My steam library is full of humble bundles that I only bought for 2 games because it would be like $5, cheaper than buying regularly, and still getting like 7 other games with them.
And that’s even with me giving away keys from games I know I won’t ever play.
Or they just like a really good deal which is a known marketing tactic since buying stuff with currency was a thing? “99 cents for this thing I may or may not need? Down from two dollars?! Sold!” Maybe the term hoarders, as in people with an actual mental issue, is not the right term. More like frugal. Let’s face it. Steam sales are when they sell the most copies of any title.
Now if you are buying games at full price every time with no intention of playing, you’re just a dumbass and need a lesson on the value of a dollar.
Buying an indie platformer that you might not play is not anywhere close to actual IRL hording. And it’s not even what is being described as digital hording in that article from UCLA.
It’s straight up irresponsible to compare it to an actual hording mental disorder. Like, you must not have ever experienced that in any capacity to think that.
Although, surely digital horders have some cross over. But the prevalence of people not playing a game they bought on discount ain’t it fam.
Per the article you posted (interesting read BTW!)
With digital hoarding, however, the act of saving the file becomes an uncontrollable urge.
“It means that they’ve lost the choice — they feel they have to save it. If they do not, they may feel uncomfortable and, more often than not, anxious that they may need to have access to the information and it’s not going to be there,” he says.
I’m not sure “picking up some games you might want to play when they are on an extremely good sale” qualifies as Digital Hoarding, per the definition.
It is very common for people to joke about how big their backlog is. I’m not sure we can call buying things you’re never going to play as frugal. I’m on autism spectrum and do both regular and digital hoarding occasionally but I’m a bit more mindful about it ever since I admitted it. Many people seem to be in denial.
From the article:
“Hoarding is a disorder characterized by difficulty in parting with possessions” and this is key, “Digital hoarders often will cite an emotional attachment or a sentimental value to files they collect — including photos or email exchanges — associated with their own life experiences or with people in their lives. In such cases, he says, anticipating difficulty coping with feelings that accompany a permanent loss of these items becomes a barrier to controlling their hoarding behavior.”
The mental disorder comes from the difficulty of parting with those possessions because the individual is tying emotional response to them. Have you ever tried to remove an object that you consider trash from a person that is hording? It’s going to be a really bad time and a massive emotional roller coaster for everyone. This article made more sense to post than the original one from PC Gamer. I do wish consultants and experts would stop labeling people with disorders because of anecdotal evidence or trying to have some kind of shock value. It starts to associate people of a massive community with a mental disorder too. If someone deleted my steam library, I would be upset, but not on the actual level of an person that hordes. You ever see the show “Hoarders”? It’s extremely sad and painful to watch.
That’s not to say digital horders don’t exist on steam. The moment they lose a game and start freaking out beyond “i just lost money”, that person needs professional help.
Expanding on that, and explaining why this is not Digital hoarding, I have a HUGE catalog of games, lots of which came from bundles and such, if I was able to sell back games to steam, even if for a few cents, I would delete a big chunk of that. But as is I have no reason to do it, I can put them in a “never played” category and forget about them until I randomly find a game in the store that mildly interests me and notice it’s already in my library.
The argument isn’t that only Steam gamers are hoarders. The argument is that game hoarders congregate on Steam. You can have hoarding gamers in the wild, and those wild hoarders may never touch Steam, but you’re guaranteed to find hoarding gamers on Steam. If you’re looking to sell games to hoarders you’re going to sell more when you do it where hoarders regularly visit.
It’s the same reason Epic is giving away free games. They’re trying to attract hoarders by giving them a free hoard and regularly inviting them into their shop. They won’t really attract hoarders who are entrenched on Steam but they will attract future hoarders who might not yet have a huge Steam library.
I don’t think I’ve spent a dime on Epic but have a nice little collection going there. I have spent a reasonable amount at GoG and have a nice collection there, too.
I know plenty of console gamers who buy physical copies of newest releases, complete them and sell them on local Craigslist equivalent. They hold a handful of games at most. Not really possible on PC anymore.
Probably depends on location. Games are stupid expensive compared to typical income here. I make pretty good money but I wouldn’t be able to justify games at current prices if it wasn’t for second hand market and Game Pass.
