Discussion Poll: Why do you have a gaming backlog?

[BFG10K]

Backlog definition: games you own which you intend to finish in the future.

I don't have a backlog so I voted such, but sometimes I can't decide what to replay so I don't play anything for a while ("decision paralysis").

 

[Furious_Styles]

I mostly play MP with friends and when they're not around do some SP. I'm not really buying any new games until I clean out my backlog. Working on rise of the triad and mirror's edge 2 now.

 

[nakedfrog]

I suppose theoretically it's "not enough time", in that if I didn't have to work, I'd probably get through games a lot faster (as I can see by my gaming time when I take off multiple days around Christmas).
What with having offspring, being musically active, house maintenance, generally trying to be a responsible adult and all, I typically have 1-3 hours per day I could spend gaming. But sometimes if it's been a trying day at work or what have you, I fall back on the passive entertainment of watching video content instead since it requires minimal engagement.
But I also always try to at least have one game in the hopper, ready for after I complete my current game. Right now my backlog is a little bigger because I just got better hardware, and got a gift card just in time for the Steam winter sale.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Not enough time and too many other games that are time sinks. My "main" games are League of Legends and For Honor. And with everything else I do, fitting in other games (especially RPGs) is difficult to impossible.

 

[WhiteNoise]

im always buying the new game that hits the market and then as I start to play it I leave behind the other game I was playing...and the cycle repeats...really getting older and having a great job for the last 13+ years means I have more money than I ever did when young. Back in those days buying a game was a big decision. Back then I knew I could only buy one game to last me a long time so I ended up being very picky and playing the hell out of the game I bought. Fast forward and once my career had taken off and I now could buy any game I want and I have done that which if anything has hurt my ability to finish games or catch up. That along with getting married over ten years ago, having two kids, two homes, and everything that goes with that...well time is something I don't have as much of as I would like...BUT I always make time to game late at night when the kids and wife are in bed. That amount of time is enough to make my happy but not enough to get through my backlog. oh well, such is life.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Steam Sales.

There are games I know I want to play, but I'm not sure when I'm going to get the chance to play them. When they hit that $5-$10 "why the hell not" price point I end up buying them. I know they'll go on sale again at some point, but I might get the desire/opportunity to play them sooner, so why not?

Wife/kids/job/mortgage all means I basically play one game at a time and try to finish one 15-20 hour game in a month, so it's not like my library never gets played through, but there is a churn.

Another reason is gifts. I live pretty far from where I grew up or went to school, so gifting games through steam is an easy way to do Christmas/b-day presents with friends and vice versa. Usually we're pretty good at sticking with each other's wish lists, but sometimes I end up with a game they thought I'd like that I really have no intention of playing.

 

[Zenoth]

For me, it's a combination of a couple of those options, including more not shown (belonging to 'Other' obviously).

First, the ones shown in the poll that I share the same boat with:

• 2 Procrastination/laziness/unmotivated
• 3 Decision paralysis - can’t decide what to play
• 4 Can't tear myself away from specific game(s)

For #2, I set Procrastination and Unmotivated in bold since they sometimes are the cause, but laziness per se not so much; that one is different to me (I.E. with actual laziness I think I wouldn't even bother browsing the Internet or even launch my games to start with). I do procrastinate on my currently-in-progress saves in various games, for some of them that is. But I am also unmotivated to continue in some cases as well, really is a mixture. The 'unmotivated' part usually kicks in if the last session I had of a game didn't have any "recent progress" made in it (usually it's a story-driven game affected by that issue, in my case anyway) that seemed to go anywhere (basically, if by that last-played point the story isn't interesting or I want to know the rest... I'll take a break and eventually forget about it due to lack of motivation to continue).

For #3, that one does happen from time to time. Example I can easily think of: I have Steam opened, while to my right the way things are placed in my room I have a desk (reaches about waist height when I stand up) which I've placed a bunch of retail game boxes on (and games in them of course) stacked next to each others and some piled up on top of each others too in a number of 'columns'. Sometimes I'll see my list of Steam games (there's about 60 installed, out of 300+), turn my head to the right and see my rows and piles of around 50+ games (some of them are PC games, some are Wii U; the only 'modern' console I have; the other games being some SNES and some for the Genesis as well; and none of that includes the NES and PS1 retail games I have stored in a separate desk in my room just about 3 meters behind me that aren't in my field of view).

Then, I have... let's say... Battle.net open as well, and occasionally on top of that my Origin (with about 12 games installed I believe) and/or my UPlay is opened (even though on that one I literally only have FC3 Blood Dragon installed for now). THEN... after that, I can just click a small shortcut I placed on my Taskbar that reveals a list of digitally-bought games from GoG that I can fire up at any moment I wish since they're almost all installed (that's 23 right now, out of about 26 or 27).

