The Great [Backlog] Challenge! (OLD THREAD)

Houn

THE GREAT BACKLOG CHALLENGE

You've all seen these threads before: gamers buy too many games, life interrupts, games go unplayed. I'll take it a step further: I'm an addict. I spend more money on games than I should. I never put as much time into a game as I'd really like, as there's always something new to pull my attention.

Thus, I hereby resolve not to spend another dime on games until I finish this backlog. I'm going to rely on all of you to keep me on the straight and narrow; if you catch me posting in a thread for some hot new game, bitchslap me back to the list. But, why do it alone? I'm sure I'm not the only one with this problem. Thus, the idea for The Challenge is Born!

So, here's how it works. If you're down for the Great Backlog Challenge, here are the rules!


RULES OF THE CHALLENGE

1. By joining in the Challenge, you are agreeing to follow all rules of the Backlog Challenge.
2. Until completion of all Game Goals, you agree to spend NO money on new video games. (Exceptions for MMO fees, Goozex trades (so long as you are not buying Goozex points), DLC, and Gift Cards.)
3. You are responsible for keeping your backlog status up to date; let us know how you're doing!

STATUS UPDATE SYSTEM
So, rather than percentages, let's move to an x/y format. So, here are the codes for keeping me sane:

• !Signup in Lime. If you post your backlog here, I'll link it in the Op.
• !UpdateStatus, x/y in Cyan. Let us know how you're doing!
• !FallOffTheWagon, x/y in Red. Man up and tell us when your total games increases. We promise not to berate you too much.

I'll keep a list of all participants here in the Op. Everyone else, feel free to give advice on what games people should be playing! So, who's game?


PARTICIPANTS

Houn - 4/38
Doc Holiday - 2/13
Ohtsam
Satanic Jesus - 1/57
Dehumanized - 3/38
Carcharodontosaurus - 5/26
METAzraeL - 2/31
Ketar - 14/64
pslong9 - 11/43
joshofalltrades - 9/32
Witch Doctor, DBM - 4/59
Lunker - 6/62
UreshiiAkuma - 14/83
Pookiepoo - 0/17
LoveIsUnity - 11/89
RainbowDespair
AlienCowThatMoos - 4/179
Tardcore - 1/69
Peewi
mrdobalina - 8/32
Slagmire - 0/18
Dourin - 1/69
OrneryOnion
The Cow King - 10/53
Foolish Chaos - 3/19
Fig-D - 11/53
Avicus - 0/28
jclast - 9/48
T4CT - 11/26
Crazybear - 0/48
Senshi - 2/23
TeeMan - 3/15
Hearthjaw
Paradiso - 0/9
Arivia - 0/74
HerrCron - 5/22
Dragonatrix - 13/32
Dyvim Tvar - 13/41
Custom Special - 2/18
-Loki- - 8/30
Malyonsus - 2/20
Goose! - 0/18
Marundo - 0/15
pirateluigi - 0/34
jack eddy - 10/18
cj iwakura - 2/57
Aridhol
Zedar - 2/32
Seabass - 5/45
Morvidus - 0/22
MadJyle
LaPuzza - 3/22
solsovly - 3/47
slash000 - 7/13
thegloaming - 2/41
ChrisDude - 5/90
Rhiley - 9/19
KTShyGuy - 0/18
Idoliside - 2/31
adventfalls - 3/23
AuburnTiger
SightTDW - 5/62
Maf - 3/16
Idx86 - 3/58
Hylianbunny - 2/9
Htown - 11/25
Aisengard
langfor6 - 1/39
LoneIgadzra - 4/24
KimFidler - 5/158
MC Mystery
Lowlander - 2/93
Rubix42 - 3/23
Sipex - 4/24
hyperpower - 15/55
Taranis - 0/18
My Name Is Luke - 2/11
Sangheili91 - 4/25
Brainiac 8
bficky - 3/26
lucidique
Daemonian
pyromaniac221 - 1/27
-SPI- - 9/89
Dodge Aspen - 2/15
Big Isy - 11/56
Blood Drive - 7/78
Basticle - 0/132
SirUltimos - 1/226
liquidlogan - 6/30
Cullen - 2/20
State of the Art Robot - 1/17
Taya - 1/16
mere_immortal - 0/33
Nick Soapdish - 1/49
Usurper - 0/59
Lucascraft
Achilles Last Stand - 0/30

