2018 - 12 Month Pile Program

June 2018

June Completed
Monster Prom

June Played
Guild Wars 2
Blood Bowl 2
Stardew Valley
Moonlighter
Burnout Paradise

June game time
30 hours maybe?

June Purchases
Guild Wars 2 (Both expansions now purchased)
Dawn of War I
Bloodbowl 2 (double dip on PC)
Supreme Commander
Burnout Paradise Remastered
Moonlighter
Oxygen not Included
Mass Effect 1 & 2
Gorogoa

Plan for July
Estimated game time - Up to 40hrs
More (edit. delete) Bloodbowl 2 league, Moonlighter, Absolver and awaiting the No Man's Sky NEXT launch. Plus whatever else takes my fancy...

Finally...

Game of the Month - January
Battle Chef Brigade

Game of the Month - February
Monster Hunter World

Game of the Month - March
What Remains of Edith Finch

Game of the Month - April
Slay the Spire

Game of the Month - May
Into the Breach

Game of the Month - June
Edit. Moonlighter.

June update:

Added:

*gulp*
An Octave Higher (PC)
Asemblance (PC)
Barrow Hill: The Dark Path (PC)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PC)
Hollow Knight (PC)
Jade Empire (PC/Android)
Magicka (PC)
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition (PC)
Quern - Undying Thoughts (PC)
Scanner Sombre (PC)
To Be or Not To Be (PC)
The Fall (PC)

Played:

Breath of the Wild (Switch)
Dark Souls 2 (PC)
Goetia (PC)
Hollow Knight (PC)
Jade Empire (PC/Android)
Magicka (PC)
Pillars of Eternity (PC)
Thomas Was Alone (PC)

Finished:

Thomas Was Alone (PC)

I think I'm once again ready to drop Dark Souls for now, especially as I've fallen hard for Hollow Knight, which I feel has everything I enjoy about that series plus extra charm while lacking most of the aspects that frustrate or annoy me. Between that and hours spent enjoying co-op Magicka with my oldest kid, I'm feeling ok about the pile expansion.

I have a question for you guys on backlog management. About a year ago, I set myself up on Backloggery, and I think it's been helping me focus more on finishing games. When I set up my account, I intentionally tried to include every game that I owned, or that I could remember finishing in the past. With Steam, this includes a lot of games that I got as part of a Humble Bundle or something similar, and I used every single Steam key to activate each product in the bundle. Why wouldn't I?

But looking at my collection, there are clearly some games that I never intend to play, or that I have tried once and very quickly decided were not for me (looking hard at you, Limbo). How do you all handle those on your backlog? Part of me doesn't want to delete them, because I like that my backlog truly represents everything. But then if the backlog is about managing the games that I intend to play and finish, or even the games that I've intentionally bought (and not just obtained ancillary to some purchase), it seems silly to keep them cluttering up the list.

I'm a proponent of removing games from the backlog that you tried and didn't enjoy. Not every game will be for you, especially if you've gotten a ton of free games from Humble Bundles and the like. If something changes in the far future, you still own the game, and can play it. But no need to keep it on the backlog and feeling guilty about not finishing something because you didn't enjoy it.

I don't like to remove them either so I just put them as null with a note saying that I don't intend to finish it.

I've been using Grouvee for my pile management, and I just tag all of those as "Dropped" as well as dumping them in a dropped category on Steam.

I also use the NULL status for "have not beaten and no longer intend to try." That way they are still inventoried (and making me feel guilty about wasted money when I think of buying something else) but don't show up when I'm looking at my unplayed games to decide what's next.

Oh, and hi all, I know I haven't posted in a while, I am going even slower than my usual pace... maybe a game a month, and I fell into a hole of re-playing all the Dead Space games, so it's been a bad year for the backlog. Mostly focusing on not adding too much to it.

That's a really good idea. I hadn't ever used the Null status for anything, so I didn't realize that they don't count towards completion percentages. I like that I can still track them but can have them screened out.

