Battling the to-play pile

[drone]

I can't say I've gotten as far behind as you have on games, but I suppose I have had a similar experience: Warhammer.

Back in the days when I had spare time, no worries, and plenty of disposable income (in other words, my 20's), I became a Warhammer fan. First 40K, then FB. I also have a slight OCD condition, where I like to collect complete sets of things and oddities. Not a good combination, as eventually I had to take great lengths to prevent the EPA from declaring my apartment a lead-saturated Superfund site.

Now, the point of the Warhammer hobby is to paint up an army and play it. I enjoy the painting (probably more than the game itself, used to do models and artwork as a child), and I like to add lots of detail to even the rank and file. But there comes a point when one looks at the vast pile of bare metal, and despairs where to start. I reached that point, and from then on, I made the following rule: Not allowed to buy a new figure, until one of the same size gets painted. Definitely made it more manageable. The same rule can be applied to video games.

[Mikeus Caesar]

You're lucky you have so many games you need tog et round to playing - i have a very small income, and as a result have to be careful about what i choose to buy.

Oh, to be spoilt for choice...

[frogbeastegg]

But as it seems you have with games what normal women have with clothes.

I think you could be onto something there. Instead of clothes, shoes and handbags I've got books, games, and more books. Lol, at least I keep up with the books - mostly. When you read a couple of hundred titles a year and work in a bookshop it's inevitable your house resembles a library.

The same rule can be applied to video games.

Drastic! I admire your willpower.

Hmm. Might have to take the plunge on that since my current set up is failing miserably. Gah! It's going to be tough. I shall have to keep away from the sales and online shops; I refuse to pay anything like full price for most games, so when I see something like Valkyrie Profile 2, a game I've been hoping for a PAL release of for months, for £17.99 I'm useless. :sigh: That's another 40 hour game which will take me a month or two to get through.

You're lucky you have so many games you need tog et round to playing - i have a very small income, and as a result have to be careful about what i choose to buy.

Indeed. I worked my way out of the 'Gah! I have no money!' phase a couple of years ago, and those years have left their trace of me. I buy books and games now because one day I may be back to getting by on next to nothing. At least then I won't be back to struggling to afford the 90 pence library request fees; I've got my own library.

I'm presently in the 'too much money for my bills and savings, but not enough for the exorbitant house prices' phase. That's what I really want: a home of my own. Instead I end up with Final Fantasy XII because it was half price.

[Noir]

Originally posted by frogbeastegg
Lol, at least I keep up with the books - mostly. When you read a couple of hundred titles a year and work in a bookshop it's inevitable your house resembles a library.

I remember with horror the period of my life that i did the same thing as most books aren't worth the paper they are printed on IMO; eversince then i read few books many times rather than few times many books and have made the most like this out of my reading experiences, i feel.

[Xiahou]

Well, I guess I belong in here.

I recently started a wish list in Amazon to track games I'm interested, but don't own- there are a dozen games on it at the moment. I find it helpful to keep a list like that, because whenever the time comes to actually buy a new game I just refer to the list and pick one using similar criteria to yours.

I think I've made some headway, in that buying and playing/completing are keeping a pretty good pace with each other. The real challenge, though, is going to be wading into my backlog of already owned games and spending some time on them. I have a stack of games for the GameCube alone that deserve some attention. My first target for that will be Metroid Prime 1&2, so I can get 3- which is a game that I'm really looking forward to.

[Ser Clegane]

That all sounds acarily familiar

There are currently way too many games lying on (and beneath) my desk that I did not even get close to finishing.
I better refrain from making a list here for the time being - that would probably make me feel even more bad.

To add insult to injury - there is a pile of unread books waiting right next to the unplayed games.

I think I should consider a one-year sabbatical to take care of this "problem"...

[FesterShinetop]

Yes, this all sounds very familiar... especially this part:

Does the lure of the new and shiny always pull you away from the here and now?

I also got a big pile of games I still need to finish... I'm gonna be bold and make a list:

Games I am actually playing at the moment... well... for the time being that is:
Hitman Bloodmoney
Jade Empire
Armed Assault

Games I was playing untill recently, but are still not finished (and thus replaced by the "newer" games above...:
Half Life 2: Episode 1
Fable
FEAR
Prey

On top of that there are the games you can't finish but that I still play on a regular basis:
Civilization 4
Red Orchestra
GTR2
Race
Flight Simulator 2004

And then finally there are the games that can't be finished, that I played a while but I really really need to get back into...:
Europa Universalis 3
X3 Reunion
Silent Hunter 4
Medieval 2: Total War

And this is only the games I have installed at the moment...

And I am allready planning on getting Bioshock when I get my new PC (which I hope is tomorrow). I am hopeless...

Though looking through my collection there luckily is also a lot of games I DID actually finish... so I guess not all hope is lost! Ah well, as long as you're having fun, right?

[frogbeastegg]

I remember with horror the period of my life that i did the same thing as most books aren't worth the paper they are printed on IMO; eversince then i read few books many times rather than few times many books and have made the most like this out of my reading experiences, i feel.

I do a fair bit of research into most of the books I buy; read excerpts, reader's comments, that sort of thing. For the most part I like what I read. Since I dabble with writing even the horrific books are worth the time; they can be highly educational in what not to do.

The real challenge, though, is going to be wading into my backlog of already owned games and spending some time on them.

Agreed. This is the real problem for me. If you keep up with the more current releases the backlog never gets touched. If you concentrate on the backlog the new releases slip by. I try to balance them and that only means that I'm not making much progress on either.

It doesn't help that my backlog has a large number of very long games in it. Things like Dragon Quest VIII take me months to finish.