2024 Update - Dr. Strangecat or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Backlog

I think I’ll make a list of backlog games that I really, really want to play, with the plan of doing a “backlog freeze” (no games added whatsoever) until I do.
This isn’t a formal challenge - after all I haven’t even made a list yet - but it’s more of a general goal moving forward, we’ll see how things go.

So that was a lie :3

I ended up being a bit too activation-happy with the odd bundle split here and there, so despite promising myself to keep the ratio positive I failed - just barely - to get a win over the backlog with 49 games beaten vs 54 added.

Frankly I’m not too sad about the results overall, considering I’m a survivor of multiple addictions (Balatro, Halls of Torment, Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers) and that I’ve logged 100-something hours each in several other games (Metaphor, Coral Island, Elden Ring + DLC).

I could say that this time for real!!! I’ll heavily limit the amount of game activations and get a convincing win over the backlog in 2025, but we know full well that a baseline of 20-30 games will always find a way into my backlog via cheap bundle splits or odd keys here and there ^^

Anyway, have fun in 2025! How many times can I recycle the same message? We’ll find out next year!

Congratulations! What has helped me the most in 2024 was not buying bundles. Seriously, I would buy one or two each month, just for the sake of it. I probably have bought 2 or 3 in all of 2024, and this helped me a lot to avoid the temptation to activate a game or two.

I always try to crack one or two SG Wins each month, and then spend the rest of my time going through my backlog / other libraries / addictions such as Slay The Spire or Vampire Survivors. While I could be making faster progress, the way things are going is sustainable and I’m enjoying my time with all my games. Good luck in 2025!

I haven’t bought full bundles in a long time but I still get the rush of wanting to participate in bundle splits whenever I see something that I may want to play in the future.
Seeing a wishlisted game go for super cheap makes it feel like you’re catching a deal that might not come again anymore, so it just feels right to buy and then maybe play later :D

Happy New Year!!! ᓚᘏᗢ
What is up with Balatro?!?! I didn’t even hear of it until the game awards and suddenly, a ton of people I know got addicted.
Have fun with Coral Island! Lets both beat it this year!!

I bought Balatro at launch after having played the demo over and over, I already knew going in that it’d consume a lot of my time :p

Not a victory but frankly not too bad, considering the addictions \o/

Embrace the chaos and the backlog and play games that make you happy and you’re doing great :3

:glare: as if you weren’t part of the backlog problem

I am an innocent sheep :sweat:

That’s dangerous mindset. Your backlog will start loving you back too much. These days I barely buy games and most come from Humble Choice. Even that alone still results in too many games coming in.