Simple, I don’t. I play whatever I feel like playing, sometimes I stick with it, sometimes I start again after a year and well sometimes, I never touch that game again.

I don’t have a backlog, I have a collection.

I clear my mind of the concept of a backlog, and embrace the idea that games are for my entertainment - thus if I am not currently feeling entertained, I can put the game down and not play it without guilt.

TL:DR; There is no backlog.

If I spend more than 5 minutes trying to decide what to play, I use one of the Steam game pickers and just go with it.

I maintain a TODO list (with tags) on GoG Galaxy and a wishlist on Steam. Whenever I want to play something new, I scroll through the TODO list and usually find a few games that I feel like playing at that moment. I hit install on a few of them, and play whatever installs first. After an hour or two, I get a feeling about the game, and decide: finish or uninstall it and remove it from TODO, or just uninstall it for another time and leave it in TODO. I rarely finish a game and put it in favorites, which I often replay. I only buy things from wishlist, if that is really what I want to play or there is a big discount. I never pre-order and I never buy impulsively.

I’ve accepted the fact that sometimes It is ok to let a game unfinished. If I had enough with a game in my backlog and I don’t want to play it anymore, I stop and play a new one, the game is « done ». If I finish then the game was a really good one !
Careful with forcing yourself to play !

I don’t worry about finishing a game, just about having fun. If I try a game and I don’t have fun, I put it in the “Tried it” category and move on

Gave up on that a long time ago 🤣

These days I mostly just have a nebulous list in the back of my mind of what games I want to get to and when I finish one (which, the Steam Deck has been a huge help with focusing down one game at a time), I move along to the next.

Also, I started cataloging what I’ve played on Grouvee, which is as close as I was able to find to Goodreads for games. Helps to be able to go back and look over what I’ve “accomplished” in the list of completed games.

I actually have a few strategies.

1. I never ever buy a game without knowing that I will play it in the next 3-4 months. At least the first intro/level.

2. When I see a new game in a series I won’t play/buy it unless I’ve at least giving the game two generations a good amount of investment. Example: sniper elite 5 is out and I went back and played through 3. It scratched the itch for that game and I’m not considering buying 5 for a little more time.

3. Same as two but with developer. If I really love developer. Like Supergiant and am going to play all their games. I won’t start a new game until I’ve given sometime to the previous game if I own it. I played through Pyre before Hades and glad I did.

4. If I see something new I usually just double check I don’t have a “similar /type / style game” and give it little time just to make sure I’m not interested in playing it over the shinny new thing. I’ve been able to pull out some really good games just sorting by genre and giving it a shot.

I’ll break these rules if

• my friends are playing a game and I need to play with them before they get bored.
• It receives all 10’s everywhere. Like Elden Ring.

Ultimately it’s your time. I have the theory that you you should try a lot of games you already own but if it’s a struggle to get through. I’m not talking about the difficulty. Challenges can be fun and not a struggle. If it’s mentally a struggle and you don’t care about the reward or the ending of the story then stop playing it. If you aren’t having fun or find some satisfaction after you play find another game.

The only game in my backlog is the Final Fantasy VII Remake and my strategy for clearing my backlog is “when my kids are sufficiently independent”. Right now that is not even a little bit a possibility.

I install all the games I have purchased but did not play. If I run out of storage, that absolutely means I shouldn’t purchase new games.

Luckily that hasn’t been the issue. Ever since doing this I’ve gone through my backlog and played a lot of games I had, and I’m close to being done. This summer sale will be my first time in a while to purchase a lot of games.