Here’s a challenge. Try to calculate how long it will take you to complete your backlog with HowLongToBeat.com and reveal how many Hours Of Shame it will take you to complete, and if possible. get tips to deal with it.
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I don’t need to calculate it. I’ll be dead before I can. That’s not hyperbole, it’s a reality.
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I know. It was a stupid idea.
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Mine totals up to 438.5 hours. That’s assuming I actually want to finish everything in my backlog, which is a big assumption… I’m sure I’ll abandon some of them.
Almost a quarter of that is Xenoblade Chronicles 3. 
I’ve talked about this before, but my backlog is mainly a reminder not to buy games I don’t need. It’s been a big help having a backlog shelf to “shop” in before actually shopping.
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Oh, and the biggest tip I can give might seem like a cop-out to some: Drop games from the backlog if they’ve been there forever and/or feel like homework to tackle, abandon games if you aren’t having fun. They’re supposed to be fun, so move on when there’s any friction!
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I thought this would be a good year to work on some of my backlog…I just started The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which is one that has been on my shelf forever. I don’t know if I’d want to count the hours, though
Actually, I wish I could work on having a more fulfilling social life, but it’s such a difficult age
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I definitely need reincarnation to be a thing, because I might need multiple lives. For this life, I might have enough time left for 20% if I cut down on sleeping. 
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Lol, not at all. I just know that I have too many games. I have too many itch.io bundles alone. This reminds me of those book lists that people make estimating the number of books they can read before they would statistically die. I don’t avoid thinking about the number of hours out of shame or fear of death, I think I do it because it requires a different relationship to my backlog than the one I wish to cultivate.
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Really truly, you only own games that total 438.5 hours? I’m sure I have at least four or five games that would total that much time together. I own all the Yakuza games and so far have only played Like a Dragon. I’m assuming just the Yakuza games total 400 hours, give or take.
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Hmm. Maybe I’ll rename the topic to ‘hours of opportunity’ instead…
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This reminds me of a TheJwittz video from a while back which asks if it’s possible to play every “good” game
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I’m sure all the games I own would have a higher total, but I have 23 games in my backlog right now, and that’s the total I get from HLTB.
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But remind me, is your backlog smaller than the total number of yet to be played games that you own? I think of my backlog as everything I own that I haven’t either played and completed or dropped with no intention of returning to at a later date.
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Every game I acquire goes in the backlog, with a few exceptions:
- I’m primarily a single-player gamer, but I do occasionally buy games specifically for multiplayer, in which case it feels weird to track them that way (the context is so different).
- I get a lot of games for “free” via PS Plus, Nintendo Switch Online, bundles, giveaways, etc. I only add the ones I intend to play to my backlog. I do track the games I own for these platforms in their own shelf, so I don’t accidentally double-dip if an interest develops.
Once a game’s in my backlog, there are a few ways it can leave:
- I finish the game! Hooray!
- I play but decide not to finish the game. According to HLTB, I do this with 8.5% of the games in my backlog.
- I remove it because whatever interest I had just isn’t there anymore. People change, interests shift, buyer’s remorse happens. Better to be honest with myself and drop it than surrender my free time to a sunk cost fallacy. I can always change my mind later (though that rarely happens).
I think another reason my backlog has stayed pretty small is that Grouvee has really helped me take control over my spending on games. I used to suffer from FOMO when it came to digital sales and new releases, and they’d just pile up unplayed. These days, I think I’m a lot better about resisting game purchases that don’t stack up well against what’s already in my backlog. Even then, I try not to buy unless I plan to play immediately or there’s something time-sensitive about the purchase (a limited edition, a ridiculous sale, a rare second-hand find, etc.).
And to be clear, this is just what seems to work well for me. Nothing wrong at all with maintaining a large backlog or avoiding one entirely… this hobby’s supposed to be fun, after all!
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Right, that makes sense. You’re more deliberate with your backlog shelf use. For me it’s just the giant container for all my unplayed games. It’s just there so that I can check to see if I own something when I’m interested in playing it.
I also agree that there’s no right way to do any of this. I’m less concerned about curating my backlog because I use other methods but I also don’t worry too much about what I have and whether or not I’ll get a chance to play it. I did stop adding games I receive from subscription services, however. That eventually got tedious and unwieldy to maintain.
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Man I’m sure it’s in the hundreds of hours. It would have to become my job for a couple months to catch up. To get out of that hole.
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23,481 hours plus 155 hours for games that I’m currently playing. I use my backlog as a wishlist as well because I don’t want to maintain two lists for essentially the same thing (games I want to play, the only difference being whether I own them or not).
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Me: easily has thousand hour+ backlog
Also me: just passed 300 hours in Stardew Valley since November and more than 40 hours in Theatrhythm a week and a half ago…
I also have this problem in life, where I’m a collector more than a do-er. I knit, but I have so much yarn stashed I will never touch. I’d love to get to it and my games, but it’d be like a full time job and then some. Oh well, we all do what we can I suppose.
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Oh man that backlog thingy? Just thinking about it makes me want to fire up Skyrim for a 172nd playthrough!
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For me it would be the 172nd playthrough of Stardew Valley instead of facing my backlog. 
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