2015 Pile thread - 12 month plan

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Pile management, for some of us, we spend more time figuring out what to play, rather than sitting down playing the games themselves.

This thread exists to help those with a slightly larger problem than Hemidal's Monthly commitments can solve. This is where we take a step back, look at just exactly what it is we're looking at from our gaming time, and trying to find the best way to reach that destination.

As before, with the help of this thread, we will be committing to a reduction in what has now become our mountains of shame. This thread is designed to support those who need it, and complement Hemidal's awesome efforts in the regular, monthly, pile of shame threads.

Tools available to you:

Online management sites.
Some of us use sites, like Backloggery, or newcomer Grouvee to handle our piles. Pros and cons of each take up some discussion, but the main downside to Backloggery is that it has no batch modifications, and no 'export' function. Grouvee does a really nice job of auto loading your Steam Library, so if your Pile of shame resides primarily in that space, it's a good place to begin. I'll add more, as we find them.

Spreadsheets, spreadsheets, and more spreadsheets.
Be they Google, Open Office, or Xcel, making and maintaining lists has never been easier. Fully customisable, to meet your every need. Garden Ninja has also been hard at work creating a tracking spreadsheet for those that want to get really down and dirty with their respective piles. Feel free to make a copy of that file, and modify it to meet your own needs if necessary.

Using what you've already got.
Never underestimate the power of your own apps. Some of us have modified Steam's category features to help organise our piles. Hide, Long Term, Gifts Received, pick a category title, and work your own magic.
Danopian has some tried and true categories listed in our 2014 thread.
Kamakazi010654 prefers stealth management in their Steam list, using the 'hidden' feature to avoid clutter.

Things we've made
This section is dedicated to those who have taken up the challenge, put their money where their mouth is, and have actually given it a go at making an App that works for managing the pile.
Our inaugural contribution to this section is Garden Ninja, and an App affectionately known as Gomer.

Garden Ninja wrote:

As a reminder, here is the one I made and am using. I'm pretty happy with it now, and am about ready to release a 1.0 version (like, I'll probably do that tonight). I made it because I was sick of the spreadsheet, and wanted something that did just what I wanted. I don't really envision it changing much at this point, but I'm certainly happy to take feedback if people find it useful. It is a .NET exe, so probably Windows only, though I can look into making it work with mono if there is demand for it.

REMEMBER: This doesn't replace Hemidal's monthly thread, it just complements it for those of us that want that long term plan in place, some realistic dissenablement and to stop the impulse purchases (links will be added for each monthly pile thread here).
January: Brand New Year, Same Old Pile
February: February 2015: Pile of Shame
March: The Pile Marches On
April: This Pile Ain't No Joke
May: May I Clear the Pile?
June: The Pile Doesn't Get Summer Vacation
July: Declare War on the Pile
August: Going, Going, Gone!
September: It's a Labor of Love
October - December: This is the End, Beautiful Friend, the End

So, how do I start this process?

Pile depletion can be a very personal thing, but here are a few good questions/processes to keep in mind.

Trueheart's Quartet of Contemplation (where it all begins).

trueheart78 wrote:

Hemidal's Law: Anything that can be added to the pile will be added to the pile.

I love the pile of shame threads, but I'm contemplating starting a support group of sorts that goes hand-in-hand with it.

It would comprise of 4 parts:
1. Listing the games in our collections that we want to finish.
2. Looking forward to the game releases for the year/months ahead and taking note of the games that we're going to buy and at what price.
3. Looking behind to the previously released games and take notes of the games we're going to buy and at what price.
4. Committing to certain games via and making sure we take part in the Pile of Shame threads.

Clockwork's Addendum (alternatively known as the remedy for recurring transgressions).

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I will not shop for games unless I actually plan to buy something and play it right away.

But remember Minarchist's musings...

Minarchist wrote:

Tackling the pile is a good thing, but taken to the extreme it can impede fun.

beeporama's pile dieting tips.

beeporama wrote:

m0nk3yboy (and all): like with diets, it seems like the best motivator varies by person. So, try some things and see what profoundly affects you.

For me, I found it most effective to plan out a year. I said "I can average X games a month, so I'll list the 12 months for 2013, and schedule games for each of them based on my pile and release dates." Things moved throughout the year, but the important thing was, the schedule had to be "ONE IN, ONE OUT." Can't add a new game without removing one. Can't just toss a game on the pile without knowing it would be at least 2014 before I played it.

