Yeah this is a known problem in the gamerhood. GOG is researching already how to give us more time to play alll the games :D
But we can't rely only on their labs, maybe they will never suceed.
So the solution can only be: cloning. Two or three more "me's" and "you's" should do the trick.

I thank you for your concern, but in my case this "binge-buying" was planned. I always dreamed of spending the last years of my life living in a small place (like a tropical island) and spending my days playing computer games. I retired at 43, something I wouldn't have been able to do if I didn't know how to save (not spend money on unnecessary things). However, thinking that on average that might mean that I would have about 30 years yet to live God willing, I had to make sure I gathered enough games to keep me busy for that amount of time. So a couple of years ago I worked my way through all the games on Metacritic and added everything with a 75+ score by either critics or users to my personal wishlist on paper. I have managed to pick up only about a third of those so far, so the outstanding ones on there number nearly 250 still. They make up a number of the games on my gog wishlist and some others are ones that I already have a retail copy of, I just want to have the easier to handle digital version also, and since I have one I need to wait for a sale to make a second purchase. Being retired means a much smaller income after all.

The reason I made the post is that it always amuses me when people complain that their backlog is sitting at 20 or 50 or even a 100 games. Therefore the title of this post ... er ... thread.

@ Sachys and Gamefood: Gene therapy or cloning, hmmm... Maybe I should go for gene therapy first and then make a few clones. I'll quickly be able to be all 128 players in a GalCiv2 multiplayer game, lol.

Same for me, after a few GOG sales several months after me joining. I just didn't see the point in using another DD service as unlike some of the more...................impulsive GOGers, I do intend to finish all the games I have purchased.

As of this post, I have a backlog of 19 games with 3 of those on various states of completion. However, this backlog only includes games I have purchased. If you include the freebies I've gotten from GOG, that's another 20 games which I do intend to try at the very least. Also, my GOG library is currently sitting at 170 games, a number I never intended to reach when I first signed on.

Anyone who wishes to express their envy of my backlog, my relatively successful purchasing restraint as well as my ability to finish games faster than purchase them, please feel free to do so. You my then hold me up as the model GOGer who never lets the his backlog get the best of him and all learn from my example :D

Start praising me............NOW!!!................... ;)

I don't get this whole backlog obsession. Why don't you just play what you feel like? Right now I am playing Zeus a couple of weeks for like the 15th time. What is the point of forcing yourself to "finish" games if you don't really want to.

Implying backlogged games are games people don't want to play
Implying having a backlog forces people to complete them

As for the backlog obsession, it can be answered with a simple question. If you bought the game but aren't going to play it, why did you buy it? Backlogged games are games people do have interest in and do want to play. But when you have lots of them and aren't sure which one you want to play first.................................I'm hoping you can figure it out from here.

Sure is what it sounds like. The term itself implies work,something you have to do to survive. Do these people never replay anything or why don't they not just play the backlog then? And the second one is simply wrong. I did not imply that.

No need to get pissy. Why buy it? Simple, because I know I like the genre and when I feel like it I will play it without any obsession over it being backlog. But if I feel like playing Imperialism instead for the 500th time, I see no backlog problem with not playing the new game.

I think for most people the "backlog" is just a way to remember all the stuff they bought and meant to play, to get some order into their collection and don't lose sight of titles they expect to gain something from.

On the one hand, gaming is a pastime and not a job or a necessity, on the other hand, it can be so much more satisfying to spend your free time with something inspiring than with something mindnumbing and repetitive, at least for some (including me, I'm obviously biased). So while you could easily lose hours and hours to some trivial casual game and still enjoy it, or play the same game you already know in and out for the 500th time, for some gamers the discovery of something new and more challenging or thought provoking is part of their hobby.

The "backlog" helps to get an overview of the overwhelming mass of games available so that you can set priorities on what games you think would actually be worth your time because you might learn something new from them (new mechanics, new stories, new worlds to explore) as opposed to just killing time by repeating something you're already familiar with, even if you enjoy it.

'This and that"? That's objectification of women!

;)

Wow, I envy you. Retirement at 43 sounds like a dream. But hey, can't blame anyone else for having my first kid at 40.

