Grumpy Old Gamer

Grumpy Old Gamer

Grumpy Old Gamer is a podcast for people who remember when games came in boxes, DLC wasn’t day-one extortion, and ‘early access’ wasn’t code for ‘you’re paying to beta test this broken mess.’ We talk about games, the old, the new, the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between, with the kind of blunt honesty that PR departments hate. Join us if you remember when games were great (and secretly know there are still some bangers being released now). Episodes fortnightly. https://gog.fm https://gog.fm/discord https://grumpyoldgamer.com

  1. Steam: Our pile of shame

    4월 15일

    Steam: Our pile of shame

    Al, Tim, and Lucas confess their digital hoarding addictions by analyzing their Steam libraries. Turns out we've all got hundreds of games we'll never play, bought during sales we can't resist, gifted by friends who promise "we'll play together" and then ghost us. We used SteamDB to crunch the numbers. Al has £550 worth of unplayed games sitting in his library gathering digital dust. Lucas bought Elder Scrolls Online three times - bought it, refunded it, bought it again on sale, refunded it again, then bought it a third time because it was even cheaper. Tim can't remember buying Farming Simulator 2013 and has no idea why it's installed. The conversation spirals into the psychology of Steam sales. Why do we buy games at 90% off when we know we'll never play them? Why does "it's only £2" feel like a compelling reason to add another title to the pile? Why do we convince ourselves we'll definitely play Dying Light this time when we've been saying that for 11 years? We debate physical versus digital ownership. Tim and Al have shelves of boxed PC games they'll never install because who runs optical drives anymore. Lucas sees his Steam library as a collection of military badges - achievements for simply owning the games. We're all hypocrites who miss game manuals while exclusively buying digital. Regional pricing gets exposed. Lucas admits Argentina used to have ridiculous Steam discounts - £50 games for £5. Free-to-play games get dissected. Tim's spent hundreds on Magic: The Gathering Arena and it shows as £0 library value. The friendship tax is real - buying games together, playing for an hour, never touching them again. Nobody's changing their behaviour. The Spring Sale just started. We're all doomed.

    53분
  2. The Ownership Illusion - Subscriptions, DRM, and Digital Rights [S02E02]

    2월 4일

    The Ownership Illusion - Subscriptions, DRM, and Digital Rights [S02E02]

    We replaced Tim with Lucas from Argentina and nobody told him. Now three idiots argue about subscription services, cloud gaming, and why you technically don't own any of your digital games. The conversation covers how none of us can remember the last time we bought a physical game, yet we complain about not owning anything. We're all trapped in the Steam ecosystem with hundreds of games we'll never play again and can't resell. Game Pass costs more than just buying Minecraft outright, but people keep paying anyway because we're gullible idiots who forget to cancel subscriptions. Cloud gaming gets debated as either the great equalizer or the final nail in ownership's coffin. Lucas argues for the satisfaction of building your own PC. Al suggests cloud access might democratize gaming. Ian points out the practical benefits of playing games on a potato laptop. Nobody agrees on anything. GOG gets praised for selling DRM-free games you can own, but we all still use Steam because the interface is better and our libraries are already there. The EU's Stop Killing Games initiative offers hope for permanent game access, assuming it passes and forces global changes like Steam's refund policy did. https://gog.fm https://gog.fm/blog https://gog.fm/spotify https://gog.fm/apple https://gog.fm/amazon https://gog.fm/discord https://gog.fm/twitch https://gog.fm/steam https://gog.fm/curator https://gog.fm/facebook https://gog.fm/twitter https://gog.fm/bsky https://gog.fm/instagram https://gog.fm/threads

    59분
  3. Season Finale: Gaming Might Not Be Shit After All [S01E10]

    2025. 12. 10.

    Season Finale: Gaming Might Not Be Shit After All [S01E10]

    It's the Season 1 finale, and we're coming full circle. 10 episodes ago, we kicked things off with a bold claim: Gaming Is Shit Now. But after 20 weeks of arguing about everything from Half-Life 2's superiority over GTA to the death of couch co-op and the predatory practices of EA (f##k EA) and Ubisoft (f##k Ubisoft even more), we've reached a surprising conclusion. In this episode, we confront our own hypocrisy. We hate live service games... but we're both paying for EA Play to play Battlefield 6. We despise subscription models... but we're using them like they're demo discs. We complained about broken launches and day-one patches... but maybe early access and the ability to fix games post-launch isn't the worst thing? What We Discuss: Are we just hypocrites for complaining about things we actively support?Live service games, season passes, and monetization (and why we tolerate them)How cross-platform play has revolutionized gaming accessibilityThe Stop Killing Games initiative and consumer protectionsWhy broken launches still suck but patches are actually beneficialThe positives of modern gaming we've been ignoringOur final verdict: Is gaming ACTUALLY shit?BONUS: Post-credits rant about Call of Duty Black Ops 7's disastrous launch, Battlefield 6's victory, and Steam's new console dominating the future. After 10 episodes of being grumpy bastards, we've finally admitted it: gaming in 2025 might actually be... good? The benefits far outweigh the negatives. Cross-play, consumer choice, accessibility, and yes, even those bloody subscription services have their place. Thanks for sticking with us through Season 1. We'll be back in 6 weeks for Season 2, bigger, grumpier, and ready to contradict ourselves all over again. https://gog.fm https://gog.fm/blog https://gog.fm/spotify https://gog.fm/apple https://gog.fm/amazon https://gog.fm/discord https://gog.fm/twitch https://gog.fm/steam https://gog.fm/curator https://gog.fm/facebook https://gog.fm/twitter https://gog.fm/bsky https://gog.fm/instagram https://gog.fm/threads

    1시간

소개

Grumpy Old Gamer is a podcast for people who remember when games came in boxes, DLC wasn’t day-one extortion, and ‘early access’ wasn’t code for ‘you’re paying to beta test this broken mess.’ We talk about games, the old, the new, the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between, with the kind of blunt honesty that PR departments hate. Join us if you remember when games were great (and secretly know there are still some bangers being released now). Episodes fortnightly. https://gog.fm https://gog.fm/discord https://grumpyoldgamer.com