Houn

Houn's Backlog - 4/38 Complete

• Fable 2 (360) - Goal: Evil Run
• Lost Oddyssey (360) - Beaten!
• Mass Effect (360) - Goal: Renegade Run
• Grand Theft Auto 4 (360) - Unfinished
• Halo (XBox) - Unfinished
• Halo 2 (XBox) - Never played
• Halo 3 (360) - Never played
• BlazBlue (360) - Goal: Character Story Modes
• Tales of Vesperia (360) - Unfinished
• inFamous (PS3) - Goal: Evil Run
• Little Big Planet (PS3) - Unfinished
• Uncharted (PS3) - Goal: Hard/Crushing Runs
• Uncharted 2 (PS3) - Goal: Crushing Run
• Katamari Forever (PS3) - Beaten!
• Brutal Legend (PS3) - Beaten!
• Okami (PS2) - Unfinished
• Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2) - Never Played
• Metal Gear Solid 3 (PS2) - Never Played
• Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2) - Unfinished
• Devil May Cry 3 (PS2) - Unfinished
• Beyond Good and Evil (PS2) - Unfinished
• Grand Theft Auto Vice City (PS2) - Unfinished
• God of War (PS2) - Never Played
• ICO (PS2) - Unfinished
• Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii) - 1 Unfinished, 2&3 Never Played
• Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - Goal: Luigi Complete
• Mega Man X7 (PS2)
• Assassin's Creed 2 (360) - Beaten!
• Dragon Age: Origins (PC)

Spoit

See, if you had made this thread back during the summer, then I might have a chance, but I already have a backlog of games which actually haven't come out. Maybe after the holiday rush ends around april or may 2010.

elliotw2

Good fuck, if I sign up to do this, I'll not be buying games for the next 3 years. My backlog includes gems such as Disgaea 3, OOT, Fallout 2, NWN2, and Last Remnant

PolloDiablo

I'll never embark on something like this, because then I'd never get through them all. That said, you should do Ico after brutal legend, because it's my favorite of the ones on your list.

undeinPirat

I really want to sign up for this, but I feel the hassle of making the backlog would be too much. I'll work on it for a bit and hopefully report back with a backlog ready to be played. My main reason my backlog is so huge is because I found my old N64 and SNES in a storage room when moving into my apartment. There are some games I hadn't finished, and then my kind friends donated some that I really want to finish but haven't gotten a chance to.

Anyways, hope to sign up once I create my backlog!

Doc Holliday

Doc Holliday's Backlog : 10 left



Currently Playing
Phantom Hourglass
Paper Mario


On the shelf
Chrono Cross
Final Fantasy XII
Majora's Mask
Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion
Super Mario RPG
Uncharted 2 - Hard Run
Valkyria Chronicles
Wind Waker



Complete:
Uncharted 2
Little Big Planet
Super Metroid



================

Notes:
Might knock Wind Waker off the list, because it seems super tedious there towards the end. I might be in more of a mood to play it later on, so I'll reserve judgement 'til later.

Same with Valkyria Chronicles. I'm just not playing that game correctly or something because it makes me angry. It's like playing chess except you pair taking a piece with a roll of the dice. It's hard to formulate strategies when your knight may or may not actually take that pawn.

