Backlogs

[TornadoCreator]

I've finally gone through my collection and updated my backloggery to include every game I currently own; which interestingly enough came out to exactly 300 games. Of those games 192 are unfinished, and 98 of them are unopened/unplayed which is rather sad admittedly. For perspective though remember unfinished includes the likes of Final Fantasy 7 which I simply didn't finish the final boss battle because I was spending hours breading Chocobo, and Dungeons Of Dreadmor; a roguelike I've sunk over 200 hours into but have yet to beat, to name but a few.

 

So, I was wondering, does anyone else have a substantive backlog and what tactics do you use to eat through it without turning gaming into work? Also, does anyone else here use backloggery; mine is in my signature naturally.

[danielpholt]

I've not got a 'Backlog' as much as I've got a short 'to-do' list of games that I plan on playing before I allow myself to buy anything new. In a good month, its maybe 3-4 deep with new purchases, so I've always something new to play. I've noticed I tend to buy games in 2-3's, and never for more than £20 (on PC, Console games are a rarity for me). 

 

If I do happen to fall behind significantly, I'll usually find myself feeling the weight of the backlog on my shoulders, and totally stop playing at all, in which case I take a week or two, do other shit and come back fully recharged, ready to try something new. Then, if within 30 minutes of starting the game I'm not feeling it, I'll usually throw it into the 'Nope' category where it'll stay in perpetuity until 1)it earns redemption* or 2), will never be spoken of again**.

 

*Xcom: Enemy Unknown

**Antichamber

Edited July 9, 2014 by bigdanhero

[TheMightyEthan]

My backlog right now is only two games (Sleeping Dogs and Tiny Brains), but that's because I remove games from my backlog once I decide I have no intention of ever playing them again, even if I've never even played it once yet.  That includes removing games that I consider myself done with, even if I didn't finish them.  Basically I decided there's no point keeping things in my backlog for years and years when I have no intention to ever play them, even if they're not done.

 

According to Darkadia, of my 592 games (which includes every game I could remember having from NES era onward), there are 47 I've not even played once, another 311 that I've played but not completed (though this number counts stuff like Civ V, which I've played for 340 hours but which can never really be "finished"), and 234 that I've actually beat.

[Alex Heat]

I've got my own backlog split up by platform and whether they're retail or downloadable and have been making a concentrated effort to at least work through my console retail stuff before I actually play my PS4/Wii U (which works reasonably well as incentive).  I started at about 65 games in September or so and I've whittled it down to 17 at this point.

 

And then there's the monster that is Steam...which we're not gonna talk about.

[TCP]

My PS4 back log is getting a little ridiculous for a system with "no games". Killzone, Octodad, Child of Light, Strider, Pixeljunk Shooter Ultimate, Steam World Dig, Watch_Dogs, Towerfall, plus some others I'm probably forgetting. I still really want to get Valiant Hearts and Transistor, but I'll hold off on those till I get at least Octodad and Watch_Dogs done.

[TornadoCreator]

I don't even count Steam games in my backlog now, I simply have too many games from all the humble bundles, and I'm probably never going to actually play any of them. I'm almost tempted to claim that only games on physical media count for me as I don't like digital distribution anyway.

 

I checked on HowLongToBeat.com and my PS3/Wii U games alone make 20 days worth of continuous gameplay in my backlog, and that's only doing one basic playthrough, not attempting to 100% anything. If I put in 4 hours a day, every day, it'd take me 4 months to beat them all... and I'm not including my sizeable PS2/Xbox/360 backlog, or the games on my wishlist I've yet to pick up. Hence why I asked if anyone has any tactics.

[Alex Heat]

The one thing I could suggest is the one thing I will sometimes do: Play something at random on your backlog, then play a game you want to play then pick another random game.

[TheMightyEthan]

Something I do if nothing jumps out at me as something I want to play, is find a fairly short/small game to play.  That way I can get it out of the backlog fairly quickly without committing myself to 40 hours or whatever, it helps me feel like I'm making progress, and maybe when I'm done with it there'll be something I feel like I'm in the mood for.

 

My only caution with this or Alex's tactic is if you're not feeling it fairly quickly you should put it down (but not necessarily out of your backlog).  You don't want to force yourself to play a game you're just not in the mood for because it's not fun and it also means you're more likely to form an unjustified negative opinion of the game.

