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The gaming backlog used to be a source of comfort and perpetual excitement for me. In the distant past it would be a rare but oh-so-delicious set of circumstances that led to me having a small handful of games I had yet to experience but I was eagerly anticipating. Games I had already owned, just sitting there, waiting for me to play them, just as soon as I could make time for them.
20 years ago, if I had a gaming backlog it probably consisted of only 1-4 games. My taste in games was far less refined than today, I generally stuck to the major AAA releases. I also didn’t have access to the volume and variety of games that I have today. I was limited to one or two consoles and new games were expensive for a teenager.
Fast forward to 2024 and it seems like every month there are 2-5 new games that I find interesting. I also have access to a ridiculous amount of very cheap and or “free” games thanks to various services like Xbox Game Pass, Epic Game Store, Amazon Prime, and PlayStation Plus. On top of that, I now own pretty much every major modern gaming platform available and many of those have deep backward compatibility accessibility.
Combine all of these factors and I have no real idea how big my backlog is right now. I would give a rough estimate of about 50-100 games. I can list off some of the games that immediately come to mind that I know for sure I want to beat soon. God of War Ragnarok, Ghost of Tsushima, Halo Infinite, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Alan Wake 2, Remnant II, Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, Horizon Forbidden West, Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, Battle Brothers, Sifu, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Lost Judgment. That’s a lot of gaming and those are just the games at the top of my head.
Why has it become so hard to finish the gaming backlog?
There are several reasons why gaming backlogs get so bloated and why it’s so difficult to eradicate them. To start, modern games are longer than ever. It used to be that if a game was 40 hours long, that was a huge game and seen as a great value for your money. Nowadays, every other AAA release wants to be 40+ hours long and dominate as much of your play time as possible. It’s one thing to play one or two of those games a year but if you are trying to play four, five, or six? That’s a lot of time to sink into just a handful of games.
Another reason why backlogs are so hard to finish is the frequency of new releases. Last summer I started to write a blog post about how 2023 was going to be one of the greatest years in gaming ever, I procrastinated and took months to actually finish the post. While writing it, though, every few weeks there would be a new game or two I felt I had to include as to why 2023 was so amazing.
There used to be a fairly regular cadence to game releases. You would get some sporadic releases throughout the year but you could bank on typically dry summers and blockbuster fall through holiday seasons. Today, great games come out at all times. The holiday season is still packed with the biggest releases but you can have situations like January 2023 when Hi-Fi Rush shadow dropped out of nowhere to be one of the best Xbox games to release in years.
As I briefly touched on earlier, access to games is easier than ever. Games go on sale for very cheap all the time. There are sales for physical copies of games and digital versions on all the storefronts. Deep discounts are common, services allow you to download games for a small monthly fee or in some cases free. These options were just not available to gamers 15-20 years ago.
You could rent games, and you would find a sale here or there at a retail store but for the most part, you were not getting cheap and massive access to the multitude of games you are getting now. Lastly, the library of “modern” quality games available today is also much larger than it was back in the early 00s.
In 2004 going back to play a classic game you missed 10 years ago meant playing Donkey Kong Country or Sonic and Knuckles, those are great games and classics of their time for sure but those games did not feel at all modern to the AAA games of 2004.
In 2024 if I want to play classic games from a decade ago I would be looking at stuff like Mario Kart 8, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Divinity: Original Sin. These games look and feel much more like contemporary games that come out today. They hold up well and I think it safe to say that most people interested in the same genres of games today would still be happily content playing these old games if they missed them the first time around.
I’m done worrying about finishing my backlog
In 2024, I have resolved to stop worrying about my backlog. Yes, I will still play games from it but I will no longer fret over trying to finish every game I start and engage in a never-ending war of attrition to eradicate my backlog. I am simply going to play what I feel like playing, enjoy what brings me legitimate entertainment and glee, and the moment a game stops doing that and becomes a chore, I am going to put it down and move on.
Over the years I have forced myself through several games because I wanted to see the end credits and accomplish the goal of beating them. When I reflect on these many occasions now I wonder, what did I accomplish by forcing myself to finish games I was no longer enjoying?
Sure, there is a small, fleeting sense of completion. There is the fact that my curiosity as to how the story will ultimately play out is sated, and sometimes, a game ending or its final hours, really flip my entire perspective and retroactively enrich my overall play experience but the times I went from no longer enjoying a game to being very happy that I saw it through are rare.
So there isn’t much benefit to forcing myself to trudge through the end of games I am no longer enjoying yet I have always felt compelled to do so. Like some burden or great weight was hanging over me and it would remain there as long as I let that game go unfinished. It would get to the point where I would feel bad about playing new games because I know I have several I have left behind and even that lingering thought could lessen my enjoyment of a new title.
So in 2024, I’m breaking free. I’m letting go of the vice-like hold my backlog has held over me for several years. I don’t need to see the ending to all of these games, I don’t need to play every game I decided to buy or play every game I downloaded for free on a whim because I was in a particular mood to maybe try it in the future. If a time comes when I do want to play one of those games, I won’t hesitate to boot that game up and give it a spin; at the same time, I will not hesitate to put it right back down and move on to something else if at any point I’m no longer feeling it.
Yes, there are still some games I will make it a point to play and finish, so my backlog will still exist and it will still be sitting there in the back of my mind. The difference will be that I will no longer feel like I have to address it or those games. They are only there to be enjoyed at my whim, there doesn’t have to be a reason or rhyme as to why I will play something or for how long I plan to play it.
In a strange ironic way, breaking free of my backlog may allow me to actually start finishing more games in it. Maybe now that I am solely focusing on fun over misguided obligation, I will finally start to beat some of the games I have been passing by for arbitrary reasons.
Do you have a huge gaming backlog? Do you plan to ever finish it or are you just going with the flow and playing what you like? Comment below and join the discussion.
Knowing that my backlog isn’t as stacked as yours, it still gives provides unneeded stress about something that is supposed to bring me joy. Supposed to be an escape from the ‘must-do’ lists of my life. As a father, husband, full-time employee and prt-time entrepreneur … I haven’t had the time and energy to complete the games, their stories and at the level that I find challenging. I hate playing on modes that are too easy for me, yet some games ‘at-my-challenge’ level require time to master, oftentimes differently than another game, which means my neural pathways are primarily wired for one, possibly two, really interesting games.
Just like I’ve heard many parents I KNOW LOVE their kids, say ‘F*ck them kids (FTK)’ – I just have to say ‘F*ck them games’, as not to have a hold on my psycho-emotional state.
-BW
Benjamin I hear ya. You have even more on your plate than I do so I imagine it can be very challenging. I don’t know why we get anxious about out backlogs but yes, we need to realize that this is supposed to be fun and its all about entertainment. There really isn’t a reason to stress about it. We can’t play everything and ultimately, when just focusing on what we really enjoy I think we will be happier with our games. F them games indeed lol.
Thanks for commenting!