The chances are that if you’ve found your way onto Tap Repeatedly, you have a videogame backlog. You can deny it all you like, but you know. You know, I know and The Log knows. The Log sees your ever amounting pile of games. He sees them and he laughs. Sat there, freshly chopped in the woodland, all sly looking, costing you money and time..
My name is Mat C and I have a backlog problem. I know I’m not alone. If you own a Steam account or have more than two PlayStation 3, Wii or Xbox 360 games to play, you have a backlog. If you’ve pre-ordered a PS Vita, intend on buying a PlayStation 4, NextBox or Wii U, you have a backlog before you’ve even purchased any hardware to tackle it on.
At Tap Repeatedly, we can help you. Or just laugh and mock. We’ll see how this goes.
The start of a new year is of course the time for making crappy resolutions you have barely any intention of keeping. I’ve already broken mine, including one about not buying any more games. To promise not to buy any games in 2012 would be a silly promise to try and keep, but there are things we can all do to help each other play and finish what we already have.
With this in mind, let me welcome one and all to The Log of Shame. The rules are fairly simple, and are as follows:
- Every game you currently own but are yet to play or finish playing counts as part of your backlog. Time is irrelevant. If you still have a pile of SNES games you intend on playing, they count towards the backlog.
- Start your yearly tally at 0. For any game you finish playing, add a +1 to your score. For the purpose of The Log of Shame, finish means to play any game in your backlog until you feel you are done with it. For most this will be to simply beat a single player campaign once, but for multiplayer or more arcade, score attack based games simply playing the game until you feel you are done with it will suffice.
- For every game you purchase or otherwise acquire, subtract a -1 from your score. This includes digital downloads, retail purchases, iOS, PSN and Xbox Live games and any games you rent or borrow from a friend which you intend on playing.
- The Log of Shame will be updated towards the end of each month. Please leave your updated scores in the comments below.
- DO NOT TAKE THE LOG OF SHAME TOO SERIOUSLY. This is very much intended as a fun and light-hearted way to encourage Tap readers to play the games they own rather than just collect them. The worst thing that could come out of this is if people feel they need to rush through games or avoid buying games they intended on buying for the sake of The Log. Try not to change your purchasing or playing habits too dramatically, even when incurring the Megalols of everybody else on Tap Repeatedly for your shameful overspending.
- Do game mods count? For the purposes of The Log of Shame, mods to existing games do not count. I think installing mods is a little too vague an activity to really count as a plus or a negative, as these can take a variety of guises.
- What about DLC? Although game mods do not count, campaign based DLC most certainly does. For example, purchasing Deus Ex Human Revolution: The Missing Link would count as a -1, as this adds story based content for you to play through and complete. Purchasing horse armour or other trinkets for general use in games you’re currently playing has no effect on scoring.
- What games count towards scoring? Basically, any game you currently own and intend on playing is a potential +1 in the waiting, whether you bought it in 2012 or at a jumble sale in the mid 90s. Only games purchased between January 1st 2012 and December 31st 2012 count against you, but any game currently in your humongous collections can potentially be counted in your favour. This is merely a fun way of recording how many games you finish vs how many you actually buy this year, and we’re not fussy over how old the games you’re playing are.
- I already own and have finished a particular game, but it’s just appeared on Steam at 99% off! Do I score -1? Good news, Steam addicts. The Log shall not penalise the weak. He is understanding of your pain. So long as the game you are buying is one you already own and have previously completed prior to January 1st 2012, The Log will not punish you for adding the same game to your collection on a different system.
- Oh Mat, how can I be as charming and courageous as you? By flossing twice daily, eating your greens and sticking to a rigorous morning fitness regime.
For example:
Monthly Report: This bit is optional, but why not give us an update on what you’ve been playing and the games you’ve beaten or acquired? For example, I’ve not managed to beat anything this month due to finding myself once again addicted to a particular game of Football Manager 2012, and although I’ve made good on my personal promise not to buy any Steam games until the summer sale (at least thus far), I have recently re-bought a Nintendo 3DS and have obviously picked up some games there. A bad start all round for me, and I’m therefore at -3 from the off. Oh the joys!
Feel free to update your own scores for January anytime from now, if only for our personal amusement as much as anything. Or just to make me feel even worse for my terrible start to the year. I need someone else to deflect The Log’s piercings stares and taunting.
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com.