So why saying all this for point #3? Well... I. Cannot. Decide. Which. Game. To. Play., I sort of stare into the void at my monitor without much plan or purpose for a game; the "incentive" or the mood just refuses to kick in, I let go the few spare hours I have aaaaaaaaand the next thing I know ooops it's time to go do something else, or go out, or go to sleep or take a shower or eat something or whatever. Basically I "Miss my game time" by pretty much being paralyzed not knowing which one to start up because "Way too many to think about right now". I'm not sure if only ONE game installed would change anything since I can still just reach my Wii U, or stand up and go at the back of my room (well behind my chair) and go sit on my other chair that's facing my flat CRT TV on which I can play my retro games pretty much instantly (well I do have to pick one up and insert it... and power up the TV but that's just first world problems right?).

For #4, also happens from time to time. Been happening recently with Heroes of the Storm and my 'come back' to a properly modded, fully stable Skyrim that I'm enjoying the crap out of. I'd play them a bit too much, and regularly (at least one, if not more sessions every day) and just literally forget about any other games I could play for a week, or two... or even more. It also happened just late last year with Monster Hunter World. I LITERALLY just played that game and nothing else for about 8 or 9 days in a row. Then I managed to take a break away from it to play one or two others (Heroes of the Storm was calling at me, couldn't resist), then only to get back at it for another 6 or 7 days non-stop... took another short-lasting break for 1 or 2 days maybe... THEN... back at it for around another week and THEN I finally completed the campaign and got done with it since then.

And now, basically #5 being 'Other' from the list of choices in the poll. That one I'd say would need to be translated to "Simply a shitty ass game one after another", tainting my mood for playing a game that can last a bit too long sometimes (well, for me that's maybe 2 or 3 days at most without touching a single game; but I rarely get past the 3 days mark without gaming at all). Essentially, if I happen to be playing a new game I just got that ends up disappointing me (happens often, I'm WAY more picky at my age than I used to be when I didn't care in my youth if a game was rushed or was simply very bad because no time to care for critical analysis for them; so I ended up blissfully enjoying shitty games and have fond memories of them to this day) and leaving it only to end up buying (or newly-installing a game I had bought some time ago) another one with the SAME result... if that happens like two times in a row I basically get pissed, complain about today's state of video gaming in general in my head for about 2 days straight, get calmer by the 3rd day and forget about it by the 4th or 5th day and I'm back at gaming again.

And that's about it.

Now I could keep on going with this but I had to type something relatively quickly since I errr... I sort of have to go play Heroes of the Storm right now. Not sure why, I think it's because I like it still (despite complaining about totally valid points but whatever, it's still fun... overall... maybe, not sure; whatever I just play it... although I should really go back to my Witcher 3 saved game, but yeah... can't do right now I must play with Zagara and dominate my Lanes and throw Zergs at people, fun stuff).

 

[mopardude87]

Certainly get locked into multiplayer games,so Bioshock 2 and Doom 2016 sit completely unplayed in my library.SP games are something i find hard to get into and complete.Last one was the first Bioshock and that only took years because well a friend of mine played it on my computer and ruined the end game.I played and finished Hard Reset maybe 3 times before i did Bioshock 1. Friend of mine played Doom 2016 and told me its sorta a hide n seek type of simulator with the objectives and i had bought it hoping it was a run and gun rail shooter.

Not sure why i haven't played Bioshock 2,maybe deep down i feel it may ruin the nostalgia love i had for the first Bioshock? Like Doom 2016 i landed it on a super sale.I bet the super sales are where most people just jump on their wishlist,buy the games and just come around to them whenever?

 

[whm1974]

Steam Sales and busy with the game I'm currently playing when I buy a new one. And I've gotten some free ones from GOG.com as well.

 

[CP5670]

#1 is the main issue for me, and #2 and #4 to some extent too. I think I have 20 games (as well as mods) that I definitely want to play at some point, and another 30-50 I might want to check out. Like others, I've gotten hundreds of games from GoG, Steam and Humble Bundle sales for a few dollars at a time. There is a massive glut of games these days but it's hard to find something good, especially among the all the indie stuff. Even among big-budget games, I never buy on release and often get them by the time they are $20 or less. It's rare for a game to catch my attention, but when that happens I tend to play it exclusively for a month or two and ignore other games. I only have time for gaming 1-2 hours per day between career and other hobbies. I used to replay games that I have played in the past, but rarely do that anymore since my backlog of new games is so big now.

