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It's good to have a backlog!
- Thread starter Tenrius
- Start date
When you mainly play non-current generation games, as I do, you are pretty much required to have a "backlog". Although, I wouldn't call it a backlog exactly. I'd say it is acquiring games for future use.
People like me benefit from acquiring older games in batches, to get deals and save on shipping. Also, the prices of 8/16 bit Nintendo games has been consistently rising since 2009, with a huge spike in the last year or so. I "saved" a lot of money by purchasing almost all of my games before the bubble. While you could argue that the money invested in games sitting on my shelf for two years could have been put to better use, I would have undoubtedly spent more if I had simply bought each game as I felt the desire to play it.
During the PS2 era, I did have a legitimate backlog. I would continue to buy new games as they went on sale, despite hardly playing the ones I already owned. I quickly saw my mistake and sold off my PS2 collection to focus on older games I had missed along the way.
I wonder when the concept of having a backlog of games needing to be played came about. It certainly did not exist in the 80s and 90s. We simply had games we actively played, and games we used to play. Even games that were not very good saw play, because we didn't own many games and had to enjoy what we did own. Renting was so prevalent that we didn't feel the need to buy everything, and even bad games would get one play-through before being returned.
People like me benefit from acquiring older games in batches, to get deals and save on shipping. Also, the prices of 8/16 bit Nintendo games has been consistently rising since 2009, with a huge spike in the last year or so. I "saved" a lot of money by purchasing almost all of my games before the bubble. While you could argue that the money invested in games sitting on my shelf for two years could have been put to better use, I would have undoubtedly spent more if I had simply bought each game as I felt the desire to play it.
During the PS2 era, I did have a legitimate backlog. I would continue to buy new games as they went on sale, despite hardly playing the ones I already owned. I quickly saw my mistake and sold off my PS2 collection to focus on older games I had missed along the way.
I wonder when the concept of having a backlog of games needing to be played came about. It certainly did not exist in the 80s and 90s. We simply had games we actively played, and games we used to play. Even games that were not very good saw play, because we didn't own many games and had to enjoy what we did own. Renting was so prevalent that we didn't feel the need to buy everything, and even bad games would get one play-through before being returned.
Chezzymann
Member
He's probably rich/living with his parents considering he has played 24 games this year.
Devilgunman
Member
I used to waste so much money buying new games just to have them sit on my shelf but that was at the early cycle of this gen. These past few years though, my backlogs only came from discounted games that I bought knowing that they would not get any cheaper so I don't feel like I wasting that much money as I used to.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Good grief, my backlog is just growing and growing...
PS3
Bioshock Infinite
God of War Ascension
(still playing Blops 2 and BF3 multi)
360
Halo 4
Dishonored
3DS
DK Country Returns
Fire Emblem
Castlevania
Luigi's Mansion
There's also a slew of older titles like Sleeping Dogs I need to finish.
PS3
Bioshock Infinite
God of War Ascension
(still playing Blops 2 and BF3 multi)
360
Halo 4
Dishonored
3DS
DK Country Returns
Fire Emblem
Castlevania
Luigi's Mansion
There's also a slew of older titles like Sleeping Dogs I need to finish.
You don't need to be overly rich to have a little collection of games waiting to be played, especially if they are Steam games. By the way, the only game in that list which was released this year is a freeware text adventure.
Backlog is such a negative name, I call it a collection ;P
I'm also fond of having a nice selection of unplayed games.
Backloggery!
I'm also fond of having a nice selection of unplayed games.
Backloggery!
captainnapalm
Member
Backlogs are annoying when you have a lot of games you've started but didn't finish. You sort of feel like you need to start it over instead of just jumping in in the middle again after a long layoff. So you end up doing neither. I'm trying to only start games I absolutely intend to finish now.
Pinko Marx
Banned
I play games until I get my fill out of them. Sometimes that means I finish them sometimes it doesn't. I rarely feel guilty about not completing a game tho, because i get my money's worth.
