How do y'all handle your backlogs?

[dakooldood]

I'm someone who tries to get enjoyment out of games, because I know it's easy to get sucked up in trying to clear the backlog. However, I still have a somewhat systematic approach to finishing games. This is partially because I want to be fully immersed in a game and not worry about anything else while I'm playing, and partially because I'm neurotic about that sort of thing. I only allow myself to play 1 game per console at a time, with the exception of PC. I try to keep PC down to 2 games at a time. 1 game online and 1 offline, because I like to be able to hunt for achievements and stuff, and that's very hit or miss when not connected to internet. Plus I do a lot of my gaming in between classes when I can't have a reliable internet connection. I was just curious if any of you all have a similar system to mine, or if I'm just crazy. 

[retromangia]

Nope, your not crazy.  The way you do it now is what I've always strived for.  I even went as far as making a list on my white board with the 2-3 games In playing just to try and stay focused.

Unfortunately it never works for me. After a week I kind of drift off onto anther game or stop playing games all together. With a combination of too many games, and life things to work on, games just never become a focus of mine.

It's time for me to thin the heard big time. As for you, keep up the great work 

[wartoy]

I try not to worry about it I play whatever im in the mood to play when im retired ill concentrate more on completing my must play before I die games.

[oldgamerz]

Genre sorting, I put all similar video games together so I know were to dig when I'm in the mood. If I don't I probably would not ever play anything because I would not know where to look, if everything was scattered,

I made a thread about this idea and only one other person confirmed that they do this and others posted that they sort alphabetically. In which some others also confessed to gazing at their game rooms, for an hour before finding something to play. I shuffle between games often I play them whenever I'm feeling up to the challenge

I do still have a big backlog but that is because I practice a lot before completing the challenges and have fun with them.

[kamikazekeeg]

I have a bajillion saved games from all the free stuff I get and with stuff like the Xbox Game Pass on PC, so I don't really consider having a notable backlog, because it would be literally dozens of games and its entirely unmanageable.  Like SNK just gave away like 6 of their games on Twitch Prime, I have so many due to Steam, Humble, Twitch, GoG, Epic, and other places lol

I usually play the games I really want to play no matter what, sometimes playing 2 or 3 games at a time but I always got some random thing around to toss on to see if I like it.  I get around to playing them in between the really big games, like I dumped 50+ hours into FF7 Remake, so I'll pick up something less involved to play like the crafting/survival games I brought up in my other post, because I can't usually go from like huge game to huge game to huge game.  My playstyle burns me out too much for that, so it's always nice to have some random game to play that I can just randomly pull out.

[Cartagia]

Poorly.

[azure]

Fetal position.

[emporerdragon]

I stare at it while it grows. When it got into the triple digits is when I realized that I'm a collector. Now, it's well into the quadruple digits.

As to how I work on it, I try to never have more than a few games being juggled at once, as otherwise, it's too easy to drop them and not pick them back up.
I divide them typically like so:

1 Core game, the main one I'm playing.
1-2 grinds, games where I'm either on clean up or grinding out a farther out goal.
1-2 multiplayer or old favorites, games that I can keep coming back to for a bit of fun.

So, right now this would look like for me:
Core: Lego Harry Potter Collection
Grinds: Bloons TD 5, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
Mp/Classics: Team Fortress 2, Civilization (III or IV)

Of course, the backlog still grows faster than I can work on it because I find myself drawn to games that take 50+ hours to finish (Hell, I've gotten all the achievements for Skyrim on 3 different systems now).

[oldgamerz]

I think that everyone who has video games should play them sometime, you won't live forever anyway.  I don't collect the same game for multiple platforms  unless it's an entirely different game. An example of this would be

"Call Of Duty 2" for Xbox360 vs "Call Of Duty 2:Big red One." for the PlayStation 2 and also

"Call Of Duty World At War" for the Xbox360 VS Call Of Duty World At War: Final Fronts For The PlayStation 2

[ignition365]

:shrug:

I play what I want largely.  I try to have 1 console game and 1 handheld game at the same time, so I can pick based on how I want to play.  Like right now I'm playing Clannad on Switch and Neutopia II on TG-16.  But I also tend to throw in an X1 game of some kind that I will super slow play so I can earn achievements every couple of weeks to maintain Xbox Rewards weekly status.

I also tend to try to do at least 1 franchise run per year, usually winds up 2 franchise runs per year.  I generally try to pick a franchise I've never touched before, but have always wanted to play, and run through all available games... sometimes I pick a franchise that I've played an entry or two with the goal of finishing the franchise.  This year I picked Devil May Cry and Resident Evil.  Never played a DMC game before and burned through all but DMC5, I need to get back to it.  Played Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, 4, and 5 previously, and this year I've played 3, 6, and Revelations 1 and 2.  Going to try and make an effort to get through 7 and Code Veronica X, and possibly make an effort to play some of the other titles like Survivor, Dead Aim, and Outbreak Files.

Some franchises are just too much for a franchise run in one year, so Dragon Quest for instance has been a slow franchise run where I'll play through a game when I get the chance.  I think I've played all but 1, 2, 3, and 8 (entirely excluding 10).  I might actually give 8 another go after I finish Clannad, my 3DS has been sitting on the charger for literally years (Late 2017) in standby mode with this game paused because I got angry and stopped playing it.  When I've finished the last of the DQ games, I've been pondering running through the Persona games.

[oldgamerz]

Just have fun while playing a game, don't beat them like you have pressure, I am currently playing mostly racing games now, so I don't rush through the game just to beat it. I try to take in one game as much as possible, I have multiple games I'm playing lately, and beaten none of them. but I'm makeing and effort to use these things I bought and I don't feel the need to stare at my collection, I just goto whatever I'm currently in the mood for, heck most of the games I played latly have no ending.

[bikingjahuty]

I've resigned to the fact that my backlog will always exists and I'll likely not complete it in my lifetime. Still, that doesn't stop me from trying to get through it and at least for when that time comes I hope I've made it through the vast majority of games I own.

[kashell]

I trim the fat every now and then. It helps. Kinda.

[baileykun]

I try to keep track of my to dos on a spreadsheets, but mostly I play what I feel like. I also don't really limit titles because I play a lot of long or endless sort of games. So I want to get up and play animal crossing in the morning on my switch, but play something else in the evening. I just accept my backlog, finishing everything in one sitting and dedicating myself is rough, especially since I sometimes take breaks after getting a number of endings or the like. It's hard to decide when some games are done.

[turf]

It’s just like my ole gran-pappy used to say, “Just like eatin an elephant. One bite at a time. “

That’s not true. I never called anyone “granpappy”.

I treat it like a library, not work. Play what you want when you want. If you get sick of a game, put it on the shelf. If you want to replay something, pop it in. This is one place in my life that I don’t care about order. I don’t have a plan. I just do what feels good.