Overwhelming Game Catalogs

That's why we have: BLAEO.

Streaming helps me a bit to add some accountability to complete the good games, but I don't achievement hunt often, and I only 100% a spare few titles.

This happens to me so often that I'm constantly changing my strategy as to how to tackle my backlog... or just bring myself to play games at all.
Currently I'm allowing myself to be lazy and I'm just either playing remasters of things I like or replaying games I know I love, because otherwise I probably would have played nothing so far this year. Another thing I usually do is that if I get in the mood to play a specific genre I'll just indulge on that and attempt to keep the ball rolling for months, last year it was with point and click adventure games and hidden object games, and given that I technically started in 2022 I think I finished at least a couple dozen of those if you count the ones I played on my phone.

I don't know if this helps, but for me it's satisfying to play and quickly finish small games, so that I can mark them and completed and thus reduce my backlog.

I mean, sure, the big bois like Witcher 3, BG:1, F:NV keep sitting there, unplayed, but it feels like I'm making progress.

I had thoughts like this before, but I dealt with this dilemma in the following way:
1) I buy games that I once played simply to support the developers (For example, all the games in the Fallout and Mass Effect series). I have never launched them on Steam.
2) I only buy games on discounts and mostly buy games:

• from indie developers
• Designed for solo playthrough
• With an interesting visual style or gameplay.
• 18+ games.

3) I never buy or play games with loot boxes or other risky mechanics. This is a principled position.

And I perceive the SteamGifts site itself as a pleasant hobby or a club of interests in which sometimes I can win games that I would never buy and there is an opportunity to donate extra keys to games.

I see my collection as a kind of charity; thanks to my purchases, talented people will be able to continue their creativity and make the world a better place.

I dont care anymore for things like completion and such, and for me in particular its been better.
We dont own games any thing, nor anyone- their main if not sole purpose is our enjoyment, a little destressing escapade of the daily grind. They can be enriching and much more but all that is a plus. 'Did i had a good time?' its all that really matters (and matters most)

Sure some people find extra enjoyment from completion itself, or collecting, or 100%... but frankly id guess the majority do so more out of other reasons then actual enjoyment. Ive read comments from completionists and such like title x or y was a drag or whatever... anyway, i dont know if thats your case but unless that really gets to you i wouldnt bother as much. Weight in- is completing a game (or x particular game) such a feel good reward for you that outweights the commitment? If/when yes go for it, if not questions yourself.

Once i stopped caring so much about completion and such i found myself enjoying things more- i learned my taste kinda shifts like my mood and matching the mood i have more fun. Sometimes i feel like button mashing on a controller, others more slow paced, or i want a good story etc.

Steam notes in particular made it easier for me to pause story games without much fear of getting lost when coming back. I write more or less where im leaving things off - like a recap in case it takes me awhile to come back... and done. Feels just like when i have to wait for new seasons of a show to release.

That removed the 'time to beat' factor of my indecision hurdle...
that said i still get decision fatigue, just like getting on netflix and spending way too long before starting anything.

I dont know if that 'issue' can ever trully be removed- sheer availability does that.
What ive been doing is if i notice im starting to take long blind starting something i havent ever played yet - like 'okay, taking too long, what am i seeing i havent played yet?' and clicking the first one

Theres also an online tool (if not more then one) that was made for picking a random steam game from your library to show you, from all or unplayed... but i dont remenber the name or link

I do however use a local alternative- Playnite. Playnite is like a launcher for any games/exes between launchers (i use it to have steam, gog, epic, itch and such all together), and it have plugins. Theres one that pops up a random game and you can just reroll.

...But theres an easier way via steam itself. On your library setup a shelf to be 'play next'. Thats steam own random selection thing- it makes a row of SEMI random games everytime you launch steam- apparently an algorithm based on what you last played or played more +other players with similar tastes most played games +unplayed. Its good too.

BLAEO is a nice group to help with that.

But I think the number one thing you can do is assign a cut off date. A line in the sand so to speak. Hide any game acquired before the date you assign. Maybe you remove a game from 'hidden' if you realize you want to play it, but otherwise, just play the games you acquired after your assigned date and try not to acquire any games moving forward that you don't intend to play soon after. It'll make deciding on a game to play much easier.

And after playing a longer game, play a bunch of short titles. Go back and forth like that. It helps.

I don't start a new game unless I'm done with the one I'm already playing.

So many games and yet when I have time for gaming, I realize I have nothing to play

I've found that focusing on only one game to beat at a time helps a lot. Of course I'll try out a bunch of games before deciding which game is the one I'll dedicate my time to, but once I play it I plan to finish it. Currently that game is Soulstone Survivors and I'm close to 100%ing it, my next game should be Horizon Forbidden West.

Yeah. I've signed up for BLAEO, but my library still overwhelms me. So much to play, so little freetime.

Here, me. Pretty much like you, just playing barely anything until very recently. 500 hours into Forza Horizon in 98 days and I've not played anything from the second expansion yet. Some days I have fun, some days I have frustration, some days it feels like a chore.

There are various "Play" events on SteamGifts that encourage users to play and beat their games. They've helped me chip away at my backlog in a fun way over the past year. Maybe they'll help you find the motivation and focus you need :)

Play a game you won on SteamGifts
Play or Pay
Monthly in a month

I don't even have that many games, mind you, all my games are sorted into various collections, including 2P, AAA, BIG NEW START, CLASSICS, FINISHED, GAMES, INSTALL, LAUNCH, ONLINE MP, START and WANNA PLAY (and more over time) so I have a fairly good idea of backlog assasination situation but then it comes down to choice....

