Backlog - A Bad Thing?

[Haoie]

If that's the case, we're very evil sinners, haha.

[Ziggy]

I completely agree with the whole "don't turn your backlog into a chore or work" sentiment. I could never give myself rigid rules to follow just for the sake of knocking down a backlog. That would just completely suck the fun out of it for me. Also, I might be a sort of fussy gamer. I wont enjoy playing a game unless I'm completely in the mood to play it. I'm not gonna force myself to play a game if I don't really feel like it.

That's a partial reason for my backlog. I have a ton of amazing RPGs that I really wanna play... But I really have to be in the mood for it. I have to finish an RPG without taking any breaks (as in a week or more). If I break from an RPG longer than a week, I'll NEVER get back to playing it. A week will turn into a few months. Then at that point, even if I feel like playing it again, I wont even WANT to start it up again mid point in the game. I'll want to start at the beginning again. But starting at the beginning again, that puts me off. So then years will go by before I make another attempt at it. Long story short, I have to be really careful with RPGs (or any game that's 30+ hours).

Another reason for my backlog is I'm constantly replaying games. Like I said, I play whatever I'm in the mood for. I've beaten Super Mario World I don't know how many times. But if I feel like playing through it, I will. Dave said in the kotaku article something about this, but I just can't agree. I realize that replaying old games is not helping my backlog, but I don't want video games to turn into a chore. I stopped updating my 2015 game beaten list around November, but I'm pretty sure my games replayed list outweighed my new games beaten list.

Also, if you can't ever replay games because you're too concerned with your backlog then what's the point of having a video game collection? You might as well just sell every game after beating it. I realize this isn't exactly what Dave was saying, but I feel like it's the road you start to go down.

Funny this thread was started, I finally started adding my library to Backloggery the other day. I have maybe half my library added now. The only thing I don't really care for is the ways you have to mark games. You can mark it unplayed/unfinished or beaten/completed. There is the "null" designation for games like Tetris or SimCity.

But there's no designation for "abandoned" or whatever. There's plenty of games that I play a couple of hours of, or maybe even halfway through, then decide the game sucks or whatever. For some reason I don't care to finish it and don't want it to be part of my backlog anymore. But I don't wanna mark such games as beaten.

What do you guys do on Backloggery in this situation? I was thinking of just marking it null and putting in the notes that I don't care to finish it.

[ElkinFencer10]

But there's no designation for "abandoned" or whatever. There's plenty of games that I play a couple of hours of, or maybe even halfway through, then decide the game sucks or whatever. For some reason I don't care to finish it and don't want it to be part of my backlog anymore. But I don't wanna mark such games as beaten.

Funny that you mention the lack of that feature because that's one of the things on the agenda to be added. The site owner has been working on rebuilding the site to add features and make everything generally more user friendly, and adding an "Abandoned" category is one of the things on his to-do list.

In terms of what I do, though, if it's something like Forza where there's technically something to beat but I am COMPLETELY apathetic, I'll mark it as Null. Otherwise I just leave it as Unfinished.

[Ziggy]

But there's no designation for "abandoned" or whatever. There's plenty of games that I play a couple of hours of, or maybe even halfway through, then decide the game sucks or whatever. For some reason I don't care to finish it and don't want it to be part of my backlog anymore. But I don't wanna mark such games as beaten.

Funny that you mention the lack of that feature because that's one of the things on the agenda to be added. The site owner has been working on rebuilding the site to add features and make everything generally more user friendly, and adding an "Abandoned" category is one of the things on his to-do list.

In terms of what I do, though, if it's something like Forza where there's technically something to beat but I am COMPLETELY apathetic, I'll mark it as Null. Otherwise I just leave it as Unfinished.

Oh good!

[alienjesus]

But there's no designation for "abandoned" or whatever. There's plenty of games that I play a couple of hours of, or maybe even halfway through, then decide the game sucks or whatever. For some reason I don't care to finish it and don't want it to be part of my backlog anymore. But I don't wanna mark such games as beaten.

