I decided to share a new hobby I’ve been doing since last summer, namely creating a list of games from my game library that are in an overarching, chronological order by our planet Earth’s timeline.
I did this out of curiosity to make a track record of games and I must say, it was rewarding in a few ways: It helps me learn about the outlines of humanity’s historical periods, and it offers me a list to follow as a video game backlog.
As a bonus, I even extended the list to beyond our current time period, including science fiction games in the process. (Updated 24/05/24)
It’s rough in the details and the description of my method but I’ve written down my motivations behind it for you to help understand how I built and follow this list. If there’s any game details that you’d suggest or would prefer to see corrected, you’re free to leave any feedback.
All in all, I hope it sates some kind of curiosity for you and that it might inspire you along the way. Cheers!
P.S. In the beginning, I made this list on Evernote, since I was mostly comfortable on this platform back then. That is, until they decided get greedy and made it clunkier for free users with their subscription prompts. You can still view it the way I started it, as much as it is outdated now and I jumped over to Google Docs to make the list. https://www.evernote.com/shard/s605/sh/b3ed00d7-9f23-4635-fe8e-8597359ffe36/0ca9813c0199f785bfd4e2000d645c52
That is really cool. I took a look at the link and it was very fascinating. I may have missed it but what dot he colors denote? Also, I think it would be interesting to put a column stating how fictional the title may be in the cases of tying to Historical aspects/ moments and how much you enjoyed it on a scale of sorts.
I looked at your list the way I’ve looked at movies that try to be as historically accurate as possible, like Gettysburg and think that it would add to it but that is simply my opinion.
Thanks for the fast response, Prin! And also for pointing out the colors in the table. I forgot to specify that the red ones are in my backlog and the green ones have been cleared previously (beaten or dropped), so I’ll update on that.
The suggestion to add the fiction level in its own column is interesting. For now, I do it by the wildmarks as described above the list. And yeah, adding an enjoyment scale is also a welcome suggestion.
I’m glad that you guys enjoyed it. I have taken the feedbacks into consideration and added a score column, as well as marking games that are on my wishlist.
My inner geek squeed SO hard at this. Brilliant idea, and really interesting. Are you including just the events of the game, or the game’s backstory as well (I understand that could become quite convoluted)?
On a side note, I used to use Evernote, but always found it didn’t quite do what i wanted and switched to Notion. How is Evernote these days? It’s been a fair while since I looked into it.
It’s pleasing to know that you liked my list, Joey!
It depends from game to game at what extent I focus the events on. The essential events make for a varying arrangement taking place on my list, so I’ll mention some prime examples below:
Max Payne has a backstory taking place in 1998 but since the main event takes place in 2001, the game will be sorted in the 21st century category. Both years will still be mentioned in the list.
Mafia’s story spans through 1930-1938, as well as 1946 in the epilogue (as far as I’ve skimmed through the wiki page), so it’ll have its place before Pathway (1936) and Saboteur (1940) because the scale of the main event virtually outweigh those of the other games.
Each Assassin’s Creed’s year are listed by the year of the historical events but won’t include the current event, since the date of the modern-day events haven’t even been specified.
The tricky one is the strategy games that covers several centuries across the time category. I listed Age of Empires DE as first in the Antiquity category since the first scenarios date before the events of other games, same as AoE II DE in the Later Middle Ages category. At the same time, Age of Empires IV is listed last since its earliest event comes later but also finishes last, so I listed it last as well. I will still play the scenarios in accordance to the dates of events that take place before other games, jumping back and forth between the games.
Like I mentioned before, I feel comfortable working with Evernote but I did notice that the list’s width gets cut off in the shared link page if I stretch it too wide, so I had to sacrifice some optimized layout for readability. I did hear about Notion and used it a bit a year ago, though I haven’t broke through enough to apply it in my everyday documentation. If it works better in comparison, I might consider converting to it.
Almost a year since my last post here, but I must say that I always revisit the list to keep it up-to-date. Today, I have taken upon the task to divide certain campaign games across the timeline. And I must say, it was quite fun and educational.
Have a look into the list if you’re interested. I have included every campaign from Age of Empires 1-4, Empire Earth: Gold Edition and Transport Fever 2. Feedback is appreciated, if anything comes up.
I have now changed platform to keep up the convenience and finesse of working with large table lists.
Currently, I am using Google Docs as a platform for finesse and convenience. I have updated the first post of the thread.
Since the management in Evernote started pestering about subscription offers out of greed, I have been looking into different alternatives. Notion was the first ideal platform, but it was too limiting in color range for table formats. Finally, I went down with Google Docs and could shape it up the way I fundamentally wanted, despite being a novice with Excel-like applications. I could ask for some help by more experienced users in making the features more convenient, so feedbacks and help is welcome here.