Shoptroll's affirmation

shoptroll wrote:

Everyone say it with me: Friends don't let friends have Steam Wishlists.

And finally, the internal ramblings of one haunted by the pile...

trueheart78 wrote:

Conversation with myself
Gamer: "Ooooh... [game] is on sale?"
Brain: "Are you ever gonna play that?"
Gamer: "I might..." / "But people say it's great" / "But that's a fantastic price"
Brain: "When?" / "Do you even like that genre?" / "Wrong answer!"
Gamer: "Well..."
Brain: "No [game] for you! Come back 1 year!"

Been working out pretty well for both of us ;)

IMAGE(http://members.iinet.net.au/~monkey.boy/MyPics/BoB.gif)
Quick Backloggery links for those that want them, carried over from 2014:

TrueHeart78m0nk3yboyshoptrollbeeporamaluggagephiluciferMaximusMinarchiststevenmackSallyNastyimbiginjapanhoneycut1mrtomaytoheadHiggledyAUs_TBirD (a massive pile) • VrikkcasktapperwalkeraGarden NinjaSteleMantidMaclintokfilthyspringbokFarley2kDemyxjdzappaUMOarsmaneleima more...

This year's tip: "remember, it's about the fun!"
I'm very much "in."

Eleima wrote:

This year's tip: "remember, it's about the fun!"
I'm very much "in."

Turn that pile into a smile!

It's not a Pile of Shame, it's a Pile of soft, downy, heavy, warm blankets to fall into!

This is scratching my list making itch in a big way!

I'm going to be trying to hammer away at my pile (sort of) this month, so no list making until the end of the month. Even so, still tagging because naturally I'll need the reminder of all the games I haven't played.

I'm trying to get my house rules in order. I've made a complete pile, 2015 plan, and "on deck" list to try and prevent dipping into too many games without deciding to finish them or jettison. Sticking with a solid group of 10 games considered "on deck" and only able to move up from the minor leagues if I take something OFF the on deck list. Reviewing progress each month and making some tough decisions at that stage.

And I think the "only buy what you are going to play right away" is going to be a mantra for me, as well.

The biggest problem is not to have too much fun doing all this organizing, and actually sitting down to play some games! (I wish I were being sarcastic...)

Debating over what my level of participation will be this coming year since I've now got 2 kids and I need to be studying to get licensed. I think at the very least I need to maintain a list of games I really want to put time into and go to it for inspiration when choosing my next game. I went from 20+ games beaten / year for the last 3 years to ... 11 12 so far this year. Also, I've somehow added the exact same number of games (23) each year for the last 3 years according to backloggery's memory card. I feel like a ton of those added this year ended up null / tossed but remain on backloggery for whatever personal reason.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Debating over what my level of participation will be this coming year since I've now got 2 kids and I need to be studying to get licensed. I think at the very least I need to maintain a list of games I really want to put time into and go to it for inspiration when choosing my next game. I went from 20+ games beaten / year for the last 3 years to ... 11 12 so far this year. Also, I've somehow added the exact same number of games (23) each year for the last 3 years according to backloggery's memory card. I feel like a ton of those added this year ended up null / tossed but remain on backloggery for whatever personal reason.

That second kid will make a big difference. I went from completing 20+ games a year to only seeing the credits roll on three titles in the last 2 years because of the little people, and a shift in work practices.

I had about a 50% success rate with my short list last year. It had eleven games on it, and I completed 5 or 6 depending on how I do with ZombiU in the next couple weeks.

This year, I'm going with a smaller short list that may or may not clock in as being longer than last year's in terms of hours required. These are all games I've owned for more than a year without finishing. They're my Sinister Six.

  • Rune Factory Frontier
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening
  • Devil Survivor Overclocked
  • Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
  • Metroid Fusion
  • Persona 3 Portable

Outside of the goal of beating the Sinister Six, I don't know if I want to have any more specific plans or meta-games for the pile in 2015.

I've had good luck with alternating between a couple games at a time, swapping them out when I hit major plot points. It's kept me from getting burned out on a couple longer games. I'm going to try to keep that up in the new year to power through some of those epic length games in the short list.

