Tips on Reducing Your Backlog and/or Going Low-Buy
I’ve recently become interested in minimalism and decluttering my life in general. When doing the research on these topics and discussing them with others, I have accumulated some advice and words of wisdom that helped me to reorganise and manage many areas of my everyday life, and I figured that some of them can be applied towards reducing one’s backlog. And so in an attempt to justify my procrastination I present to you this guide.
I decided to focus on 2 areas: reducing your backlog and buying fewer games since they contribute to your growing backlog (which makes it essentially the same thing but I’m the one writing this post, so we’re doing the things my way.)
Step 1: Organise your backlog
This can be harder that it seems. I could think of the following reasons to hold onto games you don’t really like: a) you have already spent money on a game, so you feel obligated to play it to get your money’s worth; b) you do not feel like playing a game right now but you think “I might wanna play it some time in the future”, so you keep it just in case; c) you enjoy having a large collection of games. (This is not an extensive list, so feel free to add your own points if you think of any.) Now let’s address each one.
A. Unless you’re still eligible for a Steam refund, the money you have spent on games is a sunk cost. No matter if you play it or not, that money is gone, you cannot recover it. Therefore, it makes no difference whether you play these games or not, so you might as well cut your losses and get rid of games that you know you won’t enjoy. (You can see examples of the sunk cost fallacy in everyday life as well, like people who stay in a relationship they’re unhappy in just because they have been together for N years. People tend to put a high value on something that they have invested a lot of resources in and not letting go of it even if it’s clearly not working out. For more info on the topic I suggest this article. But I digress.)
B. This one kinda relates back to A. You already have this game, so you might as well keep it even if you don’t like it. But chances are, you’re never going to play it. Think back to the times when you saved something “for later” because you didn’t need to or weren’t interested in using it right now. Like clothes you dislike that are shoved into the back of your wardrobe in case you decide to wear them one day. How many times have you actually worn them? Maybe once, but chances are, the vast majority of the things you hoarded are gathering dust somewhere.
Instead of looking at your game library as your possession, imagine that you’re in a store. Ask yourself: “If I didn’t have this game, would I buy it right now?”. If the answer is “no”, the game has to go. Hide it, remove it, or simply don’t count it as a part of your backlog. If you ever change your mind, you can always add it back, but there’s a 99% chance that won’t be the case. Simply speaking, if it doesn’t bring you joy, get rid of it (KonMari method, anyone?).
C. Different strokes for different folks, so I’m not going to tell you to downsize your library. However, as a former hoarder, I’ve found that less is more, and it’s much more satisfying to have a few things you love rather than many things you kinda like. When you have fewer games, you know exactly what your options are and that you will really enjoy whatever game you play.
Step 2: Go Low- or No-Buy
First of all, don’t tempt yourself. Stop looking through the Steam store or reading raving game reviews.
Second, realise that whenever you want to buy something with a discount - say, a $60 game with a 75% discount - you aren’t “saving” $45, you are spending $15.
Third, if you still want to buy it, you can always think back to your library and sometimes notice that hey, you already have a game similar to this one. Maybe you should play it first. Sorting your library as described above will be especially helpful since after you’re done you will know what kind of games you already have.
Finally, if you’re like me and want to go through your backlog before buying new games, remind yourself that the game isn’t going anywhere. It’s always going to be on the Steam store, so you don’t have to buy it right now since you can always buy it later. As long as you can resist the strong urge to buy a game immediately after you see it, chances are it will subside, and you will forget about the game completely in a few days.
I’m not your mum, so you don’t have to follow or even take to heart any on this advice. But I hope it was helpful to at least some of you.
(Pic is not related, I just thought it was nice.)
I actually went with Step 2 as my 1st step. Well, trying anyway. Organizing is a slow, time consuming process for me. I’d rather play than clean my room. : )
Otherwise, very good points to keep in mind when looking at your library or shopping games.
and that pic is adorable.
With 2k+ games in your library, no wonder you’re taking your time. :P
It gave me tremendous amount of comfort after I sorted out my library. I’m fairly new to Steam, I’ve had an account for a while but I’ve been properly using it for about 2 years now so during those early days I wasn’t as picky as I was now. I have a few games in my library I will never enjoy, the only reason I’m keeping them is because I will force myself to play them to get more achievements so I can balance out my average completion rate. Sadly mistakes were made during those early days.