Ohtsam

Doom 3 + x-pac (never played)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R (never played)
Disgaea DS (about 5% in)
FFTA2 (75% in)
Persona 3 (Keep restarting dammit)
Persona 4 (Same as above)
SMT3: Nocturne (Never played)
RE4: Wii (75%)
No More Heroes (2 Bosses in)
Knights in the Nightmare (Keep restarting Dammit)

Way too many RPGs in this list

Shorn Scrotum Man

I don't know that I'll bother to chronicle it here, but this is probably something I should do for my Wallets sake. I've been snatching up older PS3 titles on Ebay at an alarming rate recently, trying to get caught up since I only got my PS3 a couple of months ago.

Hedgethorn

My backlog consists of:

Ninja Gaiden (XBOX) (Would like to beat this, but I'm probably not good enough to do so. But I should play past the first two or three levels.)
Max Payne 1 & 2 (XBOX) (I really do want to finish these at some point.)

Rainbow Six Vegas (360) (Probably not worth finishing?)
Gears of War (360) (I may never finish this one - it never really captured my interest. I suppose I should just trade it.)

Trauma Center 2 (DS) (Haven't even taken it out of the plastic, even though I've had it for several months.)

Rome Total War (PC)
Medieval 2 Total War (PC) (I don't think I've ever finished a campaign in either of these two, though I've played both for dozens of hours.)

I'm not participating in the backlog challenge as I intend to get Arkham Asylum and GTA4 Episodes in the next couple of months and play those instead of my backlog.

RainbowDespair

I'd be willing to do something like this if we threw in an exception for birthday/Christmas presents.

Xenogears of Bore

I dry humped the shit out of my backlog this summer. It's basically down to three games I have any interest in beating.

Satanic Jesus

Here you go:

http://www.backloggery.com/main.php?user=consolehandheld

EDIT:

!UpdateStatus, 3/66 not counting games beat before this challenge or nulled.

Dehumanized

I guess I will try join in on this. Full disclosure: I've already got Borderlands on the way. I'll count that as my cutoff for no more money spending on games. So, then. Let's start the (horrifying!) list. Most of the goals on these will be fairly vague, and I honestly do not expect to win.

Let's sort it by distribution method. Format will be
Game - Goal (Percent complete)

PC
Company of Heroes Gold - Campaign completion(10%, lost saves)
Doom 3 + Expansion - Campaign completion (30% main game, 0% expansion)
Far Cry 2 - Campaign completion (10%, used to be further but lost my saves)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Campaign completion (~60%)
Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition - Story completion (0%)
STALKER: SoC - Story completion (25%)
he Witcher - Story completion (20%)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Story completion (0%)
Manhunt - Play enough to decide if I want to complete the story (0%)
Max Payne 2 - Story completion (0%, lost saves @25%)
Penumbra - Play until too scared to continue
World of Goo - Story completion (0%, lost save @75%)
Every Other Goddamn Thing In The ID Superpack - Play sometime? I don't think completing all of this is a realistic goal for anyone
Chronicles of Riddick - Beat Escape from Butcher Bay and Dark Athena (70% BB, 0% DA)

XBOX 360
Tales of Vesperia - Story completion (95%, just need to boot it up and do the last dungeon)
FEAR 2 - Story completion (30%)
Assassin's Creed - Story completion (40%?)
Dead Rising - reach true ending (50%)
Infinite Undiscovery - play until unable to continue due to disgust at mediocrity
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - unlock all levels (35%)
Pure - Unlock all tracks (30%)

PS3
Valkyria Chronicles - Story completion (50%)
Demon's Souls - Story completion (60%)

Nintendo DS
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume - Story completion (no clue on %)

PSP
Crisis Core - Complete story & Challenges (90%, once I finish challenges story will be a breeze)
Metal Gear Soldi: Portable Ops - Story completion (40%)
LocoRoco 2 - Story complete (30%)
Star Ocean: Second Evolution - Story completion (30%)
Patapon 2 - Beat game (60%)
Disgaea - Complete story (10%)
Persona - Complete story (50%)

PS2
Persona 4 - Complete story (85%)


That's just at a glance. Assuming I manage to find the strength to stick with this, I will not be buying another game until late-2010. I guess I should update my backloggery first thing.

curly haired boy

man, i'd like to join in, but i actually love my backlog. it lets me wait for new games to drop massively in price before buying them. ;D

guar

Before converting my backlog over to PHP with an actual database tracking everything, I had around 150 games left to complete.

