Handling your backlog

I'll go first. I'm currently using HowLongToBeat.

I like that it shows other peoples' times played on games as well as their ratings in addition to a brief description of each game. I dislike that it's fairly slow and lacks social features.

No idea if this is still live... You might be interested.

I have a kind of list "Games to play on vacations" where I add the games I'd like to play when I have free time. Most of the times Title X gets in the way and I play it despite it not being on the list :P

On steam, I have three categories "bullshit" "fun" "graphics", for bullshit, their games that i've played and I didn't like it. Fun because its fun, and graphics is for the games that are too graphically advanced for my pc or just a really shitty port that I will play once I upgrade my pc or get a new one.

The Backloggery

http://www.backloggery.com/

with the Steam library import tool

https://github.com/ToxicFrog/bltool

I used to use Backloggery but nowadays I use Darkadia. I just like its interface better.

I gave up, don't keep track of anything and keep buying more. If you don't remember what you bought last week, problem solved. :(

I've never tracked what games I've finished until someone told me they have finished 300 games... in their life. I was sure I finished more than than by far, but had no list, nothing... So I started writing them down, since the start of 2013, by using my Steam profile widget (custom). Now, it's not the most efficient thing, but it's in front of me so that makes it harder to forget to write down the game after I finish the campaign / equivalent mode. I've finished more than 50 games since then, which is not bad for an old man like me, who spends his time working and plays games actively maybe 2 months a year.

Funny story: A friend was telling me a while back he logged onto his Steam account to play something, got so overwhelmed by the many games in front of him, that he decided to shut Steam down altogether and play Hearts.

When I add a game to Steam I mark it as a favourite. I then pick one on my favourites list and play it for a bit, removing it from the favourites list after the first decent play session. I play the game till I'm done with it, then uninstall it and pick another game.

So basically:

• Favourites list: Games I haven't played
• Installed but not favourites: Games I'm playing through.

I use Backloggery

Only thing I dislike is that you have to manually add most of it. I have a tool to handle the Steam ones, but no such thing exists for the console and handheld games and other platforms on PC and Steam itself as a way to handle them doesn't help much when a good chunk of the backlog is on consoles. If I've earned an achievement in them Metagamerscore does track them, but that doesn't do much good for the ones I haven't even played yet.

I use Grouvee, it has a Steam library import tool and the creator is very open to any suggestions of things to add or improve the site. :)

You can create custom shelves in order to better organize your collection. Here's my profile for an example.

I use my Steam library to keep track of my games. I've got 10 categories, I have a category for games I want to get around to, but haven't yet. Problem is I'm generally a one game at a time player, and I've been playing Path of Exile for months now. Just today I've considered setting aside one day a week where I play a game that isn't in my "games with nearly infinite replayability that I'll probably never stop playing" category.

I don't count a lot of the bundle games-in most cases I got them because there was 1-2 games I wanted and it was cheaper to buy all of them. The rest just sort of came along for the ride.

As for my other backlog, I'm in an odd situation where the biggest hurdle for me is downloading the game and learning the controls. I tend to give up on games after the 10th time of stabbing when I meant to talk or walking into walls staring at my feet. Why does no one put the controls on screen anymore?

I don't use anything. I just add every game I want to beat to "favorites" in my Steam library.

I have a physical notepad that lists all the games i've beaten, the games i'm in the middle of beating, the games i've beaten and the games that have no endings cause they are multiplayer-only (i count them in since i have them, i might as well dust them off and play em.)

I sometimes give the games I bought from bundles a try but now I only buy bundles where I actually want the games so I do't end up with a huge backlog.

I tag it using Steam's category. "SP Not Played", "SP Finished", "MP + SP Finished" (Finished SP but also have MP)
Other non-steam game are mostly SP only and I can remember what game I've played (or decided to give up and move on)

Caulk up another for the backloggery. That makes sure I'm beating more than I'm buying and catagories in my Steam library help me pick whats next, what I'm playing , and what is finished but has multiplayer or is MP only.

You can handle my backlog any time, you filthy boy.

I have my library split up as so:

Play Again Someday - Games that I completed, but never playing them again just doesn't feel right.

Beaten Games and/or Done With - Games that I decided i'm done play or i've beaten and I decided to put them away in the closet forevers.

Can't Run on Laptop - Pretty self-explanatory. But games I can't run on my computer.

Games I'll Play eventually - Obviously my backlog, I'll get around to playing all those titles one of these days.

Games - Games that are installed on my computer and i'm currently working on beating or getting my pleasure out of it before I officially decide to either uninstall it and throw it back in my "Games I'll Play Eventually" folder or my "Beaten and/or Done With" folder.

I considered using a site, but I didn't feel like registering at yet another one. Besides, my needs are simple and a site doesn't help me track my non-Steam games any more conveniently than I can do myself (and I have plenty of those).

So I gathered all my non-Steam games, entered them in Steam (using a placeholder shortcuts if I hadn't downloaded them yet) and then categorized everything with the client:

• Casual (games for 5 minute breaks)
• Completed (games with a story component or that otherwise have a clear end, which you'd only replay on special occasions)
• Keep Going! (games I've started, liked and want to keep playing)
• Multiplayer
• Neverending (games that are too involved for casual play, but that cannot be "completed" either, like Civilization 5)
• Not Interested (games I've tried and didn't like, betas, versions for other platforms and other things I'm never going to run again)
• Unplayed (the big one).

My current project is to try an unplayed game for half an hour, every day, to at least see if I like it. I use a random draw to make sure I don't get bogged down choosing. Ironically, this is the most involved part, because the client doesn't number games -- I used a bit of scripting magic to extract the games from the client into Excel and have that sort the list at random, which is overkill but it works. If I had to do it again, I'd probably do it lower tech: pick a random letter from the alphabet, then draw a random game from the smaller set that remains, which requires no separate administration. But I digress.

There are 181 unplayed games left (from the 210 originally), so at the current pace I'll be done just before 2015 rolls around... but I hope to pick up the pace at some time. As a nice side effect, because I know I've currently got more games than I can even try out, let alone finish, I find it very easy to not buy any new games, because there's no point. Whatever I like will still be on sale six months later, and cheaper too.

I haven't decided yet what I'll do after I've tried out everything. Who knows, I might just enjoy myself playing whatever I like without feeling compelled to finish anything. :-)

I just put 5 or 6 games in my favourites and play them until I get sick of them when I move them to 'finished'.

I use nothing, because I don't track my games.
I like/dislike nothing, because I don't use something.