During that time I also got some promotional games from websites like Indiegala etc. Before I know it I had like 350 games or so. Deleted about 60 of them and brought it down to 289 and I still think I have way too many games but the thing is I love state of my library and enjoyed everything I played so far (with the exception of the aforementioned few) the rest of the library is full of games I’m excited to play but afraid to start due to them having very hard achievements.
My initial wishlist was around 30. When I joined SG I found new games I was interested in so this number became approximately 110 so I could easily keep track of giveaways I wanted to enter. That was wrong so I sorted out my wishlist too and now I’m only keeping games I’d immediately buy if they had some kind of a discount without taking SG into account as I kinda stopped entering giveaways.
Doing all of this gave my account some breathing room. I felt like I was suffocating before. I definitely understand the notion of everyone being different but I honestly wouldn’t be able to live with a massive library I am seeing from a lot of people both of SG and BLAEO. Even 289 games are bothering me :/ I sometimes have the urge to delete games I enjoyed just to reduce that number :S
Yeah, I totally get this. It seems like the sorting never stops, but hey, whatever makes us happy, right?
I totally get what your idea is and what you try to achieve with this. I even like your wardrobe comparison. Buuut where clothes take up place games in the steamlibrary don’t - unless of course they are installed. So I wouldn’t just kick them out to make the backlog look more pretty. Because in fact it’s still not accurate, right? I mean, even if some games are no longer in the library you still own them and by that are still in your backlog. It’s just, that nobody sees them ;)
I actually have a buying restriction set up for myself (since I don’t have much money to spare mostly though :D). I normally don’t buy a game that is not on discount for at least 75%, sometimes I don’t even buy it if that is the case (for example: shelter 2 is atm on sale for 83% or something. But since I haven’t played the first one yet and by that don’t now for sure if I like it…..). I confess: I still buy games on regular price, but that’s just the case, if I really, really have to play the game. But normally that’s not the case and I’m happy to wait a bit longer.
I still like your ideas. I guess I’ll use them to get rid of some other things. Like clothes (I really liked that comparison ;) :D ) and stuff :]
Nice pic! (I wonder if that will ever happen with my cat(s) and dog….)
True, there’s no limit to digital space as there is in real life. But there’s also something liberating about sorting out your virtual stuff, feels almost as good as the real-life spring cleaning. ;)
If in life it would just be as easy sigh
I mean, I don’t even have to sweep through my steam or get rid of cat hair in there… Man, steam is such a wonderful clean and tidy place <3
At least for me :D
But, as I said: I totally get your point. It’s just not the thing for me and my steam relationsship :D
I decided a couple months ago to only activate or buy games that I’ll actually play. Before I used to redeem all these gleam games just because they were free games.
I’m also going to delete all the games in my “won’t play” list after farming the cards out. I’ll admit it is hard though, since it seems like the more games you have on steam nowadays the more popular you are. I’d much rather enjoy gaming though and having so many games has taken away from that.
Great guide, thanks for writing it up!
Glad you liked it!
Minimalism is very interesting. It’s nice to see it pop up here :)
I already do most of the things you mentioned, but want to extend it to all my possessions, like clothes, books, etc. Have you done anything like that?
There are some interesting posts/discussions here (reddit) sometimes.
I often try to explain the concept - using your example - “a $60 game with a 75% discount - you aren’t “saving” $45, you are spending $15” to people, but most don’t seem to care/understand. Something something consumer society. (I think anticonsumption is fascinating too.)
I’d love to get a gaming pc that can run the newest games, but my laptop can run most of them in low settings, so I’m a bit conflicted about that.
Anyway, thanks! I got a little off-topic :P
Have you done anything like that?
Yes! I recommend looking up “KonMari method”, it helped me immensely. There’s a book about it, actually, but I found that the author rambles a lot, so you might as well just read a summary online.
And well, ‘tis the nature of modern consumerism, isn’t it? People keep buying and buying, never stopping to think why.
I’ll check it out! And I’ll take your word for that :) Thanks for the reply.
People keep buying and buying, never stopping to think why.
Sadly, many people repeatedly do things without a true sense of reason, or worse, without a concern for the consequences their actions may bring.
Some almost poignant lyrics that have always stuck with me:
You ride the waves and don’t ask where they go
You swim like lions through the crest and bathe yourself in zebra flesh
Exactly what I did when I cleared my backlog… Asked Steam support to remove games I thought I’d never play and stopped acquiring games unless I’m 100% sure I’ll play them immediately.
I’d like to add:
- Organization - It’s better to play games in batches. Having 100+ games installed at once will result in indecision on what game/s to play. Limiting the number of installed games will make it easier to choose.
