Indeed. All the people whooping and hollering about the EGS free games thing is kind of like amusing to me. Plain truth is, if you weren't prepared to get it at the time or pick it up when it was on sale beforehand then you probably have a nominal actual interest in playing it, so all you're doing is just adding to that pile of things you're probably never going to play. Just because it's free doesn't mean you need it. Overcome the FOMO.
NOPE.And that made me 'stressed', in a way. Stressed that I had to finish game X in order to proceed to game Y. I became more obsessed with finishing a game in order to reduce my backlog rather than enjoying the damn thing. And playing it for a second time? Not even for a joke.
And then it hit me. Gaming had become more of a job for me, rather than a hobby. I found myself shaking my head at my own stupidity - not playing Horizon Dawn because I wanted to play Super Mario Bros on the NES first. Or not playing MK11 because I wanted to play MK4 as well.
Another thing I started to do was to watch LetsPlay of some of the older, story heavy games during my frequent meals and finish them this way.
I finished my backlog across all platforms ever and it’s just empty between good releases, so I’m safe to say that a 5-10 games it’s a healthy backlog.Backlog.
Such a hated word for any true affectionado of video gaming. A word that any gamer can give a different meaning to.
For some, it means that they have way too many unfinished games. For others, it means they have way too many games, period. And for other others, it means they can't play the games they want to play, because they have other games they need to finish first (especially true for sequels).
I love video games. I love adventure games, I love fighting games, I love strategy games, I love role-playing games, I love side-scrolling shooters, survival horror games, RTS games, turn-based games … you name it, I love it.
Except soccer manager games. Fuck that shit.
But it's easy to get lost in that lovely hobby. It's easy to buy/rent/freebie more and more games, until beating all of them isn't realistically feasible anymore. But you still think you'll be able to play them at some point. You still believe you'll play that awesome game ... at some point.
Until you do some math.
I saw my Steam library, my collection of ROMs from consoles I never bought, my PSN library, my X-box library … and I saw about 1.245 games - not counting the ones I gave or thrown away. And I realized that the more games I had, the more I wanted to beat the older games before playing the sequels and the new ones, the more I would fall behind. To add stupidity to injury, I'm a 'savor-the-flavor' kind of guy. It's really hard for me to game 8 hours in one sitting. I need to take long breaks, which makes my gaming hours all the more fewer. In the end, I don't have a lot of time to spend on video games - and to be perfectly honest, I shouldn't have. Life and all.
And that made me 'stressed', in a way. Stressed that I had to finish game X in order to proceed to game Y. I became more obsessed with finishing a game in order to reduce my backlog rather than enjoying the damn thing. And playing it for a second time? Not even for a joke.
And then it hit me. Gaming had become more of a job for me, rather than a hobby. I found myself shaking my head at my own stupidity - not playing Horizon Dawn because I wanted to play Super Mario Bros on the NES first. Or not playing MK11 because I wanted to play MK4 as well.
So I decided to change my way of thinking. I was through being a backlog whore. I was through buying more and more games just because they were on sale and were games I could see myself playing down the line. I decided to de-tox myself out of this annoying consumerism-addictive line of thinking and made the following changes:
01) Any game that I wasn't 100% drooling over would be removed from my gaming library.
02) I stopped gaming on every system, and would instead only pick two brands to follow from now on (I chose PlayStation and X-Box)
03) I would only play the current game of an IP, despite not beating previous entries (so I said fuck-all to Gears 1-4 and Halo 1-4 and dived straight to Gears 5 and Halo Guardians)
04) I would play all game simultaneously, not waiting to beat one in order to go to the other (which makes me less anxious to beat open-world games, which are great games, but great time sinkers as well).
05) I would refrain from having more than 4 games of a specific genre (i.e. fighting games), in order to have only the best of the best in my library.
Right now I have a collection of about 25 games which I adore and play them little by little. Yeah, I missed a bit on story and lore, but I don't really care. Playing the first mission of Halo 5 was more exciting than Halo 1 and 2 combined, as well as Gears. And I can't believe I wasted my time on Final Fantasy II (mobile) and wanting to play through III-XIII before playing XV. XV is amazing and I love it the more I play it, haters be damned.
So, my advice to you, in case you're like me and have a backlog of at least 100 games, I urge you to say fuck all, uninstall those games, ignore the fiendish little voice in the back of your head that whispers something about diminishing returns and play the best of the best games in your collection, adding few games (about 5-10 each year), in order to replay those you really loved.
I'm a backlog whore no more … and I love it.
There are a lot of quite entertaining LetsPlays out there - and it's usually the ones with only a few views. For the love of my life I will never understand why the most annoying LetsPlayers are usually the most viewed.I can see the logic but even with stuff like that I find watching vicariously frustrating when people make bone headed decisions.
Backlog.
Such a hated word for any true affectionado of video gaming. A word that any gamer can give a different meaning to.
For some, it means that they have way too many unfinished games. For others, it means they have way too many games, period. And for other others, it means they can't play the games they want to play, because they have other games they need to finish first (especially true for sequels).
I love video games. I love adventure games, I love fighting games, I love strategy games, I love role-playing games, I love side-scrolling shooters, survival horror games, RTS games, turn-based games … you name it, I love it.