Steerpike’s Log: Jan 22, 2012
Acquired: 4
Completed: 0
Current Log Score: -4
Man, am I glad we’re not starting with our existing backlog. Then it’d take me a year to work up to zero, and that’s even with ignoring the “don’t take this too seriously” rule, and Mat’s accurate remark that it’ll be impossible not to buy games this year.
You and me both Matt. If we started from the very start taking all our existing backlog into account, I would need to break the abacus out within a month.
Better and less embarassing to start from this year for all concerned, I think! Although good to see the two of us have made such great starts..
My existing backlog is terrifying, but I haven’t bought any new games yet this year! Go me! I did DOWNLOAD a game, though: Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s “Level With Me” mod pack. Does a new mode to an old game count for half?
I think we can let you off with a zero for that, Amanda!
Oh dear.
Gregg’s Log, Stardate -310938.83367486345, (that’s real you know) or “January 23rd 2012”:
Acquired: 4
Battlefield 3, later swapped for Dark Souls
Dead Space 2
The New Years Bundle: Nuclear Dawn, Max and the Magic Marker, Fractal and Super Crossfire (I don’t intend on playing the latter two titles)
Completed: 0
Score for January: -4
Edit: Shit! Bulletstorm! -5!
My name is Ove and I have a backlog problem.
Acquired: 8 (Rayman Origins, Dustforce, Flatout Ultimate Carnage, Painkiller, Tiny Bang Story, Dead Island, Skyrim, Arma II)
Completed: 0
Score for Januar: -8
I am so glad we don’t include our earlier purchases in this. My backlog is longer than longcat since I love Steam so much: http://i.imgur.com/fIsK5.png
Why can’t I control myself when I see all those great deals?!
That’s brilliant Ove, amazing start to 2012, haha.
Nobody can resist the deals, that’s the beauty of it all.
Gregg and Ove leading the way so far. You’ve all made me feel better already! I have a feeling this could get really interesting come June/July..
lol. Awesome idea! Like many, thank God our current backlog is not tied to the equation, because it would take me 8 hours to compile and my score would be in the negative 3 digits!
January 2012
Games acquired: 2
Oddword: Stranger’s Wrath HD
Uncharted 3
Completed: 1
Uncharted 3
Score for January: -1
Tap-Repeatedly Log of Shame Play By Play, with Steerpike and Steerpike
STEERPIKE: Well Steerpike, this promises to be a long and grueling fight to the finish.
STEERPIKE: And we’ve only just begun, Steerpike, it’s only going to get more and more desperate.
STEERPIKE: Right you are, Steerpike. Amanda “Looks at Boobs” Lange leads the pack with a solid zero, but I’m thinking this score will dip soon.
STEERPIKE: As a game studies teacher there’s a certain expectation she stay abreast-
STEERPIKE: -which she’ll surely look at, yuck yuck
STEERPIKE: …not even gonna justify that… she stay on top of new game trends and releases. That means buying. Meanwhile Tanis38 bought two but already wrapped one, not too shabby.
STEERPIKE: Not too shabby at all. And welcome to newcomer Ove, whose candor about his Log Problem draws instant respect, but that -8 is going to be hard to come back from.
STEERPIKE: Meanwhile, Steerpike is enthralled by Dark Souls, a pre-competition game, so even if he does finish it, he won’t score a point. He’s in trouble, for sure. I like Gregg B’s position, though, as Bulletstorm is a sure finish for a guy with his sense of humor.
STEERPIKE: Stay tuned, folks!
As I understand it, if you finish a game in your backlog (remember that’s the entire thing, old and new) then you get a point. It’s just the acquisition of new games that knocks points off.
@Ove: That’s one hell of a mix of games you’ve bought there. Good stuff!
I’ve updated the post with some general Q&A queries which I consider relevant. I’ll add more if and when they arise in the comments.
Keep posting your logs, people. We have no shame here.
Bwa ha ha. Is that really my thing now? That I look at boobs? Very well, so be it!
I finished the modpack so I’m still at, um, zero out of zero here.
No, we’ll let it go after this. It had a 72-hour timer. 🙂
In 2007 I had a vision that foretold of the Log and sold all 400 games stored in my attic in preparation for the victory that would be mine. Imagine my despair that Mat, yes Mat from some frozen island next to Finland or something, would hear the call and take it upon himself to set the timer at 1/1/2012, preempting my glorious victory.
In that spirit:
Games acquired – 0
Games completed – 0
Score – 0
Someone’s gotta get Scout on Steam so we can all chip in and gift him the entire 1C library or something. I think that’s like 77 games. 😉
Actually, I can see the potential for all kinds of evil and sabotage in this!