I also came up with another use for the Null status: games that I bought my wife, and that I promised her I wouldn't play for a while. Specifically, I bought her Horizon Zero Dawn and Nier: Automata, but she plays less frequently and a bit more slowly than me, and I want to avoid a present for her turning into a not-so-secret present for myself (and also don't want to spoil story or gameplay for her). Those go on the null list, with the full intent to pull them off once she's done and I'm ready.

I don’t like the Null state because it still factors in when Backloggery calculates your completion progress. It’s silly but I stealth delete those games.

In the end, it’s all up to you though.

I also use NULL for games that I believe shouldn't count towards my completion status on backloggery.

(1) Lala-Land: these are the games that I have tried, and just have zero interest in ever touching it again. Some are just crappy games from bundles, and some are horror games because. well. I'm scared

(2) No-end-goal: these are the multiplayer games I don't see a meaningful goal to work towards. CS:GO, Rocket League, CIV5, etc

I actually also cheat on the status for Beaten vs Completed too. Mostly because I don't chase for 100% completion at all, so that tag is a bit wasted on me. Instead, I mark games as "Beaten" if I have finished the goal I set for myself, but intended to go back. "Completed" are for games I've finished, and will probably never replay.

At the end of the day, it's a self-help tool, so whatever makes tracking easier works.

Eleima wrote:

I don’t like the Null state because it still factors in when Backloggery calculates your completion progress. It’s silly but I stealth delete those games.

In the end, it’s all up to you though.

Where does it factor in? Just now, I've checked the completion percentages, both for specific systems and overall. Setting a game as "Null" seems to remove it. So, for instance, my PS4 completion percentage went from 33% [Persona 5, HZD, and Nier: Automata] to 100% after I nulled the latter two games.

It also seems like if I add a new game and designate it as "Null" when I add it, that doesn't count toward or against my annual progress. But, if I had previously added a game and got -1 progress for the year, and then I null the game, it doesn't undo the -1.

lucci.tonight wrote:

I also use NULL for games that I believe shouldn't count towards my completion status on backloggery.

(1) Lala-Land: these are the games that I have tried, and just have zero interest in ever touching it again. Some are just crappy games from bundles, and some are horror games because. well. I'm scared

(2) No-end-goal: these are the multiplayer games I don't see a meaningful goal to work towards. CS:GO, Rocket League, CIV5, etc

I actually also cheat on the status for Beaten vs Completed too. Mostly because I don't chase for 100% completion at all, so that tag is a bit wasted on me. Instead, I mark games as "Beaten" if I have finished the goal I set for myself, but intended to go back. "Completed" are for games I've finished, and will probably never replay.

At the end of the day, it's a self-help tool, so whatever makes tracking easier works.

I don't often chase 100% completion either. Personally, I tend to use Completed to designate getting the "best" ending or something, where there are multiple different ways to end it.

Is that so? Perhaps they’ve changed the calculation method these past few years. Used to be you’d have 50% unplayed, 10% completed, 15% beaten and 25% null.

LastSurprise wrote:

Where does it factor in? Just now, I've checked the completion percentages, both for specific systems and overall. Setting a game as "Null" seems to remove it. So, for instance, my PS4 completion percentage went from 33% [Persona 5, HZD, and Nier: Automata] to 100% after I nulled the latter two games.

Eleima wrote:

Is that so? Perhaps they’ve changed the calculation method these past few years. Used to be you’d have 50% unplayed, 10% completed, 15% beaten and 25% null.

It looks like they have a "Changelog"... which sadly is not a real changelog, so I can't find when the behavior might have changed. But I see what LastSurprise sees, so presumably they've changed it.

The "Changelog" is really just a twitter feed: https://twitter.com/backloggery

It looks like the dude has taken the summer off to work on remaking the site full time for a few months. If they get out most of the promised features, I might start giving them money, they've earned it.

Of note, future updates include:

-Games can be marked as Retired, a priority setting (new), not a status.
-"Null" will be replaced with "Endless" and "None"

These should offer some nice options for "games I gave up on" etc.

It's a few days early, but I think I can give a report on the month considering I don't think anything will change between now and the 31st.

