Did your pile become less of a mountain? - 2011 in review

Garden Ninja wrote:

Then, not much later, I see an email about a new Humble Indie Bundle for Frozen Synapse, plus a bunch of Frozen Byte games if you pay more than average. I'm not interested in all but one of the Frozen Byte games, but Frozen Synapse looks like a lot of fun.

This is the problem with these bundles: you'll end up with a whole stack of games that you're not interested in but that are packed-in with the one or two games you do want. Yes, it's five or six games for a few bucks, but are you going to get to all of them? Are you interested in owning them?

Right now, the above average cost of the bundle is about $5. Chances are very good that Frozen Synapse will be $5 in the Steam Holiday Sale, so why not just wait until then and only buy the game you're wanting?

Similarly, there's a sale on XBLA games around the end of each year. Granted, Outland probably won't drop below $5 then, but you'd at least be buying it after you've cleared a bit more of the pile.

Garden Ninja wrote:

a new Humble Indie Bundle for Frozen Synapse

Well, shoot.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

This is the problem with these bundles: you'll end up with a whole stack of games that you're not interested in but that are packed-in with the one or two games you do want. Yes, it's five or six games for a few bucks, but are you going to get to all of them? Are you interested in owning them?

Right now, the above average cost of the bundle is about $5. Chances are very good that Frozen Synapse will be $5 in the Steam Holiday Sale, so why not just wait until then and only buy the game you're wanting?

Similarly, there's a sale on XBLA games around the end of each year. Granted, Outland probably won't drop below $5 then, but you'd at least be buying it after you've cleared a bit more of the pile.

Or you know, just be cheap because you probably weren't going to buy FS anyways and go below the average.

[quote=mrtomaytohead]

Garden Ninja wrote:

a new Humble Indie Bundle for Frozen Synapse

Well, shoot.[quote]

I actually thought about spoiler-tagging it, because I knew it would be enabling. Clearly that wouldn't have been the right thing.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Or you know, just be cheap because you probably weren't going to buy FS anyways and go below the average.

I thought about that. Ugh.

Nope, gonna be strong! I just hope people are still playing FS in December when I will inevitably pick it up.

Thanks to recently being laid off I've found some extra time to work on gaming. So I basically picked inFamous 2 back up on Monday and just finished it tonight (well, as in beat the game. I'm at 89% completion, and am actually curious about the evil path in that game).

I was actually really pleased with how things played out in inFamous 2. I don't like the comic-book cut-scenes, really, as it just feels like summarizing unimportant information rather than letting it all play out, but I still like what they did. Good stuff.

Tuesday is Dark Souls, so that'll be on the list (and probably never crossed off). I think until then I'll be working on the Gears 3 online multiplayer as well as Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon.

Success:
Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero
Single line review: If you really love Quake II's single player, consider it; otherwise you can pass because it is quite annoying due to pace-breaking turret placement.

Failure:
Transformers: War for Cybertron
7.50 EUR on Steam was tempting, but I held off until I watched the trailer and realized that the Transformer designs had little in common with the recent movies. That pushed me over the edge.

Hmmm. OK. I guess this applies to games you can 'finish'? But I will also include titles that I have played 'enough' to call it done but will still keep playing - such as Red Orchestra 2.

* Red Orchestra 2
* Capsized
* Alpha Centauri - Although the UI might make me give up entirely right quick.
* Ben There, Done That
* Time Gentlemen, Please
* Blood Bowl
* Dragon Age Origins
* Din's Curse
* Fallout New Vegas, with all expansions (already beaten once just not with any expansions)
* Frozen Synapse
* Gratuitous Space Battles
* Sengoku
* Civilization 5
* Revenge of the Titans
* Sins of a Solar Empire
* Starscape

How does one insert a new column into the Google doc?

I made it through the big XBLA sale without buying anything!

There was an XBLA sale?

I made it through the big XBLA sale without buying more than three things!

The big commit (aka the End of the Year 3-month Pile Extravaganza):

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (XBLA) (est 5-6 hrs)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2) (est 17 hrs)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) (est 19.5 hrs)
Fable 2 (360) (est 15-17 hrs)
PAC Man: Championship Edition DX (XBLA) (est 4 hrs)
Oblivion (360) (est 93 hrs)
Oblivion: Shivering Isles (360) (est unknown)

If I knock out 2-3 of these I'll be happy, 4 I'll be stoked, 5... I'll probably buy a game to celebrate (d'oh!).

Edit: Well, that was fast... PacMan championship edition DX is now 100%, achievement wise. I consider that being beat/completed.

Paid my pre-order in full for Arkham City today, finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and bought Vanquish at three-dollars over my minimum limit. I felt vague guilt about the Vanquish purchase, but when I went in to update the spreadsheet, I saw that I did, in fact, declare it, so guilt somewhat assuaged.