To those that say I'm wasting money, I say I dob buygames at full pprice anyway. With Pc gaming there are so many ways to get discounts it's not even funny.
To those that say I'm wasting money, I say I dob buygames at full pprice anyway. With Pc gaming there are so many ways to get discounts it's not even funny.
JeTmAn81
Member
Not if your backlog consists of 100 games purchased for $10 via Humble Bundles!
Also my backlog includes games I haven't purchased. I don't buy games (unless they're really cheap) until I actually have time to play them.
Alcoholikaust
Member
you think that... but then you end up lurking here more than playing games :/ at least I do on my days off
Pinko Marx
Banned
Yeah. When you can buy an entire publishers catalog for $50 during a sale, you're bound to have a backlog.
I say fuck it, I'll get around to them eventually.
Yeah, I'm going to try and cut back on new purchases. However, it is nice to have such a large, mostly-untouched catalog. Yesterday I tried out They Bleed Pixels and Tiny & Big for the first time, and I had a blast with both. I expect to have many more experiences like that with games I already own.
I never feel this way, actually. It's completely normal for me to play a game till halfway point, put it on hold for several years, and then finish it. Maybe it's due to my superior memorising abilities, but it's not really that hard to get back into a game.
Azure Phoenix
Member
I would have strongly disagreed years ago when my backlog was huge, but now that it is down to a small, manageable number I agree. For me this has been a pretty miserable year so far in terms of new releases and it is going to get worse over the next few months, so those Steam sale purchases and RPGs I've been hanging onto for years have gone from being a burden to a lifesaver.
Dogfacedgod
Member
When I complain about my backlog it's a round about way of complaining that I don't have enough free time to dedicate to gaming.
I think I've finished two games since the start of the year. I can't speak for everyone but for me, my backlog is a physical representation of my lack of gaming time, which is what give me sad feels. The silver lining is that there's always something to play, but when the hell am I going to find the time?
You don't have even 1-2 hours a day? I'm currently having an unprecedented streak of free time (due to skipping a university semester for medical reasons etc) hence I played quite a lot of games, but honestly, I haven't really been spending much more than an average of 1-2 hours a day actually playing them.
In fact, I normally spend roughly the same amount of time gaming even when busy with my university work and my internship. I have a temporary excess of free time now, but it doesn't really affect my gaming habits: I fill it with more reading/watching cinema and TV series than usual.
Dogfacedgod
Member
Some days. I'm the only gamer in my house (the kids and their Skylanders/Mario Bros. don't really count, yet) so I game after everyone is in bed. So I'm limited to how much sleep I want to get. Usually that's 1-2 hours but I don't always use that for games. There's some movies/tv shows that my wife does care to watch and I have a back log on my reading as well. Plus, sometimes I just call it a night and hit the sack.
I feel the same way.
It is so sad when I finally have the money to buy games I don't have time to play them. I just haven't fully acknowledged it yet so I just keep on buying every game that I'd like to play. I don't know how to stop. My huge and continuously growing backlog feels more like burden to me and I just know that I'm never able to finish my backlog.Dogfacedgod
Member
We're in the same boat. I like to view it as I am stocking up for when I retire. Who cares if that won't happen for 30 years.
Dogfacedgod
Member
I don't stress over it. It's just something that's fun to complain about.
It basically means you've been wasting your money, unless you happen to select only titles which end up being worth more that you bought them for. Which is effectively never. An enthusiast is the first person who should understand how the degrading price-scale of videogames works over time. Unless you're deriving enjoyment from them worth the amount of money you're spending (or they'll become so difficult to find that it's worth the trade-off), it's a case of "your eyes are bigger than your stomach."
Dogfacedgod
Member
True. This is why I've haven't bought new games lately unless they're a limited run or I think they may be hard to find later. For instance, I picked up Etrian Odyssey IV, Pandora's Tower, Xenoblade, and Deadly Premonition DC because I figure they'll be hard to find later on.
I held off on others and recently got Tomb Raider and Xcom on the cheap.