master Collection | Conker’s Bad Fur Day | Dead Space 2 | Digger T. Rock |
| Donkey Kong | Double Dragon II The Revenge | Downtown Nekketsu March Soreyuke | Dragon Age Origins | Dragon Age II |
| Dragon Age Inquisition | Dr. Mario | Eastside Hockey Manager | Endless Legend™ – Classic Edition | Excite Bike |
| Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon | Final Fantasy III | Fire Emblem:Conquest | Frozen Synapse | Gain Ground |
| Galaga | Gears of War 2 | Gears of War 3 | Gears of War Judgement | Grabbed by the Ghoulies |
| Gradius | GRID | Grow Home | Gunfright | Halo 1 |
| Halo 2 | Halo 3 | Halo 4 | Helen’s Mysterious Castle | Her Story |
| Hyper Light Drifer | Ice Climber | Influent ((French)) | Jade Empire Special Edition | Jet Force Gemini |
| Jetpac | Jetpac Refuelled | Kameo | Killer Instinct Gold | Kirby’s Adventure |
| Knight Lore | Knights of Pen and Paper +1 | The Legend of Zelda | Lost Oddyssey | Lunar Jetman |
| Makai Village | Mario Open Golf | Mega Man 2 | Mega Man Legends | Mega Man Legends 2 |
| Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain | Metroid | Mirror’s Edge Catalyst | Need For Speed | Need For Speed Rivals |
| Neverwinter Nights Diamond | Ninja Gaiden | Pac-Man | Perfect Dark | Perfect Dark Zero |
| Rayman Origins | R.C. Pro-Am | R.C. Pro-Am II | Read Only Memories | River City Ransom |
| Sabre Wulf | Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 | Sid Meyer’s Colonization | Sim City | The Sims 4 + 2 Expansions + 2 Bundles |
| Slalom | Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll | Solar Jetman | Solomon’s Key | Sorcery! Parts 1 and 2 |
| Spec Ops The Line | Spore | Stardew Valley | Super Mario Bros. | Super Mario USA |
| Super Mario Bros. 3 | Super Tamashito Luo | System Shock 2 | That Dragon Cancer | This War of Mine |
| Total War: Atilla | Total War Collectin: Medieval II | Total War Collection: Rome | Total War: SHOGUN 2 Collection | Ultima 1 |
| Ultima 2 | Ultima 3 | Ultima 4 | Ultima 5 | Ultima 6 |
| Ultima 7 | Ultima 8 | Ultima 9 | Ultima Underworld 1 | Ultima Underworld 2 |
| Undertale | Underwurlde | Unravel | Vagrant Story | Viva Pinata |
| Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise | Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War Master Collection | Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II – Grand Master Collection | XCOM 2 Digital Deluxe | Yie Ar Kung-Fu |
And that’s just games acquired through 2016… so… uh… hmm… I don’t think I did very well with that particular New Years Resolution. I acquired almost 4 times the amount of games in 2016 as I did in 2015. But to be fair, a good chunk of them were free (either through give-aways, through work, or through friends). And while I acquired a lot more games… I actually spent $100 less than I did in 2015.
But that said… howlongtobeat.com suggests I’ve got a backlog of approximately 4876.5 hours at the moment. If we use how many hours I was able to dedicate to gaming this year as an indicator (around 50 minutes a day)… that means if I stop acquiring games RIGHT NOW… I might be able to clear out my backlog at around the same time my son moves out. That’s… that’s actually a little unsettling when I think of it in those terms.
So… I’m definitely going to double down on my game acquisitions this year… and by that I mean my decision to stop buying.
But it won’t deter me from playing games.