Does completing a demo count? 😀
I have a slightly different problem. I acquired Bulletstorm and have played through it 7 times. 4 at normal, once on hard, and twice on very hard.
It sits there, on my gaming pc, right next to my work pc and says:
– Hey there, sushi dick, how you feeling today? Why don’t you reach over and [REDACTED]. Next thing you know, I’ve played for an hour. That makes up for the Total War series, which I suspected I would never play when I bought it.
But, but, what about MMOs? I’m playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Realistically, I’ll probably only sub another month at most – *then* I can call it finished.
Hmm, think I’ve figured out how to exploit this Log thing. If one (hypothetically) has a year or so backlog on 12/31/11 and (theoretically) doesn’t buy any more games, then from 1/1/12 his (or her 😉 ) score should be +1, +1, +1 ….
Win!
Pro tip, guys. This isn’t necessarily a competition..
..but if it was, ending up with the highest positive score wouldn’t necessarily be the way to “win” in the eyes of this particular log..
😉
We gotta get that Log off the front page. Its eyes follow me wherever I go. It’s creepin’ me out, man!
That log is the Black Eyed Kid of logs.
http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2011/04/black-eyed-kids-insidious-threat-or-myth-in-the-making/
Resident Evil: Revelations acquired.
I’m now on -4.
*SAD FACE*
Mat, as you are the Official Chancellor of the Log of Shame, I need a rules call.
What if you buy a game that you already owned – and already finished – on another platform? I ask because that From Dust Steam sale was too good to pass up but I want to get out of the humiliation of losing a point.
Updated the Q&A with your query, Matt!
I think you should definitely lose a point for that, Steerpike. That’s just pathetic. Then again, you’re the one playing Dark Souls, while I’ve made all of zero progress in Demon’s Souls, so perhaps I should watch who I call pathetic.
My score is at 0 for 2012. Recently I’m jumping back and forth between sports games and Skyrim. I probably won’t beat Skyrim this year. It’s just too goddamned enormous. The only games I want to play lately are games that don’t have a clear ending point (sports games, Bethesda games) or ones that I’ve already played a million times. In the end it amounts to no progress made. Blast.
Now, if we’re counting back log from our entire lives too, shit … I never beat The Empire Strikes Back on NES. That game is fucking hard.
Outstanding. Eat my dust, Penguin!
“The only games I want to play lately are games that don’t have a clear ending point (sports games, Bethesda games) or ones that I’ve already played a million times. In the end it amounts to no progress made. Blast.”
This made me laugh. I know the feeling all too well; Brink has been gobbling up my hours in recent weeks. I’m thoroughly enjoying it but it’s not exactly helping my backlog problem. xtal, you are in Log Limbo, always playing but never completing.
If it’s any consolation, I’m in exactly the same situation also. I went into January promising to curb my spending on new games and finish some of the ones I already own. I’m leaving January having played nothing but Football Manager.
Deeeeerp.
YES, THIS CONVERSATION ACTUALLY HAPPENED AND IT WAS AWESOME.
Mat: ..or football manager
Steerpike: Well dude, if you don’t manage the footballs, who will?
Mat: those balls need managing
Steerpike: It would be ball madness otherwise.
Steerpike: Balls bouncing off the walls.
Mat: balls, balls everywhere
Steerpike: Balls upon balls; balls and balls living together…
Mat: bouncing balls, deflated balls, balls just doin their own thang..
Mat: big balls, little balls, bloody big balls, balls allover the bloody bally place
Steerpike: And then we’d be like, “Get a job, ball,” and it’d be like, “fuck you, I’m doin my thang!”
Mat: what job could a ball do?
Mat: other than the job of, just being a ball
Steerpike: And that’s it! That’s why YOU HAVE TO MANAGE THEM
Mat: it all makes sense to me now..
Steerpike: See? The universe isn’t complicated when you think it over.
Mat: as God as my witness, I will manage these balls
Mat: and there will be no bouncing balls today
Steerpike: You go manage the crap out of those balls
Mat: I would, but I’m also trying to construct some sort of piece on the 3DS expansion pad thing, haha
Steerpike: Hey, in this economy, many of us have to work two jobs. It sucks, but hey… you could be a ball.