Definitely in. I have an incredibly shameful pile (mainly as a result of playing them for review purposes only and not getting through to them in their entirety). Just created my backloggery account and I'll be pencilling a list of games I want to get onto in 2015. Woo, motivation!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

This year, I'm going with a smaller short list that may or may not clock in as being longer than last year's in terms of hours required. These are all games I've owned for more than a year without finishing. They're my Sinister Six.

  • Rune Factory Frontier
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening
  • Devil Survivor Overclocked
  • Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
  • Metroid Fusion
  • Persona 3 Portable

I don't know about the rest, but Super Mario RPG and Metroid Fusion are not particularly long games. Also, I've done something similar and gone from my usual list of 10-15 pile games down to about 5-7 for the next year. I've had a much better time and rate of success by playing my new acquisitions this year and trying to keep them off the pile than playing through the stuff I already own.

I'd average Super Mario RPG at about 25 hours long, maybe. I also think it would be right up Clock's alley, though it's possible the gameplay will come off a bit simplified when compared to the recent Mario & Luigi games. Like playing a long prototype, I suppose. Still, should be something she enjoys. Tempted to encourage her to start with that one.

ccesarano wrote:

Like playing a long prototype, I suppose. Still, should be something she enjoys. Tempted to encourage her to start with that one.

The combat mechanics in particular are a lot closer to the implementation in Sticker Star than Mario & Luigi style (at least in the way the timed hits work). Definitely recommended as it's a nice romp that doesn't really outstay its welcome.

OP updated, let me know if ewe want any more links and stuff up there.

I've tried to make it more about the tools we use this year, rather than our reasons for using them

Spoiler:

I realised I also need to add quite a few names to that Backloggery list.

Goals for this year:

One 'series' completed.
Be it Assassin's Creed, Halo, Uncharted, Gears of War, Dead Space, etc. I intend to get 'one' of the series I held onto, worked through.

Work through my Wii.
I promised myself, 18 months ago, when I bought one 'for the kids', that I wouldn't fall into old patterns. Guess I was kidding myself.

Not allow my WiiU to become my 'new Wii'
Following on from the above, no new titles will be bought for the WiiU until the current game is at 75% completion. Gifts are allowed from others, but nothing 'self bought' is the rule.

Figure out my limits
The ball game changes next year. For the first time in the last 3 years, my children will both be in school, at the same time, at the same school, five days a week. Gives me back about 15 additional hours a week. Let's see how much of that will be games allocated.

m0nk3yboy wrote:

OP updated, let me know if ewe want any more links and stuff up there.

Spoiler:

I realised I also need to add quite a few names to that Backloggery list.

Indeed you should! I'm not even on there and I've been doing this for two years now.
Well done on the OP, I like the changes and focus on the tools we use instead of the wherefore and why.

/me skulks into the room and sits quietly at the back of the room, avoiding uncomfortable eye-contact...

omni wrote:

/me skulks into the room and sits quietly at the back of the room, avoiding uncomfortable eye-contact...

Nonsense!

omni wrote:

/me skulks into the room and sits quietly at the back of the room, avoiding uncomfortable eye-contact...

We're among friends here! **hugs**

I only made it 3 months as part of the 'gang' this year, and with no indication of what I'll manage to get through in 2015, especially as I'll only have 6 months until the END OF THE (gaming) WORLD.

I'll do my best

I have a feeling my list of finished games for 2015 will be even worse than it was for 2014. Next year is my fieldwork/student teaching year in school and not only will I be doing that along with classes, I also have to prepare for a couple of standardized exams for licensing. Add in all the homeowner obligations and regular day to day tasks and errands, I will really be lucky to finish *anything*!

On a good note, I haven't really been tempted to buy anything new in quite a while. Since I changed my philosophy away from, "It's on sale for a really good price, I should get it right now!" to, "Even if I have to buy it at near full price, it will still be better financially to buy a game I'm actually going to play right now rather than keep spending on games I may never get to play," I am able to turn away from the GoG, Steam, etc. sales and instead focus on what I already have.

