I've got 1001 games and I'm just not done

Source // Wikipedia

Every gamer knows of the backlog. This book has added just a few titles to mine...

For the lucky few who don't know what a backlog is, it's that endless to-do list of things that you really hope you'll get around to doing one of these days. You know, when the heavens open up, you're shut inside and the Internet isn't working. Or Thursdays, whatever works for you.

The backlog sits there, silently, knowing that the only action you'll ever take is to add to it, because that's all you've got time for. When will you ever find time to cross something off the list? You won't.

You'll add to it, because adding to it is the easy part, it takes seconds. The backlog loads, you scroll down to the bottom of whatever page you've reached, you add the latest title that you'd like to play when you've got time and then you close your backlog. 

Without saving, because that's done automatically these days. You're so lazy with acting on your backlog you don't even hit the save icon, or even use the keyboard shortcut, you lazy sod.

So what do you do? You change the way your backlog works for you.

Backlogs are not a chore

I recently bought this book, "1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die". Such a title is out of date as soon as it's published, which is unfortunate, but that's backlogs for you - always something to add to them that you didn't have before.

I'm sure some of the games therein are already in my backlog, and I'd like to think I've enough taste to have owned, played and completed a few of them too, but it does mean that I've given myself an awful lot more work to do if I'm going to be able to claim that I have in fact played Q*Bert.

Or has it? You see, if you approach your backlog as though it's work, as though it is a chore that you must get out of the way first in order to reward yourself later, then you'll never get past staring at that lengthy list of titles you never do anything with.

If, instead, you see your backlog as a kind of educational experience, where you get to learn a bit of history as well as have some fun, you're already on the path to actually crossing something off your to-do list. When the doing something is itself the reward for doing something, a winner is you.

I'll detail how I'm going to approach this backlog in another post, and it may well ruffle a few feathers in places, but hopefully not too much.

Follow along, you might discover something

Seeing as I've got a good number of titles to rabbit on about, why not tour the gaming world with me? I'm sure there'll be enough distractions along the way to keep things interesting, and how I do things will probably evolve over time.

Given that I'm a blogger now, I'm allowed to hold any opinion I like and shout it as loud as I want, so there might be some of that dotted amongst the games. If a news story catches my attention enough, I'll chip in with a little something. What's another voice amongst a crowd?

Unless it's that one voice that says something so utterly stupid that everybody turns around in silent shock.

Still, here goes.