Beat 6 big games in Jan, Disciples Liberation (Edit: 91 hours) took more than a month in Feb and March, lots of rally games career mode, Battlefield 3 campaign, 10+ hours of Project Highrise, tried my Portal pinball table, rage-quit on State of Decay, did a Hellcome Playtest, beat Half-life 1 campaign (we're in April now), 100% The Ramp, Road Redemption doesn't work and then about 15 hours of Rocket Laague....

(Edit: The reason I lay it out like this is because it shows the context of objectively how little you achieve with a massive effort, I mean I played a lot and enjoyed what I played, but return-on-investment of backlog clearance is pretty low even with effort.)

There are two lessons: It helps to have a co-ordinated disciplined approach action plan, furthered by ensuring you pick things you actually enjoy and/or have motivation for. The second lesson is what you said already.... People are 'collecting' and not playing. As it stand I have about ten 'AAA' games on backlog, and then about 50-60 indie titles and then the the rest also easily another 50-100 random games to go, but I'm frozen for choice currently mostly based on my motivation (which is why ive been on Rocket League)

Its easy to be guilted into saying you don't appreciate the games you have because you're not playing, although I feel people are wasting money on games they're never gonna play sometimes, but more than that I feel its not something that should be held against you, being judged by your peers etc especially for me who has made a strong concerted effort. But the hype for 'building rapport' as a gamer dies down over time and eventually you fall back into busying yourself with the things you love.... There's a lot more existential things I think about gaming as well, but that's a topic for another day.

I used to have the same issue but a few years ago it was like a switch finally flipped and changed my perspective of this. Even though I knew in theory that gaming is a hobby that is meant to be fun I used to stress over the backlog, completion, trying the new hot thing etc. but somewhere along the way it was like the theory finally got internalized and now I feel my relationship with the hobby is much healthier than it used to be. As long as a game is fun for me now it doesn't matter if I stay with it for 20 hours or 200, nor do I stress over finishing them anymore. If it is not a source of enjoyment it can just go into the unfinished pile and maybe someday when I feel like trying it again I'll dig it back up, maybe not.

I still do get choice paralysis when I'm between games though. There are a couple things that have helped me with this.
Firstly, I organised my library into categories in degrees of interest. That way when I want to pick a game I don't have to scroll through tons of games but instead I go through a couple of high interest categories with a much more limited selection. Depending on library size you could just make a couple of those, i.e. a Very Interested and a Somewhat Interested category and just add the games you want to them while ignoring everything else.
Secondly, although they have been mentioned already, things like BLAEO and Play or Pay can also help nudge you in a direction when you can't make a choice yourself.
Lastly, I generally avoid trying to pick an individual game straight away. Instead I go step by step and first try to define what general vibe I'm in the mood for. Do I want something more involved, something more action packed, something more story oriented, a management type of game I can semi afk in? That sort of thing. Then once I have a better grasp on what kind of game I'm in the mood for I'll start looking at individual titles. I've generally found that skipping that step and jumping straight into a title that I either "scheduled" in advance or everyone is playing or any other reason is often a title I drop because I picked it up at the wrong time and I wasn't able to enjoy it as I would at some other point.

I suggest using Playnite with some extensions. Playnite allows one to import their various libraries (Steam, GOG, Epic, Ubisoft, EA, etc.) and launch them from one central application. First extension to install is Duplicate Hider for games owned on multiple storefronts. Next I suggest Start Page which allows the creation of a custom layout that can be shown when first opening the app. My layout shows 3 recently added games, 3 recently released, all of my installed games, and a list of random unplayed games, with a refresh button to get a new batch of random unplayed games. Last is the Play Next extension, where you can set various parameters and their importance and you will be given a lost of suggested games based on the games you've played and the parameters you've set. I didn't really care for Play Next so I uninstalled it, but your experience could be better than mine. I found the suggestions mostly unappealing and I was already finding games on my Start Page. There was another extension similar to Play Next but I don't remember the name and I also uninstalled that one.

Absolutely get decision fatigue. I can relate pretty hard with your comment on My Time at Sandrock too. I played like 50 hours of it before feeling fatigued since it felt like I wasn't progressing to the next "stage" of tools. I'll get back to it... someday when I'm less fatigued and more motivated.

There's a lot of good advice on here. One thing I'd contribute is I've been playing a lot of "smaller" or "quick" games to squeeze between longer game sessions like MTAS or in your case, BG3. Games that you can play a short run of and still make progress like Vampire Survivors/Halls of Torment etc. Could be something like clearing a few levels in a puzzle game or getting to that next level in Bejeweled. Or doing one or two levels in a retro FPS like Heretic or Doom 2. It's not fast progress, but it's progress and it helps just jumping right in.

There's also nothing wrong with forgoing backlog progress for a bit and replaying a game you like. Maybe you'll catch something new or a spark will come back and you'll feel motivated to kick that backlog's butt.

Sorting the games into play length categories might be helpful- long, medium and short games.

• You can try setting a goal of playing 2-3 games a month. If you need a break, maybe just do 1 game in the month if it is a longer game.

• For SG events, I participate in the Monthly play a game you won on Steamgifts month.

• In general, if I don't enjoy the game, I pause and come back to it later. I like to alternate between 2-3 games to reduce boredom and exhaustion. Another benefit is the game might release updates or a balance patch at a later time, adding new replayability to the game.

I start playing every game of mine for 3 hours. With this, I have a goal to reach.3 hours is around 1 play session. If the game moves me, I play more, if not, I start a new one. But I never finish a game just to finish it. That's a waste of precious gaming time.