I feel this. I use pokemon for language studying often, and have an itch to get into competitive(played a bit in 2020, galarian corsola's my fav). I swear, the point of knowing Pokemon being impactful from the start really got me.

0:51 I, and my notion backlog, feel personally attacked

I remember my first Pokémon game being ultra sun (I started at like age 7-8). I remember the ultra necrozma battle and even though it was annoying as can be at the time I was battling it, I can now look back and appreciate it. Also something I randomly found out after 2 years of not logging in, was that I spawned in my house. Ever since then, whenever I leave a Pokémon game, I go to the house, so if I return to it very late, i will feel a sudden rush of nostalgia by just spawning in my house. Ultra sun was not my first experience with Pokémon tho. My first experience was the xy anime and I looked up to ash so much lol. I remember watching the ice gym battle and it was so good. I also remember buying fake pokeballs in real life and throwing them around like a Pokémon trainer. I had dreams about being a trainer many times. (My favorite Pokémon was and still is Dragonite). Now, the tv in which I watched the anime, does not function anymore due to being from the 1990s. That part probably hits the spot the hardest. I know I am not old, but it is that simple fact that the provider of entertainment that I would rely to for my early childhood, has been shutdown. I am getting tears just thinking about it. Anywho, amazing video and you’re underrated as can be!

See with 2 games for me there lot of option I make out of it even if it same game I can go on forever plus Pokémon one of my fav franchises beside beyblade and Onepiece so I gonna go in when Game come out if we ever did stop getting 2 version then it be werid restarting a game and all that 🤔but it does get interesting with all savefile on switch now you don’t have too so it interesting. For me I 2 version for life

what is that cel-shaded skating game?

Solid video, I was stressing about building up too much backlog, and somehow now I care less

I have two comfort games, Sky children of the light and Dead by Daylight

Also an only child and a fair few of these are also my comfort game. Subbed and hope to see more content from you!

When I was a kid, I only had a few games per console (and I had SNES, N64, and PS2 from my childhood to my teen years). It was so much better, because I wasn’t overwhelmed by a huge library, and I would play the hell out of each game. I would also lend out my games to friends and borrow theirs in order to experience other games. It was cool. Fast forward to today, and now I have a Steam Deck with over 150 games! You’re 100% right that it does feel stressful having this many games, even though I know I’m not obligated to complete them (a lot of them are from emulation). In a way, I miss the old days where I wasn’t able to have so many games at once.

over 600 games on steam, over 100 on switch. but end up playing the same old Dead Cells every day haha

No they're not. Unless you're 80 years old and will be dying in half a decade, there's no such thing as a stressful gaming backlog. Games are supposed to be fun, not tasks to be checked off a list

i swear the only reason i clicked was cuze i was hoping to listen to a girl while playing elden ring

This is so me, I have over 100 games in my library but spend months to just platinum one, also Monster Hunter is some of the worst platinums you can try

The perks of being poor is never stressing over the next game lol

I also keep this game close to my heart, but for another reason. It was close to a time of an euthanasia I went through for a stray kitten that I had recently took in, due to severe neurological FIP. Unfortunately, we couldn't come through to the other end since its condition worsened in the few brief days before the procedure itself. Shortly after that, I decided to give it a try and sunk about 106 hours into the vanilla version in about 2 weeks, as that was the only one I had access to at the time. Definitely one of the most amazing and memorable experiences I've had, and that's not even engaging in most of the side content. About the English VA, hands down the best in any jRPG. They nailed each and every scene.

I finally stopped buying games. The only exception are titles about to be removed.

its omorbin time (i hear omori music i like)

Am I the only person who has a healthy relationship with games? I don't feel the need to play every single game. I know what I like and what I don't like. I don't see a point in playing games I'm not interested in anyway. Especially if I have no intend to finish it. I also don't buy games on impulse just because it's on sales. Even if it's on my wishlist, if I'm not going to play it right now then there is no point in buying it. And buying everything just because it's on specials sales is pointless too if I'm not interested in it anyway. I currently have 35 games on my steam wishlist, half of which aren't even released yet. But apparently, that's not a backlog per definition. I haven't purchased a single game I haven't played yet. So it seems like I have no backlog. I just don't understand what the problem with backlogs for many people is. I always play games whenever I have time. But I never got addicted to collecting games and buy them on impulse.

