A backlog is really nothing but a collection of, in this case, games that are still on the proverbial shelf to be played (off). Not every gamer will have such a backlog, but the majority will certainly be familiar with it. I recently read an article about a gamer who had 40,000 games in his Steam Library. Fortunately my backlog on Steam is not that huge. However, of course I have more than one location for my backlog: I have also built up a big backlog in the Epic Games Store and in the PS Store, where I think my backlog on the PS Store is the largest. Fortunately my entire backlog is digital, because I don’t actually do physical games since the PlayStation 3. That doesn’t mean I no longer have any physical games. I still have some Nes Games, PSX games and PS2 games in the cupboards.
Cause
There can be several causes so that a backlog can grow from the claws. In my case this has to do with a lack of time, a good income, free games, fomo and subscriptions. These are all factors that can grow a backlog.
It used to be an event when I started buying a new game. You really saved for it or you asked one for your birthday. You played that game completely. That was mainly due to a lack of money, but abundance of time, because say for yourself: you didn’t really have any obligations as a child, and certainly not an income. In addition, playing outside in my youth was quite a thing. Now I actually have it completely the other way around: I now have a good income, but many times more obligations. I have a household to keep up, a relationship, work and of course there is more time than going to school and being taken care of as a child.
A good income automatically means that you could also spend more money on games. You may not have to save for it anymore. Of course, as befits every gamer, as an adult you love offers, sale or, in jargon, sales. And those sales are plentiful. For example, we have just completed the Steam Autumn-Sale and there are always offers on the PS Store. These are often refreshed on Wednesdays and occasionally there are also weekend offers. Now that you no longer have a lack of money, the threshold for purchasing a game has been considerably reduced and thanks to such sales, the threshold has even been lower.
In addition to the sales, there are now also a large number of games available for free. Then we are not talking about the free to play games, but of course about the games that are offered for free by the Epic Games Store for free. New free games are offered here every Thursday from 5 pm. When purchasing, these are connected to your account forever. You don’t have to do anything else for this than to have a free account.
In addition, you now also have subscription services such as PlayStation Plus and Game Pass. These do not directly offer free games, but offer you, as long as your subscription is active, a catalog of games that you can download and play (or stream) whenever you want. In the case of GamePass, these are often also day one releases. You have these subscriptions in different forms. Often the following applies: the more expensive the subscription, the greater the offer.
A final cause that I want to name is the FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. This is a fairly straightforward concept: you hear good things about a game of friends or colleagues and you want this experience too. That’s why you buy the game, purely because you want to experience what they are talking about and want to experience the hype. These are often new games and are often purchased after the proverbial: “Wow, I played with friends yesterday and I had a lot of fun”.
Consequence
Now that we have treated the causes, we continue to the result. This can actually be named in one simple word: games. If you have made yourself “guilty” on one of the above causes, there is a good chance that you now also have a backlog. As mentioned, a backlog can be in several places and that can ensure that you lose the overview a bit. The result is that you no longer know what games you all have, that you no longer play the games completely and that you have never played some games at all. There are even cases of games that you no longer know you have in possession at all and even bought them double. In my case, for example, that is The Witcher III. I think I have now purchased this about four times. Well, of course, that is a classic case of own fault, a big bump, but I dare say with certainty that I am really not the only one in this.
So another consequence is that your games no longer play, because while playing a certain game you suddenly come across another game that you really want to play at that moment. That’s how I played Astro Bot and I wanted, because I had to think about it, suddenly Super Mario Bros. Wonder to play on my switch. And so it happened that I have not touched Astro Bot for a few weeks. Fortunately it is quite simple to resume astro bot after a long period, compared to certain other games that you no longer know the controls after that long break. In the meantime I don’t play super Mario Bros. Wonder more, but I started working with Last Epoch because I wanted to loot and that was again in response to Borderlands 4. Incidentally, I play both games on different systems.
Then we have the result of the sales in the various stores and the most known consequence of that is the list of never, or not yet, played games. For example, my list of games that have not yet been played is many times larger than the games played. When I see a game that I want to play and that game is on sale, I just buy it. For example, I recently purchased the Steam Summer Sale Captain of Industry and Transport Fever 2, as well as something, for me, still missing DLC from Cities: Skylines. I also bought Theotown, Grim Dawn and Marvels Midnight Suns in that sale. I haven’t played them all yet. Or at least no more than just started. And so there are many more games that I have, but that I have never played before. Fortunately, the majority of this were obtained for free via the Epic Games Store (now more than 230 free -claimed games) and to be honest: that will really continue to grow, as long as Epic Games will continue.
Solution
Now that we have treated the cause and the effect, we must of course also look for a solution. This is easier said than done, because often you can no longer undo a purchase, after a certain time and the (digital) game in your library is dusted in a list of many other games. One solution is very simple and is actually a combination of solutions: no more new games, but for a gamer that is often not the right solution. That is why there are different tools to help you manage your backlog, or control, on the PC you can use Playnite for this or a web -based tool for all your other systems. This way you can make it clear for yourself what your backlog actually looks like.
Another solution is to finish and play all games one by one, this is almost the ultimate solution for gamers, were it not that a backlog is often so large that it can take decades before you get through it and you cannot tell me that you are not going to buy other games as a gamer in those decades. There will even be new systems that you will purchase and some games you may not be able to play technically at all. In addition, you have the time factor: you must have time available to play through your backlog.
Many gamers from the current generation are therefore waiting for their retirement with SMART in order to finally be able to eliminate that backlog. For me that will certainly take another 25 years and until that time my backlog will certainly continue to grow. Now I will continue with Borderlands 4 and on the PC I pick up Rimworld again. If I have to get rid of my backlog, then start with my current favorite and the potential biggest game I have, although I still think about purchasing Dwarf Fortress, but yes, that time!