RainbowDespair wrote: »

I'd be willing to do something like this if we threw in an exception for birthday/Christmas presents.

This is a more reasonable approach. Something along the lines of n games for every m completed would also work. Unless you're completely dedicated, it would take a while to finish any backlog larger than, I don't know, 50 games.

Dehumanized

Okay, I've gotten my Backloggery page updated, and noted a cool feature on the site. If you go to the options, there's a "Fortune Cookie" page that give you a random game in your list to play, which you can limit to unfinished games. I've got my backlog pretty close to up-to-date, so I went ahead and drew three games to work on first, and set those as my now playing. When I finish a game, I'll draw another from the list. If I get too bored with my current three to continue, I'll axe the least fun one and draw another, counting the game as failed on my goals list.



Let the games commence!

baudattitude

I'll sign up for "no new games this year", because there's no way I can work through the entire backlog before roughly 2012, and that's only if I get rid of most of the PS1/PS2 RPGs unplayed.

I did manage to finish 39 games in a two month period, while only buying 9 more, which I was pretty happy about. Even managed to not buy any new games for 47 days straight, until the local stores started clearing out Rock Band 2 kits for cheap.

Shame about the 350ish still in the queue, even more shame with how many of them are long RPGs. I've been concentrating on the short titles, mostly action games, mahjong games and bullet hell shooters.

This is what happens when you play Everquest, and very little else, for 8 years, but don't stop buying new games in the meantime. Object lesson there.

Kaseius

This is what mine looks like:

I've finished about.. maybe 10 of these. Heh.

Star Stryke

I'd be up for this though I probably will buy new games, I've had my own challenge running for a couple months now to bring my backlog down to 50% beaten/completed. If your alright with that then add me as well, check the backloggery sig' for details on where its at and what I've worked through so far.

Unco-ordinated

I was keen to sign up just as good excuses to get through Persona 4, Okami, Dragon Quest V, FF IV and FFT but then I got to the 'not allowed to buy new games' part and had to back out. Ain't nothing stopping me from buying Dragon Age, Critter Crunch and Pixeljunk Shooter (not to mention Mass Effect 2 in january).

Lucascraft

This is a really good idea. Too bad my backlog is so huge that I've forgotten half of what's even on it.

Houn

Unco-ordinated wrote: »

I was keen to sign up just as good excuses to get through Persona 4, Okami, Dragon Quest V, FF IV and FFT but then I got to the 'not allowed to buy new games' part and had to back out. Ain't nothing stopping me from buying Dragon Age, Critter Crunch and Pixeljunk Shooter (not to mention Mass Effect 2 in january).

See, as much as I want those games, I'm forcing myself not to buy them. It will be all the sweeter when I finally hit the end and can do so.

Carcharodontosaurus

Steam has been especially cruel to me as far as my game backlog goes. It used to be about twice as long, but I've been whittling away at it for some time now. Regardless, here it is in all of its horrible glory.

Carcharodontosaurus' Backlog

Progress: 12 of 28 (43%)

Unfinished.
Finished.

PC
Beyond Good and Evil - Finish game.
Fallout: Tactics - Finish game.
Far Cry - Finish game.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto - Finish game.
Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Tribes of the East - Complete all campaigns and win ten games.
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders - Finish game.
Hexen - Finish game.
Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - Finish game.
Hexen 2 - Finish game.
Left 4 Dead - Get two thirds of the Achievements.
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader - Finish game.
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee - Finish game.
Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus - Finish game.
Overboard! - Finish game.
Painkiller - Finish game.
Penumbra: Overture - Finish game.
Penumbra: Black Plague - Finish game.
Penumbra: Requiem - Finish game.
Psychonauts - Finish game.
Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy - Win ten games.
Street Fighter IV - Get two thirds of the Achievements.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - Finish game.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - Finish game.
Tex Murphy: Mean Streets - Finish game.
Tex Murphy: Martian Memorandum - Finish game.
The Lost Vikings - Finish game.

