I clear my mind of the concept of a backlog, and embrace the idea that games are for my entertainment - thus if I am not currently feeling entertained, I can put the game down and not play it without guilt.

TL:DR; There is no backlog.

Simple, I don’t. I play whatever I feel like playing, sometimes I stick with it, sometimes I start again after a year and well sometimes, I never touch that game again.

I don’t have a backlog, I have a collection.

I’ll never clear it. Ever.

I do use Grouvee.com to keep track of it, and where I own all of my games. Otherwise, I’d end up accidentally buying 5 copies of the same game on five different storefronts.

Gave up on that a long time ago 🤣

These days I mostly just have a nebulous list in the back of my mind of what games I want to get to and when I finish one (which, the Steam Deck has been a huge help with focusing down one game at a time), I move along to the next.

Also, I started cataloging what I’ve played on Grouvee, which is as close as I was able to find to Goodreads for games. Helps to be able to go back and look over what I’ve “accomplished” in the list of completed games.

I just consider it a collection and not a backlog. Makes me feel a little better about all the $$ I’ve wasted.

I install all the games I have purchased but did not play. If I run out of storage, that absolutely means I shouldn’t purchase new games.

Luckily that hasn’t been the issue. Ever since doing this I’ve gone through my backlog and played a lot of games I had, and I’m close to being done. This summer sale will be my first time in a while to purchase a lot of games.

I recently finished two games I’ve had for years (God of War: Origins Collection, PS3). My process is to plan ahead, categorize my games by genre. When I’m in the mood for a genre, I’ll narrow them down to one game/series & play as much as I can. when I’m bored, I’ll move onto another genre, that way I’m not overwhelming myself with the same types of games. of course this means I have a lot of half-finished games as well. Try to finish games when you can before starting a new one. I often switch between long & short games to avoid monotony.

I don’t have a backlog, I have a lot of options what I might be playing next. There is no pressure to finish or even play any of them.

By not having a backlog in the first place.

I do have thousands of games on my library, but it’s a library. I only pick up the game I’m having an exact itch for, and I put them on hold until I get the itch again, exactly like I do with music albums.

No pressure, no rushing. I can recommend every single game from my library from firsthand experience because I’ve enjoyed every single second of my time playing them.

I install only two games: one AAA or long one, and one indie/short one. I choose on of the two per day depending on my mood, but I won’t install any other one until I finish them. It worked well so far, and it also helped with the limited storage the deck has (yes, playing mostly on deck, but I guess it helps no matter the setup)

It’s better to play a game you want then to think you need to play the game.

The game isn’t gone it just has to wait. Also don’t buy new games if you aren’t going to play them or play a hour and never return, that’s just wasting money and time

I have around 200 games that I’ve accumulated over the 15+ years I’ve had my steam account. Most of them came from summer sales over the years and weren’t played.

I bought a steamdeck a year ago and played more games since than I have in the decade prior. I think the convenience of the steamdeck + being able to play wherever I want is the biggest factor for me. I don’t play AAA games, so it works great for me.

I maintain a TODO list (with tags) on GoG Galaxy and a wishlist on Steam. Whenever I want to play something new, I scroll through the TODO list and usually find a few games that I feel like playing at that moment. I hit install on a few of them, and play whatever installs first. After an hour or two, I get a feeling about the game, and decide: finish or uninstall it and remove it from TODO, or just uninstall it for another time and leave it in TODO. I rarely finish a game and put it in favorites, which I often replay. I only buy things from wishlist, if that is really what I want to play or there is a big discount. I never pre-order and I never buy impulsively.

I don’t worry about finishing a game, just about having fun. If I try a game and I don’t have fun, I put it in the “Tried it” category and move on

If I spend more than 5 minutes trying to decide what to play, I use one of the Steam game pickers and just go with it.