I’ve amassed over 200 games for my PS4, over 40 for my 3DS and another 40 for my Vita. That’s not to mention all the games I own for my PS3 and steam account. Out of all of those games, I know I’ve only played about four or five dozen. That might sound like a lot, but when you put it against 300+ games, only playing fifty or sixty some odd games doesn’t really feel like much of a dent. It’s led me to question if I’ll ever get through my backlog of games.
What even qualifies as checking off a game on the list? Is it simply playing the game for a sufficient amount of time or do you actually have to beat the game? My personal belief is that it’s when you’ve played the game enough to where you want to stop playing it. Whether or not that means you enjoy it enough to conquer it or enjoy it so little you uninstall it from your console, having a full experience, whether positive or negative seems like a good determining factor in my eyes. For instance, there are games like Tetris, how many times are you going to play that before you consider it a game you’ve fully experienced or experienced enough of to check it off your list? Granted this formula must be changed depending on the type of game you’re playing.
There’s the sense of obligation as well. I’ve purchased these games, why wouldn’t I play them? I clearly had enough interested to buy them in the first place. What is keeping me from playing them now? Is it just because I can go and play something safe and familiar instead? Is the risk worth the reward? What if I find out that I just spent all that time and money on something that’s garbage? A Lot of the time that’s what holds me back. “Oh man, this game looks so good…oh look there’s Destiny, a familiar shooter? Sounds good to me,” that kind of thing.
What I really want to know is: are there other ways to take down your backlog? What’s your preferred method? How many games have you gotten through and how many do you have left?
Let us know in the replies!
Written by G. S. Martin
Truly Abrasive 
I think the way I’ve had to settle on is to just use every ounce of my willpower to not buy a new game until I’m finished with what I’m playing. I was able to clear through a few games on my backlog by just focusing on one game at a time, but I relapsed miserably when Breath of the Wild was released 😄 Now that I’m finished with that game, I’m trying to clear one of my older titles before jumping into Horizon.
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