PS2
Shadow of the Colossus - Finish game.
We Katamari - Finish game.

guar

I me some Kabuto. How far are you into that?

Raiden333

I have a fair backlog and would participate, but my friends would castrate me if I didn't buy Modern Warfare 2.

METAzraeL

THE METALOG
Progress: 2 of 33

unfinished
finished
currently working on

DS
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Phantasy Star 0

PC
AvP Gold
The Dig
Immortal Defense
The Void
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus
Oddworld: Abe's Odysee
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
LOOM
Machinarium


SNES
Secret of Mana
Super Metroid
Super Mario RPG

GBA
Final Fantasy VI

Dreamcast
Resident Evil: Code Veronica

360
Fallout 3
Condemned
Condemned 2
Crackdown
Lost Odyssey
Banjo Kazooie - Nuts and Bolts
Halo: ODST

oxbox
Chronicles of Riddick
Otogi
Silent Hill 2
Shenmue II
Jet Set Radio Future
Fatal Frame

Wii
Resident Evil 4
Little King's Story
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

GC
SSX3
Eternal Darkness
Baten Kaitos Origins

Carcharodontosaurus

guar wrote: »

I me some Kabuto. How far are you into that?

I'm up to the point when you first fight Sea Reaper Witches as the Meccs. Those Witches are very, very hard to kill.

It's a beautiful game though. Because it has no problem with Windows XP, I can push the graphics to the absolute maximum. It's pretty sweet.

Ketar

Frivolous text delete!

So, Title - current status; goal.

PC
Company of Heroes Gold - never played; complete campaign(s)
The Witcher - have not played past intro; complete story
Max Payne 2 - recent D2D sale purchase; complete story
Penumbra trilogy - Steam sale purchase, barely touched; complete all 3
Chronicles of Riddick Dark Athena - D2D sale purchase; complete story
Titan Quest Gold - D2D sale purchase; complete main + expansion
World In Conflict - D2D sale purchase; complete campaign
Sid Meier's Pirates! - D2D sale purchase; give it some significant playtime
NWN 2 - finished 20-25% of main campaign; complete
HL2 Ep1 - never played; complete; Finished
HL2 Ep2 - never played; complete; Finished
Evil Genius - Steam sale pick-up; complete at least one game
Medieval II: Total War - played, but not extensively; complete campaigns with at least 2 nations
Wallace and Gromit Eps 1-4 - never played; complete
Strong Bad Episode 4: Dangeresque 3 - 40% complete; finish
HoMM V - played 1 campaign 50%; complete all campaigns
Warlords Battlecry III - D2D sale purchase; complete campaign (?)
Drakensang - D2D sale purchase; complete story
Dragon Age: Origins - pre-ordered long before signing up for this challenge; complete story at least once


XBOX 360
Dead Rising - got about 50% through; finish main story
Red Faction Guerilla - played about 25%; finish main story
Bioshock - played about 20%; complete
Gears of War 2 - unplayed; complete
Halo 3 - barely touched; complete
Culdcept Saga - about 50% through; complete
The Darkness - unplayed; complete
Left 4 Dead 2 - Xmas gift; complete all campaigns + some achievements


