Backlogs

Hi Friends,

I have a huge backlog. As I am sure many of us do, I am curious what methods people have for working through it? Last year I saw the ‘Year of Games’ and committed to tracking each game I finished in the year (2019 Games - Google Sheets), this year I have seen the game challenge and am quite excited to take part in that.

Previously I would play multiple games at once working towards completion, however I found that I would frequently drop off. Last year I changed my approach, firstly I stopped buying games unless it was a game I was quite excited for, but I also cut back the number of games I played back to 2-3 max at a time (some genres can be exhausting at times so need a break - not because they are bad but the style of game - pathologic 2 etc). These games would come from a shortlist I would change and update on-going based on the kinds of games I felt like playing.

I have also seen the idea of completing a game, is the story required to be completed, do you only play for a couple hours if that’s what you determine enough?

I attempted this, especially when the game was bad or unplayable, but personally it didn’t sit right. I can’t get past the idea that I must finish what I bought (unless of course you cannot finish the game in the typical sense of a story - Stellaris/Civilization etc).

So I wonder what everyone else does, I’d love ideas to improve the process :slight_smile:

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If I can finish a game I will, but if I’m really not enjoying the experience and I know I’m not likely to return to it I will stop playing and mark it complete. For me there are too many games to play to spend time on those I’m not enjoying. I’ll play enough to get a sense of the game before I quit. This pertains largely to non-narrative games, but may extend to the odd narrative game that I feel isn’t compelling enough or enjoyable enough to complete.

I’m going to try To clear out some of my backlog this year by focusing on games I already own instead of shopping sales this year. There are a handful of games I do plan to buy but I might try not to buy anything beyond that. We’ll see how well that goes.

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Hmm I tried similar but didn’t think it was right to say ‘Finished’ - Despite being similar term, completed seems far more reasonable as it is then what you deem completed. Might have to update the terms I use haha

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Hi, first of all I would avoid to make rules for myself that forces me to finish a bad game because I know that I need much more time for finishing a bad short game than a good and long one.
That’ s been said I finish every game before calling it done. All games that I start to play and don’t finish return to my backlog. Sometimes it’s the wrong genre sometimes it’s the quality of the game. I’m sure I will finish them another time (or not).

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I’ve forgot to mention that playing a bad game helps me to rate all the games more accurate. I would wish to rate games some AAA games really low but in comparison to the bad games I’ve played I can’t do that.
I think to finish games which don’t have an end I would have to make my own rules like playing one playthrough (FTL) or completing all scenarios (Zoo Tycoon).

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Yeah that is typically what i’d do - move it to backlog, but with what BMO mentioned, I think the terminology ‘completed’ could be more applicable in these instances, my current thoughts are to put in 2-3 hours and if it is wholly unsatisfying mark down as completed - for myself it would be I have completed all I need to complete for the game etc (for my organizing of games)

When it came to games like FTL/Zoo Tycoon I was previously putting them down as ‘can’t finish’ but yesterday when thinking about the whole ‘completed’ idea I came to the same conclusion. Completing 1 run through, or scenario as mentioned would also count in a non story aspect.

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I think I would rather delete that one unsatisfaying game from my backlog than to mark it as complete. Or create a new shelf with games I won’t beat.

Haha yeah I am kinda stuck between that way and the completed way atm - with one of steams recent updates it is a lot easier to remove games from account. I have done that for some bad / unable to play bc of age games