Digital Game Management Problems

Over the past few years there has been a huge rise in the quality and quantity of digital distribution platforms:

• Amazon
• Steam
• GOG
• Origin
• Many others

I love the competition that results in lower prices for my games but as I have purchased over 400 digital games (and counting), I have discovered new issues that arise from owning so many games that you don't have sitting on a shelf.

First, we should start with how I use to take stock of my game collection - by looking at the bookshelf. Like movies, I would stack all of my games in a bookshelf organized by platform. Just by glancing at them, I could tell how many games I own (and consequently how many games I still haven't finished). It acted as a constraint against the purchase of new games because if I had a lot of games sitting on the shelf then I knew I didn't need to go out and buy more. Once I finished a game, I could sell it on ebay. If I sold enough of them, then I could look at the bookshelf, see that I was low on games, and feel fine about purchasing more.

With the rise of digital distribution, I no longer have a stocked bookshelf. So whenever I look at it I feel like I need to get more games. If possible, I always buy the PC version of a game (unless it was a horrible port) when it goes on sale. And due to Steam and others, there are tons of sales going on all the time. So the combination of amazing savings and the drive to purchase new games has led to me owning more than I have time to play.

Now, the easy solution is to break the habit and stop buying games until I play the ones I already have (but the steam sales are so good!). But while I work on that, I think it's important to look at the other issues that come with owning everything in the cloud.

Problems:

Multiple copies of games - I've only accidentally done this once (that I know of), but I once bought Dragon Age through a steam sale only to realize I already owned the game on Origin. I discovered this fact because I was about to do the same for Dragon Age 2 until I did a Gmail search and found the receipts for both Origin and Steam. Thankfully they were both cheap but it was still quite a shock. It was then that I realized I needed a way to figure out what I owned which leads to the next problem...

Keeping track of what you own - Having games stored in the cloud certain saves on physical space but it makes it harder to keep track of what I already own. I can no longer look at my game collection on the bookshelf to see what I may already have. Because I own games through Amazon, Steam, GOG, and Origin, I need to keep track of which service has what game through some kind of system. Currently I store all digital receipts in Gmail and then search for a game I think I may own already before purchasing it. However, this requires me to remember which games I own and which I don't. And with over 400 games and counting it gets harder and harder to do that.

Cappuccino effect - If you drink coffee regularly and don't make it yourself or have it free at work, you come to realize that you spend an awful amount on that habit. I tend to go to Starbucks, and just coffee is about $2. You go for something with espresso and you are looking at $4 or above. If we average $3 for five days then you have just spent $15 per week. At 48 weeks a year that adds up to $720 per year just for coffee. That is a lot of money to spend on just one habit. The same behavior can also apply to games that go on sale for 75% - they don't cost a lot of money but the costs can add up quickly.

Solutions:

There is an easy solution to all of these problems - only buy a couple of games at a time until you finish them and move on. But given how deals are structured, in order to achieve the best price for a game some forethought and advanced purchasing is required. One possible solution is to limit how many games you buy that you aren't playing currently, no matter what deals are going on. That would ensure you bought some cheap games but don't go overboard and buy more than you need. Once you finish some games then the queue opens up and you can proceed to buy more games.

Of course, first-world problem jokes aside, this problem of keeping track of your library will only get much worse as the digital market expands and more people migrate their collections to the cloud. I might be an outlier now but as more people switch to buying games digitally this issue will start to become more visible and eventually someone will need to figure out the best solution to fix it.