PS3
Valkyria Chronicles - about 80% through; complete story and buy then complete DLC (please don't kill me, Rent)
GTA IV - about 50% through; complete story
Afrika - barely played; complete
Aquanaut's Holiday - barely played; complete
Resistance 2 - around 40% done; complete; story finished
Killzone 2 - single-player untouched; complete; Campaign completed, some MP played
Batman Arkham Asylum - 75% or so done; complete story, work on challenge rooms more; Story completed, satisfied with challenge room progress
Uncharted 1 - completed on Normal; Platinum
Uncharted 2 - completed on Normal; Platinum + play a ton of multiplayer
RB2 + BRB + LRB - play these a shit-ton already; work on some trophies rather than just RB parties for fun; LRB, BRB done
Infamous - 60-70% completed; finish story; Story completed and goodly # of trophies obtained
Dead Space - 50% completed; finish story; story completed, over 50% of trophies finished
Fallout 3 - barely past the initial Vault; finish main story
Saints Row 2 - untouched; complete story
MGS4 - unplayed; complete story
Ratched & Clank Future: ToD - unplayed; complete story
SingStar - party game played regularly with friends; practice solo and work on some trophies; happy with practice and trophies earned, largely done with this outside of parties
Tekken 6 - bought as a party game; finish story mode with at least half the characters; Platinumed
Pure - just purchased, unplayed; no clue what my goal is
Borderlands - en route; complete 2 play-throughs; 1 play-through completed, all solo trophies save lvl 40 & lvl 50 obtained
God of War HD - Xmas gift; complete story
God of War 2 HD - Xmas gift; complete story
Buzz Quiz World - Xmas gift; party game, so just grab a bunch of trophies
Modern Warfare 2 - Xmas gift, campaign done on normal; complete on Veteran, finish Spec Ops


PS3 PSN
Shatter - main complete; complete bonus modes, attempt last few trophies; Could not care less about the few trophies now remaining.
Final Fantasy Crystal Defenders - partially played; complete remaining maps, acquire trophies
Savage Harvest - 40% done; complete, work on trophies
Critter Crunch - new, barely touched; complete Adventure mode, other modes possibly, work on trophies; done for backlog purposes
PixelJunk Monsters - 20% complete; finish, work on trophies
Fat Princess - played a bit; complete, get some multi-player in

PS2
Shadow of the Colossus - unplayed; complete (yes, I am a bad person.)
Metal Gear Solid 3 - cannot even remember anymore; complete game


14/69 at this time

guar

Carcharodontosaurus wrote: »

guar wrote: »

I me some Kabuto. How far are you into that?

I'm up to the point when you first fight Sea Reaper Witches as the Meccs. Those Witches are very, very hard to kill.

It's a beautiful game though. Because it has no problem with Windows XP, I can push the graphics to the absolute maximum. It's pretty sweet.

Do you remember where that is story-wise because I'm drawing a blank.

Carcharodontosaurus

I just looked up the mission name. It's Mecc Story 4: The Search for Timmy.

Alegis

I talk about and buy games more than I actually play them.

The thread assignment is pretty much impossible for me. Kudos to those who challenge their 'affliction'.

Houn

Op should be current with all participants thus far. Also, I added an exception for DLC to the rules.

pslong9

I'm in too. This idea of not buying any new games (I'm assuming gifts don't count) is something I'm doing right now anyway. I'm going to leave open-ended games (primarily sports games) off the list for now. I think this list is everything.

Wii
Little King's Story (FINISHED!)
ExciteTruck (goal - unlock everything)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (unfinished, finishing up 2nd chapter)
Opoona (played 10 minutes)
Rune Factory Frontier (put in many hours, but got tired of Runey system... this game may get dropped entirely)
Zack & Wiki (got to a point where puzzles just stopped making sense to me - mostly done)
Super Mario Galaxy (beaten Bowser, but want to get to 120 stars)

DS
Chrono Trigger (FINISHED!)
Elite Beat Agents (FINISHED!)
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (FINISHED!)
Meteos (FINISHED!)
Mighty Flip Champs (FINISHED!)
ArtStyle: BoxLife (played a few levels, don't really like it)