When I say to the same degree I’m not saying there aren’t people with thousands of games elsewhere. I’m saying there are more of them on Steam and they tend to collect higher amounts of games on average.
Board game enthusiasts don’t always have thousands of board games, most console gaming enthusiasts don’t have giant walls of games lining their house, etc.
That said, I don’t have sources to cite here other than my personal interactions with other steam users on social media and my steam friends list number of games. I could be wrong as this isn’t hard data but I’d bet money I’m correct though if there was a way to verify the comparison.
Could that just be due to the fact that things like humble bundle would give 10+ games a month for like 20$? Or the amount of sales that steam has allowing you to get another another 10 - 20 games for 50$, or the price of a board game?
If Nintendo, still epic, or Xbox had sales of this magnitude I’m certain you would see significantly more “hoarding” there as well
Unfortunately, the article doesn’t really compare to other collectors. My wife’s bookshelves are full of a much higher cost library than my Steam library could ever hope to achieve, and many of them are still on her “TBR” list. She’ll also never read those physical copies, so she’s buying them twice so she can read them on her Kindle or listen on Audible.
I’m a console gamer, I’ve never cared about my library to the point I actually threw away games from previous gen’s once I got the new console. That was me as a kid mind you. Nowadays, I just don’t buy games at all thanks to gamepass. So yep it kinda tracks, at least anecdotally.
So basically “Valve discovered a gold mine by selling you so many games” and “it’s your fault for spendijg money on games”. Yeah wait wut? As if it’s someone’s fault that so many games are getting released. Also ending with “beware, not every customer is a die-hard fan”. Wow.
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Can this business model survive a recession?
Walled gardens create digital plantations
You’ve got a lot of nerve being right
sips rum
Hey…
Fuck you
He doesn’t consider game bundles like e.g. humble bundle. There you can get loads of steam games which you might activate but only play a few from.
Hey if I could sell a million copies of a game for just a dollar each as my cut of a bundle, well I’d be a millionaire!
My steam library is full of humble bundles that I only bought for 2 games because it would be like $5, cheaper than buying regularly, and still getting like 7 other games with them.
And that’s even with me giving away keys from games I know I won’t ever play.
Or they just like a really good deal which is a known marketing tactic since buying stuff with currency was a thing? “99 cents for this thing I may or may not need? Down from two dollars?! Sold!” Maybe the term hoarders, as in people with an actual mental issue, is not the right term. More like frugal. Let’s face it. Steam sales are when they sell the most copies of any title.
Now if you are buying games at full price every time with no intention of playing, you’re just a dumbass and need a lesson on the value of a dollar.
Digital hoarding is a mental disorder same as any other form of hoarding.
Buying an indie platformer that you might not play is not anywhere close to actual IRL hording. And it’s not even what is being described as digital hording in that article from UCLA.
It’s straight up irresponsible to compare it to an actual hording mental disorder. Like, you must not have ever experienced that in any capacity to think that.
Although, surely digital horders have some cross over. But the prevalence of people not playing a game they bought on discount ain’t it fam.
Per the article you posted (interesting read BTW!)
I’m not sure “picking up some games you might want to play when they are on an extremely good sale” qualifies as Digital Hoarding, per the definition.
It is very common for people to joke about how big their backlog is. I’m not sure we can call buying things you’re never going to play as frugal. I’m on autism spectrum and do both regular and digital hoarding occasionally but I’m a bit more mindful about it ever since I admitted it. Many people seem to be in denial.
I’m sure there are folks who fall under that umbrella. But I was more responding in the context of this specific comment thread.
From the article: “Hoarding is a disorder characterized by difficulty in parting with possessions” and this is key, “Digital hoarders often will cite an emotional attachment or a sentimental value to files they collect — including photos or email exchanges — associated with their own life experiences or with people in their lives. In such cases, he says, anticipating difficulty coping with feelings that accompany a permanent loss of these items becomes a barrier to controlling their hoarding behavior.”
The mental disorder comes from the difficulty of parting with those possessions because the individual is tying emotional response to them. Have you ever tried to remove an object that you consider trash from a person that is hording? It’s going to be a really bad time and a massive emotional roller coaster for everyone. This article made more sense to post than the original one from PC Gamer. I do wish consultants and experts would stop labeling people with disorders because of anecdotal evidence or trying to have some kind of shock value. It starts to associate people of a massive community with a mental disorder too. If someone deleted my steam library, I would be upset, but not on the actual level of an person that hordes. You ever see the show “Hoarders”? It’s extremely sad and painful to watch.
