Incline NoGrab September - Thread for those who want to, plan to or already did stop buying more games permanently

[El Presidente]

DISCUSS!!! in this thread if you fit in title's description and talk about your reasoning behind it. You might want to stop grabbing more games because you think the modern industry sucks ass or because your backlog is already big enough for ten lifetimes. If you have some plan or target, such as buying games for X more times or until the release of a specific game you desire that'll finish and lock your collection, or maybe until you reach a specific number of games in your Steam/GOG account, tell us about it.

For those of you who already managed to stop, share your experience and if you feel the temptation to break the NoGrab rule here and there when something interesting catches your attention.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

fun fact: you can get most games for free

 

[orcinator]

Do a year of no-grab instead. Then repeat.

 

[Bester]

I've never grabbed in my life. The only time I even buy games (reluctantly) is when they have network gameplay and I plan on playing them online. All other games are free.

I unironically see all grabbers as pathetic worms.

How am I so based? I was raised this way. For my 13th birthday, my parents were so poor that they gave me 50 belgian francs, which later became 1.20 euros when the Euro was introduced. I spent it on a large bag of chips. Thankfully we had broadband internet (for which I worked on weekends), so with Kazaa, Edonkey, Emule and then torrents I never had any problem. And when I grew up, I was simply free of the jewish brainwashing that you had to pay for digital goods. It's simply not true.

 

[Athena]

I've bought a grand total of two (2) games in the last 3 years, those I've played so much that I felt it was wrong to not give the dev a cent.

Not to defend piracy (I admit I have no morals), but the industry would benefit with fewer consooomers, only paying for select games. Too much noise and low effort content flooding the market, the entire thing needs a good flushing.

 

[JamesDixon]

There really isn't that much that catches my eye these days. It's all Zoomer poser shit trying to compete with the classics that are 100 times better in all departments. Imitation is not the greatest form of flattery. It's the gangbang bukkake rape of the classics meant to bombard you with shit modern sensibilities to induce Stockholm Syndrome.

 

[Melcar]

Most games in my GOG library are digital versions of old games I used to play in my youth. I still have the original physical media for them so it's just for convenience. The rest are things GOG has given me for free or a few newer games (indies mostly) that I bothered to buy on deep discounts. My small Steam library is made up mostly of indie games that I got on deep discounts or giveaways.

There is just nothing out there currently that catches my eye, and if it does, modern sensibilities in those games turn me off. I may pirate some AAA once in a while, but it's just so I can justify the discrete video card on my PC.

 

[Machocruz]

Games are rental worthy at best these days. I don't have the time or inclination to see a game through to the end, or even half way to the end, so why buy? Even if the game is great, I'll reach a point before the end where I simply lose fervor or something else catches my attention. Streaming service at most now (and only until I upgrade hardware), usually "demos" through means nautical.

 

[potatojohn]

Games are rental worthy at best these days. I don't have the time or inclination to see a game through to the end, or even half way to the end, so why buy? Even if the game is great, I'll reach a point before the end where I simply lose fervor or something else catches my attention. Streaming service at most now (and only until I upgrade hardware), usually "demos" through means nautical.

You're in luck then, when you "buy" games on online platforms, you're really just renting them.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Games are rental worthy at best these days. I don't have the time or inclination to see a game through to the end, or even half way to the end, so why buy? Even if the game is great, I'll reach a point before the end where I simply lose fervor or something else catches my attention. Streaming service at most now (and only until I upgrade hardware), usually "demos" through means nautical.

You're in luck then, when you "buy" games on online platforms, you're really just renting them.

wait until you find out there's no difference between data sitting on your hard drive and data sitting on a disk

You've always been renting video games. People who think physical products somehow confer ownership are top-tier consoomers.

 

[Bigg Boss]

I mean you own the disc and the box and the booklets and all that right?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I mean you own the disc and the box and the booklets and all that right?

disc, sure why not... contents on it? nah
boxart is likely copyrighted
same deal with the booklet

you will own nothing and you will be unhappy

 

[Machocruz]

Cheeky semantics aside, renting is paying a lower than purchase price fee to use a game for a specified duration of time. Buying is paying purchase price to use a game (for its rights holder's intended purpose) an indefinite amount of time. You don't really own the game, but for the intent and purpose of most people, it's "yours". The Feds aren't coming to seize your Morrowind GoTY discs, with 99.9999999% amount of certainty.


Most games only offer a rental period amount of quality, if that, so none of this matters personally speaking.

 

[Gerrard]

The last game I bought for myself was Yakuza 0 in May 2021. I still have several games on Steam that I bought on some sale and never even installed, which is the main reason I stopped buying games.

 

[Pound Meat]

Last game I got was Assassin's Creed 3 for Switch. I'mm afraid to open it as it may be too modern. Anything after 2013 is the work of Satan.

 

[JarlFrank]

Buying cheap games at a discount and never playing them is my favorite hobby so I won't participate

I also do the same with books. Not ebooks, physical books. My house is getting filled with books. I do read them (and play the games I buy, too) but I buy too many and too quickly to ever be able to get through all of them.
Send help.

 

[Dickie]

Buying cheap games at a discount and never playing them is my favorite hobby

Me after buying a bundle that's cheaper than the one game I wanted:

 

[El Presidente]

Buying cheap games at a discount and never playing them is my favorite hobby so I won't participate

I also do the same with books. Not ebooks, physical books. My house is getting filled with books. I do read them (and play the games I buy, too) but I buy too many and too quickly to ever be able to get through all of them.
Send help.

Same, but I plan on stopping this. Between steam, gog, emulators and mods/fan missions/etc I have enough 8+/10 content to play for the rest of my life, so keeping grabbing more and more stuff is just brainless consumerism on my part at this point. It's hard to empty the wishlist for good tho, it feels there's always something that "your collection can't just end up without it" like Elden Ring (which I still didn't get), Hollow Knight Silksong, Homeworld 3 (if it doesn't suck), etc. So I think at some point you have to make a compromise and stop buying more even if there's still interesting stuff on the horizon.

 

[Alphons]

My house is getting filled with books.

Send help.

 

[Curratum]

Ah, I see you've reached your "horrible realization" phase, El Presidente

It will pass, don't worry. I went trough it a few years ago. Since then I only buy keys at around 80% off or cheaper, and usually play the things I buy for at least 10-20 hours, so it's practically not money wasted.

The first step to emotional healing is realizing how much of a dumbfuck you have been and manually hiding all shitty games in your library that you bought and tested but will never play ever again. That process left me with 470 out of 1500+ games.

From that new position of internalized dumbfuckery, you will be able to see more clearly and either buy games that cost peanuts, so you don't regret it later, or stop buying at all and play what you have.