Ironically, despite the low prices of PC games on Steam, I’ve ended up spending more than I budgeted over the last few months. Those discounts are very tempting, and the fact that Steam is coming out with more games every week—especially classic titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic— isn’t really helping.
Recently however, I’ve realized my compulsion to buy stems from the slick marketing process built into Steam’s interface. By default, you are presented with the home page of Steam store once you load the client. Sometimes a pop-up appears, upon start-up or after exiting a game, detailing all the latest games and promos available from Steam. Both are designed to keep you aware of what’s new, subtly pushing you to open up your wallet and make Valve (and its partner publishers) richer.
Luckily, you can change the Steam client settings and lessen temptations to buy. It’s a simple matter of clicking on the File Menu of the Steam client and selecting Settings. Once the dialog pops-up, all you have to do is set your Favorite Window to anything other than “Steam”, and unchecking Notify me (with Steam instant messages) about additions or changes to my games, new releases, and upcoming releases. Then click OK to save the new settings.
What this does is minimize the temptations to buy new games. Now when you start up Steam, you’re brought directly to your games; you don’t get to see the store until you intentionally choose to go there, saving you from the skillfully crafted “buy now” messages plastered all over Steam’s home page. The same applies to disabling Steam’s notifications, as there are now less opportunities for Valve to ply its wares on your impressionable gaming mind.
With fewer temptations to buy, you indirectly save more money, and continue maximizing the advantage that attracted you to Steam in the first place: low-priced legit copies of PC games.
Post from: The Gadget Blog