Mat: true dat
The log has mocked me enough over the years to which I have no desire to be mocked further. Funny you bring this subject up though, as another forum kind of broached a similar subject and contest so to speak. They mentioned a website where you enter your backlog of games, and it will pick one out at random for you to play and conquer.
http://www.backloggery.com/
Yeah. No. I’m not committing my backlog to paper. Virtual or otherwise. That way lies madness… and full realization of how much money I’ve burned in accumulating said backlog.
In the meantime, I can say that I’ve completed two games this month against the 6 that I purchased :cough: Steam sale :cough: so I’m only a -4 net loss for the start of the year.
Of course, if you’d let me include the 2 demos I finished I’d only be at -2. :grumble:
😀
I’m back onto L.A. Noire now. It’s just so damned boring, and unending, that I don’t know how I’ll ever do it. The homicide desk ended with such a whimper. It’s certainly one of 2011’s most fascinating games, while also one of its worst.
Max, LA Noire is one of the only games I can remember in a few years that I’ve dropped because it was shit. I generally see things out until the end but LA Noire beat me at something like the 10 hour mark.
I’ve had zero regrets about that and have no desire to pick it up and finish what I missed in future. I hear the ending is also pretty terrible.
Since The Log started I have had zero desire to play anything in my Steam list. It’s.. strange. I’ve been on the computer for two hours tonight with the intention of playing something and have instead spent the whole time reading forums.
I finished Demon’s Souls the day before the site starting going doolally so +1 for me! Yay!
I starting playing Cart Life again last night and encountered more game breaking bugs which are really grinding away at my patience. I don’t want to give up on it because HM speaks so highly of it but… it’s frustrating to say the least.
So… -4 for me so far.
@Mat: BRAID. HEATHEN SWINE, PLAY IT!
Mat: I have totally been there. “Hm, think I’ll play Skyrim”… 4 hours later, still reading D&D 5th edition arguments.
Right now it’s a tossup if I’ll finish Skyrim or Saints Row first, but I still haven’t bought anything new.
[…] who code in dark alleyways and consumers who do not even know why they purchase any more, perhaps more defined by what they have not played. #valueisdead […]
I just finished Demon’s Souls and I haven’t bought a game so far this year. Actually the last ones I bought were in the summer Steam sale. So I guess that puts me at -1.
Pokey if you haven’t bought a game this year then you’re +1! And if I’m not mistaken that puts you in ‘the lead’.
Gregg, you’re right. I went back and read the rules again. I guess I was thinking that +1 would be adding to the backlog. Actually I have a lot of games waiting to be played. I just haven’t bought any recently.
I finished the main quest of Skyrim! So I guess that’s +1 for me. Technically, the game doesn’t END, but the only things I have left to do in it are become a werewolf and get married, neither of which I’m sure are suitable for my Khajiit. I may get married later anyway just to put a “Happily ever after” on it, but it’ll be cross-species.
Well done, Amanda!
I myself am -1 for buying Analogue: A Hate Story. Curse you Christine Love!
Current Log Score: -5
@Steerpike: Review! Review! The people demand a review!
With clearly marked spoiler spaces, because it’s going to be a little while before the people get around to this game — the people have a lot on their plate and are also about to upgrade their computer, which will unlock some of the Humble Bundle games the people couldn’t play on their old computer, the people hope.
I finished the main quest in Skyrim as well (the first main quest I finish in any Elder Scrolls game! Another gold star for me?), but I cannot bring myself to add a +1 to my backlog because I have been playing the damn game even MORE now that the main quest is finished! 120 hours of my life gone and counting! I just don’t get it!
Luckily I haven’t purchased anything new, so there’s that. Still at a -1 for the year.
Well, I just added two new games (Kingdoms of Amalur and a Harvest Moon I hadn’t played) so I’m now at -6 for the year and it’s only February! At least I’m in the middle of playing a game from my Log ‘o Shame and will finish it soon.
Now, if I could only increase the pace at which I finish games vs how fast I buy them.
@Matt W: if the people wish it, it will be done. I can even use the new theme’s “Spoiler” shortcode! Woo hoo! Best of luck to the people with their computer upgrade.
Tanis38, we don’t give out gold stars willy-nilly around here. I’ll allow a ribbon, but not a star. I mean come on dude.
Sorry, I become greedy and addicted to shiny gold starry things. I accept my ribbon humbly.
I downloaded Cart Life because Harbour Master totally /made/ me. But it crashes a lot and I will certainly never finish it. Back to zero, ha ha.
Completed And Yet It Moves, but bought Dirt 2 so back to -4. After lunch I expect to be -5…
Rayman Origins is mine, -5 for me.