Ha try platinuming them or 100%ing them that's stressful

Game at 2:40? :O

I think I'm gonna throw the towel for FGs for a while personally I haven't touched Granblue since I've finished the recent Battle Pass, I am too focused on playing FFXVI right now. That game scratches my brain more. I can't see self improvement a reason to continue or trying to play every time I can. I need goals like in game unlocks or smth like that. I may still try Online and Ranked as much as I can but right now fighting games aren't my priority.

freaking backlogs. WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO BE SO DIFFICULT!! >:(

This video reminds me of the morons who brag about reading a book a week or journal every morning. They treat themselves to a rigid routine like they are in fucking prison. Being concerned with the amount of any action you want to partake in will cause unnecessary expectations and motivations that are bound to provide contempt for the action. Its the boomerang effect.

I have finally settled into a system for my backlog and it is working for me well and saving me money. Most new games tick me off as they need updates before they are okay so I tend not to buy them right away with some exceptions obviously. So what I do these days is, I play one modern game on the latest system if I have bought a new release to play and then backlog until I buy another modern game. Here is the important part. I DO NOT open any game I buy anymore. To earn the right to open another game I have to finish one. I can not tell you how much this drives me to complete games. It is a massive force. I give myself some leeway of course but only if I realize I don't like a game I have started and know for sure I won't ever play it again. Doesn't happen often. I am 44 years old this year. I have a rather large backlog and I know for sure at this point that even if I live past 60 I won't ever finish them all. This is a freeing thought to be honest. I know I am not able to ever do it so when I go to open a game I am always picking important ones to me. Sort of like ranking the unplayed games. So instead of looking at shelf's thinking I need to complete them all, I look and think what's the best one to play next. On top of that I only ever have one main game installed and then 1 or 2 others. The other games are games I never consider complete, like say the latest Gran Turismo and a fighting game. These provide good changes of pace while trying to finish a game and help with fatigue on any particular game I am playing. Anyways, this has been working great for me. No lists. No check off lists. Just games. Beating them and opening a new one.

not 4 me because 99% of games now adays R just woke BS

Nice video bro!

Excellent video man!

From my own experience, I think it’s important that when you do finally sit down and start playing a game off your backlog, you need to decide whether you are going to commit to playing it or not, lest you risk stopping half way through and then never coming back to finish it. In the past, I wanted to play through Metroid Prime. I’ve owned the game since around 2005-ish, when it was still a relatively recent release. And every time I sat down to play it, the same thing happened. I sat down and I played through the introductory sequence on the Space Pirate Frigate, then got to the surface of Tallon and decided to get off and continue playing the next day. The next day came and I didn’t think about the game, instead focusing on something else or some other game. Time would pass, and then months or even a year would go by, and I would decide again that I wanted to play Prime. I sit down, I decide that I should restart so that I could refresh my memory on what happened, and then rinse and repeat the whole process over again: play to the end of the tutorial, set the game down, forget about it for another year. Over, and over, and over again. I did this probably eight or nine times over a ten-year period, sometimes getting a little further in and losing even more progress when I restarted, before I picked the game up in 2022 and said, “Okay, I’m going to play this whole game this time. I am ignoring the rest of my game library until I beat Metroid Prime.” And for that next week or two, that’s exactly what I did, and I managed to finally finish a game I had owned for 15+ years. I also went on and played Prime 2, soon after, as well. Metroid Prime wasn’t the only game I’ve done this with, either. I’ve had a few games I’ve owned since 2013 that I’ve restarted multiple times this way, having only finished one at the end of 2021. Not only that, but I’ve also done it many times on replays of games I’ve already beaten. I would start up a new save to try a new build in one of the Souls games, or I saw a mod I wanted to play with in Stardew Valley or some other game, only to then abandoned that save file in the middle of playing it when I decide something else looks interesting. It’s the same reason that I have three unfinished save files on Terraria ever since the 1.3 updates in 2015 - one of which has 80 hours of playtime clocked in. So, yes, while I do agree that you shouldn’t let playing through games become a chore or feel like your job, there are times where you just have accept that it’s the only way you’re going to make progress - progress that isn’t just walking in place on a treadmill. Otherwise you’ll end up like me, and you will have played every games that’s on your backlog list, but you’ve never actually finished a single one. (I have 45 hours in Oblivion, and I’ve never completed a single major quest line, not even the main story. Bought the game 11 years ago, by the way.)