The indie deals today actually remind me of those old shareware CDs in the 1990s that had hundreds of games of them. 95% of the games were crap, but there were a few real gems in there.

 

[Sonikku]

When I was a kid getting a game was a big deal for me. There was no internet. I lived alone with my mother in rural farm country were the neighbors were few and elderly with not a single kid my age in sight. My mother worked all the time to support us so I was often alone with only my NES to keep me company. We were poor and games were expensive at $50, which might seem $10 cheaper than what we pay today but accounting for inflation is nearly double that.

When I got a new game it was out of the shrink wrap immediately out of the store and I was already thumbing through the manual on the drive home. Upon arriving home, I had the cartridge in hand and DASHED to my Nintendo. I remember my mother yelling "Come back and eat your dinner first!" ha ha. Those were the days.

I utterly consumed video games back in those days. Nowadays between the internet, netflix, neighbors and a whole lot of other life issues I have a lot more things vying for my time. Games start out at $60, but I almost never pay that, often paying $20 or less within a month of release. That is when I don't get scores of titles from a humble bundle for $10 or less. And that $10 isn't worth what $10 was in the 80's either. These days it feels the market is oversaturated with games and it no longer feels as special as it once did. I just don't have the excitement as I once did, and so too did the titles begin to pile up.

 

[Wall Street]

I am fairly discerning in what I buy and only purchase games that I think I would enjoy and plan to play. I find that I usually buy games and install them right away, and if they don't grab me in the first few hours they go in the backlog. Sometimes games are not what I expected or are not good and they are really in the 'junk' pile. But often times I will get games on sale but not really feel like playing that right now. For example, at some point I plan to play through Deus Ex: MD and Dishonored, but I tried to start Dishonored right after playing through Deus Ex: HR and I didn't want to play another stealth game right away. Since then, some other games have grabbed my attention so those remain in my backlog. If I am not having fun with a game, I will just stop and pick it up later. Life is too short to play games that you aren't having fun with.

The other issue I have is that life gets in the way. I have a wife and son. I have a moderate social calendar. I have a job which requires me to occasionally work 12-14 hour days, sometimes requires working all weekend, and requires some travel. Sometimes there is a game which I mean to play which gets put on the backburner. I often look at "How Long to Beat" before jumping into a game and look at if I can make that time commitment. Some games (the 50+ hour type) I can only play around when I know that I will be on vacation or work is going to be slow. Sometimes I am hijacked by work and the game I am playing has to go back into the backlog if I feel like I wont be able to play again for 2-3 weeks. Put down a game for too long and the desire to see the next chapter diminishes, mastery of the controls fades, and sometimes I forget who the characters are and what the objective was.

 

[Furious_Styles]

I am fairly discerning in what I buy and only purchase games that I think I would enjoy and plan.

That's rough. I know what you mean though and sometimes that's why it's nice to play a classic game that's story-lite so that it doesn't really matter if you remember what's going on you just enjoy the gameplay and beat another level or two.

 

[EXCellR8]

Not a ton of time to play, but that would be my number 1, with motivation (or lack thereof) being a close second.

 

[GibbyPruchesi]

Helps me focus on what games to play and actually finish, because if I install too many games I just keep switching between them and not actually completing any of them.

 

[Modular]

Great poll! I picked "Time", "Can't Tear Myself Away" and "Other".

Time

This is always a factor. Work, family, kids, house, etc. certainly plays a role in that, but I think the biggest time issue is that I have tons of different interests and hobbies, and as I've grown older I've realized that they are just as important to me as gaming. I don't want to let them remain dormant or they will never grow. So I spend time building circuits, learning programming languages, messing with PC hardware on Linux/Windows, etc, etc...

Can't Tear Myself Away

I end up playing quick 30 to 45 minute CS:GO rounds or some other quick online shooter because it takes no effort for me to get into the game and play. I can get some adrenaline, shut down my brain and play for a bit, then leave it for days and not lose my "place". Although, right now RE:2 Remake has completely taken my mind over...which leads to....

Other

I think that I'm finding that I'm not as big of a fan of the typical SP shooter type games as I was back when. I also have trouble enjoying games that don't have a relatively clear direction in what I need to be doing, or have way too many choices of how to play (Fallout NV and FarCry 4 are in my backlog and come to mind).

I'd say that's the other - my gaming tastes have changed as my life has changed. I'm sure that the day will come again where I'll love playing Oblivion/Skyrim type games or games with character leveling like Dragon Age, but for now, keeping things simpler with a great story and compelling graphics is what keeps me interested. I also find that I'm really enjoying the puzzle aspect of the Resident Evil 2 Remaster. It's got great graphics, an amazing and compelling story and also has puzzles.