Attacking The Backlog: Playing One Video Game A Month Challenge

I enjoy playing video games, really, I do. It has been hard to get motivated to play when you either don’t have enough time or you feel like doing other things. We all know backlogs are the bane of every gamer’s existence. We simply don’t know how to lessen the backlog of games waiting for their turn in the spotlight to be played, or waiting to be finished in general.

Some of my fellow bloggers have posted how their 2014 resolution for video games is to tackle their own backlogs and finally see a game through completion. Thinking this is a great idea and also a huge challenge, I decided I’m going to be throwing my hat into the ring, so to speak.

Just some of the piles of games I need to finish to completion. There's maybe at least 3 or 4 games out of that pile that's already done.
Just some of the piles of games I need to finish to completion. There’s maybe at least 3 or 4 games out of that pile that’s already done.

You’re reading it here first on my blog. Your favorite blogger is going to play one video game to completion for one month for the entire year. Or die trying. Whichever comes first. Actually, I don’t want to die. I still have so much to live for!

Anyway, going back on topic, the hardest part about approaching this challenge is picking a game and system to stick with for one month. By doing this, I’m restricting my solo playing to just playing whatever game I have picked to finish. This could be anything from games for the Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, PSP, or Xbox. With this challenge, I’m hoping I’ll finally have less unfinished games in my pile and more finished games before I end up buying the next hit video game to come out later this year.

There are already too many games in various stages of progress and none that’s close to being finished. Maybe I need to start there? I’m open for suggestions. What doesn’t count are games I decide to play in between like, Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Nintendogs. These games don’t really have an “end.” There’s also the games that I’ve already finished, but tried doing another playthrough, like Mass Effect.

This challenge is about finishing what I started or start a brand new game entirely. I’ll be sure to write about my progress when I get started next month. I’ll be spending the rest of January feeling out the games I half-started and deciding which to commit to for the whole month of February. I don’t know how successful I’ll be. Maybe I might be good during the first two weeks and then fall off the wagon. Or I may fire on through the game of my choice for the month, feel the satisfaction of having crossed off one game from my backlog, and then share my victory with all my dear readers. Exciting stuff, right?

Please support and cheer me on as I slay the backlog beast! Also, please share your suggestions on how you would approach an insane backlog and stick to finishing one game from it.


17 thoughts on “Attacking The Backlog: Playing One Video Game A Month Challenge

    1. I’m hoping I don’t over pump myself out to get this thing tackled, only to write about how it lasted for a week and I’m still stuck with the small mountain I have. 😛

  1. Wow, that is a mighty pile you have there! The good news is that you also have a lot of great games there so you’re in for some great times.

    As for me, I’m the type of person that sticks with a game till the end so my advice would be to pick a game and play through to completion. Nothing quite like confusing control schemes or trying to remember where you left off from jumping around between multiple games at once.

    1. Thanks! Not every single game is featured in that photo, but most of it is. An added bonus is a lot of the games I own were given as gifts by my video game loving friends. 🙂 I’ve got plenty to keep me busy.

      I think I may just do what you suggested. I’ve already made it a bad habit of starting games and then not really finishing them. At least by picking a game that’s partially started, I’m nearly there in actually completing the game!

  2. Yay, I’ll be doing this too! I think it should be lots of fun. Maybe reading your posts about your games will inspire me and help keep me on track, too. Also, I agree with you that one of the toughest parts is just choosing which games to tackle first!

    1. We can encourage each other as we attack our backlogs together! 🙂 I may have chosen my game for the month. I actually started playing a bit of it already before the start of my challenge, but I’m still hopping around between games. I’ll get serious starting next month. 🙂

  3. Support, support, support, you’ve got it from me! Tis a noble goal to make and I’ve no doubt you’ll reach it. One thing that has helped me focus on particular games is to keep out only the game you intend to complete and put the others away in a place where you can’t see them everyday. It’s kind of like how people freeze their credit cards to keep from using them, though please don’t stick any of your games in the freezer! 😉

    1. Haha, thanks for your enthusiastic support! 🙂 That’s a really great suggestion. The only problem is it’s very hard to hide all my other games with my room space so limited. And no worries, the other games will not be going into the freezer. 😛 I’ll just remind myself to stick to one game and ignore all the rest. Here’s hoping for a smaller backlog by the end of the year! Or at least more completed games.

  4. Great idea! I’ve been drifting from game to game for the last couple of months and really need motivation to buckle-down and just finish one. My backlog isn’t the stack that yours is (you’ve got some fun ahead of you btw, I saw some excellent games in there), but it’s there. 1st step: dragging myself away from Pokemon X… 😀

    1. Thanks! I’ve actually reached success with this month’s challenge, which I’ll be writing a post on soon! Doing this challenge is a good motivator for sure. I’m eager to see how far I can go with this for the rest of 2014. 🙂

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