I'd be all for trying to declare a 3-month pile Extravagansa -- particularly since the eleventy-billion-pound behemoth on my pile, Oblivion, got some love for me this past summer -- but I know between now and January, my time's tight. We shall see.

That said, I'm burning off some games this weekend, so we'll see what comes of it.

I delisted most of the 3DS Ambassador games; specifically, I moved them to my Wishlist and will move them back individually if I decide to play them. Just because I own something doesn't mean it's on my pile, and I'm not obligated to play it just because it came with something else I wanted.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I delisted most of the 3DS Ambassador games; specifically, I moved them to my Wishlist and will move them back individually if I decide to play them. Just because I own something doesn't mean it's on my pile, and I'm not obligated to play it just because it came with something else I wanted.

Huh. If I took that approach, that knocks like 10 games off my backlog.

Garden Ninja wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I delisted most of the 3DS Ambassador games; specifically, I moved them to my Wishlist and will move them back individually if I decide to play them. Just because I own something doesn't mean it's on my pile, and I'm not obligated to play it just because it came with something else I wanted.

Huh. If I took that approach, that knocks like 10 games off my backlog.

Similar here. I'm considering knocking any Arcade games off as "maybe will complete". That would certainly help me out.

OK, because I was curious what the number actually is, here is the list of unfinished games I got as part of a pack. The ones marked with a star are one that I probably would have picked up at some point, but were not the reason for getting the pack.

  • Half-life: Blue Shift and
  • Half-life: Opposing Force - in the Half-Life complete pack, which I got because I wanted Half-Life 1 and PC copies of HL 2 and episodes
  • Cortex Command,
  • * Machinarium,
  • Osmos and
  • * Revenge of the Titans - Part of the Humble Indie Bundle 2. Technically, the entire HIB 2 was a bonus from paying more than average for HIB 3. Braid was also in this pack, but I already had it on 360
  • And Yet It Moves,
  • * Atom Zombie Smasher,
  • Hammerfight - HIB 3. Atom Zombie Smasher probably would have been a reason to get the pack, but it was actually added after I bought it.
  • * Majesty,
  • Elven Legacy
  • Elven Legacy: Magic
  • Elven Legacy: Ranger
  • Elven Legacy: Siege - Came in a pack with Majesty 2, for only a dollar more than just Majesty 2. Seemed like a safe gamble.

That's 14 games, 4 of them starred. If I don't count them, that would knock the backlog down to 31 games. Not sure about how to track me though, since I'm using the Wishlist for The List, and Ownership Other for games I've lent to people.

My backlog is comprised of games I *want* to finish. If you don't want to finish it or don't enjoy it, jettison it (at least from your list). Life is too short to play games that you don't enjoy.

trueheart78 wrote:

My backlog is comprised of games I *want* to finish. If you don't want to finish it or don't enjoy it, jettison it (at least from your list). Life is too short to play games that you don't enjoy.

Here, here! I have no games I do not want to finish listed. What would be the point?

And that's why they got delisted.

trueheart78 wrote:

My backlog is comprised of games I *want* to finish. If you don't want to finish it or don't enjoy it, jettison it (at least from your list). Life is too short to play games that you don't enjoy.

Oh, I definitely do that. Sometimes when you buy a game it just doesn't click. Not what you expected, not fun, whatever. Going in basically blind just increases that chance. Most of the games above, I haven't even tried. I fine with abandoning them if they suck, but I want to at least try them out first.

Backloggery might be one of the best things to happen to me. Seeing those graphs showing me that I have over 100 games paid for and in my house that I need to play (that ignores games I might want to replay, of which there are several) made me realize a lot of things about buying, hoarding, and unrealistic expectations about "playing it some day." If I can finish two games in a good month, well, I need to start making hard choices. I have tried to play various Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill games for years, and it doesn't matter how much they are awesome classics, it just isn't going to happen.

So for a 12-month plan I really need to just sell/Goozex a bunch of noise, to start with. Then put together a realistic list of less than thirty games I want to at least try (presumably giving up on a couple if they don't hook me in a few hours) across platforms and genres, including upcoming releases. Then avoid temptation to buy common releases right away. All this is stuff that is common wisdom in this thread, I assume? I'm new here.

The rest of 2011 is pretty much taken with Final Fantasy IV (PSP), ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Uncharted 3, and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Maybe I can get another portable game in there when FF4 is done.

What then? Has anyone found themselves sticking to a plan they map out six or more months in advance? I have a decent shortlist, but am I fooling myself?

beeporama wrote:

BSo for a 12-month plan I really need to just sell/Goozex a bunch of noise, to start with. Then put together a realistic list of less than thirty games I want to at least try (presumably giving up on a couple if they don't hook me in a few hours) across platforms and genres, including upcoming releases. Then avoid temptation to buy common releases right away. All this is stuff that is common wisdom in this thread, I assume? I'm new here.