It was a really good month for the pile. I cleared off Fallout 4, Final Fantasy XIII, and Kentucky Route Zero. I also started Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Stardew Valley. These have all been on my pile for years at this point, so it feels good to finally get them off the list. I'm vaguely trying to prioritize games that have been on the backlog for longer. The feeling of accomplishment is greater for those games. I'd be curious to hear if anyone else feels the same.

I also added a few games to the pile via Twitch Prime, and played one of them to completion immediately. Since I didn't pay extra for them, I don't mind too much.

Time for my July report.

Added:

  • Crossroad (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif)
  • CHUCHEL (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif)
  • Silence (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif)
  • Amnesia: Memories (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif)
  • Agents of Mayhem (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif)
  • ibb & obb (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif)
  • Hob (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif)

More Steam Sale damage and a couple of gifts in there.

Finished:

  • An Octave Higher (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • The Awesome Adventure of Captain Spirit (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • Mass Effect 3 (Origin) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif) - I'm not crying, you're crying!!!

Dropped:

  • State of Decay (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif)
  • Rimworld (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif)
  • Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif)

Played:

  • Guild Wars 2 (PC) IMAGE(https://backloggery.com/images/mastered.gif) - Moving along nicely in Heart of Thorns and the Bazaar of the Four Winds is back!!!! Squeeee!
  • Jade Empire: Special Edition (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) - Chapter 3, the Imperial City. Moving along nicely. Sky is still dreamy.
  • Finding Paradise (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) - About an hour in.

Remaining games: 58 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) (56 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif))
Progress (Games): 31 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif) + 8 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif) - 36 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif) = 3
Est. remaining hours: 534.5 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) (522 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif))
Progress (Est. total hours): 336 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif) + 159 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif) + 7.5 played IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) - 278 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif) = 224.5

Backloggery is at 24. Not great, but there you have it, folks.

July Report

Beaten:

Monster Hunter Tri (Wii)
Disney Afternoon Collection (PS4)
Suikoden III (PS2)

Added:

Steven Universe: Attack the Light (Droid)
Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion (PS4)
Rain World (PS4)
Song of the Deep (PS4)
Rise of the Kasai (PS4)
The Mark of Kri (PS4)
Dandara (PS4)
Saint's Row IV (PS4)

Progress made in:

Monster Hunter World (PS4)
Ni No Kuni II (PS4)

My July report, which is also my first report! The backlog numbers are going to be a big ridiculous because I'm still sorting out what I will truly include in my backlog: I've tried to list everything that I own, and null things that I've decided not to play, but: I've bought a lot of random PC games that were part of bundles, and I still own almost every cartridge or CD that I've ever purchased.

Added:

Nothing!

Finished:

Q.U.B.E. IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)

Dropped [set to Null IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif)]: A whole bunch, as this was the first month where I really used the null function:

Citizens of Earth (3DS)
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS)
Donkey Kong Classics (NES) - Can't really beat this game.
Galaga (NES) - Can't really beat this one, either
Champions of Norrath (PS2)
Prince of Persia (PS2) - Sadly, the disk doesn't read
Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) - I'll be playing this eventually, but it's a "Null" right now because this was a gift for my wife, and I agreed not to take her game and beat it before her (or, at least, give her a reasonable lead time)
Nier: Automata (PS4) - Same as Horizon
Mario Paint (SNES) - Can't really beat this game
SimCity (SNES) - Nor this one.
F-Zero X (Wii VC)
Ballistick (PC)
Beat Hazard (PC)
Dungeons of Dredmor (PC)
Dustforce DX (PC)
Eador: Genesis (PC)
Guns of Icarus Online (PC)
Limbo (PC) - What a creepy little game. Even with the lights on, I can't handle it.
No Time to Explain! (PC)
QuestRun (PC)
The Stanley Parable (PC)
Super Hexagon (PC)
WizOrb (PC)

Played:
Shin Megami Tensei IV IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif)
Pillars of Eternity IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif)
Q.U.B.E. IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
Breath of Death VII: The Beginning IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif)
Super Hexagon IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif)
Spirits IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif)
Hollow Knight IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif)
Final Fantasy XIII IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif)
JumpJet Rex IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif)
Dustforce DX IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif)

