My backlog has always been a mess. And it's completely my fault. For my first post here, I'm going to take a look at why it's a mess and try to outline a plan to have a method to the madness.
I've been playing games since I was a wee child back in the 1980s. We had an NES and shortly thereafter, I received a Game Boy for Christmas. Those two systems were all I had for quite a while until I purchased a Sega Genesis around 1994 or so. I don't remember exactly when it was, but I seem to recall it being $119.99 with Sonic 2, for whatever that's worth!
I absolutely loved my Genesis, but I picked one up at the end of its life and didn't stay in the 16-bit generation for very long. In December 1996, I picked up a Sega Saturn and while I was always a big gamer, I often credit that particular purchase / console as the catalyst for my gaming obsession. With this intense love for gaming and the riches associated with a minimum wage job as a teenager, I was constantly exploring new platforms. I picked up a PS1 the following year in 1997 and then an N64 in 1998. My family also purchased our first PC in February 1998, which opened a HUGE new world for me to explore and one that I had been salivating at for years.
Although the Saturn wasn't a huge success here in North America, I absolutely loved it and was extremely excited for the Dreamcast. I picked mine up on 9.9.99 with 8 games. A year later, I had a last minute decision to pick up a PS2 at launch. In 2001, I picked up a Game Boy Advance when it came out. In 2002, it was time for me to pick up a GameCube. The following year, I picked up an Xbox. Okay, I guess you all see where I'm going with this...
The reason I went through that (probably boring) piece of history is that it really drives home the fact that I LOVE video games! I don't care what platform, what era, what genre, etc. I just enjoy finding, playing, and experiencing games. And that's why my backlog is a mess. I feel like I should play EVERY game out there. I mean, I WANT to play every game out there. I'll give any game a chance (yes, even Superman 64) and foolishly feel like I can beat them all. And boy do I greatly underestimate how long games will take me! Even if I know a game is let's say 40 hours long, I find myself saying things like "Oh, I know it's a work week and all, but I can probably knock this thing out in a few evenings. Yeah, I got this." When that happens, I'm lucky if I even make it two hours in!
So after decades of games being released and my shelves (plus digital libraries) filling up, I find myself absolutely buried. This is one of the main reasons why I started building Completionator so many years ago. I knew I needed something that could keep track of my collection AND my backlog. Of course, the site does a whole lot more these days, but now you know where I started from.
As I said before, my biggest problem is that I feel like I should play every game, even though that's a completely unrealistic and quite frankly, undesirable goal. There are plenty of games I don't enjoy, so there's no way I would want to play through them completely...but I still seem to want to do it if it's sitting on my shelf. This is ultimately why I struggle to stick with a game. I might be enjoying a game on the weekend, then the work week hits and my playtime drops to just an hour or so a night. Meanwhile, I'm watching YouTube videos, reading articles, talking with friends, whatever and I start to think "Hmm..maybe I should play that instead!" And then I do. And that other game sits. And sits. And sits. It's a rather vicious cycle :P
One of the goals I have for this newfangled Articles feature here on Completionator is to try and blog about my backlog and what I'm doing to clear it out. I would certainly appreciate any motivation you all may have! Perhaps a little discipline is in order since I'm clearly incapable of doing it myself!
I've recently been making a concerted effort to focus on a game and actually FINISH it. It sort of started a few months ago when I started playing Parasite Eve II. I played it for a few hours and was really enjoying it. Then I didn't play for like a week or so. And then I said "NO, you must finish this game! It's been on your list for OVER TEN YEARS NOW, DOOD!" So I went back to it. And I beat it. It had been a while since I really buckled down and finished off a game that I had abandoned like that. Normally, by the time I make it back to a game, I don't even remember how to play. So...score!
I was feeling ambitious, so I started playing this one:
Draconus has been in my collection for years. I picked it up used back in 2000 with some graduation money, I think. I played it a little bit back then, but never made it anywhere. I was a big fan of Die by the Sword, to which Draconus was a spiritual successor. I had played it maybe a couple of times over the years, but again, I never really got anywhere in the game. But I was hoping this time would be different. I wasn't sure I would play through it, as evidenced by several Feed posts, but I was actually enjoying the game quite a bit. I tracked my playthrough here on Completionator, so I know exactly when I played it. I started on 4/20/16 and played it almost every day until I finally finished it on 5/1/16. I was extremely happy (and proud) that I was able to stay focused on a game like that. I enjoyed the game, though I felt it lost some of its steam as the game wore on. But hey, I finished it!!
Immediately (as in the same day) after I finished Draconus, I rolled right into this one:
I didn't think I'd have much trouble sticking with this one since I'm a huge fan of the Ratchet and Clank series and...I was right. It took about five days and I had this one wrapped up. Easy peasy.
I took a short break from "bigger" games and knocked out some small games. Then it was onto the next one, which was:
Rayman 2 was a FANTASTIC game and I can't believe it took me so long to play it. Okay, now I'm onto something. I continued my roll (even with a few bumps along the way) and managed to finish a game I had been wanting to play since the 1990s:
I seriously had written Dark Savior off. No, not in that it wasn't a good game (which is was), but I had already just assumed I would never play through it. But this time was different. It hooked me. I beat it.
And then just yesterday, I finished a HUGE "white whale" in my backlog:
I've been playing StarCraft since 1998 and I just now finished all three campaigns. That's it, I'm officially on a roll! Officially.
So now you're caught up. But what's next? Well, I've been thinking about that. I have several games identified as the absolute-mostest-need-to-beat games in my backlog. And here they are:
Wow, what a coincidence, it's a bounty! Okay, so maybe it's not quite such a coincidence since I totally added that bounty after I started playing it. It doesn't matter though, I'm thoroughly enjoying this game so far and SO glad I'm giving it a play. Why has it taken me so long to actually play it? I don't know. But this is my next goal. You can write it down. And when I stop playing it, everyone can haze me here.
I don't want to get TOO far ahead of myself (remember, that's part of what keeps me buried), but there are some other games I'm looking to knock out soon.
I'm actually about halfway through this game and will just pick it up from there.
I ALMOST played this game today, but I resisted. Don't get me wrong, I know it's going to be awesome, but I must remain focused on Chrono Trigger! I'm still bummed that I never managed to finish the original Odin Sphere. I was hyped for that game for so long and picked it up day 1. It was such a fun game, but I never made it through for all of the reasons I've discussed above. But not this time. I don't know when, but Odin Sphere, your day is coming. And this time I'll play you in 1080p!
So there you have it. That's the madness to my madness and the plan I'm using to convert that into a method to my madness. It's working...for now. We'll see how long it lasts. Oh crap, Grand Kingdom and the new Star Ocean come out this week! And (of course) I've bought an obscene amount of games during the Steam Sale! Oh and...
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