Sure I get the discovery drive sometimes and then I go through 10 games or so before I find something fun enough, but that can't be it, since the obsession seems to require finishing the games whether you like em or not.

I'm not sure if that's really true for most; I'd assume that they like the games they want to finish. It's just that they like many other games, too, and need to put a bit of effort into focusing on one game at a time, when the temptation of other games is so great. Often these games have story elements that the players care about, and if you constantly jump from one game to the next, you won't get the whole story or forget most of it before you continue.

I think the desire for some closure also plays a role; on occasion, I actually do complete a game I don't like much, because I did enjoy it at first and I'm already close to finishing it, so I also force myself through the rest to see whether it will get better in the end or at least to be able to cast a final, justified judgement on it. This is more than just playing for fun, it's an interest in the medium that goes beyond that. And yes, part of it might also be about OCD ;) - but I think it never gets as far as forcing oneself to play through games you absolutely dislike, it's just about accepting that a game can be of interest even if not all parts of it are always enjoyable and sometimes you need to work a little for your reward.

Well, in my case the backlog consists of games I intend to play and believe I will enjoy, except for a few "pot lucks" from gog that I won't ever touch (System Shock 2, Painkiller Black edition, Hotline Miami). One of the reasons why my backlog has grown so large is that I have spent many hours on games I already enjoy, as well as having more than one playthrough on others that I also enjoy. I have 400+ hours on Freelancer and Oblivion and haven't even finished Oblivion's main quest yet and I have 100+ hours on many others, e.g. Championship Manager 3, Serf City (best game ever), Caesar 3, Europa Universalis 2, Fallout 3, King's Bounty: The Legend, Recettear, Terraria, Transport Tycoon and X2: The Threat. Games I've played through more than once include Theme Hospital, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman Arkham Asylum and -City, Railroad Tycoon, Pirates, Heroes of Might and Magic, Dune 2: Battle for Arrakis, GalCiv 1, Grand Prix Circuit, Duke Nukem, Inspector Parker, Kings Bounty (the original), the Medal of Honour: Allied Assault trilogy, Need for Speed Underground 2, Puzzle Quest, Rex Nebular, Rollers of the Realm, Ruthless.com, Civilisation, Colonisation, Sword of the Samurai, The Fifth Gate, Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Ultimate Domain, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and then there are the casual games that get a bit of love nearly everyday, such as Freecell, Zuma, Bejeweled, etc. The worst game I've played was Blackguards because it is a bug-ridden mess, but even then I enjoyed the gameplay mechanics and story - now if I can only get my DLC to work, dash it!

While the term "backlog" usually relates to unprocessed work, game backlogs are not backlogs in that sense. It simply comes down to many uses for one word and every language does this. Just look at your own languages metaphors and you'll see what I mean.

I actually wasn't getting pissy, sorry I came across that way. I simply just didn't feel the need to state the obvious.

Its called "Hoarding"

You are a hoarder of games.

And I thought I was bad with a 40% completion rate of my 183 games.

Games I have completed and am unlikely to play again:

1001 Nights: The Adventures of Sindbad; 7 Wonders: Treasures of 7;

Aether; Agatha Christie: 4:50 from Paddington; Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None; Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun; Agent Bork; AGON: From Lapland to Madagascar; AGON: The London Scene; AGON: The Lost Sword of Toledo; Amazing Adventures: The Caribbean Secret; Annabel; Auditorium; Aveyond 1: Rhen's Quest; Azada; Azada: Ancient Magic; Azada: In Libro;

Beneath a Steel Sky; Bernband; Big City Adventure: London Story; Big City Adventure: Sydney, Australia; BigJig 5.0; Broken Sword 1: Director's Cut;

Catwalk Countdown; Cave Quest; City of Secrets; Clarc; Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller; Coil; Costume Quest; Crime and Punishment: Who Framed Raskolnikov?; Cruise Clues: Caribbean Adventure; CSI: Dark Motives; CSI: Hard Evidence; Cult 1; Cult 2: Federal Crime;

Dark Parables: Curse of the Briar Rose; Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat; Deus Ex Machina; Diner Dash 1; Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue; Doki Doki Literature Club; Drawn: Dark Flight; Drawn: The Painted Tower; Drawn: Trail of Shadows;

