** Steam Backlog Support Group **

[uncle_rufus]

In honour of the purchase of my 400th game on Steam (Firewatch, for what it's worth) I thought it would be funny to start a sort of AA style support group for a problem I'm sure many of us are all too familiar with...

How many times have you gone to buy something and found it's already in your library (sometimes for several years!?)

How many times have you seen those games in your library that you think "Oh yeah - I really must play that at some point!" only to forget about it again (sometimes for several years!?)

This thread is to discuss your Steam Backlog...
- Do you care? If not when did you stop caring and why?
- How do you go about trying to get through the backlog?
- Any tips for other fellow sufferers out there?

Personally I tend to think of games as "big" or "small" based on how long I think they will take to complete, and I try to have one of each on-the-go at any one time (alongside the usual multiplayer games)... but now and again I'll get stuck on the "big" game for quite a while, making me feel like I'll never get through the backlog (and all the while more and more games I like the look of keep coming out and tempting me further!!!)

 

[uncle_rufus]

Good tips! I haven't considered anything as extreme as deleting all the other games but I can see how it could help...

One of my biggest problems is when I still used to have a huge amount of free time I would tend to try and 100% the games (especially if I enjoyed them) but lately I feel like that makes things take far too long, so I'm trying to avoid getting bogged down chasing achievements that ultimately don't matter!

 

[uncle_rufus]

I've easily got a dozen games I've not yet touched in my library.

Lucky I estimate of the 400 games in mine I've probably 100% something like 20... completed but not 100% maybe another 100... that leaves nearly 300!!! Some of those are total trash (usually ones which came as part of a humble bundle or similar alongside other better games)... Some of them are older games which I've owned and/or completed prior to Steam or on other consoles... but buried amongst those are some really decent titles I've just not gotten around to starting (first world problems!)

 

[uncle_rufus]

I also managed to almost get through the Xmas sale without buying anything, but I did cave in and buy DOOM because I had simply heard too many good things about it... and to be fair I've started playing it immediately... And also Firewatch... And a little silly game called Pony Island... (Oh god, it's happened again)

That's the other annoying thing - you see a game on sale, buy it... don't get around to playing it and then watch it go by again and again in future sales getting cheaper every time and yet you've still not even installed it

 

[uncle_rufus]

Happily I'm just putting the finishing touches on Dark Souls II having had it on my list of games to play for quite a few years (since before I even finished the first one!)... Also got DOOM on the go and really enjoying it. Not sure what to play next but it always feels good to tick another game or two off the list

 

[uncle_rufus]

Must be possible to get a refund if it's as broken as that, especially if you've got no playtime against it... I'm not sure how though (never done a refund myself!)

Been getting through some games lately... DmC: Devil May Cry completed (not 100% though, was tempted but decided time was better spent on other games)... Life is Strange (which other than some of the cringey dialogue was pretty cool)... and finally started Stanley Parable last night having avoided spoilers all this time...

Sadly though I fell off the wagon pretty hard and ended up signing up to Humble Monthly - mainly because I had been wanting The Witness for a while and at $12 it seemed worth it with any other games that came along just a bonus... I had intended to cancel it but next month the teaser game (actually 2 this time) are Dirt:Rally and INSIDE, both of which I was interested in... ohhh here we go!!!

 

[uncle_rufus]

WTF this is my thread? I barely remember creating it

My backlog at this point isn't too bad I guess... I have about 650 games on Steam, and I've put them into 3 categories:

1. Games I've completed (in many cases 100% completed, or at least enough that I don't want to play them any further)
2. Games I don't think I'll ever play - mostly these are trashbag games that came as part of better bundles...

Excluding these means I can browse a list of just games I am yet to play. With the completed category having about 125 games in it and the "never play" one about 100 so far (though I'm sure there are lots more to add I just haven't gotten around to it). It's not so bad

 

[uncle_rufus]

I am never sure what the rules are with resurrecting old threads.... some places are if they are more than a few months old you let them die, others are quite strict that you make sure there has never been a duplicate so that all topics stay grouped to help people searching.... I tend to just wing it and go with my gut, and this thread seemed just as relevant today as in 2017

It sure is! The only bad part is looking back at your own posts and realising that your problem has only gotten worse... I notice back in 2017 I was lamenting having 400 games, now I have 650...

I will say though that I think that number would be a lot higher if not for the Humble Monthly (I note in one of my 2017 posts above I had just signed up for it; I'm still on it now)... There's some sort of psychology to it; I always have it in the back of my mind that any potential game I might see on sale could show up in next month's bundle, and I'd feel like a right plank if I effectively bought it twice. It's made me second guess myself and bail out of a purchase many times over the last 2 years, and in quite a few cases that game has later turned up in the bundle...

On the other hand if you guess there's maybe 8 games per bundle on average that's the best part of 200 games over those 2 years, and I doubt it's saved me from buying that many... At least it's cheap?