Category: Gaming

This post is motivated from a conversation I had on twitter yesterday where one person was surprised that collecting games on steam was a thing. Sometimes I forget that we’re not all steam game players – there’s also the Origin game client, battlenet client, other clients I haven’t named, and then of course there’s console games. Even though I own 233 steam games I don’t consider myself a ‘collector’ of them because I don’t actively seek games out. They tend to be simple humble bundles, or games from good sales. At what point would I consider myself a collector? I’m not sure. If I went just by sheer number of games then sure, I suppose 233 is more than enough to qualify – but I don’t *feel* like a collector of steam games.

Looking over my stats was a bit of a surprise. 60% of the games I own I’ve never played. I think a lot of people who acquire steam games can probably say the same thing. We buy them and we either never play them or we play them for incredibly limited amounts of time. Why does this happen? Well, lets face it, our time is precious. If we’re not completely sold on a game and we bought it on a whim or it came bundled with another game, we may not have that urge and motivation to log in when we only have an hour here and there. Why would we want to play something we’ve barely even heard of when our comfort game is waiting just over there.

It’s much harder to get me to try something I’ve never heard of before or that I’m uncertain about. That’s not to say that these games are not also amazing to play, I have no doubt that they are, but convincing me takes some time. Then there’s the obligation we may feel to play MMOs that currently require a subscription. What about all of those early access games that we buy thinking “I’ll play it when it fully releases, this game looks awesome and has so much potential!” only that game never gets out of the early access stage and years later it’s still sitting in your steam library. Yep. I have a few of those sitting around too.

One thing I don’t do is feel bad about collecting games, even games I’ve never played. I think collecting things is human nature. Comic books, baseball cards, art, rocks, whatever. These are our hobbies, and we invest in them. Some hobbies grow in value over time – and some don’t. I don’t expect that my steam account will be “worth” anything if I were to pass on but I do know that getting a neat game makes me smile, and playing those games and discovering them can take me away from a pretty crummy day and brighten things up. Berating ourselves for getting a treat of any sort is a common practice. I think these treats are essential to our well being. Of course I do mean in realistic terms here, obviously if you have no source of income and you’re spending food money on video games there’s a problem – but if you’re working hard and want a game – even a game you may not play for long – that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Of course I do have a goal to try to play more of my steam games, especially those I’ve never played before. Just need more hours in a day.

This was another game that sat in my steam library without being played over Christmas break, and let me tell you, Aviary Attorney is a fantastic little gem. You go around listening to suspects and collecting evidence to prove your case in court. Then you stand in front of the jury and try to convince them by cross-examining the witness and bringing your evidence into play. Of course there are a number of twists and turns along the way and a whole lot of puns to tie it all together.

What stands out most about this game for me personally is the artwork. I just could not get enough.

If you cross-examine a witness and the jury thinks you’re trying to stall or you’re not asking the right questions, you’ll lose favor with them which will hurt your case. I managed to win my first one – but not without a lot of eye opening moments along the way.

I got this game for Christmas but am only now finding the time to be able to play. It’s an adorable strategy game that plays like Dwarf Fortress. You start with some minions, assign them jobs, and attempt to survive in a fantasy setting. You can play in normal mode where your village will be attacked or you can play in peaceful sandbox mode where you won’t have to worry about invasions but you still have to worry about basic survival.

Unfortunately the tutorial lasts for only about 5 steps, but the game is pretty intuitive if you just press all the buttons and fumble your way around. I started out by assigning one villager as a farmer, another as a carpenter and a third as a soldier. Then I had them gather basic materials like wood and stone, while the farmer started a carrot farm, soon followed by corn. The carpenter crafted items that were required by the housing, such as tables and chairs for the dinning hall. The soldier went on patrol but seemed fascinated with only the farm area of their town and before long two zombies ran in and killed 3 out of my 7 citizens. A tutorial for combat would be nice, it was the only portion I had issues figuring out.

It is an early access game, so you should keep that in mind as you play through but I really had a great time watching the adorable little minions do their thing. There are some issues with creating your own buildings, but I never ran into them personally. My minions leveled up a few times and I was happily building away when along came another invasion, this time three zombies. I decided to stop playing right there and switch to peaceful mode until I could figure out the combat portion of the game.

All in all, a nice relaxing way to spend an evening.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!