Remaining Games:
166IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) / 66IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif)

Goals for August:
Finish SMT IV
Get through Act III of Pillars so I can finish it in September, before the end of the CRPG Club window
Maybe finish one other, short game
Maybe identify a few additional games I don't plan to play, and add them to the null list

July Report~~

Added:
Firewatch (Steam)
Star Fox Zero (WiiU)
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (PS4)
A Hat in Time (Steam)

Beat:
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD (WiiU)
Freedom Planet (Steam)

Made Progress In:
Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4)
God of War (2018) (PS4)
.hack//G.U. Vol. 1: Rebirth (PS4)
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (PS4)

Planned games to beat in 2018

Spoiler:

Assassin's Creed: Unity (Steam)
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -a fragmentary passage (PS4)
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (3DS)
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD (Wii U)
Banjo Tooie (X360)
Nier (X360)
Stardew Valley (Steam)
Life is Strange Before the Storm (Steam)
Resident Evil 7 (Steam)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam)
Persona 5 (PS4)
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (PS4)
The Witness (Steam)
Pikmin 3 (Wii U)
Child of Light (PS4)
Freedom Planet (Steam)

Another absolutely terrible month for me.

Finished:
Gravel + all DLC

Added:
Shining Resonance
Final Fantasy Type 0

Played:
Assassin's Creed Origins
Kingdom Hearts 1.5
Shining Resonance
WRC 4 (vita)
No Mans Sky

Ramblings:

Spoiler:

Another rough month for the pile, had a bunch of RL things on my mind which kinda put a dampener on the mood, ended up lounging around watching Youtube more. I did pick up Shining Resonance, I have been enjoying my limited time with it. FF Type 0 was a total impulse buy at 10 dollars, so thats a definatelly a total pile game.
Plans for August is hopefully get out of my funk and play some actual games. I think I should be able to finish WRC 4 on vita, I have about 10 races left in the season. I'm hoping to at least finish one of the bigger games I'm currently playing. I will probably give Kingdom Hearts 1.5 one more shot and if it dosen't grab me I'll just have to give up on the franchise. Assassin's Creed I'm near 30 hour mark rigth now and I want to say thats only about half way. Shining Resonance I'm still in early stages only a few hours in.
For purchases I have nothing planned besides the usual PS plus stuff and Humble Monthly. I will have to made a decision when I get closer to end of August if I will keep my Dragon Quest 11 pre-order or not. I shouldn't with amount of rpgs and other games on my backlog but its so pretty.

I need to get out of my funk, any recommendation for short games, that are easy to digest?

Summer clean up.

Finished:
Northgard
Cosmic Star Heroine
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
Tales of Berseria
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Uncharted: Lost Legacy
The Beginner's Guide

Added:
World of Final Fantasy
A Hat in Time

This might be it for me and the pile for the year though. Too many interesting "new" games coming out the rest of the year - starting with WoW: Battle for Pile-time very soon.

July update:

Added:

Nothing!

Played:

Breath of the Wild (Switch)
Goetia (PC)
Hollow Knight (PC)
Jade Empire (PC)
Pillars of Eternity (PC)
Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

Finished:

Nothing

July started with an intense work project followed immediately by family vacation, so the lack of progress was to be expected. Hollow Knight continues to be lovely, and most everything else is plugging away at game club picks with varying levels of enjoyment. Hope to knock a couple of those out this month.

Finished Wolfenstein:The New Colossus

still working on BATTLETECH and Super Mario:Odyssey

July 2018

July Completed
Zilch.

July Played
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
No Man's Sky
Fallout 4
Blood Bowl 2

July game time
Somewhere between 15 to 20 hours maybe?

July Purchases
Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Plan for August
Estimated available game time - Up to 40hrs
I've been playing a fair chunk less than usual this past month or two. I'm sure I'll put a little more time into No Man's Sky NEXT and hopefully get another couple Bloodbowl 2 league games in. If anything else calls to me, then cool.

Finally...

