How do I keep stopping myself from buying more Video Games?

[Knight of Virtuosity]

I just want to enjoy what I have. I want to play with a lot of them, but I just don't have the time for it. How do I keep myself from buying more and more? And please don't troll me with "just stop buying them" comments, I need real, usable tips that can get me out of this mess.

[Cathulhu]

Self control, professional help.

[mimizukari]

One possible way to curb your spending on Steam is to have your bank treat it as a suspicious transaction and decline every purchase you attempt to make on the platform. To do this, you need to call your bank and ask them to block any transactions made to Steam's merchant account. This way, you will not be able to buy any games on Steam unless you contact your bank again and reverse the block. This may seem like a drastic measure, but it can help you save money and avoid impulse buying.

[Knight of Virtuosity]

I don't want to go that far, I want to change my way of thinking, to get more enjoyment out of them. I use Playnite and that tells me to randomly get selected a game and I keep playing that but it is never enough. I crave the feeling to get known to a new game. Plus I have games on other platforms, I just don't want them all to be curbed by that idea.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Knight of Virtuosity:

I don't want to go that far, I want to change my way of thinking, to get more enjoyment out of them. I use Playnite and that tells me to randomly get selected a game and I keep playing that but it is never enough. I crave the feeling to get known to a new game. Plus I have games on other platforms, I just don't want them all to be curbed by that idea.

You can reverse it whenever you want to buy games again, but it's something that's annoying to go through each time so it'll make you think twice about it.

[Knight of Virtuosity]

So essentially, if you don't want to run, cut off your leg? It can be "reprosthetized" again. It will never be the same. This is too drastic. Isn't there a psychological trick that can help?

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by Knight of Virtuosity:

So essentially, if you don't want to run, cut off your leg? It can be "reprosthetized" again. It will never be the same. This is too drastic. Isn't there a psychological trick that can help?

It isn't drastic at all, it is a simple trick that will psychologically make it harder to buy new games because of the effort you need to go through to reinstate your purchases. Your bank should have no trouble enabling/disabling it at will as it's part of their job and helps them pass the time for the day as well.

[A93ntZ3r0]

Some tips:
- Choose 2 or 3 games from the library and never buy a new game unless you play and finish those chosen games, with achievements if possible.
- Never preorder a game.
- If a game in your wishlist is currently discounted, you can simply ignore it because you will NEVER miss a discount, it will be discounted again in the future.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Knight of Virtuosity:

Isn't there a psychological trick that can help?

There is. But it might require talking to an actual psychologist.

I've cut down on my games spending as well, but I did it by shifting my attention to my backlog and by tighter budgeting.

[Ogami]

I been there for a while. What did help me was a mix of self control and using some help in form of browser addons like "leech block".
Basically i put every video game news, store, shop and forum site on a block list.
Then your browser will not allow you to open them anymore.

Then get rid of all the Youtbue channels with gaming news and influencer crap and such.
If you dont hear about new games for a few weeks/months you automatically are "out the loop" and concentrate more on the games you have.

Worked for me at least, did not buy a game in the last 5 months and that was just something cheap during the winter sale.

[77-TIME]

Originally posted by Knight of Virtuosity:

I just want to enjoy what I have. I want to play with a lot of them, but I just don't have the time for it. How do I keep myself from buying more and more? And please don't troll me with "just stop buying them" comments, I need real, usable tips that can get me out of this mess.

When you want to buy another game, Make sure you take advantage of the Grace Period of trying the game.

Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any title that is requested within 14 days of purchase and has been played for less than 2 hours. Even if you fall outside of the refund rules we've described, you can submit a request and we'll take a look at it.

Change your habit of buying a game you do not play, and start trying the games you like for an hour and if you don't feel the "Good Game" feeling to keep it, Simply refund and look for another.
Do this 1 game at a time. Only keep what you want within the 2 hour of gameplay or 14 day period.

I suggest you reflect on your habits and feelings that lead you to the actions you take. Self understanding will help you combat negative outcomes in the future by understanding your own weaknesses.

Good Luck.

[Spawn of Totoro]

You can always set up Family View with the store being restricted. The extra step helps one rethink if they need to access the store and why. You can also go a step further and have someone you trust set Family View up on the account, so you don't have easy access to the store.

[Knight of Virtuosity]

These are all helpful, thank you.

[Knight of Virtuosity]

Originally posted by komarow:

a sense of belonging is a thing where a lot of my purchases are a matter of following a "trend", ie if 99 percent of people play dota or dayz i tend to get there regardless of my personal preference and a lot of steam community features are encouraging me a lot of being part of any hype i can ride around virtually anything for example owning games a lot of the time is a lot like being part of a group rather than a genuine interest in a product so what i would personally do is cleanup a lot of "fluff" around non-gaming activity, ie i tend to remove anything that is not directly related to me playing a game, a lot of games are just endlessly there as a "feature" rather than a need to play them.

What do you mean by this? This is a very interesting take, but as you haven't used any dots or commas in your sentence, I cannot comprehend it.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by komarow:

a sense of belonging is a thing where a lot of my purchases are a matter of following a "trend", ie if 99 percent of people play dota or dayz i tend to get there regardless of my personal preference and a lot of steam community features are encouraging me a lot of being part of any hype i can ride around virtually anything for example owning games a lot of the time is a lot like being part of a group rather than a genuine interest in a product so what i would personally do is cleanup a lot of "fluff" around non-gaming activity, ie i tend to remove anything that is not directly related to me playing a game, a lot of games are just endlessly there as a "feature" rather than a need to play them.

In my experience, opting out of hype is a choice, fueled by a psyhologocla cost-galculation. Following a hype instead of what your getting drawn to, is a cost. You're gaining something g by doing that, i.e. bring able to go with whatever flow.

Do you get at much though? I found, that flowing with a hype doesn't satisfy me. Yeah, sure, I belong with the others, I'm a aprt of the group. But if the group's about something I don't genuinely care, I'm not honestly interested in, I get VERY little gain. Especially do i gain less, than enjoying whatever I genuinely enjoy. I could play Elder Scrolls if I wanted, this stuff's massively popular and I got a ton of people around me IRL to share this joy with. But since that's not real joy, I don't. Instead, I play actual RPGs such as Greedfall or Elex,for my own sake. Not to belong to a group I don't feel happy in, but to get the fun of playing games that tickles by brain in a satisfying manner.

[ReBoot]

True, most people will "happily" go with the external flow. Quotation marks, as I don't think this yields true happiness. True happiness comes from pursiung what suits you, what you like. To an extent, anyway, if screwing others other is what suits me, I'd rather reflect on that than doing what I'd love to, but you don't harm others by playing videogames they don't like. I don't harm people by chosing Windows over Linux, for example, although I've met a ton of Linux zealots pretending that to be the case, but that's a topic for another day.

Today, the topic is following what you like, despite what others tell you. Others don't have the same taste that you do! Well, that, and others may very well sit in that "gotta go with the others" pit themselves, unconsciously dragging you into the very same pit. You don't have to do what most people do, you aren't "most people", you are you! Especially if "most people" do in fact run with cognitive fallacies, harming themselves in the process.

Finally, either don't go with first looks (I've long stopped doing that with games & movies) or be ready to bail out IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT! That's a very important difference, if something isn't the way you expected it, is it bad or just different? Throw out what you expected & divert your attention to what's on offer. Maybe you'll like it afterall! And if you don't, bail out.There's no shame in leaving a social event, a sports game, a restaurant, ..., because you don't like it, no matter how much you manage your expectations. In the case of a restaurant though, I very much recommend paying before you leave