I still get new games through the Games with Gold subscription and still will download any free games that places like GoG offer, so my library is still increasing...but at least not by vast amounts anymore. If I can at least keep this philosophy through 2015, I feel I will still be in good shape despite my lack of finishing many games. After all, it's not like I was finishing much of anything anyway.

bekkilyn wrote:

Since I changed my philosophy away from, "It's on sale for a really good price, I should get it right now!" to, "Even if I have to buy it at near full price, it will still be better financially to buy a game I'm actually going to play right now rather than keep spending on games I may never get to play," I am able to turn away from the GoG, Steam, etc. sales and instead focus on what I already have.

I had a similar change in philosophy last year or the year before and it's done wonders for how I view the pile and lowered the amount of stress I've had about all the unplayed games I felt I had wasted money on. Congrats on reaching a similar conclusion

I'm in a weird spot right now.

After doing my homework, Malor has helped me get a PC pieced together, for around the price of a PS4, XB1, and it's really impressive. I could hook this up to my TV, and just hit the ground running on my Steam Library. An untapped well of awesome (some 300+ titles I think).

But, I've also fallen in love with the WiiU...

That ships with MarioKart8, and it too represents an opportunity to get a backlog of Wii games 'tackled'.

I need to sleep on this. I might make the wrong decision.

Spoiler:

I'd love for 'both' to be an option, but I just couldn't justify spending AU$1,000 on 'entertainment', especially when this time last year we were struggling to even buy food. I've scraped us back from the abyss, and I've just completed a AU$3,500 freelance job as well, but still, I think I need to keep that for a rainy day... I hate growing up...

Starting 2015 preemptively with good intentions (when are they not?) and saying I pledge NOT to buy a PS4 before Xmas 2015 despite Bloodborne, but simply cannot say the same about the inevitable WiiU Zelda 2015 bundle (have you guys seen this new-fangled Zelda?!), especially since I just recently bought a WiiU for my daughter and, testing it out - only to make sure it worked, I swear - I fell in love with the delightful machine and Super Mario 3D World.

There's not single titles on my current systems that I think I'll be purchasing from the what has been announced to come out in 2015 aside from Persona 5, which I may or may not leave off as a PS4 purchase for when I actually get that system.

2015 looks like it will be the year that the pile falls for me... but that is still something up for much, much debate.

Honestly considering implementing a Kanban system for my pile.

I suppose I should start strategizing as well, seeing as the latter half of this year was not very pile-friendly. In my defense, this last calendar year has been quite an adventure: I finished grad school at the end of January, moved across the country to a strange new city about two weeks later and subsequently started my first real job, if you can call a postdoc position a "real job". I didn't even join GWJ until this past April. But enough bellyaching, not making the pile any smaller.

I'm doing my damndest to stem the flow of games in, which is crucial to making some real progress on the pile. I did slightly violate my supposed import freeze by cashing in GOG's free Age of Wonders giveaway, it's hard to turn down free stuff. When I saw a DLC pack for Electronic Super Joy on Steam this morning, I added it to my wishlist, realized my wishlist was up to 25 items and trimmed 7 items which I wasn't feeling so strongly about any more (that's why I use the wishlist, mark it now, see if you still feel the same way at some indeterminate point in the future). I realize that for me, buying games, especially digitally from places like Steam and GOG, is a dangerous form of "retail therapy", because digital purchases take up no "space" per se. I almost treat it as a perverse form of collecting, and the inner pragmatist in me hates that, because it's not cost-effective.

Since folks have been discussing categorization, here's how my Steam library is currently organized: "Beaten", games for which I've rolled the credits; "Multiplayer", games which only have a multiplayer component and I consider pile-ineligible (e.g. - TF2); "Null", games which aren't "beatable" and I consider pile-ineligible (e.g. - Stanley Parable, Goat Simulator, the pinball games); "Roguelike/Procedural Generation", self-explanatory, pile eligibility sorta ill-defined (e.g. - FTL, Don't Starve, Rogue Legacy); "Necropolis", the game graveyard, games I have dropped for one reason or another and refuse to pick back up barring a planetary alignment flooding me with space radiation; and the rest, games which have clearly-defined criteria that could make them "Beaten", but haven't been damned to "Necropolis" (so, "Purgatory"?). Two big problems here: first, those pile-ineligible categories, "Multiplayer", "Null" and "Roguelike", comprise a good chunk of my library, about 20% (6 in Multiplayer, 11 in Null, 15 in Roguelike). I can probably add more games to those categories, I noticed it while I was re-counting to be certain. They're concerning because they have the most replayability, therefore cost-effectiveness, and it's easy to sink a lot of hours into them without necessarily feeling frustrated or stymied (except maybe the Roguelikes). Second, the fact that "Purgatory" is such a wide net means it contains everything from unplayed games to games which I've sunk a lot of time into but haven't finished (best example right now is Sokobond, but there's also games like Anodyne, Long Live the Queen, The Bridge and Borderlands 2 which have languished). I've been tempted to go "Grim Reaper" and send a load of games to Necropolis, but I don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater (there's a few bubble cases, namely Castle Crashers, Battleblock Theater and Transistor, primarily games which I played and haven't picked back up for at least a few months, sometimes over a year). I sort of want to put these borderline cases in their own category, "ICU" or something, games which are on life support and aren't far from the land of the dead. At any rate, looking at the list again makes me realize I should try to update my categories, there's some Beatens and Multiplayers I can check off.