If anything, this thread has taught me that realistic expectations are at the heart of managing a gaming collection. You can either develop one of two sets of expectations: that you'll never get to everything you buy, or that you'll never get to buy everything that looks interesting. You can either have a collection where you play all the games or a collection that's just that: a collection and the fun you derive from it is as much from the collecting as it is from the playing.

Narrowing your collection to a short list is a good way to start if you're looking to actually finish your pile someday. It's that first good, hard look at the pile that's the hardest, though, as you really stop to think about which games you're genuinely interested in and which games you've picked up over time because you felt like you ought to, because you wanted to be in on a conversation that's long over, or because you were into that kind of game once but aren't anymore.

What then? Has anyone found themselves sticking to a plan they map out six or more months in advance? I have a decent shortlist, but am I fooling myself?

I just started my honest attempt at a six month plan. By coincidence, after a bit of housecleaning I have 24 unfinished games on my pile. I posted my roadmap for what I wanted to complete when just a few pages back, but I think I'm going to revamp that into a twelve month two-a-month plan, with allowances made for new releases and released games I want to buy (The List).

Edit: Sobering realization of the day: if the estimates at HowLongToBeat are accurate, I have roughly 17 months of gaming at my current rate to clear what's on the pile now.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

You can either have a collection where you play all the games or a collection that's just that: a collection and the fun you derive from it is as much from the collecting as it is from the playing.

Narrowing your collection to a short list is a good way to start if you're looking to actually finish your pile someday. It's that first good, hard look at the pile that's the hardest, though, as you really stop to think about which games you're genuinely interested in and which games you've picked up over time because you felt like you ought to, because you wanted to be in on a conversation that's long over, or because you were into that kind of game once but aren't anymore.

I like keeping around games I beat and enjoyed (seeing Final Fantasy on the shelf reminds me of the good times we had together) but I don't want the ones I'm never going to play ever around. So, yeah, time for that first good, hard look. Glad (?) to hear it isn't just me intimidated by that.

I don't think I picked up much because I felt like I "ought" to, or my tastes have changed, or anything. I think I've just been living with unrealistic expectations. So it's more like my pile can be divided into games I want to play, games I REALLY want to play, and games I REALLY REALLY want to play. So I have to get rid of the first category and much of the second, because it's a little paralyzing. Not to mention expensive.

If it is working for you, maybe I will ignore the thread title and just work up a six month plan after that good, hard look.

Zoda's Revenge: Startropics II (NES) is done. Impressions here.

The last two Assassin Creed games
Just Cause 2
NBA 2k11 (yep, that's right)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (really moving this to the top priority spot)
RDR Undead Horror
CM: Battle for Normandy

Finished up Costume Quest, which puts me 1/6 of the way through my pile picks for the end of the year. First impressions can be found here, and final impressions here.

Buying Gears 3 tomorrow and scouring for deals for XBox Live subscription renewals...

Strangeblades wrote:

How does one insert a new column into the Google doc?

Sorry Strangeblades, I'll get onto that for you straight away (if you haven't sorted it out for yourself yet).

I've been out of town on holiday for the past week or so, so I'll tidy this up for you in the next day or so.

beeporama wrote:

If it is working for you, maybe I will ignore the thread title and just work up a six month plan after that good, hard look.

Feel free to use this as a common landing point for 'pile support'. I was actually going to run this past the group as we are getting close to the pointy end of the year.

Do we want to start a new thread for 2012, similar to how Hemidal starts the monthlies, or do we want to make this the Pile Support Group moving forward?

I intended to do a change in title to identify and notify those subscribed to it about 'purging' the Google Doc to just those using it actively from those of us Backlogging it/not using it, but feedback on a new thread in 2012, or a continuance, would also be appreciated.

What say you huddled masses? Most vocal wins, (screw this democratic majority crap).

m0nk3yboy wrote:
beeporama wrote:

If it is working for you, maybe I will ignore the thread title and just work up a six month plan after that good, hard look.

Feel free to use this as a common landing point for 'pile support'. I was actually going to run this past the group as we are getting close to the pointy end of the year.

Do we want to start a new thread for 2012, similar to how Hemidal starts the monthlies, or do we want to make this the Pile Support Group moving forward?

I intended to do a change in title to identify and notify those subscribed to it about 'purging' the Google Doc to just those using it actively from those of us Backlogging it/not using it, but feedback on a new thread in 2012, or a continuance, would also be appreciated.

What say you huddled masses? Most vocal wins, (screw this democratic majority crap).

:)

[size=25]I THINK WE SHOULD MAKE THIS THREAD THE PILE SUPPORT THREAD RATHER THAN MAKE A NEW ONE FOR 2012.[/size]

Garden Ninja wrote:

[size=25]I THINK WE SHOULD MAKE THIS THREAD THE PILE SUPPORT THREAD RATHER THAN MAKE A NEW ONE FOR 2012.[/size]

[size=30][color=#FF0000]WHAT HE SAID!!!!!#$K@#$!!@![/color][/size]