Topic: Minions of Bak'laag

For those who haven't joined The Backloggery, you get a "Minion of Bak'laag" badge there if you have over 100 unfinished list games in your backlog.

tl;dr Too many games to play, not enough enthusiasm to play them. Discuss.

I've definitely started noticing "too many games"-itis lately. This particularly happened in the past few years with the rise of digital distribution. Very often I'll see a game go on sale (for example, The Witcher Enhanced Director's Cut was $4.99 at GOG and Mini Ninjas was a little over $6 on Steam yesterday) and buy it. What's happened over multiple years of game sales is I have literally hundreds of unfinished games to play and dwindling enthusiasm to complete them. I'm pretty sure there are others out there who have this same problem. It might have happened to some even before the rise of online game stores.

The worst part is that I know I want these games for sure. Most of them are games I'd been following before release, or ones that caught my eye a long time ago and finally went on sale. I intend to play them and hopefully complete them, and I'm excited about the idea of playing them. But now that I have this immense list of games on my backloggery (and my Steam game list, oh lawd) it's somehow quite daunting to even start playing one of them.

I guess my desire to play many games at once has dwindled. I've noticed I just tend to stick to one or two of my favourites. Even then, I haven't tended to finish them.

And still there are games I don't have which I want to get. Looking at my recent playing habits I'm not sure I'd even start them, let alone finish them. I recognise a big part of being a game consumer is anticipating new games, but with such a large set of games to play already it seems ridiculous to put even more on my plate.

When I think back to the previous generations of consoles, I remember buying games and playing the hell out of them with almost unwavering enthusiasm. Many of my older games I've proudly completed multiple times. Somehow I feel like either something is missing with games right now or my perspective on gaming has changed. It's likely the latter since I can't really pinpoint anything different about the current generation of games and past ones. I certainly don't feel that whole "too old for games" thing, because I still play games and I've never viewed them as childish or guilty pleasures. I'd still love for an amazing game to enthrall and pull me in like some have done before.

That said, I think Backloggery is a great idea and a potential way to channel my gaming in a more "productive" manner. With some new commitments approaching I feel like I'll have less time to game than I used to. But if I decide on some sort of schedule using, say, the BL Fortune Cookie and ing just 2 or 3 games at a time, maybe I could get some quality time with my games. With that I could be well on my way to catching up with my backlog. I wonder if it would work.

It could be that I need some time away from gaming. Or maybe I've overestimated my ability to complete games in the past. Anyone ever experienced something similar or have any comments about this?

I've gotten over 50 titles from Steam in the past year. I NEED HELP. BUT I DON'T WANT IT

I am a Minion, wuhu!

I've mainly been having trouble wanting to play my games. I've almost finished DKCR, but I can't for the life of me put the damn disc in and boot it up. Same with Punch Out, Paper Mario, Radiant Historia, and many others. It may just be me being a gaming wimp — if it's too hard and I repeatedly die, or if I'm at a boring spot, I feel like I'm wasting my time and end up rage-quitting. When I was younger that kinda thing was no problem, I'd just keep plugging away at it until I got to the next level or whatever. But, like I said, anymore I feel like I'm wasting my time.

Basically, if I don't flat out love a game then there's very little chance I'll beat it within a couple weeks, if at all. And usually I end up wanting to replay those games instead of playing my new ones, haha.

I have the same experience with the app store. The fact that they're so cheap and that they go on sale during every holiday under the sun means I've acquired 77 games for the ipod touch. Out of those, I've probably finished about ten. It's not as if I haven't filtered out the rubbish ones either, so it's not because they're not worth finishing. I'm just lacking WILLPOWER (and enthusiasm). It's pretty much the same situation with my consoles as well, albeit with a slightly higher success rate.
Maybe when registration re-opens for the Backloggery and I can make an account my mindset will change. At the moment, well, it's my last hope...
EDIT: I think he's re-opening it in a couple of days from now, at least, according to the Changelog.

Registration is open, Jango. :3

Edit: Never mind, looks like it's not. I thought Drumble said he reopened it.

The thought came to me too one day, when I realized I have 10 times the amount of games I used to have growing up, and haven't finished many of them. That's when I decided to only allow myself a maximum of 50 games (on all platforms). This probably wouldn't work for many of you who are collectors and what not, but for me gaming is simply a form of entertainment, nothing more. So, since I'm at about 45-ish games, and I have a list of about 15 games I want, I'll just have to sell, delete or give away whatever games just don't make the cut.
At first, I tried to justify keeping the extra games, but really, 50 games isn't enough to keep me satisfied?!? And the ones I do get rid of... ya, they were good games, and sometimes I miss them, but life has more to it now than when I was a kid. I'm actually contemplating becoming a mom soon (although I will NOT be sharing my games), plus I'm a wife and I have a full time career. I get just as excited about landscaping my yard as I do about defeating Bowser.
Also, I kind of have a problem with Backloggery. Not a big one, I still like it, but it's really put the focus on beating the games I have rather than enjoying them. It's all about changing the 'U' to a 'B'. I think I read that somewhere here, someone had the same opinion. That's probably the reason I haven't finished a few... if I can't beat it, like, NOW, then I won't play it.
Anyways, all in all, I've realized that I'll never have the time to play every single great game out there, so I either need to be incredibly picky, or satisfied with borrowing.

Indeed, I was going to write the same. Perhaps I'm putting too much emphasis on "beating" a game rather than "experiencing" it. When I was most in love with my games, I was never attempting to race to the end. I was immersed and enjoying every moment. I'd much rather have that experience than have a high percentage of Bs and Cs on my backloggery.

Never! I will always have enough s and s to not be one!

I've always kept my Unfinished games at a delicate balance between 40 and 50%, so I've never become a minion.

Yup, back in my SNES days, I would take a few days break from a game every now and then if I felt I was going through it too fast. I had to make it last until either my birthday or Christmas, which, thankfully, are nicely spaced apart. Sometimes I can't believe the patience I had. Or maybe it was talent. Either way, I have less of it now.

When you have over 200 games you're gonna have to do better than that.

I got a key for master of unlocking.

It's actually 100+, not a %

It opens on June 3rd. Can't wait, well I have been waiting for 6 months, but if I had a Backloggery I would totally be a Minion. Last year I bought about 20 RPGs and beat like 2 . Then I move onto the next game and then next.

I too am a Minion of Bak'laag, currently sitting at 191 unbeaten games. However, I play games my way ... if a game doesn't interest me for very long and I don't beat it ever, I don't really care. Games are entertainment, not a job, and I'll continue to only play them when they entertain me. I might have a giant, ugly backlog because of it, but I'd rather have that than no will to play games at all.

I've been a minion for years. Like you said, digital Distribution sales have greatly contributed to that. I've long lost my enthusiasm to finish my games (though I've been trying harder as of late), though the fact that I've gotten into RPGs lately will likely slow down my progress. I also have the tendancy to play whatever I feel like rather than stick to something, though recently I've been trying to stick to one or two games.

As for the Backloggery, it hasn't helped me much. It's actually had the opposite effect - I've been buying more games since I've joined. Again, I'm trying to stop that and I'll be going through some marathons for a while until I start getting some beats in.

I just recently became a minion, after finishing adding all my games (they should have a badge for not adding all your games lol). Yes, I should beat more games. But the main problem is, most of them are made up of old gamecube licensed games (was 6-10 around that time, darn you)