Funny that you mention the lack of that feature because that's one of the things on the agenda to be added. The site owner has been working on rebuilding the site to add features and make everything generally more user friendly, and adding an "Abandoned" category is one of the things on his to-do list.

In terms of what I do, though, if it's something like Forza where there's technically something to beat but I am COMPLETELY apathetic, I'll mark it as Null. Otherwise I just leave it as Unfinished.

He's also planning to add an 'endless' category for games that can't be finished at all. That said, he's a one man team who runs the site as a passion project, so it could be a while before we see the changes go live.

[Exhuminator]

But there's no designation for "abandoned" or whatever. There's plenty of games that I play a couple of hours of, or maybe even halfway through, then decide the game sucks or whatever. What do you guys do on Backloggery in this situation?

http://howlongtobeat.com/

This is one of a few reasons I prefer HowLongToBeat over Backloggery. HLTB allows you to mark a game as "retired" if say you abandon it. Here's my current HLTB retired list:

http://howlongtobeat.com/user.php?n=Exh ... &retired=1

(Protip: If you're ever looking at someone's HLTB lists, click on the button to see the details for each game.)

[ElkinFencer10]

Even with its limitations, I think Backloggery is the best page to keep track of my collection. I know a lot of people here are partial to RF Generation, and I tried using that site for a while, but I just prefer Backloggery.

[Ack]

Even with its limitations, I think Backloggery is the best page to keep track of my collection. I know a lot of people here are partial to RF Generation, and I tried using that site for a while, but I just prefer Backloggery.

Those two sites have different purposes though. Backloggery is there for tracking what you have beaten. It's about the status of the game. RFGeneration is for tracking the physical size of your collection. It is definitely more for folks focused on the collecting aspect. I actually use both.

[Tanooki]

Love this and hate this bit by Fragems as it's so true "D.) Feel the need to play every game they get. Let's face it some games that look amazing end up sucking. If you get to the point that it's a drag and the end is no where in site move on to the next game. Games are for the most part meant for entertainment so don't turn them into work. You can always go back to a game later"

That is my problem followed by his follow up post about getting derailed and side tracked by something else, and not necessarily games. My problem is that long ago my collection got shot to hell due to loss and I never wanted to go down that road again, but there's times I've done it in spurts. The up side was it came to a realization and some profit for things I did want at least. The last big push was me racking up like 330 NES games around 5 years ago and not using almost any of it other than day one to clean/test which bugged me. Used it to get stuff I did want that was less affordable which was nice gaming and not.

I've shaken the collecting bug really, but now it's the backlog and never start log of things I honestly want to attempt if not finish. I rarely finish a game anymore unless it's quite short. Lack of time with job, wife, 4 year old, few hours left after the kid is in bed. Handhelds and laptop make it easier so I do less with consoles. I just wish I could stay focused and get more games done, and at the same time with those that drag learn to cut the cord faster and sell the game off instead of sit on it as it's a game not a job. Perhaps I should stop buying stuff cold but I find a deal on something I'd like I just can't always say no which makes derailing more of a problem.


EDIT: I fall into the post a few up ziggy made -- fussy gamer and don't return after a short time gamer too which is a bad combo. I've got stuff like Zelda Link Between Worlds I did 2 dungeons on, haven't touched it since. I've got Xenoblade on 3DS too, went 30hours into it, left it for like 6months now, not really sure why other than I tend to burn out on RPGs about that far in. I just can only play when I feel well and I'm in the mood, if both those aren't met it won't happen even if I feel like I want to I just won't do it. I was sick much of last month so I had started Golden Sun but now I just can't motivate myself back to it even though I should.

[ElkinFencer10]

Even with its limitations, I think Backloggery is the best page to keep track of my collection. I know a lot of people here are partial to RF Generation, and I tried using that site for a while, but I just prefer Backloggery.

Those two sites have different purposes though. Backloggery is there for tracking what you have beaten. It's about the status of the game. RFGeneration is for tracking the physical size of your collection. It is definitely more for folks focused on the collecting aspect. I actually use both.