Overkill: How To Successfully Manage Your Video Game Backlog

Play To Completion

Let me tell you a story, perhaps you can relate. Many years ago I had finally found the joy of playing through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Somewhere along the line I got distracted, and put the game down for a few days. Then a few weeks. And months. And years. After I had finally decided to sit down and finish it, I booted up my old save that was several years old at that point.

The thing about old-school games is that they didn’t always provide clear objectives. Waypoints were a scarcity, as were any sort of story recap system or even a detailed map. I struggled, looking around the entire castle trying to reach spots that looked unexplored. I had no idea where I was in the story, and couldn’t get anything to activate, so I gave in and started the game over just so I could figure out where I was. I couldn’t even look at a guide or anything because I had no idea where I actually was.

This is why I rarely play two games at once, and never more than that. Even modern games that have waypoint systems of some kind might have some kind of story that can easily be forgotten if I leave the game for too long.

It’s easy to get distracted in an era where there’s a big release nearly every week. Especially for those with diverse tastes. I have a friend who I swear has never actually finished a game since he’s always getting into new games when they come out, rather than finishing the old ones first, or even going back once a new game has been finished. This presents a slippery slope of hoards of games you’ll feel guilty about until the credits roll.

There’s a fairly loose definition of what’s considered finishing a game or not; not all games have an end. My recommendation is to play until you feel satisfied with a game. There’s no sense in forcing yourself and making your view of the game be poor.

For example, when playing Skyrim earlier this year, I spent about 70 hours total on the game, finishing the story and doing several side-quests and exploring. I planned the game in such a way so that I’d finish the main game when I knew I had my fill of the game, leaving the perfect exclamation point to the rest of the already great game. I know I didn’t finish every single quest, or that there was plenty more stuff to find, but I’m very satisfied with what I played.

Obviously this doesn’t quite apply to shorter games. Again, MMOs and sports games kinda don’t fit either. They’re more of time wasters rather than something you can theoretically play from start to finish. Just know your limits when it comes to knowing when you should stop playing.

Timing Is Everything

This is another trick I’ve learned over the course of reviewing games here, and it’s been a lifesaver so far. It doesn’t have to be just a trick for reviewers, it could also help those who want to play a game when it comes out.

When I was preparing to review Xenoblade Chronicles in April, I wanted to make sure I didn’t have any other games overlapping from my personal backlog. With two weeks to go until the game released, figuring out what to occupy my time with to time it perfectly with the release date of Xenoblade was tricky.

Let’s assume there’s a game coming out this fall you really, REALLY want to play as soon as it releases. Let’s use Assassin’s Creed III as an example, which releases on October 30, just under three weeks from today. Your backlog, which is exceedingly low, has Guild Wars 2, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Skyrim and Darksiders II on it.  Depending on how much time you have for gaming, there are some great options here. You could just jump into Guild Wars 2, a game with no theoretical end, and get things done in that for the next few weeks. MMOs are great for this, although they certainly aren’t for everyone. Sports games and games with bigger multiplayer components are also great for this reason. You don’t necessarily need to worry about timing in that case.

However, if you’re like me and you’re not a fan of MMOs, sports games or multiplayer, you’re gonna want a different option.

For this reason, it’s important to know just how long it would take for a game to be played from start to finish. I used to just Google “How long is (insert game here?)” However, I’ve recently found just how useful a site called howlongtobeat.com. The site has a massive database of games with tons of people submitting their times for how long it took them to complete the game, along with what exactly they got done, be it just story content, story with a bit of exploration, and 100 percent completion. The site averages these out, although you can look at each individual submission.

So upon further inspection, you can see that Skyrim would take an average of about 90 hours or so in order to finish the story and some sidequests. That’s probably a bit much to get around to in three week’s time, but the story only takes about 25. You also notice that Darksiders II takes roughly 20 hours and New Super Mario Bros. 2 can be finished in only five hours.

So it’s a wiser choice to dual-wield these two shorter games while you wait for Assassin’s Creed. Not only are an open-world action RPG and an old-school platformer perfect contrast to each other if you get tired of one or the other, but each game’s overall lack of an insanely deep story means you’ll be starved for a deep, semi-confusing plot and characters by the time Assassin’s Creed is out. Although I might not recommend playing Skyrim immediately after being satisfied with Assassin’s Creed. The games are too similar to each other. Break it up with a racing game or an action game. Also a good excuse to dig through the bargain bin at your retailer of choice to catch up on older treasures you may not have had time for.

We also have the unfortunate fact that there isn’t as much of a lazy release season for video games anymore. It used to be where Fall and Spring were the only busy release windows, and Winter and Summer would be perfect stretches of time in order to get games done. However, there’s usually a constant flow of big releases throughout the year now, so it’s a bit tougher. I think last year I got about nine short games done in the month of June, which was the only slow month of all last year. Pace yourselves.

Your Backlog Is Not A Chore

Okay, I might just have been meaning to use the legendary wheelbarrow picture of Kotaku’s Owen Good in something, but this bit is true.

Although it may seem like keeping a backlog is really just a to-do list of video games, it’s important to never see your backlog that way. A backlog, and all of the tips I’ve provided you here today, are organizational tools, meant to ease stress on what seems like a never-ending video game release schedule. As I’ve said, the only way to limit an obsessive amount of games from making your backlog in the first place is to have some self-control. The kind that makes you go an entire month without buying a game, or successfully surviving an entire Steam sale without buying anything.

Never look at your backlog as something that you “have to get through.” It’s meant to make your hobby easier. It’s meant so that you never have a game that goes unplayed, and your money wasted. It’s meant to make sure you can keep on gaming for years to come because you’ve successfully structured what you play and when you play it in such a way that you never get tired or burnt out.

When you’re playing a long game, it’s wiser for the sake of your sanity to take breaks every hour or so. There’s nothing wrong with sitting down and beating a short game in a single go when you know it’s short. I wouldn’t advise making a habit of this, but some games benefit from it. Journey comes to mind.

But the bottom line is that gaming is supposed to be fun, and having a massive bunch of games nagging at you at all times waters that down a bit. Hopefully the tips I’ve outlined here will give some of you a bit of feeling back when it comes to cracking open a new game.

What about you guys? Any helpful tips and tricks I might not have picked up on? Share them in the comments below!