Echoes of the Past: Royal House of Stone; Echoes of the Past: The Castle of Shadows; Echoes of the Past: The Citadels of Time; Egypt: Old Kingdom (demo); Escape Rosecliff Island;

Fabulous Finds; Farmscapes; Fishco; Fishdom 2; Fix-it-up Eighties: Meet Kate's Parents; Fix-it-up: World Tour;

Ghost in the Sheet; Gnomes Garden 4: New Home; Gravity Bone; Great Adventures: Lost in Mountains;

Hexcells; Hidden in Time: Mirror Mirror; Hidden Mysteries: Buckingham Palace; Hidden Mysteries: Civil War; Hidden Mysteries: Salem Secrets; Hidden Mysteries: The White House; Hunie Pop;

Insider Tales: The Stolen Venus 2;

Jagged Alliance 2; Jewel Quest 1; Jewel Quest 2; Jewel Quest Heritage; Jewel Quest Mysteries: Curse of the Emerald Tear; Jewel Quest Mysteries: Trail of the Midnight Heart; Jewel Quest: The Sleepless Star;

Kathy Rain; King's Quest 1: Quest for the Crown; King's Quest 1: Remake; King's Quest 2: Romancing the Throne;

Little Shop: Road Trip; Lost in Reefs;

Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault (Director's Cut); MENSA Academy; Miss Teri Tale 2: Vote for Me!; Mixed-up Mother Goose Deluxe; Morphopolis; My Kingdom for the Princess 2; Mysterious City Las Vegas; Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull; Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove; Mystery House; Mystery Murders: Jack the Ripper;

Need for Speed: Undercover;
Off-Peak; Outrun;
Police Quest 4: Open Season; Predynastic Egypt (demo); Pure Hidden; Puzzle Agent 1;

Regency Solitaire; Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender; Roads of Rome 2; Roads of Rome 3;

Safecracker; Sam & Max Hit the Road; Sam & Max Save the World; Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch; Secret Agent; Secrets of the Dragon Wheel; Sherlock Holmes: Secret of the Silver Earring; Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Persian Carpet; Sid Meier's Civnet; Simcity 2000; Space Pilgrim episode 1: Alpha Centauri; Space Quest 1: The Sarien Encounter; Strange Cases: The Lighthouse Mystery; Syberia 1;

Teenagent; The Chronicles of Emerland Solitaire; The Cross Formula; The First Tree; The Little Acre; The Lost Cases of 221b Baker Street; The Mystery of the Crystal Portal: Beyond the Horizon; The Return of Monte Cristo; Tibet Quest; Tick Tock Isle; Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2; Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 1; Tropical Fish Shop 2; TV Manager 2 Deluxe;

Ultimate Soccer Manager 1;
Virtual City;

Wild West Story: The Beginning; World Riddles: Seven Wonders; World Mosaics 1; World Mosaics 2; World Mosaics 3: Fairy Tales; World Mosaics 4; World Mosaics 5;

Zuma's Revenge: Adventure;

Total: 141

Games I have completed, but -

not on hardest difficulty:

Braveland; Braveland Wizard;
Darkarta: A Broken Heart's Quest;
Fiber Twig;
Hand of Fate + Wildcards DLC;
King of Dragon Pass;
Luxor Mahjong;
Magic the Gathering 2010 edition; Max Payne 3;

Shadowrun Returns; StarCrawlers; Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces; Stoneloops of Jurassica; Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius; Sweet Lily Dreams;

The Flame in the Flood; Torchlight 1 (finished main story, but not the extra "cave");
Unepic;

not all in-game "achievements" / not finished the story with the best outcome

Batman: Arkham Origins; Build-a-lot;
Cook, Serve, Delicious!;
Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes;
Ittle Dew;
Monaco: What's Yours is Mine;
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale; Reigns;
The Colonel's Bequest: A Laura Bow Murder Mystery; Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2;

some bug prevented me from getting/seeing the proper ending:

Aveyond: Ahriman's Prophecy;
Blackguards 1 + Untold Legends DLC;
Lure of the Temptress;
The Elder Scrolls 1: Arena;

Total 32