Going the Longest Amount of Time in 2019 Without Buying a Single Video Game

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In 2018 I made the sincere effort to try an abstain from buying any video games. My reasons were sound: I had tons of games that I had yet to play that I really wanted to play. This amount of games greatly exceeded my likely available play time for 2018 so I might as well just give buying new games a rest and focus on what I had.

This ideal lasted until March 21st.

2019 on the other hand!

... OK, hope springs eternal but so far I haven't seen a single game in 2019 that is an "OMG I MUST BUY THAT DAY ONE!"

I still have a ton of games for my PC and my Switch and my PS4 that are really really fun games and that I have not played nearly as much of as I want to (I'm looking at you Spider-man and RDR2) so ... once again into the breach!

I am going to try and go as long as possible in 2019 without buying a single game.

This included DLC.

This includes Apps.

Nothing.

I have more video game media than I have time to produce so I'm going to focus on what I have instead of the new shiny.

Anyone going to try along with me?

I'm in! There are only a few games I'm certain of buying in '19, but this will be a good exercise in avoiding sale temptation.

Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode. How long will JR remain master of his domain?

We just had a baby in November. This might actually be the year.

Except Nintendo is supposed to release Animal Crossing on Switch so my wife will demand that I get that. And if Metroid makes it in 2019 I'll have to jump in.

Plus there will be some great indie stuff that comes out of nowhere like Into the Breach and Dead Cells did in 2018.

I can't win.

I'm in as well! I was doing reasonably well last year until... (checks backlog spreadsheet) March 1st, where I bought a game on iOS and an SNES Classic. It was all downhill from there, although it's not as bad as it looks, since more than 50% of the money I spent on games in 2018 was on non-game purchases (a Switch, both an NES and SNES Classic, PS+ subscription, plus a few other things here and there).

Right now, the only thing planned for 2019 I care about is Monster Hunter World Iceborne. We'll see if I get it.

As co-overlord of the JRPG club though, I feel it's one of my responsibilities to play the games that are selected. I already own a metric crapton of (unplayed) JRPGs, but there is always the chance that something I don't already own gets picked up (as was the case for Persona 5, which I bought on sales in early December when I realized it was probably going to win).

I am IN... i need to work on my backlog..

The ONLY exceptions I will make are for FFXIV`s new expansion Shadowbringers..I DO plan on playing it and buying it.

And.... SUPER MARIO PATY FOR THE SWITCH.. that is it.

Lets do this

I might do better this time around. Not because I'm so strict on myself but my 3DS/Vita wishlists are genuinely starting to dry up. And no plans to buy hardware right now.

So, I would love to do this, but if I have Humble Bundle paid annually and Gamepass I assume it doesn't count? To be fair I am really going to try to work through the backlog in 2019.

I think I’m going to try this as well. Like Darkhaund, I want to get the Shadowbringers expansion for FF14. Other than that, I want to focus on what I have. I may even try to avoid asking for games as gifts just to enforce some discipline on myself.

I’ll at least try to do this for the first half of the year. Then I’ll re-evaluate and see how I’m feeling about things.

Good luck to you all on this.

I’ve done alright on at least playing the I bought in 2018 in 2018, and I still have a small backlog of games from previous years I plan on playing, but to avoid the temptation of the handful of games I’m looking forward to this year might just be beyond me.

Guess we’ll find out in 48 days, if release dates don’t change.

I’m in! I think I can make it through early March when Anthem comes out.

Yeah I'm in. 2018 was quite inexcusable in terms of unnecessary spends on games. I almost made this thread myself a few days ago in fact.

Fortunately there isn't too much coming up in 2019 that I'm excited about. There's a new Subnautica game coming but I think they said they're launching in early access first which I'm happy to skip. The biggest risk for me will be Front Office Football 9 if it releases. I've wanted an NFL management game that doesn't look like turd for as long as I can remember, and now the FOF guys are teaming up with OOTP to make just that. It will be hard to resist if it launches around the start of the new season.

One caveat- I do have £7.77 in my steam wallet left over from a gift card I got for Christmas. I might spend that today, but it's not spending right?

prodiginy wrote:

So, I would love to do this, but if I have Humble Bundle paid annually and Gamepass I assume it doesn't count? To be fair I am really going to try to work through the backlog in 2019.

Each person is free to make their own rules really, but I would say getting new games each month probably trivialises your attempt.

