Pretty Gamer

No Games for the Holidays

Yep. Seriously. Not gonna happen.

I won’t be buying any games through the rest of 2011. Why on earth would I make that horrifying decision between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when there are killer deals everywhere? When the infamous free-for-all known as the Steam Holiday sale will surely test the bounds of my resolve? After all, every game enthusiast I know is buying the latest and greatest - and likely has a holiday wishlist a mile long. The choice not to buy games during the holiday season is well, outright heresy. But it must be done for the greater good.

A huge part of playing video games is all about time management and budgeting. In short: too many games, not enough time. While I was cleaning up my Amazon, Steam, and ThinkGeek wishlists to prepare for Secret Santa commitments - I quickly realized that my pile of games not played (or in some cases, not even installed) was staggering. It was ridiculous. There are at least 10 games that I forgot I owned, and 3-4 that I haven’t so much as glanced at in six to eight months. Come on now.

That’s just wasteful.

So: I will not be purchasing any games for myself this holiday season. My goal is to make time to play everything I currently own, and de-clutter my digital entertainment collection.  Not buying any new games basically forces me to get the most life out of the things I have, and when 2012 rings in, I expect to have saved a whole pile of money while still having plenty of fun.

So what does one do with games they don’t play or want? What if you can’t give any away or sell them? I think it just becomes an expensive lesson over time.