I’ve decided to use a new approach to fight against my backlog.
I’m the kind of guy who tries to leave the best for the last, so until now I’ve been picking up mostly short, casual games I don’t even care about. I realized I’m not going to play Dark Souls III in my life this way, so the solution is: lottery.
Here’s the current state of my backlog:
- 234 games with achievements: I’ve never played these at all, my aim with these is 100% completion
- 86 games with no achievements: some of these I’ve played a little, but most of them haven’t played at all, and a few I played a lot - I don’t really care about these, just finish them or get close to it is fine
- 25 unfinished games: these are the scariest, some with tens or even 100+ hours playtime from years ago, probably have to start these all over again - I just want to get rid of these, they’ve been frustrating me for years
I’m putting all of the games in alphabetical order and roll the 345-sided dice.
| # | title | play time | start date | end date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #185 | A story about my uncle | 00:00 | 2025.09.16 | ? |
There’s no better way to start than simply … starting! Good luck. I myself try to blend shorter games (sometimes I can tackle up to 5 in a month) with longer games (some which can take up to 5 months, a single game). Doesn’t matter how you’re doing it, if you’re playing stuff, having fun, and getting rid of stuff that is unfun, you’re doing great :)
Ooh…maybe the RNG gods were kind to you. A Story About my Uncle is a really good game, IMO. I’m terrible at 3D platformers and found it very hard, but you probably won’t. I found it very satisfying, even if I came close to a ragequit or two. And all of their achievements are actual achievements, in the truest sense of the word. SPOILERS: I didn’t get any achievements, which is okay with me.
As far as the backlog, my approach is usually, “What do I think I would enjoy?” Gaming is about enjoyment– what feels like it would be enjoyable right now?
Sounds like a fun approach. Best of luck! :D