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The title is a misreading of the data. It's not that "most people who buy games on Steam never play them". It's that most games people buy remain unplayed. A ti
by mort96 1y ago
The title is a misreading of the data. It's not that "most people who buy games on Steam never play them". It's that most games people buy remain unplayed. A tiny, tiny minority of people who buy games of Steam never play games they buy on Steam.
EDIT: Apparently, this error was introduced by the HN submission! The title of the article on the website is: "Most people who buy your game won’t play it". This matches the data presented by the article.
- deelowe 1y agoI don't know why but I find language like this incredibly frustrating. Maybe it's because the media tends to do this sort of thing all the time to fit statistics to their narrative.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- AznHisoka 1y agoI think because the “true” statement is more awkward as a headline, and requires more seconds to parse. Thus they need to dumb it down. The real headline would be “Most games people buy are never played” or something. Which can mean a lot of things like do people often buy games that nobody else has ever played?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- mlyle 1y agoWelcome to syntactic ambiguity. But I think this was clear enough to infer what it meant before the rephrase (aside from some edge cases like how does this play with gifts and family sharing).
- izacus 1y agoThe other thing is abuse of percentages. "Only 5% of US population has ever finished a video game." (which is a staggering 16 million people). This type of thing. Instead of focusing on folks who actually do invest time into your product, even if the % is low.
- xandrius 1y agoI re-read your comment 5 times and I still don't see the difference you're trying to highlight. What I got is: people buy games and they don't play most of them. Is it wrong?
- idopmstuff 1y agoThe title of the post indicates that most people who buy games on Steam never play a single game that they have purchased (vs. your correct understanding of the data, which is that people buy games and play some but not all of them).
- acdha 1y agoThat’s a pretty strict reading of “them”, though. In non-academic contexts, I think most English speakers would understand it as the intended meaning rather than that there are many people who have Steam but never play anything.
- scsh 1y agoThe point is, whether intentional or not, the submitted title is ambiguous and possesses the capability to mislead. When talking about data we should strive to use as accurate language as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if someone's interpretation of the title tended toward their own experience, or lack thereof, with Steam.
- acdha 1y agoSure, I would edit it as well but it seems overblown as a nitpick thread.
- LikesPwsh 1y ago% of people vs % of games. A single person who "collects" games or buys them because it seems like good value can have thousands of titles in their steam library. Someone who actually plays all of them will have a much smaller number.
- Kinrany 1y agoWhich can be perfectly rational even financially when discounts are >50%.
- cAtte_ 1y agothe original title is "Most people who buy your game won’t play it", which is actually equivalent to what you're saying (even though it still says 'most people'!). HN mods edit titles to avoid clickbait and the like, which can end up like this
- mort96 1y agoOh you're right! The title of the article on the website matches the data presented by the article. I didn't notice that it was different. Pretty bad of HN to edit a good title into a dishonest one like this.
- tylervigen 1y agoOne stat in here supports a third, slightly different statement. The median player has not played 51% of their games, so: "most people who buy games on steam have not played most of the games they own."
- ASalazarMX 1y agoCorrelates with my experience. Sometimes sales are so attractive you buy several games for cheap, or even an entire franchise, but playing them all can take enough time that another sale comes again. Red Dead Redemption 2 has been collecting digital dust in my library because I'm still playing Fallout 76. I stopped buying more because it feels wrong.
- sfn42 1y agoYou should play RDR2, it's absolutely phenomenal. That and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 are the best role playing games I've played in the past decade.
- spydum 1y agoFull agreement. Rdr2, Witcher 3, and mass effect trilogy for me.
- sfn42 1y agoYou should try KCD2, can not recommend it enough
- ASalazarMX 1y agoI know, but I can't deal with two massive RPGs right now. It doesn't help that a multiplayer RPG like Fallout 76 multiplies the role playing opportunities.
- mey 1y agoDitto. I have several games in my backlog that I got on deep discount, but need serious time commitment to play. It's going to take me a little bit to play Witcher 3, Disco Elysium, or the entire Mass Effect trilogy. Also there is a certain time horizon on steam that play time wasn't tracked. I am pretty sure I played Half Life 2, since that's why I have a steam account in the first place. Edit: You may not want to know if your steam account is old enough to drink...
- HPsquared 1y agoTime is the biggest cost of gaming.
- y1n0 1y agoThis it’s true, and must weighed carefully. I prefer casual games because of this.
- HenryBemis 1y agoYes. I get it that people also want to try and play various games. I think that 'eventually' everyone has their go-to game, just like everyone has their 'go-to' takeout/takeaway. I want pizza or burger. I will try a different joint, but it will be one or the other. The same for gaming. Defender of the Crown, AoE II, Fortnite. I stopped buying games a long time ago. I am sure that there are many great games.. but... I like pizza, I like burger. You can tempt me with sushi once per quarter, but DotC, AoE, FN.. and that's that. I got 'no time' to learn/master a new game. Or rather I got time, but I will not 'invest' it to start another open-world game that will require 5 years!
- bmacho 1y ago+1 complain for the editoralized title. It's so much worse than the original.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- oc1 1y agoAm i the only one who couldn't care less about these semantics and doesn't get what the heck you're even talking about?
- y1n0 1y agoI’m in this category. I have two tiers of games on my wishlist. Those that if they are less than $20 I would buy and those that if they are less than $3 I would buy. It’s not automatic, sometimes I just don’t feel like buying a game anymore even when it’s on sale, and I’ll drop them when if they go on sale and I don’t want them enough to pay. But I do end up with a few games in my library I haven’t played yet.
- brandall10 1y agoThe article glosses over what I'd have to believe is the biggest reason - some games, in particular older AAA games, are discounted so aggressively that it seems silly to not purchase. Like 5-15% of the original retail price.
- loloquwowndueo 1y agoIt’s never silly to not buy something you’re not going to use. Particularly once you realize there will be an identical sale or discount in 6 months.
- smt88 1y agoIt absolutely makes sense to buy things you may (emphasis on may) never use, especially if it never "expires". Insurance is a great example. People are buying these games knowing they're adding to their backlog and likely won't get through the whole thing, but the price is so low that the chance they'll want to play the game someday is enough. I'm one of these (apparently rather typical) consumers and will buy almost any modern-class AAA game if it's $5.
- loloquwowndueo 1y agoTell me you don’t really know how insurance works without telling me :) You’re not “buying it and then not using it”.
- smt88 1y ago> Tell me you don’t really know how insurance works without telling me :) This will be interesting news to the insurance company I co-founded :) :) :) > You’re not “buying it and then not using it”. This boils down to semantics, but most consumers feel like they're "using" their insurance plan only when they file a claim. Unused games in my Steam library are basically insurance against being bored.
- deleted 1y ago
- xingped 1y agoIt amazes me that the community still tolerates the sloppy butcher that is the automated HN headline editor. An absolute embarrassment is what it is.