How I found to have fun with my backlog, fun with games again, and moving forward

 I'll play it someday...why not today?

Several days ago, I bought a handful of import games online which I was excited about, because my game purchasing has drastically gone down over the past few years. Several years ago, I knew exactly what games I had and which I didn't. However, as my collection has grown, I've started using an app on my phone called GameEye to enter and keep track of my collection in its entirety. This came about after buying several lower dollar games that I already had bought years ago and never realized. After receiving my new import games, I entered them into my collection app, when I realized I had just passed the 700 physical games owned threshold. Even typing it out it seems like so much! It made me stop for a moment and think back on how many of my games I've actually played or enjoyed vs. how many I've never even touched. It also made me think of how many times I had thought about starting a game, but never actually did. Whether it was the game that was just purchased, or something that was sitting on the shelf for years it gave me a call to action. Earlier this year, I set some ideas/goals that I wanted to follow when playing games that were reinforced after adding my 700th game to my collection. I feel like it's really helped me overall with my enjoyment of games, so I wanted to share some concepts that I've been practicing and see if it helps other people!

 

1. Don't hesitate to play something just because you haven't finished what you're currently playing 

This was a big one for me personally. I would start a game that I knew had a reputation of being a bit on the longer side. I'd play around 20-30 hours of that experience, but I would get burnt out around that point. However, because I just invested 20-30 hours of my time, I now am pushing through the rest of the game trying to finish it to make the experience feel worth it. Because I've now locked myself into one game, I felt guilty playing another game or starting a brand new story out of fear that I would never get to finish the first game. I realized this more than ever when playing Elden Ring. I started playing Elden Ring for the first time early 2024. It was my first true soulslike experience, and I was having a ton of fun fighting difficult enemies and traveling an amazing, uniquely built world. I felt like this for about 30 hours, when I started to feel fatigued after playing nothing but Elden Ring for the past 2 weeks or so. Even though I was fatigued, I said to myself "well I must be close to the end, I'll just keep pushing to the credits". I played the game for about another 15 hours in total over the next few weeks, but in doing so I was not having as much fun. I wasn't exploring the side dungeons as much as I was. I found myself just running past enemies just to get to the next point in the story. I felt like I lost my sense of curiosity and was just going through the motions so I could play something else. I stopped playing Elden Ring around the 45 hour mark and felt kind of crappy about it, but I just wasn't having the same amount of fun. That's usually where my story would end with games like Elden Ring, but earlier this year I decided to play a little bit more, picking up where I left off. I ended up falling in love with the game all over again, and put another 40 hours into the game! I realized that I shouldn't just rush through a game to say that I beat it. Fun is king when it comes to games, and if I wasn't having fun, then I'll just play something else. My save file will be there when I'm ready to play again, and there's plenty of resources both in games and online to help me remember where I left off if I forgot. Because of this mentality, in 2025 I've played more games than ever!

2.  Replaying is fun, but I could be missing out

Earlier this year, I was playing through Pokemon Platinum when my roommate walked over, saw what I was playing, and said "ah the annual Pokemon playthrough". I hadn't realized it, but every year we had lived together and even some before that I had played through an older Pokemon game once a year. I don't think that there's anything wrong with replaying a game that you enjoy, but what about the games that you might enjoy even more? I love when I find out that a game that I've had on my shelf for years becomes a new favorite. After playing some Pokemon, I decided to try out Dragon Quest V for the first time, and it easily became one of my favorite RPGs on my DS. Now this isn't to say you should never replay your games. Just before you decide to boot up a game that you've experienced before, think about the stuff you haven't experienced yet!

 3. Spread the love across your consoles/devices

 Now obviously your mileage may vary with this point, but I still think it's worth making even if you only have 2-3 devices. I have a wealth of consoles and handhelds to play stuff on, but I tend to stick towards my favorites. In turn, because I play those consoles more often, I tend to feel like I'm running out of things to play. In actuality so much of my collection is underplayed or consoles just unexplored. It's important to pick up a console or handheld you haven't touched in a while to help remember why you have it in the first place. For example, I've had my PSP for quite some time at this point. Most of it's library that I owned I had already played through when I was younger, but I had never forgotten that I had a PSP and always kept an eye out for new games to add to my collection. Although my collection had grown by double, I wasn't using it. So I decided to charge my PSP for the first time in about a year and check out some of the games I had purchased. I had played Lumines as one of my favorite games growing up, but I never played Lumines 2 so I started there. Did you know that Lumines has not just unique music created for the game, but also some licensed tracks from the early-mid 2000's like Hollaback Girl and Pump It? It reminded me in a more literal sense that these retro games are a product of their era, and they're fun to experience past the time they were originally released. Also that Pump It is dangerously easy to get stuck in your head. 

4. Play games in handfuls

 Whether just for the evening or over a longer period of time, it's good to have a few games that you're "currently playing" at any given time. I usually split things up into a console RPG or action game as well as a handheld game for a more relaxed experience. For my older consoles that have more arcade experiences like my Genesis or NES, I'll play several games over the course of one evening. That way if there's an experience that really grips me, I can continue to play that while still actively trying the games that I haven't touched whatsoever.

5. Bring friends along for the ride!

Just because you're experiencing a game for the first time doesn't mean you can't share that experience! As mentioned above, I recently bought some import games with one of them being a Sega Saturn game called "Anarchy in the Nippon". It's a 3D fighting game similar to Virtua Fighter 2, and I mainly purchased because it was cheaper and looked to run pretty smooth on the Saturn. However, fighting games are always meant to be played with an opponent, and thankfully my fiancé was down to play as well. She honestly beat me pretty bad overall, but we both really enjoyed some of the characters. The game primarily consists of what I assume are high school students (I can't read Japanese) but also features two older people. One is a middle-aged Japanese salary man type, while the other an older businesswoman or teacher, but both play nothing how they appear. I don't think I would've liked the game as much as I did if I was playing it by myself. So recently, I've been more encouraged to share my new experiences with friends and family, because what good is having such a collection if I can't play with or talk with them about it?

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!