I think anyone who considers video games to be a hobby of theirs will have a buildup of titles that they want to play at some point. A little over a year ago, I decided to go through and clean up my Steam library and part of that was determining an easier method for games that I had lined up. I ultimately decided to use the Steam library’s Favourite feature where I put any game that I had interest in playing, excluding sequels which I would only add upon completing the prior game. However, things haven’t been going the way I want so I thought it might be interesting to discuss how I’m battling my video game backlog and how I’ve come to realise it’s a losing fight.
I should start by explaining why I believe this to be a fight I cannot win. When I first established that favourites list, I believe the number of titles within was somewhere close to 200, an already intimidating task. Since then, I’ve played through dozens upon dozens of games from that list but I’ve slowly watched that number continue to grow and grow. As of the writing of this article, my favourites list sports a total number of 296 games! What’s sad as well is that, as I mentioned before, this does not include sequels to games I have yet to play nor does it include about 10 titles that I’ve downloaded onto my Steam Deck!
Now you might be wondering to yourself, isn’t it your fault if that favourites list is growing? After all, if you didn’t buy any more games then that list wouldn’t grow, right? To that I would say, it’s kind of my fault but maybe not in the way you expect. When it comes to buying games myself these days, I find myself rarely doing so directly. While I do occasionally spend a bit of money on something that I really want to play such as Elden Ring or Digimon World: Next Order, I tend to only buy games when they’ve seen a dramatic reduction in price, usually 80% or higher. For instance, I remember picking up about 11 or 12 Daedalic Entertainment games for about €10 and I couldn’t be more pleased with myself as I discovered a great range of point and click games that I’d never played before.
Besides that, I also subscribe to Humble Choice and, while I’ve never had a case where I wanted to play every game I get in one, I regularly find that I’m adding about 2 to 3 titles a month to my list of games to play. Speaking of Humble, I do pick up a bundle whenever I see one I want since they’re incredible value and the same goes for the bundles that I find on Fanatical. I’ve also started using a website called barter.vg which I can use to trade game keys I have spares of for games that I actually want. Finally, I do occasionally get games through Steam Connect on my Steam Curator page and, while probably the most minor of all of these sources, I still have 4 games that I’ve yet to cover that are on my favourites list. Between all of these, I’ve found my game library growing at a surprising rate despite spending very little money on games.
It also doesn’t help that my time has become increasingly more and more valuable as I find myself doing more and more work these days on writing, editing, filming etc. with less and less of my day dedicated to my hobbies. To be completely honest, the Steam Deck has proven to be a godsend which has allowed me to increase the efficiency of games played due to its quick suspend feature, allowing me to tackle long games such as Monster Hunter: Rise and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning that I would definitely have been intimidated to start on my PC.
Some of you may be wondering why this is even an issue at all. The few people that I’ve explained this to have failed to see the negatives, instead saying something like that I have a lot of choice or that I have a lot to look forward to. However, the issue I face is one of guilt. With so many games to play, I find myself feeling guilty if I spend a decent amount of money on a game and then don’t immediately play it. After all, it’s highly likely that the same game will be cheaper down the line. However, it does mean that I’ve had to ignore pretty much all recent releases and many games that have routinely rejected going on sale at over 50%. I had hoped that by battling my video game backlog that I might get to the point where I’d feel more comfortable buying more expensive games but, as detailed earlier, that plan has not been working as intended.
I am going to continue to battle my backlog while picking up games that I want when I see an incredible offer but don’t expect me to be covering any new game releases any time soon. Let me know what you think about me battling my video game backlog, how large your gaming backlog is, whether you care how many games you have yet to play when you buy new games, any advice you’d have on going through these backlogs and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Thanks for reading and if you wish to seek any of the titles I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs! Also feel free to follow my curator page on Steam “JRPG Reviews” for thoughts and opinions on any JRPGs that I play and my YouTube channel “Victory Achieved Gaming” where I guide my friend through challenging games.