Will I buy any games in 2018?

Last year, I decided to not buy any new games last year. I gave myself the escape clauses of Kickstarter not counting (and I stuck to just PnP files anyway), children’s games not counting, PnP not counting and used games bought with store credit not counting.

Well, I ended up buying four used games but not with store credit. Still, I spent next to nothing on them and they take up minimal space so I feel I can give myself a C+.

To be honest, I’m not planning on planning on trying not buying any games again this year. I mean, it could happen but it probably won’t. Instead, I’ll repeat my 2016 pledge, to buy no more than six new games. And I only bought two that year.

And the usual clauses apply: Kickstarter is its own thing; games for the preschooler don’t count; Print-and-Play doesn’t count. And I’m not going to count used games UNLESS they cost more than ten dollars. (I’d originally planned on making that twenty but I decided that was too much leeway)

Over the last year, I started making a list of games to potentially buy that I either tried and really liked or felt really confident that I would get real play out of. At the end of the year, the list was... seven games long. (Photosynthesis, Imhotep, Isle of Skye, Sintorini, LYNGK, Azul and Segrata, by the way) 

When I first started buying games, I’d get anything that interested me. That’s how I ended up with a bloated game collection, full of too many games that only got played once or didn’t get played at all. Now I look for games that wouldn’t just be fun but would see plenty of play. (Which, right now, means, shorter games primarily for two players)

Oh, there are bigger games that tempt me, like Scythe. However, I know that those wouldn’t get played or played once at most over the next few years. The decision to not buy games isn’t a meaningless challenge. It’s realistically looking at my hobby.

Maybe this year I will not buy any games. Maybe I’ll go over that six limit. But I will do my best to make wise decisions.