My current backlog:
Epic Mickey (Wii) - I don't think I'll bother finish it. Try to sell later for money for WWHD.
NSMBU - A little hard for my casual abilities. I'll keep.
Mighty Switch Force HD - Will keep playing.
Trine 2 - I'm very bad at this, but I'll try later.

It's like you were speaking directly to me. You've opened my eyes.

This generation there was way to many average games with not enough really good ones so I wait for everything to go on discount and buy everything without playing the games..I always say to myself "I will play this game" but because no game is really outstanding they just collect real or digital dust depending on how I got the game.

Good answers. Basically for me:

Time is the big factor. Especially now that I have a full time job, a wife, and a child...plus I am involved in some community things on weekends, and being a home owner I am working on fixing house projects.

With having a full time job, spending quality time with my wife, taking care of kid, house projects, getting at least 5 hours of sleep a day...yeah game time is little. Basically my main time for personal game time (Single player/adult multiplayer type games) I spend in the evening when everyone has gone to bed and my responsibilities are done. So by the time that happens there is little time for games...then its sifting through my backlog to figure out what I Feel like playing lol.

The other big reason is cheap sales. I honestly only buy maybe one or two games on release day a year. Those are the ones that I know I am really hyped for. All other games I buy are cheap sales of mostly $5, $10, $15, and $20. I rarely ever buy a game over $20 at all unless its a release day game I really want. Average price I pay is $10 on a game. I buy games that are less than $20 that really interest me and I know I will play them at some point. Buying any video game at $10 is hard to pass up when Im interested. So therefore lack of time and sales pile onto the backlog.

I would guess I have roughly 20 games I have not even played...a handful of which I bought 2 to 3 years ago. And another 10 games I have only played little.

Also a big problem I have is that when I play a game I invest almost all of my time into it when I enjoy it. If I enjoy a game I will likely spend months immersed in it until I have done every side quest, every outcome, ever achievement.

For example: I got Dark Souls in April of this year. In June I had all 1000 gamerscore unlocked for it...Then just a week ago I bought Dark Souls for PC to do everything all over again on PC...:) I love that game! It is the cause of about 40% of my current generation backlog. already logged about 260+ hours into it.

My story and reasoning as to why I have a backlog differs slightly than the rest of everyone's posts.



I have plenty of time first off, except that I spend most of my time on other things that I deem is worth spending on (chores, my garden, etc). I can't say the same with my games. I need to be in the mood and find some good "I want to play this game" time to actually plop down and play. Because if I just force myself to, then I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I would have if I did found some quality time. This along with the other fact that I don't have a lot of money on me, I like to have a small reserve so that I wont run dry on software that I had never played.

One last notable reason is that there are/were some games that kicked my ass so hard that after hours of trying to surpass/beat a certain part of the story, I burned myself out. So I leave it alone, only to come back a few years later to try again and I finaly prevail. F-Zero GX, and Viewtiful Joe were some of those games.

Most of the time I am simply not in mood to under take the task of starting one of my game backlog and dedicate enough time to finish the game in reasonable time frame. I don't to lose my focus on the story and gameplay because I waited a couple of weeks to play it next.

Unless you are very dedicated in finishing games I think it very easy to build a back log of games. As there's simply so much choices of worthwhile games to play out there on several generation of different consoles.

Does a collection count as a backlog?

Time. And the reason why I keep on adding games to the backlog, is simple: once a game I want to play reaches the right price, I try to get it while it's still available at stores in my town, as under a certain price, if I don't get it there, ordering it later and having it shipped to me would cost more, due to shipping fees as free shipping is very rare for small purchases.

Sales get me... I buy and play later when I have time