133
Yep, I actually own 7,255 games on Steam. I’ve played 23% of my library. I regret nothing. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by atomicpoet@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
67 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Why do I play all these games? Because it’s important that they’re played.

Because every game is a story, a world, a moment in time crafted by someone who cared enough to create it.

Because each one teaches me something new—about design, about culture, about myself.

Because in a sea of pixels, there’s magic waiting to be found.

And because, honestly? Sometimes I just want to escape, explore, and lose myself in different worlds.

So yeah. I own thousands of games, and I’ll keep playing them.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] oji@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago

I actually own

The funny thing is, you don't own them.

[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Say what you will, every game I’ve bought—I can still play. And I’ve been buying Steam games for over a decade.

Meanwhile, none of my GameCube discs work on my Switch.

[-] smeg@feddit.uk 8 points 1 week ago

You can still play them on your GameCube or Wii though, or take copies of the discs and play them on anything that runs Dolphin

[-] kadup@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

While you're not wrong, by that logic, it's actually fairly trivial to take my Steam downloads drive and run it on any computer even without my Steam account.

[-] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago

Does that work? I always assumed games with DRM wouldn't work if they couldn't authenticate to your Steam account.

[-] kadup@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

It works in the same way that dumping your GameCube games and running them on Dolphin works... It's quick and easy, but it's against the ToS and requires breaking DRM.

Steam's DRM is weak, and in some interviews some Valve developers even gave hints that this is on purpose. Many Steam games will simply run without Steam if you just double click the .exe in the install folder, and the vast majority that only rely on Steam's DRM can be opened by running a free "Steam Emulator" software that pretends to be an active Steam account with a correct license.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

A lot of Steam games don't have any DRM, and most of the rest are pretty easy to strip.

Give it a shot sometime. Completely quit out of Steam, turn off your internet, and try running some of your older Steam games directly from the Steam folder.

I do this somewhat often when my kids are on my other computer playing games on my account and I still want to play something. It's a little trickier on Linux since you need something to run the Proton/WINE layer, so I mostly stick to Linux-native games in that pretty rare case.

[-] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Family share is actually great for this now.

It used to be that if anyone in the group was playing any game it would lock you out of playing anything else on the main account without kicking them off.

But they eased up on it now so you can both play at the same time as long as you aren't playing the same game at the same time.

So just make a burner account for you or for your kids and family share the library to it and now you don't even have to go offline unless everyone in the house wants to play BG3 simultaneously.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

Really? I haven't tried that since they revamped the sharing thing. I have three accounts, one for me, my wife, and one my kids share, and they're all linked. Most of the time my kids use my account, but I can easily change that if it'll allow simultaneous play (on different games).

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it out!

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago

You can still play it but increasingly games are becoming very different from what you bought.

I've started noticing a disturbing trend. More and more games that are older being sold at steep discounts or "free to play" and simultaneously jampacked with invasive telemetry and/or ads/microtransactions. And since Steam won't let you play older versions, those games are effectively dead.

[-] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

That is what firewalls and sinkholes are for. Stupid telemetry.

Yet I never noticed such a "trend" in direct combination with steam. The whole industry goes to shit, but it's not steam's fault.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That is what firewalls and sinkholes are for. Stupid telemetry.

That shouldn't be necessary and is beside the point.

The whole industry goes to shit, but it's not steam's fault.

  1. Steam has the clout to fight back against this
  2. As I already mentioned, it is partially because they don't allow you to run older versions of games.
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Out of the thousands of games I have, not once have I noticed anything like you describe.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago

Oh well if you haven't experienced it, it must not exist then 🤷

[-] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 4 points 1 week ago

hmmm that doesn't ring a bell here either. Which games do this ?

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The most recent ones I've noticed are Riders Republic and Borderlands 2. Helldivers also introduced a bunch of new microtransactions years after it's launch.

[-] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago

And what there is steam's doing? Borderland's a greedy IP from a greedy company. What do you expect?

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 2 points 1 week ago

I have to say I never played those. Do these microtransactions lock content that was previously available out of the box?

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

But the vast majority can be played without steam. Mostly by force coughcough but still. I know, still no legal ownership.

[-] mohab@piefed.social 22 points 1 week ago

Why do I play all these games? Because it's important that they're played.

Well, evidently not since you're actively ignoring about 77% of them 😂 And who boasts about their hyperconsumerism on fucking Lemmy of all platforms 😂

[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Wrong. Not ignored—not played yet.

[-] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Come on, none of us will ever play all their games. I'd bet around 2000 of my games on steam are some free keys or other incredibly cheap shit I wouldn't touch with a 10m-pole. If I'd ever find them again in the library, that is.

But I admire your positivity and optimism 😁

[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Hey, I’ve played every game I purchased between 2012-15.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Sophocles@infosec.pub 8 points 1 week ago

The comments of this thread give off major Reddit energy. Sure the post is a little fedora-lordish but why not add meaningful input by discussing the value of games and their stories like the post suggests, rather than bashing a stranger for no reason other than hypercriticalism?

It's not a crime to enjoy something. Just because someone has a differing view does not make it a wrong view. And honestly if I get downvoted, it kinda proves that lemmings just critisize others and hate when someone is critical of them. Hypocrisy at its finest.

I too have chosen to spend a good chunk of my money on games, and came to, you know the "games" lemmy instance, to talk about them. That's not hyper-consumerism, its me finding happiness in a world where there's not much to be happy about. Like op said, it's a way to escape, explore, and lose yourself.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

Exactly!

And it's highly unlikely that OP is playing 100% new-releases, especially w/ that 200+ installed games, so they're probably getting a bunch of those well below store price (i.e. through bundles and whatnot). I have several hundred games, many of which I haven't played, and most of those came in a bundle that included a couple games I did play (and the total price was significantly less than the retail price of the games I did play).

I'm guessing that's OP's case, and given how many they claim to have played, I'm guessing they have a lot of time to play games.

[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

You are correct. I have never once bought a new release on Steam.

Black Myth: Wukong tempted me. But I did not cave to temptation.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] linrilang@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

23% played? That’s basically 100% by Steam standards. You’ve officially made it.

[-] simop_jo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Steam summer sale final boss

[-] danielsan256@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago

lol I'll feel like I'm heading in the same direction😅

[-] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 3 points 1 week ago

Nice. Life is short, play games

[-] etchinghillside@reddthat.com 3 points 1 week ago

23% average game completion rate? Or “has been loaded at least once”?

[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Unapologetically, I’m a non-completionist.

Only complete the games you’re compelled to complete.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

How much have you spent

[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

A few thousand dollars.

Never bought a single game at full price. Almost all the time, it’s at least 90% off. Lots of game bundles abound. And free games are given away all the time.

[-] janNatan@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

I'm curious, what's your highest play time on a game? Or maybe top 3 even.

[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Sure, here’s my top three by hours spent:

  1. Spelunky - 92.2 hours
  2. Legends of Solitaire: Curse of the Dragons - 58.9 hours
  3. Civilization V - 50.2 hours
[-] sleepmode@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Very similar to my account.

[-] Nikls94@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Did you finish all of them? Or at least play them for an hour? If you’re using steam for 20 years, that’s a game a day.

[-] atomicpoet@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I definitely don’t complete all of them. My goal is to at least play an hour each, but not every game is worth an hour.

The most time I’ve ever spent on a game is around 100 hours.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
133 points (85.9% liked)

Games

40429 readers
639 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dremor@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Dremor@jlai.lu
modfxomt@lemmy.world