Buying Games and Never Playing Them

It’s an ailment for some gamers: Games go on sale for ridiculously low prices, gamers throw money at the screen and then said game(s) spend eternity gathering dust. Even games with fantastic reviews like the Bioshock series that deserve at least several hours of play are left neglected by people like me.

For PC gamers (computer/laptop gamers), Steam is a vital gaming platform. Every winter and summer, Steam has a gigantic sale that has fantastic deals on many popular and obscure titles. In the Steam Summer Sale, I found a fantastic deal on the previously mentioned Bioshock series. For $15 I could have the Bioshock trilogy, when normally the games added up were equal to $70. 

Gabe Newell depicted as a radiant lord with the sales he creates

Insta-bought. Not even any regret until the school year started about two months later and I still hadn’t even touched the games. Let’s not even talk about the Steam Winter Sale.

 I’m not the only one, as reported by Martin Gaston and calculated by Ars Technica: 37% of Steam games haven’t been played a single time. A huge percentage made even bigger when you consider 781 million games have been bought and registered to millions of user and that was just in April 2014. There is quite a difference between owning a game and playing it, evidently.

There are many limitations and generalizations to this stat though. It is calculated by the top 20 games played on Steam and applies it to the rest of Steam games. Some people set their profiles to private and mess with the random sampling used to calculate. But, with a margin of error of 0.33% and tweaks from Steam developers, Ars Technica seems to be nearly correct on its estimates.

While it’s nice to know I’m not alone in abandoning games, I’m still not sure why people don’t play the games they buy. For me, time isn’t an excuse, because I had most of summer break, some weekends and most of winter break to play even one hour of Bioshock, Bioshock 2 or Bioshock Infinite. Naturally, homework, other games and the occasional book always seem to detract me from playing any of the three fantastic games.

I think it’s akin to a collector’s mentality where it is necessary to keep something like a limited edition toy in its packaging or box instead of fulfilling its duty as a toy. It’s silly, of course.

So I do solemnly declare that on this night, I will do my utmost to never feel bored when “I have nothing to play” and three games to play with great reviews! I shall play them as they deserve to be played and enjoy them as they should be enjoyed! I will revel in the art, characters and plot of each dusty game in my Steam Library! Huzzah!

Or I can spend more time casually playing terrible Dota 2. 

cute pink ball of DEATH AND DESTRUCTION

Meet Kirby!

"Hiiii!"

At 8 inches tall, pink and spherical, he's pretty darn adorable! He was my favorite character out of all the Nintendo games back when I still had a Game Boy and he still has a special place in my heart after all these years. Back in those days, I would always have my Game Boy with me and a Pokémon game or Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.

In this game you play as Kirby, an inhabitant of Dream Land, when a sudden disturbance in Mirror World, somewhere above Dream Land, calls him to action. As he arrives at Mirror World, Kirby is split into four different-colored Kirby’s by what seems to be Kirby’s mysterious rival and ally, Meta Knight. As he recovers from being split into four, “Meta Knight” divides Mirror World’s corrupted wish-granting mirror into eight fragments that Kirby must find and restore.

At first glance, Kirby seems ill-equipped for the job. After all, he can’t exactly fight with those stubby arms and legs. But, as it turns out, Kirby can SWALLOW HIS ENEMIES WHOLE.

"Help!"

Yup, Kirby’s stomach is the graveyard of hundreds of those who dared to oppose him. Let that sink in for a while.

Anyways, he gains some of the powers of his fallen foe. These abilities range from Fire and Sword to Tiny and Sleep. Dozens of powers are at Kirby’s disposal just by SWALLOWING HIS ENEMIES WHOLE. With these powers he defeats mini-bosses, bosses and eventually Dark Meta Knight, Nightmare and Dark Mind

Four color variations of Kirby

I haven’t played that game in years since I lost the Game Boy that had Kirby and the Amazing Mirror in it. But I still remember Kirby quite clearly because he’s in the game I carry around with me now in my 3DS: Super Smash Bros. For 3DS.

Of course, it’s not the same as its predecessor. In this game, characters from many games meet and fight. There’s no story and Kirby isn’t very popular in this game. While I remember Kirby, many more remember Mario and Link.

But the nostalgia I feel when I press the Y button and tilt my analog stick up is satisfying because there is Kirby with his Sword ability. And when I tilt sideways, there’s his Hammer. Downwards, there’s his Stone ability.

Quite an oversized hammer

Even better? Kirby still has the Copy ability, his innate skill to SWALLOW HIS ENEMIES WHOLE and gain their abilities. Minus the stomach-graveyard part, because then he’d win every fight. And the abilities he gains are different, but sometimes very similar, from his games.

It’s like I’m a kid again, discovering the many insane abilities that Kirby can attain in most of the games he’s been in. Inhale Link and Kirby can shoot arrows. Inhale Mario and Kirby can shoot fireballs. Inhale a more-than-7-and-a-half feet tall warlock with the Triforce of Power and Kirby can do the Warlock Punch. It’s amazing what an 8-inches tall, pink ball can do.

Kirby next to Ganondorf, warlock of incredible power. Definitely not to scale

It also helps that the creator of Kirby is the director of all Kirby games and Super Smash Bros. games. Thanks Sakurai! Have a cup of Kirby!

Parental Pressure

      Late at night, my father stumbled into my room, questionably over the legal drinking limit. He staggered over to me and bent over as to give me a kiss goodnight on my forehead. And then he noticed I was awake and paused.

“Hey, son.”

“Hey, Ba.”

     I suddenly had a feeling of dread.

     And he went on to tell me about how old he was getting. How wonderful doctors were for helping him for the past few decades. How great doctors were for giving him a new chance at life, he said as he gestured towards his leg. How he needed a doctor to care for him especially when he grew old. How I could become a great doctor, all I had to do was study for it.  

     Even in his possibly drunken state, my father could still remember how proud he was of me.

*sigh*

     At some time in our lives (and probably all the time for Asian students), our parents wanted us to be doctors. A high salary and the chance to benefit society sounds like a good future to anybody.

     As a kid, I wanted to satisfy my dad, so I aspired to become a doctor. And so did more than half the class. I gave up on it in middle school and now I’m undecided.

     Yet my dad asks me about it all the time. “What would you like to be when you grow up?” he would say and I would stand there silently, unable to lie or to disappoint.

     This kind of pressure from parents with high expectations to succeed over everyone else in such a competitive job is ridiculous. The shame of disappointing your parents by not becoming a doctor versus becoming a doctor and not being happy. It’s a hard decision for anyone, considering you’d be unhappy either way. Unless you actually want to be a doctor, in which case, you have one less competitor.

     It’s unfair to expect anyone to make this decision. What’s more important: the happiness of the people that raised you or your own happiness? My own father named me Victor because he wanted me to become his own version of success and victory: a doctor. At the same time, my father already gave me something to worry about: how to tell him I wouldn’t be getting a PhD.

     We all become individuals at some point. We leave our parents and we go out into the world to fulfill our purposes in life. After all, at some point, your parents will put you down as a child and never pick you up again. When it happens, it’s not necessarily a bad thing but maybe the beginning of a great thing. Maybe you’ll become a parent yourself and finally understand why your own parents wanted you to become a doctor when you were younger. 

I have a question for Mrs. Mathews as a mother: Would you want your son to become a doctor if it meant he had a secure future or would you prefer it if he had his dream job?