Less Is More
There’s no doubt that less is often better than more and this can be exemplified by so many of our temptations today. I still remember the days of my childhood in the UK when we could only watch two channels of TV – BBC and ITV – and even then in black and white. Today, with so many streaming channels to choose from, we are literally spoilt for choice. In our case, we subscribe to at least six streaming channels (because down here they are dirt cheap) with a choice of literally thousands of shows and I even find myself scratching my head while deciding what to watch. How weird is that?
I got thirteen channels of sh*t on the TV to choose from.
From Nobody Home, Pink Floyd.
Epic – Stop Giving Me Free Games!
Epic Games arrived with a bang in 2018 and with it, a multitude of free games that we can keep forever, thus spanking the idea that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. As a result of our human trait of baulking at turning away a freebie, my Epic Games library contains 66 games, only 17 of which I have actually installed and played. Out of those 66 games, I would say that at least 70% were free, Epic giveaways and some are duplicates because I already have them on other platforms. But it’s not all down to greed because if Epic offers a game that I’m playing on Xbox Game Pass and by definition do not own due to Game Pass’s pay-as-you-play setup, it makes perfect sense because one day I may cancel my subscription. That’s my excuse anyway.
Also, our tastes change over the years and what may have attracted me to play six years ago would require the investment of hours of gameplay, when nowadays I prefer games that give me a quick fix, don’t take ages to load, and that I can dip in and out of on a whim. Arcade car racing games such as the Grid series are a great example – tear up the track at Indianapolis for an hour or two, win the race, and get the thrill.
Steam Still Rules The Roost
It’s a different story with Steam because I signed up with the platform about 20 years ago when Half-Life 2 was released and I’ve amassed a total of 164 games to date, all of which I’ve installed and played. Steam is not a generous platform in terms of freebies which in my case is probably a blessing. In fact, the only free games in my library are demos or concept games and mods. Most of my installed games I’ve picked up in sales, usually from third-party vendors such as Fanatical, Green Man Gaming, Gamesplanet, and Humble, and unlike my Epic library, I have at least played 95% of them, finished perhaps 60% and even replayed many of them. Tomb Raider is a prime example because all of the games in that series have ample replayability.
Will I ever get time to play or even finish over 320 games before I expire? Who knows? But if I do find the time, I’ll have a heck of a good time trying.
—
After 20 plus years of playing video games (I’m not a hard core gamer) I’m currently replaying “The Last of Us part 2” but have somewhat of huge collection between physical and Steam library but have found a possible solution to our problem. I recently decided to catalog my cd collection and have well over 750 and I got to thinking I usually get stuck in a rut listening to some of the same cd’s more then others and my solution to break this pattern up was I found a Random Number Generator off the internet and have it decide on certain days what I’m going to listen to. This approach can also be applied to video games.
I do like the fact Epic gives free games and I have wondered if this was a way to get people away from Steam.
I’ve not purchased a game in a while but when I do it tends to be with Steam. I do have a lot of content that I’ve not played on both but do appreciate the freebies. I’ve played some great games on Epic that I got free.
GOG often give some free games and I’ve had some great deals via the Humble Bundle.