Intermission - The Almighty Backlog

It's been almost a year and a half since I did one of these, and I forgot how cathartic it was to go through and scrub a list of games that I'm never going to play. It's a weird and somewhat sad reality that I'm happier to write off more games than I play. Every game that slightly interests me that comes out which is a 6 or 7 sends a sigh of relief, rather than a moan of disappointment. It's a reality in which I question whether I should move 90% of this backlog to "Moved On", skip to the part where I just play new games and than occasionally pull something from that folder in the dull moments. I started this in January 2020 and as I quickly approach year 5 I realise how far off my goal I am. "If I finished one of these 1-6 hour experiences a week it would take me 3 years to complete 85% of my steam library." is what I wrote in my original post when I started on this journey. Originally I had 186 games finished (including 60 indies). On Steam this now sits at 275. This seems like an abysmal improvement in 4.5 years at only 99 games; but when you factor in games played on PlayStation this figure comes out better at at 334; a little shy of double where we started. Even so 1.5 years after my original due date we're still under half way towards the original goal. It's also worth noting there are 230 games on Steam and 30 on PlayStation to finish. 500-334-260 leaves us with an additional 94 games from when we started (Unfortunately I may have gotten caught in the Humble craze again after fixing my PC; breaking some hard rules). Easily making this the Steam 600. In addition to this "Moved On" has increased from 67 to 97. In my defence, many of these games were a monumental task; with a big focus on large PC centric games over smaller indie games in anticipation for the indie machine that is the Steamdeck. That being said I think I'll need to refresh some of the rules I gave my self when I started this journey to get myself back on track, and provide some fail state conditions. 

1. 1 game per week - By Jan 2025 we'll be at 260 weeks. At 148 games finished I'll need to finish 102 games in 26 weeks. While seemingly so, it's not impossible. At my current pace I'll need to finish four games a week with 4-5 hours playtime. Considering at least half my indie backlog falls into that this is achievable even if incredibly unlikely. 
2. PlayStation games will be mentioned here as well - this rule is becoming less relevant now that I have a Steam deck. The original purpose was "some games are better on the TV, couch with a controller" especially after work. The Steamdeck, bluetooth and a dock negates this entirely. The games I sought out on the PS I now play on Steam due to the sheer utility of the platform, deck and PC. Now I'm still going to count any PS games I play but I foresee this being a dying breed of games relegated to exclusives and a backlog of 30ish games. 
3. Can only purchase a new game if I intend to play and finish it then - and only bimonthly - I moved away from this one for a while but after realising what I'd done I've been thoroughly on course this year. SteamWorld Quest, Shadow Warrior 3, Helldivers 2, Lethal Company and a major exception for BG3 are all the new games I've bought in the last 8 months. That's bi-monthly. 

There were a few rules I noticed almost entirely redundant. "This is about having fun - if I don't like it nor want to play it, it's moved on into Moved on (i.e. content)" with a "...minimum of 30 minutes to get a good sense of the game." After playing through Hector, a genre I have zero interest in, I realise I either I have a great sense of what games I'll enjoy or I can see the joy in every game I play; or a mix of both. The deck I'm sure helps a lot for plenty of games, but it's clear this rule is rarely applicable. As my library on Steam sits if I tip the 230 games into my 275 that's 505 games played, which would roughly be game 380. I'll refer back to this in January 2024, but if I'm not close to realigning these rules (260 games played) then I'm going to archive at least 100 games to bring me to the same backlog amount when we started. The plan will then pivot into the end goal of "play the games you want, and dive into the well during the lull moments". Eventually I'll reach game 500, which will take longer but I won't be running into the issue of creating secondary backlogs via my Wishlist and denying myself new experiences to play stuff only because it's on my backlog.