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 A lot of us here collect games, I'm assuming. Since this is true, I know that every one of you here has a game backlog. You know, that pile of games sitting in the corner, unplayed, unloved for various reasons. Maybe you lost interest in the game, or there's a shiny new game that captured your attention, or you just never got around to playing it. Regardless of the reasons why your backlog grows, I want to know what your approach to solving this backlog dilemma is. Do you: Play a game for a few hours and see if it's worth playing through? Tackle a few games at a time? Prioritize games by interest? Stare at it in shame? Personally, I find that a game goes in my backlog when there's something new that comes along and steals interest away from another game. Good example of that: Dead Space. I bought that game on day one and played through the first few chapters, but then a few weeks later, LittleBigPlanet came out and I found myself with no time for Dead Space. Then of course there was the rest of the fall games that pushed their way into my library, and pushed others into the backlog. Also, I find that games I spend less money on, especially Dreamcast and older games, tend to more easily go to my backlog because they're old and no one is talking about them anymore. When it comes time to tackle my backlog, I look at the pile of games and decide which sounds most interesting, or which one I enjoyed most before it went into the pile. Unlike many other gamers, I actually try every game I buy for at least an hour or two, so that helps in the future when making backlog related choices. I usually only play one backlog game at a time because I find that if I add any more, my gaming time becomes too diluted across not only my backlog games but my current staples. Anyone else have an effective approach to solving the game backlog issue? Let me know. [Photo from Flickr]
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I'm usually playing through at least 10 games at any given time. Then I get into a weird mood where I feel like I need to beat most of them before I start any more. I try to keep a healthy mix of genres and older/current games to keep things fresh.
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I sort of do all of the things you mentioned in your post, including "stare at it in shame". 
I don't have as much time for gaming as I used to, so I tend to play everything a bit (so I atleast know what a game's like), but I very rarely finish a game. That's because:
- Other games grab my attention and I forget about the game I was playing.
- I get bored of the game itself after a few hours.
- I get stuck at some point during a game and give up.
I admire the people who choose a single game out of their collection, decide to beat that game, and play it non-stop (without playing anything else) until it is finished. But I know I'm just not like that.
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I'm not really sure I have a backlog. I have games I haven't beat... but that's moreso because I just flat out don't care about beating them or forcing myself to beat them. I mean, they may be fun, but I just don't feel like dedicating an enormous amount of time to the game (a great example is Jeanne D'Arc; great game but insanely easy. I'll pick it up every now and then but don't care if I beat it). The only game I'd legitimately say I have but haven't gotten around to playing for more than an hour is Suikoden 3. That's pretty much it.
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I have a HUGE backlog. I try to only have 1-2 games going at once per system.
I don't generally have any sort of rhyme or reason to which game i am going to play next. Sometimes it is a game that has piqued my interest, sometimes a game i know that is going to be short, sometimes its just a game i happened to just realized i owned and hadn't beat yet.
There have been quite a few RPGs over the years that i have started and not finished. More often then not i have to start those over from the beginning again because i don't remember what city i needed to go to or what item i was looking for, etc
Platformers, shooters, and pretty much any genre out there though i have no problem just picking up from whatever point i may had left off yet.
I use to play dozens of games all at once (not nearly as bad as Link though). I have in the last year or 2 though adopted a play style i rather enjoy of starting a game and at least mostly dedicating myself to it until it is complete.
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I have a seperate spot to keep the games in my backlog so that they are seperate from my collection. I do this so that they dont simply get forgotten about. I usually try to only have 1 or 2 going at once also. I try to finish as many games as possible, but I find some just dont interest me enough to keep playing that long. Once I'm done with a game (either beat or grown tired of) then it gets added into my regular collection. When I catch up on my backlog then I go through the ol' collection and choose an old favorite to pull out. I've never felt like I've got nothing to play.
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I play on average about 4 or 5 games a day. I usually stick to one console at a time, like right now I am playing through my Game Boy Advance collection
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@Link41: What games? Just curious.
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@Shimra: on GBA? or what games do I usually play in a day?
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I agree with near everything that Tondog does, except that I don't try every game I buy.
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I don't really have a backlog, not because I don't have any games I want to play or haven't beat yet. But because I've pretty much given up trying to have a backlog, as nearly my entire collection could be considered a backlog. When I get a chance to play a game, I usually just look at everything, become overwhelmed and not play anything, but sometimes I'll just grab something that looks good and play for a while and then try something else. If something really holds my attention, I'll stick with it for a while until I beat it or give up.
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Like Crabby i keep my games i have beat and the games i need to be separated as best i can.