Game of the Month - January
Battle Chef Brigade

Game of the Month - February
Monster Hunter World

Game of the Month - March
What Remains of Edith Finch

Game of the Month - April
Slay the Spire

Game of the Month - May
Into the Breach

Game of the Month - June
Moonlighter

Game of the Month - July
No Man's Sky NEXT

My lord it’s past the halfway mark of the year and while I’ve played a lot I’ve beaten very little. On the plus side, I can say I fully explored three WOW expansions that I didn’t really play before so that’s a win. Hoping to beat Pillars of Eternity before September as well.

Two more backlog games down this month, at least going by calendar dates. I finished Final Fantasy XIII-2 on the first of the month. I also finally played The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. A Geralt-shaped hole now exists in my heart. Perhaps Cyberpunk 2077 will be game to fill it.

Other than that, played some new stuff, and replayed some old stuff, so no further pile progress.

I did play a few minutes of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, one of my pile games from PS Plus. It.. felt really weird on a controller. I didn't even finish the tutorial level, and I'm not sure I'll go back to it at this point. On top of that, I decided to let my PS Plus subscription lapse in October, which means both Deus Ex and Metal Gear Solid V will be unavailable to play. I want to play the latter "someday" but never seem to be in the mood. I certainly wouldn't be able to knock both games out by October anyway. So I guess those two will be removed from the backlog, or put in some nebulous hiatus state, for the foreseeable future. I'm extremely arbitrary about which games from PS Plus count as backlog games anyway, so I suppose there's nothing new there.

Not counting those two PS Plus games, that leaves a baker's dozen left on the pile. RDR2 in October will constitute the bulk of my fall gaming, I'm sure. I'm also looking out for a sale on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Birthday and Christmas gifts are wildcards. Perhaps 2019 will be the year the pile is cleared??

EDIT: Another game on the pile I tried was Stardew Valley. I was surprised and disappointed that I didn't really click with it. It's my first time playing a game in this style, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. But after 4 or so hours it felt a bit tedious and repetitive. It was also overwhelming trying to keep track of the number of characters, information, and side quests the game was throwing at me. I'll probably give it another try somewhere down the line, but I definitely bounced off it my first time.

Stardew plays better when you dont worry about anything and just play at your own pace, as far as I know there is no fail state or time limit.

I typically need some sort of structure to guide my playthrough of a game, so I didn't mind that they offered a bunch of goals and things to do. But in general I probably do need to adjust my mental state while playing. I have trouble enjoying games with a creative/sandbox focus.

beanman101283 wrote:

I typically need some sort of structure to guide my playthrough of a game, so I didn't mind that they offered a bunch of goals and things to do. But in general I probably do need to adjust my mental state while playing. I have trouble enjoying games with a creative/sandbox focus.

I hear you. I'm like that too with RPGs: I want to pursue the story and love finishing quests and achieving objectives. I have a good friend who likes a lot of the same games that I like, but often plays them with much more focus on exploring every nook and cranny of the game world.

Stardew can be a lot, but I think there's a way to focus on achievable goals without getting overwhelmed. I've written some tips below which include VERY light spoilers, and you probably found the spoiler-ish information anyway if you've played for 3-4 hours.

Spoiler:

pretty early in the game you can find a run-down community center inhabited by some weird spirits that will reward you for achieving certain things: catching certain collections of fish, supplying certain crops, finding things in the mines, etc. Make those your primary quests. You'll get a reward for each bundle you supply -- and some of them are quite nice and will help you do more on your farm -- and you'll also see the community slowly come back to life.

You can safely ignore all of the daily "help wanted" quests. The rewards are minor and their main purpose is to make individual people like you more. You can achieve the same thing by giving gifts. Figuring out a gift that someone likes, and then giving them a bunch of those, will boost your relationship plenty.

And when it comes to relationships, you don't need to be friends with everyone. Pick a few people you enjoy and try to get to know their daily patterns, likes & dislikes, etc. You might feel like you are slowly learning the community rather than getting thrown into the deep end.

Thanks, I'll keep those in mind next time I fire it up.

Spoiler:

I did find the community center, and I think I found a tablet or something, but I hadn't yet gotten the ability to do things for the spirits. I also stressed about the daily quests, so it's good to know I don't have to worry about them so much.