A saw in another video discussing backlogs that offered an excellent suggestion: Tie your backlog to a gaming fund. For every game on your backlog you finish, give yourself $5. As you build up enough "credit," then you can get a new game and add it to the backlog, keeping things moving. It forces you to be more selective about the games you buy (sales included) and makes you prioritize playing the games you have first. It helps give you something to look forward to, where completing games leads directly to new ones rather than a checklist for the sake of it. Like others have suggested, I've also started more seriously asking myself the question when I'm playing something, "is this game actually fun for me?" And then I have to honest about it. Just because someone in a forum says the game is amazing and I should beat it three times doesn't mean it's a hit with me, and in that sense, put it down, cross it off, and move on. I've gotten a lot better with this and it's certainly helped speed things up.

You did your work thoroughly :)

Great video man! I only buy like 2 or 3 games a year so I can finish em no problem

All you have to do is just beat one game at a time😊

The true video game was the friends we made along the way

you think backlogs are stressful ? pff try making a list of your backlog and playing before 1/10/2024 the day i am going for mandatory army service for 14 months :/

Hi! Nice video but what is that bmx-styled game that looks like Jet Set Radio?

It's like you said, it depends on the person what makes them more comfortable. Personally I'm making an organized list of my backlog. I've put the games I want to play on categories and on which platform I have the game available on. I still haven't finished that list yet, cause... I only do it when I feel like it. I'm not committed to finish the list as soon as possible. And I keep adding games on my wishlist. I'm making the list cause I don't want to lose track on the games I'm playing. I have ADHD and I might play 3 different games in the same period. And I don't want to accidentally ditch a game I've started playing, especially if it has a story. And the list helps me remember what games I meant to start playing or what game I started but didn't play for a while. Of course I go with the flow. I play only the games I feel like playing at the moment. The list might constantly change (except for the genre categories). I made a "play next" category to put games I feel like I want to play the current period, and the games I want to play after I finish the games I'm currently playing. Of course what I want to play currently might completely change from what I first had in mind. And that's okay. A list is a tool after all. We decide how to use it. We don't have to commit to it if we don't want to. Personally I have trouble remembering some stuff. And I have a feeling that making a list of my backlog of games will help me remember which games I really wanted to play some time. It will also help me to find easier which games I feel like playing and go with the flow. Cause depending on what genre I feel like playing, I'll check that category on my list

Dual versions was fine enough back when the games were handheld titles at a handheld price, but now that they are selling at full console prices on the Switch, it's a scheme that needs to stop... or at least evolve. Something made very clear by BD/SP is that it is entirely possible to code these as games using only a single version designator to distinguish things like which encounter tables to use. While BD/SP hard coded that designator to each version, those remakes could have just been sold as a singular release with the player selecting which version to play whenever starting a new game. Especially on the Switch console, where each profile has its own save file, this could allow families playing on the same system to select different versions and trade with each other without needing to purchase multiple copies of the same game, and especially without needing to likewise double dip on the subsequent DLCs. I'm fine if GameFreak wants to preserve the legacy of dual versions, but there's no longer any reason for that to involve separate cartridges.

For me, I love replaying games, but I have conditions. Usually, I wait a year for story games at minimum to replay. When I do replay, I try to challenge myself by artificially making the game harder.

I wish they did what BWB2W2 did with a lot more actual differences. it would ve so cool

I replay games when I find them fun enough to do so.

my comfort game has to be...uhhh...it used to be sonic forces due to how you can play it with half of your brain while still going speedy fast, but then sonic frontiers came out, but then I put 100 hours into that game and burnt myself out with it. now I don't know my comfort game. I guess smash ultimate.

me who has stopped all progress on my backlog in order to mod smash bros:

Managing games as a kid was much easier since unless you were spoiled rotten, you'd get/buy maybe 1 game a month and often had no other choice then to play that one game (which you may or may not have enjoyed). Nowadays as an adult you tend to have the fund to buy what you want, when you want and for people like me that have severe choice paralysis its a struggle. As such, i do use backloggery to keep track of my games and sometimes just open a fortune cookie (random game picker) if all i want to do is crap shoot for a game to try on my list. More often then not though ill look up gameplay for a game i have and see if it something im interested in and then try it out if it picks that urge to want to try it (for ma happens more often then not lol). All in all, i do buy a lot of games ill never really consider playing, but they are nice to have in case i change my mind later.