That’s not to say digital horders don’t exist on steam. The moment they lose a game and start freaking out beyond “i just lost money”, that person needs professional help.
Expanding on that, and explaining why this is not Digital hoarding, I have a HUGE catalog of games, lots of which came from bundles and such, if I was able to sell back games to steam, even if for a few cents, I would delete a big chunk of that. But as is I have no reason to do it, I can put them in a “never played” category and forget about them until I randomly find a game in the store that mildly interests me and notice it’s already in my library.
A bunch of drunken sailors who spend money irresponsibly?
So… pirates?
I think if I was irresponsible with my money, I’d be paying for games and pirating food instead of the other way around. 🤷♂️
You wouldn’t download a burger
I would download a nice steak and a healthy salad instead!
“Oops. The healthy salad got corrupted. Guess it’s just steak. 🤷♂️”
I’ll just find another torrent tracker where its improved 1.5 version is available.
Just pirate both and spend the money on gambling like a real pirate lol
I would guess the line between the two groups is about one plank wide.
Are non-Steam gamers not also hoarders? Because if they are, that whole argument falls apart.
The argument isn’t that only Steam gamers are hoarders. The argument is that game hoarders congregate on Steam. You can have hoarding gamers in the wild, and those wild hoarders may never touch Steam, but you’re guaranteed to find hoarding gamers on Steam. If you’re looking to sell games to hoarders you’re going to sell more when you do it where hoarders regularly visit.
It’s the same reason Epic is giving away free games. They’re trying to attract hoarders by giving them a free hoard and regularly inviting them into their shop. They won’t really attract hoarders who are entrenched on Steam but they will attract future hoarders who might not yet have a huge Steam library.
My epic library is nearly 10% of my steam one, and I’ve only bought a couple games.
I don’t think I’ve spent a dime on Epic but have a nice little collection going there. I have spent a reasonable amount at GoG and have a nice collection there, too.
I know plenty of console gamers who buy physical copies of newest releases, complete them and sell them on local Craigslist equivalent. They hold a handful of games at most. Not really possible on PC anymore.
I have a friend who buys every single console game released and never plays any of them. Physical copies georg is an outlier and should not be counted
Probably depends on location. Games are stupid expensive compared to typical income here. I make pretty good money but I wouldn’t be able to justify games at current prices if it wasn’t for second hand market and Game Pass.
Not to the same degree.
My wall of shelves loaded with board games says otherwise…
When I say to the same degree I’m not saying there aren’t people with thousands of games elsewhere. I’m saying there are more of them on Steam and they tend to collect higher amounts of games on average.
Board game enthusiasts don’t always have thousands of board games, most console gaming enthusiasts don’t have giant walls of games lining their house, etc.
That said, I don’t have sources to cite here other than my personal interactions with other steam users on social media and my steam friends list number of games. I could be wrong as this isn’t hard data but I’d bet money I’m correct though if there was a way to verify the comparison.
Could that just be due to the fact that things like humble bundle would give 10+ games a month for like 20$? Or the amount of sales that steam has allowing you to get another another 10 - 20 games for 50$, or the price of a board game?
If Nintendo, still epic, or Xbox had sales of this magnitude I’m certain you would see significantly more “hoarding” there as well
Unfortunately, the article doesn’t really compare to other collectors. My wife’s bookshelves are full of a much higher cost library than my Steam library could ever hope to achieve, and many of them are still on her “TBR” list. She’ll also never read those physical copies, so she’s buying them twice so she can read them on her Kindle or listen on Audible.
I’m a console gamer, I’ve never cared about my library to the point I actually threw away games from previous gen’s once I got the new console. That was me as a kid mind you. Nowadays, I just don’t buy games at all thanks to gamepass. So yep it kinda tracks, at least anecdotally.
Funny enough, the link to Rich Shanton, the one who wrote this, throws a 404 error.
So basically “Valve discovered a gold mine by selling you so many games” and “it’s your fault for spendijg money on games”. Yeah wait wut? As if it’s someone’s fault that so many games are getting released. Also ending with “beware, not every customer is a die-hard fan”. Wow.
Go crack the F2P business model next, Sherlock.