I have TOO MANY video games! How you fight your backlog?

Have no advice because I know I have a problem and buy too many games.

But hey, if I ever have no money I'll at least have plenty of games to play?

But I look at it this way, as long as I am not so bad about buying games that it interferes with my ability to pay the bills, rent and buy food, who cares? It is my money and I can do as I wish with it and I'm having fun with the games I have been able to play.

Though what does help to at least get some good progress going is to try and work on some shorter games alongside longer games. I tend to buy longer games on my consoles and handhelds and my short games on Steam. I then chip away little by little at the longer games as I complete short games. That way I get a nice variety in what I'm playing. Like right now I'm working on P4G on my Vita and 3 Stars of Destiny on Steam which is a shorter RPG. I'm having a blast with both of them. I also have been slowly chipping away at BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger on my 360 trying to get the rest of the achievements in it, since I prefer fighting games in smaller doses. What matters is that progress is being made in them.

I solve this by only playing tf2 and idling other games for cards, and just keep buying and buying. :) To answer your question you can't, because you already lost.

I stopped fighting it ages ago. Steam's just a fraction of what I own (games for a wide range of consoles/handhelds, PC games from other distributors/CDs/DVDs/even floppies, etc). Personally, I don't see something that provides some level of enjoyment (even just collecting and knowing you could be playing that lol) and isn't hurting you financially as a bad thing (if you're losing meals over it, that is a problem). The way I see it, life can suck enough as it is; why purposely take away something that brings joy?

I think it's fun to look over my shelves, both physical and digital, and find something I forgot about or spin a virtual roulette to surprise myself. I know I won't get to finish or even play all of them, but since they're not hurting anything, it's not bothering me, and being able to freely try something new after a bad day's been a great stress reliever for me.

But if it's not enjoyable to you, you could try to deter yourself. Disconnect credit/bank cards, remove yourself from anything alerting you to sales or bundles... considering the gaming industry and communities though, it'd be awfully hard to avoid an advertisement or conversation that reminds you you wanted something. Ultimately, the only thing that can stop you from buying is you.

Playfire Rewards has incentivised playing a few of my games I may not otherwise have tried, but I'm also a member of a group that reviews games we complete from our backlog. I try to complete at least 1 a month.
There will still be hundreds of games untouched in my library though.

Same problem for me, I'm now in a Steam Group to fight the backlogs, but mine is still increasing thanks to that damn PS+ and Steam Sales.

I have many games as well; physical, digital; PC and console games... Some of them aren't worth to play so much. Some of them... i couldn't like them, even they are real AAA.

If you don't play a game even if you have a time, that game isn't so fun for you, as i observed. For example i'm still playing Metal Gear Rising, already completed it but somehow i liked it so much. Also time by time i play Metal Gear Solid 2. Skyrim is another story, when i start to play; i spend my hours without playing any other games.

Also if you have many games, you have many choices. Sometimes i don't want to play serious games, so i play casual ones. Or if i want to play action games but don't want to run and gun, playing stealth games or slower ones. Bored to play ordinary genres? Playing billards.

Like i said before, since you can't like all of games or not all of games are even good, collecting them isn't a problem imho. I'm doing it as well. I obtained 15+ games in last two weeks (mostly bundles) but it doesn't mean that i have to play and finish them. Right? ;)

I know that I will never play most of my games. The step I'm going to take very soon is to buy a Windows tablet (the ASUS VivoTab Note 8), which I plan to use for games (mainly adventure games, which are a favourite genre of mine). I rarely sit by my home PC, so hopefully having a mobile gaming device will let me play some games. Now I only need to find some time to go and buy it.

Clear one thing at a time ?

Hehehe.

I dont invest much into gaming,i mainly buy games at humble bundle.
Then again,i didnt buy last 3 bundles,cause there is no game i would like to play.
So its not about getting anything for 1$.

But,when there is a game in bundle i want,then i buy the whole bundle.
For instance,last HB i got was the one with Typing dead in it,i thought it was cool game,almost bought it when it was on 10$ discount on GMG,and then HB showed with its 6$ price tag.
I didnt play any other game from that bundle except typing of the dead,and i probbably never will,unless i go ahead with some backlog fighting.

Oddly enough,the only game that is always fun for me to play is Dota2,which is a free game,and yet,i spent money here and there bying games that i might not even like.
Strange :)

I sort my games into categories (Favorites, achievements I still need to clear, unfinished games) and then go to the library "List view" which shows when I last played a game. Then I pick the one which ends up at the top. (for me, the one I haven't played in a long time). Then you wouldn't need to chose what to play and still pay attention to them all.

I don't. It just grows and has a life of it's own.
I buy games in bundles and at high discounts, so it doesn't hurt my pocket much. And what I buy I really intend to play (except of course some bundle games that just were in the package with the game I wanted). My backlog has two big benefits: 1. Even if game industry goes completely nuts, I still have nice selection to play for the rest of my life. 2. No matter what I'm in mood to play , I always have appropriate title and I have no reason whatsoever to spend money on new expensive AAA titles.
Also, with recent disappearances of older games from distrubution due to some legal issues, I try to acquire my pearls before they're gone.

I get through my backlog using mainly two categories: Junk and Finished. Finished games are ones where I've gotten to wherever I've wanted to get, not necessarily finished hard mode or all achievements etc. but gotten a decent amount of play from. Junk are games that didn't pull me in very well or frustrated me to the point of abandoning them.

I try to keep "Favorites" for games that I've been playing recently and need that constant reminder to play. If I'm bored I might restrict my choices to what's in the Favorites list to avoid that "Too many options to choose from" feeling.

I have the same problem, I think alot of us share your pain.
What you could do, is look for someone who likes games and share your library with them, that way someone uses your library and you'll feel good about yourself because you're sharing. My little brother sometimes uses my games and when he does, he's the happiest kid :D

I used to set aside an hour when I got home at work to unwind and play a backlogged game (one at a time). Unfortunately I haven't had the time to set that aside lately (seems like I never have any time for the last few months) but I managed to squash a few games this way. The problem with this method is that longer games drag on for weeks. Any nights where I have a larger block of time I tend to play multiplayer games (mostly L4D2) with friends so that uses up that time. I might have to just start forcing myself to play the backlogged games instead but I dunno.

Over time I've just learned to accept that I'm not going to play all the games, and be OK with that. I focus on the ones I really want to play right now. I also tell myself it's OK not to complete a game, which for me was a hard thing to let go.

I usually end up playing games I've already played before, because I already know they're great games, so I know exactly what to expect. I still play games I haven't tried before, but rarely for long periods at a time.

Being sick can really help. When you can't sleep because your nose is running or you're coughing your lungs out, that's a good opportunity to play a relaxing game. I got through Macguffin's Curse to a point where I got tired of it and through much of Defender's Quest during a recent disease.

I switch to Grid view and start scrolling through the list until something catches my eye. Then I install whatever that is and play it.

Never beaten a single steam game. I have 125

find a job you can play games in your office. i mostly playing games between 10am-5pm.
my income little bit lesser then supposed to be (hardly %10-15 less) but still my free time way more valuable then more income for me.

The worst thing I do is buy a game, play it for a bit, and then go back to an older game I've always played and knowing how much I enjoy that one, keep on playing that one instead of actually going to a new game. I haven't beaten AC 4 or Splinter Cell Blacklist because I've been busy playing back over LA Noire and Grand Theft Auto.

I'm finally working out my backlog XD It's gonna take awhile, but i'm feeling pretty set in my ways of not buying anymore until I beat this shit now. I'll buy games I get with trading card income.