I don't think I have even been stressed per se from any daily activities including work, but often when i was in high school and college i would boot up my favorite rhythm game at the time (Stepmania and then OSU), and just smash out really hard high BPM maps (much to the chagrin of my parents since i was often told that my keyboard taps are loud), and i guess that would untangle my mind from taking notes all day. That said, i haven't played one in a few years now and i now just really relax and watch youtube, then for more long term passings i play longer dungeon crawlers and turn based rpgs that allow me to turn my brain off and just progress.

You are absolutely right, looking at what we need to play is a herculean task most of the time. I was making great progress on my own Backlog but my Computer just went critical. This sets me back quite a bit. Only have beat 7 so far this year, trying to get another 100+ games this year just like last year (115 in 2023). Here I was trying to tackle all my Jrpg games, but this was what killed my PC. At least Ni No Kuni and Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World were fun. Great video, I always enjoy when people discuss gaming Backlogs.

These videos do feel special

I think this video was very insightful and 100% appreciate your perspective on it. I feel that this is certainly an issue a decent number of gamers deal with at some point, and one worth talking about. I apologize for the long post ahead. I have a backlog... but I honestly do not make a conscious effort to actively get through it. Oh there IS an idea of "I have other games to play" but that's the extent of it. The thought is never pressing enough to lead to that "come on come on come on gotta get through this one so I can start the next one!" type of mentality. Simply put, there is an awareness of games I got on my shelf that I've yet to beat, but I don't really let it get into my enjoyment of what I'm currently playing. I do find that it's kinda hard to give some advice on how to get out of the "backlog mentality" because it is not a state of mind I've ever actually been in. I'm still playing games the same way I've been doing since I was younger: one at a time. When I was a little kid, I would get *maybe* one game every year. There was *no* backlog. It was just me and Ocarina of Time from 1998 to 2000. With a situation like that, I really, and I mean *really* squeezed everything out of the game. Hell, sometimes I'd log in to just dick around and ride Epona around Hyrule Field. I simply didn't experience much of a pressure to move on to other games because they weren't that available. Flash forward 20+ years into the future. I now actually have... a few shelves that are just filled with games, but not only games, now I have books, manga, anime, movies... so much media to get through. Hey it turns out your taste in things tends to grow with you hahahh. While I still don't really feel a pressure to get through all this stuff, there is one caveat, and a very important one at that: I'm a doctor now. Specifically, I am a doctor-in-training, a resident physician halfway through residency. What this means for me is that there are entire months, sometimes staggered, sometimes one after another, when I work close to 80-something hours per week, 6 days a week. As you can imagine, this *really* leaves me with less time to game. After all, there are certain things one must do to stay functional and healthy. Y'know, sleep, eat, exercise, etc... What naturally follows from this is that I have to be *mindful* of what I am about to play or invest time in without letting myself feel pressured. Something I've strived to preserve, however, is akin to the situation described above: dicking around in a video game. Sometimes I just feel like booting X or Y game and just... walk around in it, listening to the music, taking in the environment, talking to NPCs (RPGs are great for this), and overall just appreciating the artistry that went into creating this thing. It goes a long way in making the game more memorable to me, and having a good time and memorable experiences is ultimately why I like to play games. I feel like, as you said, sometimes people can get so caught up in the aspect of checking boxes as they make their way through their backlog that they really don't let the games they play, y'know... sink in. Earlier I said that I did not know what sort of advice to give people so as to not get into the backlog mentality... But I suppose one solution to this is to simply NOT have a backlog. Just... play what you have, take your time with it, however long it takes you, and take it all in. I once again apologize for the length of this comment. I am rambling on cause I did lose a few hours of sleep last night (as I have a few other nights earlier this month). Why? Persona 3 Reload came out at the start of a very easy rotation: Dermatology. It's just a regular 9-5 with free weekends type of rotation. Despite the better gameplay in P4 and P5, Persona 3 has my favorite cast, story, and themes, and I consider myself fortunate to have been able to experience it again in the remake. Welp, Idk what else to say. If you somehow made it through all this, thank you for reading hahah. Whatever it is you're trying to do, be it play a game, read a book, watch an anime, etc... I hope that you find it in you to enjoy it.

My 2 rules for gaming: if a game feels like a chore and/or makes you think of your backlog, don`t play it anymore. If a game makes you forget you are playing it, that is the game for you.

The steam deck only makes this worse. You think buying a steam deck will help you get through the backlog, but all it does is increase the size of it

I just like to wake up and play whatever I feel like ya know