The Gaming Backlog Issue
Too many games, too little time
This is an issue that everybody, including everyone reading this article and everyone you know has:
“My Gaming Backlog is too Big!”
Ask the average gamer how many games they are playing right now and they’ll most likely say they probably have several years worth of games piled up in their backlog to play.
Back when I was growing up with the NES, there were still tons of games to play, but my parents would only have enough money to buy me one game for my birthday and Christmas. So, when you got a new game, you were playing that game for months or possibly years since you couldn’t afford every new game that came out.
Since games in the NES and SNES era were super expensive, I would also resort to borrowing games from friends and renting games from Blockbuster or Ma’ and Pa’ Game Shops. I even saved up my allowance and money my grandma and aunts would give me to buy new games, but I obviously couldn’t buy every new one.
By the time the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were out when I was in high school, I got my first paying job. However, after taxes, my small part time bi-weekly paychecks were still not enough to purchase every game that came out. Luckily, games like Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Tactics, Zelda Ocarina of Time, and more were long enough to keep me occupied so I wouldn’t have the urge to buy every new game.
In the fall of 1999, I moved out of my parent’s house and had to fend for myself out in the world, not realizing how different my financial and time priorities would shift. I would be restricted from buying every new game knowing I had to emphasize on spending more money on rent and food. I remember barely being able to save enough from my part time day job for my Dreamcast and Resident Evil Code Veronica in 2000. Games like Resident Evil Code Veronica and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 were enough to entertain me and I also had other activities like my Dragon Ball Z website and Anime Music Videos to split my time rather than spending all of my money on games.
Fast Forward to now at the current date of this post and I’m a working adult who’s paid enough from my day job to cover rent, food, expenses, and a few games per month.
However, my backlog is now bigger than ever.
Over the years, alot of older games from decades past have gotten cheaper, making it way easier to purchase a ton in a bundle and other discounts. Several games that are only a year old and less tend to go on massive discounts months, or even weeks after they are released, making them easier to pickup.
Games are also much larger and longer, taking up to more than 8-40+ hours to complete and are coming out at a rapid pace, making it difficult to keep up with them all. When the average gamer finishes a long 40+ hour RPG, several more of them come out in that timespan.
Most adult gamers also have other priorities like working, taking care of their families, and doing other things aside from gaming. Aside from working a day job and playing games, I spend some time exercising, doing my daily chores, watching movies and TV, and prepping up meals. I also create games myself, run another business venture, a YouTube channel, several websites, and this blog. Most of my gaming time is spent at night after dinner or when I take short breaks in the day and play in 30 minute bursts.
In all honesty, I have games even back from the NES and the Atari era that are still in my backlog and may never get around to playing. I confess I still haven’t played Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers 2, Little Samson, or the NES Flintstones games that I always wanted to play back in the day. I can easily load them up on emulators and flash carts, but dedicating the time to actually play them has been difficult.
Even if you were a multimillionaire and just played games all day, you still wouldn’t be able to get to them all due to the large amount of games that are available and the varying length of games in general. While game development and scope in general have become much larger over the years, the rate of games coming out due to the advancements in technology has also increased dramatically.
I’m sure there have been so many times when a game you want comes out, several other games you want also come out within that timespan. I used to pick up so many games during Steam Sales, Black Friday, and other platform events where I would get like 25+ games for under $100 and I still haven’t gotten to them all.
Everyone’s situation is different, but the overlying scenario is still the same:
There are too many games out and not enough time to play them all.
I don’t really have any advice as I’ve been struggling with this all my life, but if I were to give any, just prioritize the games you really want to play and play them for whatever length that keeps you happy. You don’t always have to finish each game or get every single secret. If you feel your time has been well spent, that’s what matters the most. You can always go back and resume a game later. I did this with both Cyberpunk 2077 and Avowed as I started both when they were new, but wasn’t able to finish them till years or months later, and still enjoyed them to their fullest.
Best of luck on your backlogs!