Topic: Self-imposed ban on buying games

It's about time I did something to demonstrate that I'm not addicted to buying games, so I'm imposing a 1 month ban upon myself, starting today.

I've been in a position where I'm able to afford the games I've been buying, but not anywhere near keep up with playing them. I've got all 5 of the current 'latest' systems (Switch, 3DS, Vita, PS4, XB1) and have just been bouncing from one to the next, topping up my collection, while also continuing to add to my PC, Wii, Gamecube, GBA, and PS3 backlogs.

All the while, the games I'm spending most time on are the online games - Rocket League, Splatoon 2, FIFA...

Enough is enough. For now at least. 1 month. It's backlog time.

Anyone else wishing to join me is welcome to chime in.

Monster Hunter World
Shadow of the Colossus
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

No thank you

This is perfect timing, since I have an absolute absurd amount of games to play.

I just got an SNES classic and have played a bit of that (but haven't touched most of the games yet, including a few I've never played). But even ignoring that (which I partially will for now), I have:
-BOTW (15-20 hours in)
-Metroid Samus Returns (7 hours in)
-Rhythm Heaven Megamix (2-3 hours in...?)
-Kirby: Triple Deluxe (unplayed)
-Tokyo Mirage Sessions (unplayed)
-Deus Ex: Human Revolution Wii U (unplayed...for this version)
-Crackdown (unplayed)
-FFVII PSN (unplayed, unless you count 15+ years ago)
-Crash Bandicoot 2 PSN (unplayed, also 15+ years)
-Parasyte Eve PSN (unplayed)

And there's a couple more I wanna get back to as well someday.

@Octane Pretty sure they'll still be for sale next month

Judging from what you‘re currently playing, I‘d say so this a pretty healthy decision. For yourself and your backlog. But waiting even longer for Monster Hunter World? No thank you!

@GoldenGamer88 That is just the 'concise' version of what I am focusing on in the next month. I would need about 10 times the sig character limit to list all the games that I've started and intend to go back to. Then of course the 'unplayed' list is probably 10 times greater than that...😱

@gcunit Good luck with your endeavor then! I‘d probably need a year at the very least to finish my backlog, which is so big, I don‘t even know where to begin listing it. And that year would be nothing but sleep, eat and game.

@gcunit good luck. Although I'll join you next month as I'm gonna be on holiday and won't be taking the switch with me

@GoldenGamer88 Don't confuse this with a pledge to clear the backlog. For now this is just to break the almost habitual pattern I'm in of finding new games to buy.

Ha! i was going to do this too, but then played Lost Sphere demo over the weekend, and have just ordered it

Congratulations on either your extreme wealth or your crippling debt, whichever you have. I'll be over here completely un-banned from buying video games but still not buying them because I don't have time for the ones I do have and any I don't buy now will just be cheaper later (looking at you, Skyrim and Noire).

I’ve not been able to afford anything new since around Christmas unfortunately, so I’ve been playing my backlog since the beginning of the year.

Currently completed Steam World Dig 2, enjoyed the game. But I felt like I rushed through towards the end skipping a few of the caves as it got a bit tedious.

Working through the ending of I am Setsuna now. I’m not usually big on JRPGs but I actually really enjoyed it, presuming I’ve only an hour or so left of the game before I can call that one completed too now.

Monster Hunter releases in just over a week time so I’ll call my one month self imposed ban over and done with upon the release day!

@gcunit To be fair, I do play and finish 95% of the games I buy these days. It's just my backlog that has been neglected over the year...

I want to finish at least a couple of games from my backlog this year though. I also want to go back and cross off games I don't intend to finish anyway (Opoona? Err.. no thank you!), or games that I finish, but never completed. If I took this long to complete a certain game, I'm probably never going to go back to that old save file to complete it.

My tactic these days is to not buy any new game unless I'm sure that I'll start playing it straight away. That way I shouldn't be adding anything new to my backlog, which I can chip away at over time.

This approach does seem to help me prioritise which games to buy, while stopping me from buying anything that I don't have time to play.

@crimsontadpoles A contributory factor is that my gaming style is nearly always to flit between games, following whatever my mood fancies on any given day. I don't think I've ever played one game only for more than a few days consecutively. Finishing them in one go, no matter how good they are, becomes too slog-like. I also find a bit of time away helps overcome a difficult section. Just the other night I resumed Xenoblade Chronicles, having previously got fed up months ago with needing to grind to get past Mumkhar (having failed several times). This time I loaded the game, resuming right before the fight, went off to grind a bit, didn't level up at all, got killed, got returned to Mumkhar, so just said 'f-it, let's give it a go' and beat him easily.

Most games get cheaper later, so you at least save money that way.

This is the reason why I don't own a Switch. I have a massive backload from the WiiU era. I still have to finish BotW and XCX. Both games need a lot of time. After that I will continue to get 200% in Tropical Freeze

I limit myself to one fully priced game(several indies) per month; Having only 1 system helps a lot.

Hm... well... outside of Bayonetta 1&2 (already preordered), I'm probably not buying any games until June at the earliest. I'm working my way through Xenoblade Chronicles 2 now, then One Piece Unlimited World, Batman: The Telltale Series, Disagea 5, Doom, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Fire Emblem Warriors, Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, Nights of Azure 2, Poi, Metroid: Samus Returns, Dragon Quest VI and Sine Mora Ex. That'll probably take me through until March at least (they're almost all a good chunk of the way through already, I just haven't finished any of them). Once that's done, it's back to buying games again for me. Thankfully, my only current gen console are Switch and 3DS (and PC technically), so my backlog never gets that out of control. Oh... and I still have to play TMS#FE... but I might wait to see if it gets ported first.

@gcunit I am exactly in the same boat, minus the XBX1 and Vita so I know how you feel. In fact I have made that my gaming resolution this year to stop buying so many games and start finishing them. I think after Bayonetta on the Switch and Secret of Mana releases on PS4 next month I won't be buying games for awhile either.