Day 0 - The Challenge

The Challenge

Ever since I was young I've been into PC gaming. While I don't mind consoles, it's at my desk with a keyboard and mouse that I feel most comfortable.

I'm a sucker for a good deal, and Steam knows how to put on a sale. After years of weekend deals, midweek madness, Holiday and summer sales, I find myself with hundreds of games, most of which I've never gotten around to even trying, let alone beating, and yet still I buy more games.

My purchases are often influenced by reputation (this game deserves me money, I'll buy it even though I don't plan on playing), impulse (hey, this looks cool!), guilt (I pirated games back when I was a jobless student), and deals. So many of the games I own were included in an Indle bundle or Publisher pack that had other items I wanted. And the giant Holiday sales lead to buying so many games in the span of one week that I quickly forget what I've acquired and it gets lost in a giant list of often unfamiliar names.

I can only imagine how many games I already own that are worth my time, and are probably amazing experiences, but how do I pick what to play? How can I make sure that I get at least some value out of all my purchases?

The challenge is to play every game I've bought for at least 30 minutes, and somewhere along the way beat or complete at least 10 new games.

Bringing method to the madness

Ever go to the kitchen because you're hungry, and look in the fridge but find nothing you want? You'll probably check the freezer and pantry too, then look in the fridge again. Maybe you'll go back empty handed but then end up in the kitchen again a short time later. This doesn't mean you have nothing to eat, just that nothing stands out and screams "this is what you want right now". Well, I get the same way with my game list. I'll look up and down, read every title, look at the store pages for the names I don't recognize, and in the end don't decide on anything.

Well, enough of that! I want to play everything, so let's do it! I took every game in my account and threw it into a list. From the list I removed the MMOs, any expansions or sequels that I didn't want to try before playing the previous game as well as the games I've already beaten or played for at least 5 hours and still ended up with 261 games.

Each game is then compared to it's cost (at full price, which I'm usually too cheap to buy at) and it's review scores to decide how long I will play at the minimum, but I can always play more if the game grabs my attention. Throughout the challenge I hope to complete at least 10 more games.

Altogether each game gets an average of 45 minutes of my time. Hopefully it's enough time to grab my attention, and show me whether or not the game was worth my money.

The Blog

Each day I participate in the challenge I will update this site with a brief description of what I played and what I think of the game. If anything I hope it'll help me remember what I played and what was fun so I know which games to go back to.