Gaming Backlog Depression - My own video about the stress of backlogs

A video I made about the stress caused by the growing backlog of games a lot of us are piling-up. Currently I often even just lose all motivation to play games just from staring at all the choices and end up watching some tv show instead. I guess some gamers can relate to this feeling. So anyway, I did a video talking about my own backlog, with games for the Switch, Xbox One, PS4 and Vita.

Thank you for watching.


About the topic itself of backlogs...how do you guys choose which games to cut and leave behind definitely? I find myself buying games I really want to play, but in the end, I just put them aside for months (or even for good) simply because I realize they just don't fit my "evolving" tastes. Does it make sense?

I have given up to play all I want to play. I really just take whatever game I want to play right now and play that. This does however increase the time I need to complete them. I'm just 50 hours into Persona 5, but I did, for example, plat tekken 7 and finished Injustice 2 inbetween it. I will also probably plat all 3 Crash games before I finish P5 xD

Sometimes I get depressed, but not for that reason. I usually look at that collection of games and think "Jesus, I've wasted my life..." I know without video games I could be a lot more productive in my personal life; I work a lot, generally 60+ hours a week, and then I just eat, sleep, and play video games.

I don't get depressed I have not played them. As for how to cope, well, I like to think of buying games I don't plan on playing right away as an investment in the future. For example, the Steam Summer Sale is currently going on right now which means a lot of games I might not normally get (games in genres I don't often play, games with art styles I don't enjoy, etc) I will take a risk on and purchase.

I try to limit myself as to what I plan on playing. I don't buy games unless I only have maybe 1-3 games on me that I haven't gotten around to playing yet. Then there's unreleased games that I keep a wish list of. I'm somewhat picky and choosy but my Wish List is almost always at about 20 games or so because at least half of them are unreleased.

I'm a lot more choosy than I have been in the past. So I do research before I buy a game. I try to stay away from the COD's and Assassin Creeds, as they tend to be generic and I get bored with them quite easy. However, when I get a game and I start asking myself, "why am I playing this?" I know it's time to put it down and play something else.

I did that with MGSV and Fallout 4. I did well over 20 hours for each but soon after I was like "this is getting stale....why am I playing this? Time to quit" and I have no desire to go back and finish them.

I didn't feel that way with Horizon Zero Dawn or Yakuza 0, I finished the main story and then some for both of those games.

I'm about to quit Persona 5. I'm over 6 hours in and halfway through the first palace but the game is still in the damn tutorial!!!! I can't believe how slow this game is, and how many different game mechanics are plopped in. I game usually in 2-3 hour sessions,but that doesn't seem like enough time to make progress in this game! I keep seeing people posting 60-150 hour playthroughs for P5 and now I see why. It takes forever to get anything done, and for me there is no sense of accomplishment. (Quickly anyway). So I'm probably just going to abandon Persona 5, even though I like every other element of the game.

sorry didn't watch the vid because this forum gets zillions of youtubers signing up to just push their channels. i'll watch vids from regular forum contributors.

i love having a backlog. choice doesn't overwhelm me in a bad way. it just gives me tons of options to always find something to suit my mood. i do have a tendency to buy a lot of games though. i just recently discovered amazon prime now which is highly dangerous for someone like me. you can order games and have them delivered to your door two hours later. i've bought four in the last week or so. god help me

I keep saying I'll do better...but I never do. :)

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I tend to disallow myself from purchasing a game if I have 2 un-played titles at most whilst playing a game. This way you finish majority of what you start and avoid backlogs.

Especially when you get free games every month via live gold or psplus.

Obviously certain games I revisit to 100% complete over time. but generally shorter games I tend to finish up on.

Eh I buy a lot of games. Sometimes because they're on sale. Some I probably won't ever play. No big deal, I'm not going to force myself to play a game if I don;t want to.

Some things that I started doing to help are:

1. As a hardcore gamer, there was a time when I felt like I had to try all of the latest and greatest games that are getting critical acclaim even if they didn't look that interesting to me personally. This would take time away from me that I could be playing the games that are truly interesting to me. I've stopped doing that. Now, I only play the games that I'm truly excited to play. So, sorry Horizon. I don't care how much critical acclaim you get, you just don't look very appealing to me, so I'm not going to waste my time.

2. If at any point, I play a game for more than 1 hour without having any fun then the game goes bye bye. There are too many great games out there to waste my time playing something that I'm not enjoying in the hope that the game will eventually get better. So, sorry Witcher 3. I was really hoping to like you, but you feel like a chore to play through and I'm not going to waste any more time on you when I could instead be having fun playing something else.

3. Before buying a game, I ask myself if I realistically see myself playing this game within the next 6 months. If the answer is no then I can wait to buy the game later and by that time I might not even be interested in this game anymore.

4. I focus on quality over quantity and keep in mind that less is more, so I try to limit the amount of similar games that I buy and just buy the highest quality game for each category. Do I even have the time to play two epic 50+ hour RPGs? No, I don't and I won't really be able to enjoy either of them if I have to rush through them to try to fit them both in. Do I really need 5 different racing games? No, I don't and I'll get more fulfillment out of being able to get engrossed in just one racing game instead of having to try to split my focus between 5 very similar games. It's better to get engrossed in the highest quality game of this type and eliminate the excess quantity of similar games that only serve to distract me from the best game.

5. I stopped buying games just because they are on sale or seem like a good deal. If this game is not something that I was excited for before I saw that it was on sale then I obviously don't really want it bad enough and the only reason that I'm considering it is because it seems like too good of a deal to pass up, but it's just going to add more clutter to my backlog.

6. I stopped worrying about sunk costs. We often feel the need to get our money's worth out of things we purchase to not feel guilty about wasting our money, so we force ourselves to use it even if we don't really like it, but I learned that it is not good to clutter my present and future with past mistakes that I can't change. If I make a bad purchasing decision and buy a game that ends up not being very fun for me, oh well, the game is a sunk cost and it still needs to go away so that it doesn't clutter my backlog and cost me time in my future even if I can't get any of the money that I paid for it back.

7. Goodbye emulation and goodbye flash carts. There was a time when I thought it was cool to be able to own pretty much every retro game that has ever been made via emulation or flash carts, but then I realized that I would always get an uncontrollable urge to stop playing a game after a few minutes no matter how good it was just so I could check out one of the other thousands of games that was too easily available to me. It became clear to me that having access to too many games killed my will to play any of them. Now, I only play games that I purchase with my own money; this monetary limitation keeps me from acquiring too many games and helps me choose which games really matter the most to me. If I'm not willing to spend my money on the game then the game is not important enough for me to spend my time on. I now get much more fulfillment from the games that I do own than I ever did when I had all games that I could possibly ever want easily available to me.

@danjel_leinad: Nice try but you need to post your video in the right forum.

If your hobby depresses you at all for any reason, then its time for a break and to try something else.

The video is so dull. I mean I get it, it is for backlogs but it should have some sort of energy to it. Couldn't complete the list bro. Good luck!