Two Years BackBlogging

Two years ago this Saturday I started chugging through my backlog, and I thought it would be sort of fun to discuss how I thought this was going to go versus how it's actually going.

Time Commitment: 

When I first started this back in June 2010, I thought I would be done with all 91 unfinished games in about a year, maybe 18 months. Well, the fact that my 360 died certainly helped lighten the load, but in two years, I've only managed to beat 33 games.

That's actually not too bad now that I'm looking at it. Before I committed to beating everything I had, I would probably average 3-5 games a year, so its significantly better than what I was doing. Especially now that I have a budding photography career on top of my day job and wife and dog and 5-times-a-week gym membership - I would say I'm doing OK.

On the other hand 33 games isn't even the halfway point of my collection. I've still got 51 games to go.  Buh.

This graph adequately represents my gameplaying habits. Yes it does. No, you're stupid.

The Rules: 

These were the original ruled on day 1 of my adventure.

• I will go through my collection chronologically by generation - starting with Nintendo, and ending with PS3. I will of course be saving the Super Mario Bros trilogy for the end. 

I'm still saving Super Mario Bros for the end, but I didn't go chronologically. I ditched this rule right out of the gate as my first game was FFXIII for PS3. 

• I can make no new game purchases until every single game in my collection is beaten. This is key - and one of the major reasons I'm doing this blog. I spend too much money on games and don't value them enough. I want to really appreciate the value of each of my games. So making this public statement will keep me honest.

I held out for a long time on this one, and for about a year and a half, I didn't even accept borrowing games as I wanted to focus on my backlog. But these past few months I've accepted quite a few borrowed games and actually bought Xenoblade with real money. No more! I can't let this get out of control again.

I must resist.

• I will only play games that I have not yet beaten. Games that have been finished can stay on the shelf for now. In some cases I may play through a game that's already been beaten just for fun. 

I held on to this one for sure. I've picked up a game here and there for fun, but haven't really been distracted from the main objective. 

• No cheats. No warp zones. I want to gain complete mastery over every game in my collection. If I get really stuck I will allow myself to use a walkthrough, but nothing that modifies the game or makes it easier to beat. 

Fail. Though I generally stay away from cheats, I cheated on Mega Man 1's cyclops boss. It was just too tough. 

• Some games don't really have an end or a way to be beaten. I will analyze how to approach these games on a case by case basis. 

The only one of the "orange games" on my list that I've attempted was Geometry Wars - and I wasn't able to get my goal of 1million points, and my 360 died before I could achieve it. 

• If I decide I cannot beat a game, I must either give the game away or if it is a game I downloaded, give the cost of that game to charity. 

This I have not followed at all. Hold me to this rule, fellow readers. If I quit a game, send me your mailing address and I'll send you the game. 

I could be saving orphans $5 at a time.

•  After beating each game, I will write a review about it. 

I've stuck to this rule hard core. I've now got 32 game reviews - and a few iOS reviews - up on this site. I hope to make this a resource for people interested in buying older games as my reviews are honest and untainted by the free copy that most reviewers get. 

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So I pretty much suck. I've broken almost every rule I set for myself, but I've made some progress and spent significantly less money over the past two years. You've probably got some great games sitting in your backlog just waiting to be finished. Challenge yourself to beat at least one game in your backlog before buying a new one - then up the ratio to 2:1 - there are some real treasures in your unfinished games. All you gotta do is find them.