- 11% of all household games have unopened titles
We recently looked at what appeared to be a revealing statistic that mentioned the average video game collection has 48 titles. Average.
It’s even more revealing that in a little over one out of ten homes some of those average 48 titles are unopened.
Before I begin, I need to disclose something. There was a time that I lived in one of those homes. Actually, I was the cause for the home. I had Prince of Persia Warrior Within for the Xbox and never opened it. I’ve never even played it. Bought it for $30 and essentially gave it to Gamestop for $7 still wrapped in its wonderful plastic cellophane.
I’m also going to make a big assumption that the way in which these unopened games were acquired was by purchasing them—not as gifts.
That brings me to our first question:
Why are they not opened?
Lets start with the one that will tick most readers off: avarice.
avarice: excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain
We live in a society of wants. There’s a pleasure to materialism—a pleasure in having what’s new. Everybody has something to sell and everybody has something to buy (even when not able to afford it).
For one, the marketing industry has done a great job making sure we “need” certain things. They’ve become so good at that we buy these things and we don’t even know what for.
I’ll give us that its hard to face the marketing juggernaut. However, we have the choice to turn them off—unless we’re facing ads in games.
Of course, we are still the ones with the money. We have the control—or do we? We do, but we tend to think we don’t.
Another reason is the desire to fit in. However, this may be a little weak because the game’s not being played. If as gamers we wanted to fit in, why buy it and not play it? Who would know? I still think that no matter what rationale we come up with it all comes back to the desire to want more. However, there’s more to this story.
How many times have we paid for games and played it for an hour or two and then put up back up on the shelf? Is it really a stretch from not opening it?
Our attention spans in regards to games are at an all time low, and we’ve become heavily critical and unforgiving of the games we play. (Thanks internet!)
Play. Move on. Play. Move on. A smothering new release after new release.
…and some may wonder why Portal was so popular—a breath of fresh air.
We’ll wrap this up in two days when we look at the amount of games we trade in.
I follow the “play, move on, play, move on” formula, except I don’t BUY a game unless I’m actually going to play it a lot. Like Fallout 3. Except I need that cash for Left 4 Dead, so it looks like Bethesda will have to sit tight for a bit.
I don’t think I ever left a game unopened. The games I do buy for myself I play into the ground.
I have a third option, one that plagues me: good intentions. I bought a copy of Ico, used, a while ago. Like 6 months. I have yet to put it in my PS2 and even watch the opening cinematics. Why? I have no idea. I want to play the game. I just never seem to find the time or desire. I bought it because I wanted to see what the fuss was about, to play a good game, to appreciate the story and the characters. I still intend to; eventually.
It’s not the first game I’ve bought on good intentions and never played. I just need more hours in my day.