I've got quite good over the past 2 years in not spending as much on games, I've stopped hoarding and pretty much play every game soon after I've bought it. I think I'd find it harder to just totally abstain from getting any new games, so instead I'm keeping the rule of "only buy it if you're going to play it straight away".

prodiginy wrote:

So, I would love to do this, but if I have Humble Bundle paid annually and Gamepass I assume it doesn't count? To be fair I am really going to try to work through the backlog in 2019.

I think that's fair enough. A renewed determination to examine your purchasing habits fits the bill!

I’m always in on this sorta thing.

In.

The only thing that could break me is if Doom Eternal comes out this year.

Things I'll be focusing on playing instead:

Dragonball Fighter Z
Trulon
Valkyria Chronicles 4
Destiny 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Diablo 3
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
Forza Horizon 4
Rocket League
Witcher 2
Mass Effect
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
NES Classic
SNES Classic
Alien Isolation

I almost bought FF X/FF X-2 because it is on sale for $16 on amazon.... already defeated the desire to buy a game on 1/1! Here is to tackling the backlog! Although, I sense the Switch being my downfall since I tend to play most of my games there now and my backlog is quite small on the console.

I'm in for another year, with the following caveats:

Challenges:

  • I received some Switch games for Christmas but I don't yet have a console because I decided to wait for the purported revamp. The prospect of playing Zelda: BotW and portable Dark Souls will be an ever-present temptation.
  • Switch: Final Fantasy XII
  • Monster Hunter World: Iceborne DLC

I'm really glad I persevered through 2018. I conquered my backlog and got a start on revisiting some favorites. Feels good.

Good luck to everyone!

1I've had a couple of games on my wishlist for a few months and they're all on sale today, so I bought them. I'm really excited about each and every one.

I'm 'in' in the same sense that I was last year -- I mostly just want to avoid buying anything until the end of the year sales while I make my way through some backlog games. This year, I plan to pick up Imperator: Rome when it releases, but that's pretty much it.

A "New Switch" could break my no hardware pledge.

Gonna try my hand at this again hehehe. I failed utterly, last year, after maintaining a good hold for a month or so.

Well, that didn't last long... I bought Overcooked 2 to play with my daughter. Well worth it for a day laughing while throwing rice and shrimp across floating platforms.

Count me in. I spent $130 more than I wanted to last year. Not this year.

I will try to be strong and use my willpower.
Heck... I had Persona Golden 4 unopened for atleat 1.5 years... just there... AND IT IS AN AMAZING GAME..... i am sure i got some awesome unopened games in my pile

I'm in! I don't expect to make it the full year, but there are a lot of games I want to play, or finish, that I already own. One question for the group: I have a bunch of credit at a local store where I sold back some games in 2018; does it count as "buying" if I use that credit to get something new for free?

Running Man wrote:

Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode. How long will JR remain master of his domain?

I fully expect to see some great Seinfeld .gifs as people declare, "I'm out!"

LastSurprise wrote:

One question for the group: I have a bunch of credit at a local store where I sold back some games in 2018; does it count as "buying" if I use that credit to get something new for free?

I think it's fine. I think the idea of this thread is a commitment to reducing spend, rather than a commitment to playing pile games over new free ones. Of course the two usually go hand in hand.

Like, I intend to try Path of Exile at some point this year. It will be a new game but in keeping with the idea of this thread.

Unless I buy bag space...

LastSurprise wrote:
Running Man wrote:

Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode. How long will JR remain master of his domain?

I fully expect to see some great Seinfeld .gifs as people declare, "I'm out!"

By the end of January:
IMAGE(https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.boingboing.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F10%2F24-contest-1.w512.h600.2x.jpg&f=1)

I like this idea! I'm definitely going to try. I think Last of Us 2 might break me, due to friends wanting to play it. Also I apparently can't stop buying Switch games because I love that system so much.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/E9ISKjy.jpg)

What if I say that I'm only going to buy Mario Bros Deluxe U and Animal Crossing and see if I can hold to that?

The last year has been pretty bad as far as number of purchases and frequency goes. It is an outlier because in years past I have skipped two steam sales and bought nary games in between.

This year the only multi-month stretch where I haven't bought 2+ games started in January with the launch of WoW 7.3.5. I played the crap out of that to the exclusion of all else until March. Then the flood started in April to the tune of, jeez, 20 games? I will have to look at my steam library when I get home but there were several titles I bought on GoG, GMG and Humble as well. I am not counting bundles for more than one game I caved for. And I won't count the monthly bundles I got just because I was too lazy to suspend my sub.

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