- Limiting acquisitions - Not buying games is not enough. The key is limiting new acquisitions, including games from giveaways (unless the games will be played soon), and other games given away for free.
Can’t guarantee that it will work for everyone, but it worked for me.
Good additions, thank you!
There is only one thing anyone can do to fight backlog… Play the games… :D
Organizing backlog and not buying/adding more games helps a lot, but in the end everyone has their own tactic(or not :D)
Lately i have been avoiding activating all the keys i got from bundles, even if it is a game i really want to play, unless i am ready to start playing as soon as activating. Somehow 650 unplayed games sounds better then 700-800+ :D
Somehow 650 unplayed games sounds better then 700-800+ :D
Every little step counts. I remember I had 70% unplayed games, and now I have 63% unplayed (according to SteamDB) - whoa, where did that come from? Things that don’t seem like much tend to add up in the long run.
Already made progress by 1% according to BLAEO list :D
SteamDB shows that i have 41% unplayed games, but that is just wrong data because i was farming cards :)
Awesome! We have similarities. :P Almost 2 years ago now I did a lot of research into minimalism as well. KonMari method was where I started actually. :3 I wish you lots of luck. It feels great. I still have an issue with owning too many clothes, unfortunately. :( I also have probably deleted around 300-400 games from my library total. I wish I had more to delete but there’s too much I actually want to play (plus some SG regrets in the beginning :x )
I have the same problem (removed 200+ plus games, still have too many). Maybe it’s just me, but the games that looked promising often end up not living up to my expectations after I play them for a while, so I remove them, therefore cheating the system. ;)
“say, a $60 game with a 75% discount - you aren’t “saving” $45, you are spending $15” Lies! Seriously, the simple logic of this almost made my brain hurt. I probably need psychological help to actually figure this out.
It’s pretty amazing to realise how irrational people really are, isn’t it?
I have another method. When i want to buy a game, i see my backlog in this web and i lose my desire to buy. Usually, it works very well.
Ah yes, this is a sad truth.
For physical objects, I have a (not entirely struct) one in-one out policy, to avoid clutter. For digital goods I don’t have the same discipline :( Luckily most of my games are from bundles, which I usually end up playing at least one game from, so I don’t waste that much money. And I’ve got better at dumping keys for games I don’t think I would play either on SG or on friends.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like having too many games in general, makes it harder to find the stuff you need.
It does, but not to a large degree. It’s really only when a game has some really generic-sounding name that I tend to have trouble finding it, usually I remember what games I have
Great post that I can resonate with!
I completed step 1 when I joined the site early this month and was surprised with the number of games I’ve not played!
And Step 2 is something I’ve been trying… until I see a deal I can’t resist (e.g. Fallout 4 + season pass for $22). I am so much better now though, especially when I think - am I going to play this NOW when I have hundreds of other games?
I’ve been employing the “No-Buy” policy for a while now. If I don’t need the game, don’t get it - and by “need” I mean I have to play it right now for the price.
Life is Strange comes to mind. I bought it from Newegg when they sold the whole season for like $8. Totally worth it. But now you can get it on sale from the Steam Store for $5. I played it as they released new episodes, so I don’t regret the purchase. However, if you don’t “need” to play it now, there is always a benefit to waiting.
The way I think is this - if I wait long enough, everything will get bundled.
The downside is I will probably feel less obligated to play it if I spent less money on it - but hey, there’s no winning against the backlog. :P
Though today I caved and bought that 39 games with cards for a dollar bundle, but that’s besides the point.
I like to think that I’ll get to every game in my library eventually… (except horror. Nope nope nope nope nope.), but I can only keep dreaming.
I’ve pretty much learned to accept that I’ll never be able to complete all my games - so instead of dreading the thought of never being able to complete them, I just pick games that I “feel” like playing and just have fun! Who cares if I don’t finish my backlog! Drowning in games should be a good thing, not a bad one.
I still have hope that some dramatic technological progress will happen soon, robots will take over all the jobs, and we all will get to retire 20 years earlier and play all the games we want. Before the robot uprising will intervene, that is. But alas, sometimes dreams are only dreams.
If you retired 20 years earlier, would you be able to finish your backlog?
I wouldn’t. Such is the nature of the Backlog. :P
If I played all day every day, maybe. :P I still haven’t practiced what I preach and cleaned out my backlog completely, though… But shh, don’t tell anyone.
I won’t tell a soul. We’re all allowed to have our own deep dark secrets, right?