[Alex Heat]

Something I do if nothing jumps out at me as something I want to play, is find a fairly short/small game to play.  That way I can get it out of the backlog fairly quickly without committing myself to 40 hours or whatever, it helps me feel like I'm making progress, and maybe when I'm done with it there'll be something I feel like I'm in the mood for.

 

I do this too, though I'm starting to notice that the number of 40 hour long RPGs are starting to outnumber the shorter stuff, so I feel like I should probably commit to it before that's all I have left. 

[Mister Jack]

I think anyone with a steam account has a horrendous backlog. As for getting through it... I'll let you know as soon as I figure that out. I own almost 400 steam games but lately I only play indies on my PC.

[TheMightyEthan]

Honestly the only way I've found is to just be willing to write things off as "I'm never going to play this" and take them off the list, even if you never touched them.

[toxicitizen]

Honestly the only way I've found is to just be willing to write things of as "I'm never going to play this" and take them off the list, even if you never touched them.

 

Yeah, the entire concept of a backlog got a hell of a lot more manageable once I adopted that mindset. I went through my entire Steam library and made a backlog category for "I actually want to play/try this". There's probably more I'd be interested in but those are what I'm focusing on for the foreseeable future. Otherwise, it would be a futile endeavor what with the constant indie bundles and sales. That game count is going up at a faster rate than I can play them and besides, who the hell has time to play all those fucking games anyway?

 

I mean, I'm nearing 700 games on Steam but easily a fifth of that is stuff I probably wouldn't even touch. Most of it came from bundles, some were impulse purchases because they were dirt cheap and it seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, shit, sometimes I'll see a title and literally go "what the fuck is THAT?" or "when did I even get this?!". Like, just glancing over at my list of uninstalled indie games and right away I see AVSEQ, Bientot l'été and English Country Tune and I haven't a fucking clue what any of them are or where I even got them from.

 

I actually made a second category called "summer backlog" with games I intended to play over the summer but I barely touched it lol. I blame my Vita for that. On the plus side, I basically cleared my (retail) Vita backlog! There's still a little under two months left but I'm focusing on my PS3 backlog for now. It's down to only about half a dozen games and I'd like to clear it ASAP since I'm planning to get a PS4 this fall.

 

I'm also a lot less anal than I used to be about finishing games I'm not really enjoying. I'm never going back to finish Nier, for example. And after 20 or so hours of play, Tales of Symphonia can fuck right off. I gave that game more than a fair shot and it bored the shit out of me.

Edited July 10, 2014 by FLD

[TornadoCreator]

I've actually started prefering shorter games now. A good solid 5-10 hours with inventive fun gameplay and a compelling story is enough now. I find that for me games over 20 hours long basically never get finished... I start them sure but I get distracted and move on to something else. I've not finished InFamous for precisely this reason; I've played a little over 12 hours but I keep getting destracted and not finishing it. Unless it's an RPG, a game that's more than 15-20 hours long is in effect sentencing itself to being perpetually incomplete. RPGs get maybe 40-50 hours, and even then all it takes is one addictive minigame and I'll never actually reach the final boss. 

[deanb]

My backlog is 158 out of 281 games listed on my Darkadia, which isn't too bad. I reduce mine first of all by excluding most "endless" games, games without a particular campaign or set amount of levels to go through or what not. So stuff like Sims, Civilization, KerbalSpace Program, Minecraft etc.

 

I kind of work through my backlog by putting a couple of games on my desktop, kind of ballsed up on that at the moment since I just put my newest games from the sale on and now my desktop has gained a dozen extra icons. I'm also messing up in that I've been playing Guild Wars 2 of late and that's not exactly a game you beat. I'm not sure who but I think one of the guys on here had a policy of playing any game for 10 minutes, if it caught them it caught them and they'd go through to the end.

 

I do have an issue with RPGs starting to outnumber other games, but I did make some head way, even got Dragon Age and Witcher stuff out of the way. I got a HIB a while ago og games I wanted to give a crack at, and I haven't touched a single one.

 

There was a site that did combine How Long To Beat with Steam account, but checking it out it's just got a message about the project being abandoned It was kinda useful, I think last I checked I had a thousand hours of gaming ahead of me.

 

Sod it, no dailies today. I'm off to go Raid some Tombs.