Except soccer manager games. Fuck that shit.
But it's easy to get lost in that lovely hobby. It's easy to buy/rent/freebie more and more games, until beating all of them isn't realistically feasible anymore. But you still think you'll be able to play them at some point. You still believe you'll play that awesome game ... at some point.
Until you do some math.
I saw my Steam library, my collection of ROMs from consoles I never bought, my PSN library, my X-box library … and I saw about 1.245 games - not counting the ones I gave or thrown away. And I realized that the more games I had, the more I wanted to beat the older games before playing the sequels and the new ones, the more I would fall behind. To add stupidity to injury, I'm a 'savor-the-flavor' kind of guy. It's really hard for me to game 8 hours in one sitting. I need to take long breaks, which makes my gaming hours all the more fewer. In the end, I don't have a lot of time to spend on video games - and to be perfectly honest, I shouldn't have. Life and all.
And that made me 'stressed', in a way. Stressed that I had to finish game X in order to proceed to game Y. I became more obsessed with finishing a game in order to reduce my backlog rather than enjoying the damn thing. And playing it for a second time? Not even for a joke.
And then it hit me. Gaming had become more of a job for me, rather than a hobby. I found myself shaking my head at my own stupidity - not playing Horizon Dawn because I wanted to play Super Mario Bros on the NES first. Or not playing MK11 because I wanted to play MK4 as well.
So I decided to change my way of thinking. I was through being a backlog whore. I was through buying more and more games just because they were on sale and were games I could see myself playing down the line. I decided to de-tox myself out of this annoying consumerism-addictive line of thinking and made the following changes:
01) Any game that I wasn't 100% drooling over would be removed from my gaming library.
02) I stopped gaming on every system, and would instead only pick two brands to follow from now on (I chose PlayStation and X-Box)
03) I would only play the current game of an IP, despite not beating previous entries (so I said fuck-all to Gears 1-4 and Halo 1-4 and dived straight to Gears 5 and Halo Guardians)
04) I would play all game simultaneously, not waiting to beat one in order to go to the other (which makes me less anxious to beat open-world games, which are great games, but great time sinkers as well).
05) I would refrain from having more than 4 games of a specific genre (i.e. fighting games), in order to have only the best of the best in my library.
Right now I have a collection of about 25 games which I adore and play them little by little. Yeah, I missed a bit on story and lore, but I don't really care. Playing the first mission of Halo 5 was more exciting than Halo 1 and 2 combined, as well as Gears. And I can't believe I wasted my time on Final Fantasy II (mobile) and wanting to play through III-XIII before playing XV. XV is amazing and I love it the more I play it, haters be damned.
So, my advice to you, in case you're like me and have a backlog of at least 100 games, I urge you to say fuck all, uninstall those games, ignore the fiendish little voice in the back of your head that whispers something about diminishing returns and play the best of the best games in your collection, adding few games (about 5-10 each year), in order to replay those you really loved.
I'm a backlog whore no more … and I love it.
Chuggaaconroy is good at most games he's playing and rarely annoying.There are a lot of quite entertaining LetsPlays out there - and it's usually the ones with only a few views. For the love of my life I will never understand why the most annoying LetsPlayers are usually the most viewed.
I've got a library of around 5,000 digital games that compliments my nearly 4,000 physical games I've collected over the years.
I know that realistically I won't be able to play every game I own, or even every game I want to. About two years ago I had a bit of introspection like you did and came to the realization that the entire concept of a "backlog" was flawed.
My gaming library is just that - a library. You don't go to the library and expect to have time to read every single book. You go and check out what you want, curl up in a nice comfy chair, and enjoy the book you picked out. Don't like it? Story isn't grabbing you? Just exchange it for something else in the library and don't even give it a second thought. Have a favorite book that every time you read it, it always cheers you up? It's okay to pick that up every now and again and read it cover to cover. If we can do this for books, why is it not okay to do it for video games?
Things I've learned as a gamer;
- Dont be afraid to give up on a game after even an hour if your not enjoying it your time is too valuable.
- Don't be afraid to buy only your most anticipated games at full price your money is too valuable.
- Only get the season pass after you've completed the game and still want more. The money you will lose by not getting the small discount upfront will be more than offset by all the content you bought in advance and chose not to play.
- Sometimes replaying an all time favorite can be just as fun as playing a new game. Make time for replaying classics.
He does mostly seem to play Nintendo games and those to me are mostly not suited for LetsPlays cause they’re all gameplay.Chuggaaconroy is good at most games he's playing and rarely annoying.
I was working on some software that acted as a roulette machine for picking your next game to play. I saw they’d actually incorporated a version into Xbox Game Pass on PC.
I am a List Maniac
Just from a financial standpoint, I'm always amazed at the sizes of some folks' backlogs.
You folks should join the "No New Games in 2020" challenge.
lol that's exactly the point.But Cyberpunk! Dying Light 2! I need to purchase them and then not play them.
02) I stopped gaming on every system, and would instead only pick two brands to follow from now on (I chose PlayStation and X-Box)
Whats the point of buying a game you have no intention of playing right away?
Special sales deals?
I'm literally OP but without the transcendental transformation at the end.
I still believe I'll play all my games eventually.