There is no theory, want or want not young Padawan!
If researching about games and looking for deals etc is unadulterated fun to you then that's fine I guess. Just the other day, I spent a couple hours looking for games, mainly puzzle/puzzle platformers - in the process of which I increased my Steam wishlist from 6 games to 26. This is risky because as soon as something is one your wishlist, you're a lot more likely to notice a sale on the item.

I dodged Toki Tori 2+ and Nihilumbra, both games went on sale on the weekend but I didn't buy anything. 2-3 other games on my Steam wishlist are on sale right now but none of those games are high priority to me.
I almost bought Nihilumbra because of genkicolleen's great review but then I decided that I didn't want to break my current record abstinence run of one month+ just for this game which I can always buy later as it will go on sale again. As for Toki Tori2+, I haven't even finished the first game and the second one doesn't give me the right vibes, the game seems off in a way so I decided to pass on the 90% off sale.

I'm somewhat tempted to buy About Love, Hate and the other ones as well as Back to Bed but neither of those two excite me enough to break my abstinence. Only a few of the games I added to my wishlist give me excitement vibes: The Cave, See No Evil, Constant C and Max The Curse of Brotherhood. Chances are high that none of them will excite me but my intuition says there is a chance I might enjoy those.

The rest is stuff like Tengami, Full Bore, Vessel, Limbo, Closure, A Good Snowman is hard to build, Stay Alight, Lost Marbles, Life Goes On...mostly casual/semi casual puzzle platformers that seem a good fit for my currently revamped interest in the genre but it's not like I don't already have enough stuff to play in that category.

It's super rare that I encounter a game that actually excites me and provides unadulterated fun. Only a small percentage of the games I play succeed at that in recent times. Last year it was Stronghold, NOX, Diablo 2 replay before I overdid it, The Samaritan Paradox, Halfway, Clarc. This year it was only Secret Files: Tunguska, Technobabylon and Unmechanical. That's on average only one game that I enjoy for every two months, and a whole bunch of stuff I never finish or don't enjoy even if I do somehow finish it.

I got stuck for several months in Tunguska which put an enormous dent into my enjoyment but if it wasn't for that it's one of my all-time favorites now. Unmechanical also had one extremely annoying twitchy puzzle, the worst I had ever encountered in any game in the last 25 years or so. Must have been a technical glitch as most other players don't report having had that same problem, and it was only that one incident. Technobabylon didn't aggravate me at all in any way, but it also didn't really excite me at any point. But I genuinely enjoyed it and consider it a clear case 5 star game, and arguably the finest one published by Wadjet so far.

It's not a matter of convinced or not, even though I agree with you I just don't feel that way. As detailed above, I only rarely have unadulterated fun with a game. And "critical review mode" which for me is on by default doesn't help at all, on the contrary. If a game can successfully enchant me and make me forget about critical mode business then that's an absolute rarity. Coming to think of it, I can't remember a single game that managed to pull that off in recent times, not even the ones I mentioned that I did enjoy.

Thanks for the recommendation. Added to my wishlist.

Perhaps your "critical review mode" is buggy? Does it try to analyse what you enjoy in a game, or only find faults?

day 66: oh, that new humble bundle? i have it now.
day 0:

I had a pretty good record going on. Months since I had last purchased a game. And then I blew it! Bought Mass Effect 3 on PC, and Bound by Flame and Shadow Warrior on PS4.

hahahah oh this made my day..thanks buddy!

Luckily I already have Etherlords 1&2, Widzardy 8, Rune, and Realms of Arkania on GoG. So there's nothing much to tempt me.

If you want to lessen / postpone the temptation, then remind yourself many of the games in the bundle are sold on GoG...... and sales of GoG is frequent.

If only the devs would release the remake on GOG as well. I've been waiting for the remake to come here for some time now. Maybe I should just delve into the originals and be done with it.

It's the Realms of Arkania remake, which isn't on GOG. I do have the original on GOG, but I find the remake interesting.

Sales are frequent, but this kind of sale isn't frequent, or available at all for GOG. $2.50 for this bunch of games is deep in impulse buying territory. The only problem is that I will likely never play them.

That's our problem too, hence this thread. Of the games I listed I only finish Ether lord 1, and Wizardry 8 is still on going even though I pour 100+ hours in it.

Yeah, but that's pretty much the only reason I have not to buy. It's a good reason, a real reason, competing with the desire to buy these games because they are cheap. Unfortunately $2.50 is something that I can easily afford, it's a really good deal, and I'm not that much of a Steam hater that it'd really put me off.

In the end, either the "I'm not going to play them" or "it's not much money at all for that" arguments will prevail.

I think it's been a few weeks since I bought a game, ever since the GMG sale. That's pretty good for me! Sales, either annual, weekend, or humble bundles are really my downfall, but luckily nothing has appealed to me lately! :D

I am tempted to pick up Hearts of Iron 3 at that discount but.... I still want to keep my resolve not to buy more games for a while!

I know of nowhere else to turn to for help but this thread..... HELP!!! :P

I have finally given in to the whisperings and urgings of the backlog. I bought several games in the last sale, and grabbed a couple Humble Bundles (the most recent being the Jumbo 4 bundle). I feel much happier now. No more stress about trying to resist buying. Come to the dark side. Smell that lovely new game smell. Watch your shelf fill up with all those lovely game icons. Revel in the satisfaction of grabbing a great discount. You know you want to.

Yes, well.... just like any other addiction, I can't cure my game buying addiction by giving in to the temptations. I may be satisfied for a little while, but eventually I'm just going to keep coming back for more. :P

At any rate, I have done quite well with keeping my resolve for the past month or so. (better than expected, actually) Perhaps I could cave in just once.... or keep my clean streak going.....