HELP ME!

Seriously, help me. Between ubisoft, GOG, Steam, Origin, Battle.net, Epic Store (only using them for the free games they release) and MyAbandonWare games, I damn near have around 4,000 pc games... O_O 1300+ on GOG and 2100+ on steam alone.

None of the games are trash, of course that is subjective to each individual. However, they arent literal "trash" games that one would see on steams dark alleys. These are legit games that range from RPGs, ARPG, CRPG, JRPG, FPS, RTS, RTS/RPG, Simulation, Racing, Platformers, etc etc that are well known during their time from mid to late 80s to now.

So... the advice I am asking for is how in the dark unknown do I clear my backlog before I die of old age? I'm 34 and have two kids. lol

No I dont plan on stopping. The acquisition must continue. Plus I just simply like video games.

Going to see if my two young boys will have an interest in them when they reach the age to understand.

Leave your better half and quit your job when the kids turn 18. Under those circumstances, you might have a small chance to clear your backlog if you don't buy any new games ever.

The other alternative is to accept that you made some bad choices when buying games, your backlog is mostly expensive air you won't have any use for.

Play the games you want to play when you can play them, don't stress out over it. Your time is hopefully more valuable than your backlog. If you're lucky, your kids will share your passion so that you can have tons of great gaming memories together.

You have a condition of hoarding games.
You can spend time playing the games, but then you have to fight your urge to hoard and collect all these games. You can't play games and hoard games at the same time. You must sacrifice doing one for the other.

Plus, you will need another lifetime to finish close to 4000 games. Unless you STOP going to your job, going out of the house, stop your family and friendly obligations, you are not going to finish all 4000 games in your lifetime.

Not stressing really, just wondering how to do it. If I never do it then no biggy. I'll just pass them down if my boys even care about them lol

It would be great if they did have an interest in them. If not then oh well. No loss.

And yes, time is always important. Thanks for the advice though. However I dont think leaving my better half would be too smart lmao

Wouldnt consider it a condition as it is more of a hobby. A collector of sorts. Yeah, I know, a collector of digital space, might as well be a collector of air. But that's why they are on external hard drives and backups. You never know when these games will be censored off the internet or never seen again really.

To me they are like books or works of art. Developers have a knack for being very creative. It's been a hobby of mine for a long time.

Funny thing is my father got me into games and he doesnt play games at all. Back when the NES was first sold, he got me one and I was enthralled ever since. So it's been many a year of me dealing with games. The ironic thing would be since I'm a father and I'm into games, that showing my boys the games I've acquired and they have no interest lol but as I said that would be no loss.

Digital takes up less physical space so it's easier to manage.

Bah, come back when you have a real backlog, I have about that for spectrum alone!

Very nice. I see you're man of culture as well.

Nope, just a problem. As indicated by 3 8tb HDDs just for another backup!

You're a goddamn addict who's wasting his time and money on childish pursuits. Grow the f*** up. An occasional game to relax is alright, but making games (4000 of them!) the centre of your life is pathetic.
If you don't stop, your wife will probably leave you and you won't see your children again. Better stop when you've still got the opportunity.

You probably have to consider one major point: are you a game player or a one-man archival service?

If you have no way of playing the various games you have acquired in your general lifetime, then you've really got to the point where you really might have to consider whether you might want to stop, or at least be more picky in the games you buy.

You may wish to ask yourself, "Do I really want to play this game, or am I buying it for the sake of having it?"

If it's the latter, then although your "archival" instincts may be strong, it's probably better to let some games pass by.

Please note, I'm ignoring the mention of MyAbandonWare since, although I have no strong views, abandonware is not really legal, although the various arguments either way are quite understandable.

Even buying from various legitimate store fronts is not really archival, since the various licences may prevent you from passing on the game accounts, depending on various legal agreements.

In essence, it sounds like, although you don't wish to, it might be better if you reigned in your "hoarding" (sorry about that, but it seemed the best word!) sensibilities, and focused in on the games you really want to play.

I don´t see the problem here. Let´s say one year has 8760 hours (leap years have more). And let´s say you have 40 more years to live. So you have (at least) 350,400 hours to play. That´s 87.6 hours you can invest in every of the 4000 games. It´s even more, because I haven´t counted in the leap years. Also, you can try to live healthy and thus prolong your life as much as possible.
And you shouldn´t sleep.

If you could finish one game per week, you'd take around 76 years to play 4000 games. How does that sound?

For me, that'd require giving up life. Not that I have much of it anyway, but at my current pace, I'm playing maybe a dozen games per year.

Best advice I can give is forget it. If you want to play a game, play a game, pick one that looks fun and drop it if you're not feeling it. Don't play them for the sake of just playing them. That (hopefully) is not the purpose of your life.

As for hoarding, well, if you have the money to spare, why not? Don't sweat it, we all have our hobbies. Then again, maybe you could save up and one day find something better to spend it on. Maybe you could invest it, retire earlier or with more money, and then have more time for enjoying games in peace when you're an old fart with loose limbs.

You don't.

A few thoughts (sans any real answers.. except those that have worked for me)...

1. Games that aren't played and enjoyed are wasted money. No matter how "great" a game may be, if you never play it, its value is $0.

2. It is useful to re-evaluate things in your life -- go through those books, dvds, games etc. Keep those things with a strong interest or emotional connection, but get rid of all of those "I'll read / use / play it one day." As I've found, that "magical" day never comes.

Unless you are planning a career reviewing games, there's no need to play everything. I am a collector but fight the instinct to hoard... because hoarding is a trap that takes a hobby from fun to overwhelming -- the point where you seem to be at currently.

I have drastically down-sized my life a few times. Yes, there is a bit of pain... and sometimes a tinge of loss... but it also feels great to have a more focused experience (for me).

Hope you find what works for you... and have some fun!

Short answer, you don't and you should not. Play what you want without any set goals. And to be honest even you asking this question seems bad. Definitely follow your heart more than your brain in this case.

Long answer, you simply don't, because finishing games like finishing a checklist is counterproductive to what games are, which are deeply personalized experiences. You're basically turning yourself into a robot whose simple goal is to finish games according to outside factors, turning games into a binary state of either finishing or not finishing. I can argue that if you think the destination (finishing the game) matters most, wouldn't this take away from your (memoriable) experiences if its not your primary focus, thus ignoring the hardship the devs went into (or the love)? If your core incentive is both however, then thats fine of course, I'm not saying that this approach must be discarded, its more that it does more harm than good given that games can be so much more than just simple checkmarks in which people will then move on from to the next checkmark (then why even play games lol).

I find that its not psychologically healthy to see games from a goal oriented standpoint, which means that you see finishing games/getting the most achievements as the only goals. Rather, play the game with the goal for playing the game. If the game invites you to finish it because the game pleases you then take that opportunity. Otherwise switch to the next game. But never brainwash yourself into thinking that your games library is a checklist waiting to happen. Don't even attempt to reason yourself by asking others what you should think. Games are personal and should be threated personal. Thats why people find streamers so convincing, because they like this lighthearted "personal relationship" between the game and the gamer that make people stick to them :D.

Which all of this said, there certainly can be a balance of experiencing a game and finishing them with good memories, but don't jump into the game like you're forced to finish it only because you're skeptical with your choice of purchasing to many good games. Just play them if you want to, if you don't want to just buy and contemplate on buying more games. There is fun in everything, even in meta stuff like that.

Again, there certainly can be a balanced relationship with playing and buying games but never feel compelled that you should finish or even play any game you've bought, because it is your own personal and honest business. If you need to ask others on how to feel about this you're simply doing it wrong. Definitely follow your heart more than your brain in this case.