My issues to date have been analysis paralysis and motivation to play. The pile is too big for my brain to decide what should come first. I can think of a ton of metrics to "sort by": release date, purchase date, genre, average/median time to completion, and Steam Trading Cards are my obvious sorting keys. Broken record warning: that's why I started doing TL;DP reviews, I wanted to use actual gameplay as my metric. But even picking games for TL;DP got to be overwhelming, and I don't know what feels worse, having a bunch of unplayed games or having a bunch of games which I've played for about 2-3 hours and haven't done anything with since. I'm having attention span issues, hence time to completion is one of my metrics (and also why games like BL2, Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite and many more AAA games in the pile mock me with their sprawling worlds, DLC and enticement to roll new characters and play it again and again and again...). The analysis paralysis and motivation are sort of in a vicious cycle: if I don't have a game in mind, I don't want to play, and the less I play, the less I want to play in favor of other things to do in my free time. Not the place to be griping, but it's been hard to find free time as of late; as I've said before, I get caught up in work, come home and keep working remotely, and/or I'm so strung out from the day that I'm too tired to play and I just want an evening with the brain off. The dreaded "activation energy barrier".

My plan has always been to take it one thing at a time, in however small of a thing it takes. But it's been so hard to get started, feels like the games that I have been playing seem to miss more often than not. Not sure what it will take to right the ship. At least I have three or four weeks to get my sh*t together.

Hell of a Brain Dump there Bubs, but completely identifiable.

Quick mental exercise. Without looking at your machine, your notes, your email purchase receipts, write down the five games from your pile you 'feel' the most excited about playing in the next 12 months.

Now grab another piece of paper, and write down the next 5 from your pile you'd play.

You now have an A list, and a B list. Play through any of the 5 on that A list. If you don't feel it, add it to the ICU list, and swap in a B list substitute.

Once you've played, finished or abandoned these 10, do the same again. Short lists, and a similarly short list of alternatives, help get some traction on the pile, and you're also guarantying enjoyment, as they are titles that were 'front of mind' when you generated those options for yourself.

Remember, the best way to eat an elephant is one small bite at a time. And don't worry about not spending every waking moment working on the pile, its not going anywhere, so there's no need to rush.

Yeah, I'm verbose and I wear everything on my sleeve. It's a curse, I'm afraid.

Thanks for the shortlist suggestion. I call any sort of attempt to sort through the pile wreckage "triage", and making a shortlist is definitely a good triage technique. I do love the "one thing at a time" philosophy, it's seen me through hell and high water. I think the last few weeks of 2014 I'll devote to lower-tech games, things I can play on my laptop, either on the road or on the couch. Once I'm back, I can start my 2015 pile campaign in earnest. I'll definitely keep you guys posted as I resume my crusade.

I've actually finished 2 games already in December, which is an order of magnitude greater than anything I've accomplished since about April. I didn't join in the December pile thread, though, but it still feels good. I'm hoping to add another 1 or 2 to the 'done with' list by the end of the month, be that completed or just finished with.

One of the issues I'm beginning to have with pile management is the fact that the resource which games require (free time) is also shared by other interests. For me, that's focused studying in regards to programming.

I'm trying to come up with a way that I can better keep my eye on what I want to be spending my free time on, because it's really easy for me to forget about what I was studying when Dragon Age shows up.

I don't expect anyone to have any answer aside from, "well then, manage them together", (which is what I'm thinking on) but I'm listening

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