Also i have my list that i keep the beat games or highscores for games updated in.... also as best i can.
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I can be playing through a number of games at any given time across multiple consoles, and honestly I've got a pretty bad habit of playing a game for awhile and then never coming back to it, though I've been trying to avoid that lately. What I tend to do is look at my games and then just play whatever I think sounds good at the time, nothing to elaborate, I just do what I feel will keep me entertained.
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I don't have backlogs. I'm too good for that.
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No backlog for me. Starting up a collection again but slowly right now and I buy games and play em till I beat em. After I beat it then I'd buy another one. And even then, I buy stuff when the price has lowered OR if I got a game that I ended up not liking much, I'll trade it in for credit towards another game. So at least it doesn't really go to waste. I'm a bit picky about my collection now in that I only want to have games I like.
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There's no backlog of games that i haven't played yet.
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Like Lucri, I'm what I think of as a "videogame monogamist." I buy a game and I play it until it's beaten, then I buy another. I have a fairly deep backlog of games I need to play but they're not here, they're sitting on a store shelf somewhere waiting to be purchased. I only make exceptions if I find a game somewhere so cheap that I can't possibly resist it; in those rare instances, the new game will sit untouched until whatever I have on my plate is finished.
I find that playing more than one game at a time dilutes my enjoyment of them all. Maybe I just don't have the concentration skillz necessary to handle it. But once I get going on something it's pretty much an exclusive effort until it's done.
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I guess that I'd start out by defining what a "Backlog game" is to me. And that is a game that I either haven't played at all (still in the shrinkwrap), only tried it out to see if it works, or played it to a certain early point and gave up on it thinking that I'd "get back to it later".
I guess that my approach to backlogs depends mostly on the most recent games that I've purchased. I'll tend to give recently purchased games the highest priority, but if I'm up for something that's a staple game (i.e. Halo 3, Call of Duty 3) I'll pop that in to mix it up.
Sometimes even a rather new purchase gets backlogged early because of other games that I've decided to play. For example, I still haven't gotten around to playing Gears of War 2 and I got that right when it came out. However, that was primarily because I also picked up Left 4 Dead around the same time and REALLY got into that one instead. And then SF4 and Halo Wars came out shortly thereafter. And I also got Braid when it was discounted on XBLA. So Gears 2 still sits.
Also, if I've neglected a backlogged game long enough, I'll just trade it in for something else if it's retained its value. Which is what I did with LoZ Windwaker and Super Smash Bros Melee. At the time, I was in need of the drum kit for Rock Band 1. So I figured I'd trade in both those games to reduce the cost of the kit on a game that I knew I'd play.
And there are also backlogged games that I haven't purchased or gotten around to re-purchasing yet. I played Fable 2 a lot when I first got it, but used it as trade in to get Left 4 Dead because I knew I'd play that one more; so I'm waiting on the cost of Fable 2 to drop to under the $29.99 mark before looking into rebuying it. I also haven't bought CoD4 or Rock Band 2 yet because they've retained their values for a long time. I'd like to play them, but am going to wait on the prices to fall significantly on those before looking into buying them as well.
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I have a good size backlog that I keep track of on the computer. I just have Word documents for games I own, games I've beaten, games I own but haven't beaten, and games I want.
I have stored games away that I've beaten to make space but I keep everything. I buy games that I come across if the price is right and try it if it's used to make sure it works. I generally stick to 1 or 2 at a time until I beat them. A game has to be really bad for me not to finish it (which I don't think has happened yet). I generally have 1 RPG and 1 action game going to break things up when I get tired of grinding. Only once or twice have I been distracted by something new.
My big problems: 1) Not a lot of time with work and family 2) I love RPGs. I think I have at least a dozen on backlog 3) I have an obsessive compulsion to do everything in a game. As a result I can easily spend 60-100 hours on one RPG even though I don't use half the stuff I get.
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I've actually touched all the games I own but haven't beaten every single one. I always rent stuff before I buy it unless it's a title that I know I want from the get-go. As far as managing the backlog, I just play whatever I feel like playing at the time.
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1.Buy games
2.Stack games
3.Add games to collection list
4.Hide games
5.Find games
6.Try adding games to collection list, again
7.Mix games with collection
8.Pretend there is no backlog
9.Buy games
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@Fuyukaze: If I could give you karma points for that blog post I would.
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@Fuyukaze:hide the games from who? 
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@Link:From myself obviously. Sometimes it's rather annoying to look at a stack of 20+ games you've bought last month and know you may not have time to beat even one of them.
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