14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study of the Steam digital distribution service from Valve has shown that about 37 percent of all the titles that were sold using it have never been opened by the purchaser and another 10 percent were played for less than one full hour.
The data might be a little inaccurate and the situation might be very different with those titles that players have picked up in a store in physical form, but the statistic is sad and should prompt a wider evaluation of our habits and their effects.
Valve has not commented on the figures cited, but having an official statement on how many video games really go unplayed and for how long might be a simple and efficient way of giving the community a clear view of how it spends its money and how it can improve its selection process.
We Are Proud of Backlogs
When I was young and could not afford even the bandwidth required to actually pirate video game content, I carefully thought about the titles I was interested in getting access to and I planned a lot before I invested the resources needed to get a new title.
I read magazine articles, I talked to friends, I got as many details as possible and once I got access to the actual experience, I spent as much time as possible with it.
When I was in high school, I played Baldur’s Gate 2, the first Grand Theft Auto or Command & Conquer for hundreds of hours and I never had a backlog because I was never able to get all the titles I wanted and made the most of those I had in front of me.
Nowadays, plenty of gamers have bought titles on a whim, after a recommendation, because their favorite journalist talked about it, because it created a conversation at work.
But they never get to actually spend time with these experiences and see what makes them great because there’s always a torrent of new releases to deal with and our attention spans have grown much smaller.
The problem is that plenty have come to rationalize this wasteful behavior and are now boasting about the backlogs and the many titles that they have not yet managed to actually play.
Gamers now talk proudly about a potential future period of free time when they will catch up on all the big titles and of the other games that they will buy but do not plan to actually play.
Gamers Need to Be More Frugal
The average age of the gamer is increasing, while, overall, his free time is diminishing as his disposable income is growing.
This means that it is highly likely that in the near future, the percentage of unplayed titles will increase, which makes little sense from both a financial point of view and a hobby-focused one.
I would urge players to take a longer look at the titles they are interested in getting before they put in their credit card details or they take the bundle of money out of their pocket at the counter.
Yes, it takes time to read the press and to make sure that an experience is suited to one’s tastes, but there are so many new sources to check out that each player should easily find someone who shares their interests.
A more frugal gamer should find out more before buying and should spend more time with any title they finally buy.
But first of all, they should strive to clear their backlog rather than add to it.