GameCube
Baten Kaitos Origins (started awhile ago)

Virtual Console
Super Mario World (FINISHED!)
Super Mario 64 (haven't started)
StarTropics (started a long time ago, need to finish)

PC
Fallout 3 (played a few hours)
King's Bounty (FINISHED!)
X-Com (in the middle of a game)
Braid (FINISHED!)
Half-Life 2 and episodes (partially through main game)
Bioshock (haven't started)
Psychonauts (bought, haven't even installed)
Baldur's Gate 2 (ditto)
Plants vs Zombies (Mostly finished - only Survival mode left, but I'm calling it done!)

Fig-D

I'll consider joining the challenge at some point, but right now I'm trying to sort my backlog into two groups: games I have a genuine interest in playing/beating vs games that I bought but have no desire to finish. I have quite a few games that I look at and just think to myself "I don't care."

mere_immortal

I would be all over this, but there are just too many awesome games coming out in the next few months to commit.

Kristmas Kthulhu

This is a sweet idea. I just have to write my backlog down, and then I'll post it.

Tim James

You don't really need to keep yourself from buying new games. There are other fundamentals to work on.

Buy games that fit into your plan, rather than jumping on every sale. Frequent digital distribution bargains seem to be the new reality so you'll always have another chance at a sale, plus used games aren't going away.

Don't buy into the hype. If you can avoid day one purchases you'll limit yourself to games that stand the test of time. Remember that good is the enemy of great, and the latest bland AAA open-world third person shooter might be stimulating but will never live up to some of the epic classics from this decade.

Play games in parallel. I normally have something from every genre going at once. It keeps things moving. (Ignore my backloggery page right now, since I'm trying to crank through a bunch of indie and freeware games at the moment.)

Try to avoid multiplayer, unless it's a co-op game with a defined end or you can limit yourself. Remember that the depth of multiplayer games is very stimulating, but there's a lot of joy out there if you commit to breadth as well. I could still be playing Company of Heroes every day or -- God forbid -- an MMO, but I'd miss out on STALKER or FreeSpace 2. Everybody needs to spend a few years really diving into the multiplayer experience, but if you've been doing that for a decade then you can always tell yourself to move on if your backlog is important to you.

CoJoeTheLawyer

Alegis wrote: »

I think about games more than I actually play them.

The thread assignment is pretty much impossible for me. Kudos to those who challenge their 'affliction'.

Fixed that for me.

Actually, I have a fairly decent backlog of games I "want" to play again/complete in theory, but in stark reality, I doubt I'll get around to doing it...ever, so no, I'm not joining in.

Dodge Aspen

Yeah being married and a father means I won't ever get through my backlog. It's not that bad, though. The Wii's Virtual Console is the main reason for my inability to stay up to date. I've recently acquired Secret of Mana, Super Punch-Out!! and Mario RPG. Those 3 alone would take me a year to get through.

Other than that I have Madworld, Wii Sports Resort and Wario Land Shake for Wii.

There's Batman Arkham Asylum for Xbox 360, and a few achievments I'd like to tackle in Shadow Complex.

I do plan to purchase New Super Mario Bros Wii and The Ballad of Gay Tony next month, and will get Bowser's Inside Story and Brutal Legend for Christmas.

If I didn't have a child, I would be able to do it. You won't hear me complain, though. 8-)

Lunker

Oh, man, I just updated my Backloggery info recently, specifically because I'm instating a new-games embargo as well. Though that's mostly because I need to get my finances in order for grad school, which means my game budget will be virtually zero. On that note: Would people be interested in using Backloggery for this purpose? And more important: Does anyone here want to be Backloggery buddies? I need a support group for my habits!

I don't know if I can join the challenge 100 percent, because I do want to include a personal caveat: I'll allow myself to receive new games for Christmas and birthday presents, but aside from that I'll not be spending any new money until I make huge progress in my backlog. Could I be included on a technicality, pretty please?