Steam Summer Sale Sadness Pt. II

Last year, Ewok told us his tale of how the Steam Summer Sale left him with a ton of games to play through, but a small budget for the rest of the year. In contrast, I’m here to tell you my tale of this year’s Summer Sale.

It’s safe to say that I was really excited for this year’s sale. There’s a few games that I had my eye on and was really hoping that they’d be reduced to a reasonable price. In the past few years, my Steam library has grown and engorged itself to a healthy 250+ games. The vast majority of this was obtained during the Steam sales, grabbing hugely discounted titles and unmissable bargains. So there I am at 18:00 GMT on 11th July, smashing my F5 button trying to see what fantastical sales Valve will be offering me his year.

I managed to get in past the server overload and scrolled through the discounted delights. But as I scrolled and scanned, my gleeful smile slowly began to turn into a disappointed deadpan. Sure, there were a few good deals there, but either I already owned the game or it wasn’t that good of a deal that I was willing to part with my ‘well earned’ cash. I spent another five minutes scrolling back and forth through that day's deals, seeing if there was anything I wanted to buy but to no avail. I checked back at 08:00 and 10:00 the next morning for the flash and community choice sales but still, nothing.

18:00 rolls around again and there I am, hitting the F5 button again, trying to see what I can get my grubby little digital fingers on. I manage to get on a little faster today and scroll eagerly through the deals again. Finally, something catches my eye: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 for £3.74 - 85% off, bargain. I go to add it to my cart but then a little voice in my head pipes up.

“Are you really going to play this?”
“What? Of course I’ll play it, it’s £3.74!”

“Yes, but, come on, really?”

This inner dialogue went on for awhile with my cursor floating on and off the ‘Purchase for myself’ button but in the end, I decided against it.

This pretty much followed suit for the rest of the Steam Sales. There were a few cheap games but as soon as I went to buy them, my conscience seemed to have something to say about it. The thing is, I really did want to buy some games this year. I wanted to give Valve a blank cheque and let the madness ensue but alas, it was not the case.

The dilemma I am faced with now however, is whether my mental age is growing up and becoming more adult or I just own all the games I want at the moment. For the sake of my hungry Steam account, I hope it’s the latter. Anyway, there’s always the Christmas sales to look forward to.