With the game “Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey” done and over with, I can consider it a first milestone for getting the first bookend of the chronolog settled!
Hence, I can’t but look forward one step at a time and play along the humanity’s timeline. Next up, Far Cry: Primal and beyond…!
As of today, big updates have graced this backlog list, such as campaign missions from the Age of Empires games and Empire Earth spread out and sorted by timeline. Most recently, I broke World War II-based games down into missions and made a tab exclusively for them.
For all I can say, it is first and foremost a backlog list made for fun and curiosity, though more rewarding is mapping out the historical frame of events, factual as well as fictional.
New milestone - Since July last year, the Ancient era section has been played and now cleared! I have got quite an overview in the history period in such a fun, refreshing way. I am not a passionate writer, but I wonder if I’ll write a post to sum up and reflect upon this project and the progress before I move on into the next period - the first millenia.
I would like to thank the community (including @Nelemania, @JoeyPajamas and the rest ) for giving space for me to share my journey in backlog gaming. Since I am in the middle of the writing, I figured I’d post in parts to both ease my load (lest it become an essay) and make it more bite-sized reading for those interested in this backlogger’s trip. Writing these posts helps me process the backlog experiences and, hopefully, connect with others doing the same.
Plus, if I didn’t write this piece before moving past the “Ancient” era in my Chronolog list, this new backblog (pun fully intended) wouldn’t exist.
The Conception of the Chronolog
Let’s rewind a bit. I’ve been doing the backlog grind since 2017—methodically clearing out games from a ballooning library. As of this post, I’ve cleared around 65% of my ~1500 titles.
Along the way, I started organizing games into custom categories: genre, obsession level, franchise, setting—you name it. But the real turning point came in 2022 when I stumbled upon a Google Doc by Julix. It listed every official campaign from the Age of Empires series in chronological order—from 8000 BC to 1876 CE. That sparked something.
What started as curiosity became a full-blown obsession. I began compiling a list of games from my library (and wishlist) that had clear historical settings. As of today, that list has grown to over 300 entries.
But I didn’t stop there. I started breaking games down further—into specific time periods, scenarios, and levels with real historical context. I referenced Julix’s list and cross-checked settings, dates, and even locations. It took hours, but the process was both fun and incredibly satisfying.
Thus, the Chronolog was born—a gaming journey through time. And the next post will cover the beginning of it… Stay tuned!
If you’ve had a peek at my Chronolog, you’ll notice it’s split into historical periods to make browsing easier. The first? The “Ancient” era—covering the origins of humanity and early civilizations.
And where better to start than with Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey?
This game doesn’t kick off with kings or pyramids—it starts millions of years ago, with your early hominid ancestors clawing their way up the evolutionary ladder. In Ancestors, you don’t just play a character—you play a species evolving. You begin walking on all fours, slowly unlocking - strain by strain - the ability to stand, grip items with more control, and use tools. Every action, every bit of trial and error, contributes to the next evolutionary step.
Eventually, your clan becomes Homo Sapiens, capable of doing things we now take for granted. It’s a fascinating look at our roots, told through interactive gameplay.
That said, as a backlog gamer, I have to be picky about time investment. Ancestors is immersive, but it also demands patience and repetition. The grind starts to outweigh the novelty, and at some point, I had to ask: is this fun enough to finish?
For me, it was a partial check-off. I made it through a big chunk of the game, appreciated the evolution arc, and then watched the final sequences on YouTube.
I have written the draft for the rest of the backlog chapter but I feel uncertain about how compelling it turns out to be. I write it down like you would a journal, but I sense a lack of engagement for the readers and I figure there could be something added for you, if I am to make sense out of journaling.
If you’re a writer yourself, is there a formula you have to engage the readers?
Would you like me to make a poll/quiz related for each chapter I post?
Any ideas are welcome!
There is definitely a lack of engagement on the forums at the moment as a whole, so I highly recommend to post as comment or game related for the front page too. A bit more advertising might be needed too. Maybe your thread could be pinned?
A few pictures would help, to get a better idea of the game for me. Pictures sometimes say more than words and especially help to build out the time frame in my mind, if this makes sense?
I could also see a timeline for your whole adventure to be helpful and to spark more interest in other journal entries if you could make a drawing about where you started and where you currently are and what’s next. So there is always an outlook on what will be next.
For the writing I am no help, we have writers on the site you could tag for that and ask directly. I like to read what and how you write though.
I had missed your first entry after the indtroduction because I hadn’t put the notifications on, so I did that now to not miss your adventures again!
I would love to read about your experience so far!
The Conception of the Chronolog
The “Ancient” Era part 1 – Where It All Begins