I created a thread down here, about a website called "Backloggery". It is basically a site that helps you manage your backlog of games. But as that part of the forum seem to get a lot less activity, I'll create a thread here as well.

The goal of the game is to do something about the huge backlog of games that I'm sure that many of us have managed to aquire. Instead of buying new games all the time, it might be nice to go back and play those games that we bought because they looked good at the time, but then just forgot about, or that we got as a part of a collection but never tried. 

In order to play the backloggery game, you just let backloggery pick a random game for you (My backloggery->fortune cookie), and then you play it. Anounce that you are playing this game in this thread, and also say when you finish it. On the 22nd of Feb we will see who has finished most games (though there is no prize for this, it is just a bit of fun).

Some general guidlines:
-If you get a game that you don't feel like playing, you do of course not have to play it. Just draw another game

-It is quite alright to drop a game if you don't like the one that you are playing (games are supposed to be fun, there is no point in forcing yourself to play something that you dislike) 

-If you get a sequel to a game that you have not played, consider it to be a result showing the earliest part in the series that you are willing to play 

Markornikov

Kaptain Brawe

Book of Legends

The Whispered world

Fnord
Breath of Death VII 

Blackwell Convergence

Galactic Assault

Thunderfox

Capsized

Ninja Kids

Shadowgrounds

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic

Broken Sword 2

Freespace 2

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Mr Innocent.

Blackwell Unbound

Blackwell Convergence

My first game will be:
Breath of death VII 

Finished my first cookie: Kaptain Brawe, a classic but short point and click AG

now onto the next Book of Legends, I think this is a casual HOG game, but i need to download it first from Steam.

Shouldn't we get more points if we beat a large RPG game and get less points for a HOG game, because this system doesn't seem fair to me? 

Yes, some form of system like that would probably be good. How does:
RPG/Strategy: 3 points

Adventure/Action/Shooter: 2 points

Casual/Episodic/HOG/Very short in general: 1 point

Under 1h games: ½ point

sound? 

Shorter games will still be at an advantage, but it is not a serious competition, so there is no need for a perfect balance. 

sounds good to me 

Wait, so I have to own games to use the fortune cookie? Isn't there any way to let it pick a random adventure game, and then I go out and buy it? 

Originally Posted By walsh (23 JAN 2012 4:39am)

Wait, so I have to own games to use the fortune cookie? Isn't there any way to let it pick a random adventure game, and then I go out and buy it? 

you can add games you don't own, but there isn't a list of all existing games. (which would be a usefull feature though)

You can make a wishlist and then let the site randomly pick a game from that list.

The idea behind this game was just to give people a bit of extra incentive to play all those old games that we have purchased but never really sat down and played properly. But it is a very informal "competition", and if you don't have a large backlog, then feel free to join us with newly purchased games (it might help you deal with your large wishlist).

I just finished Breath of Death VII. A really short JRPG, clocking in at just under 3h. It was basically a slightly cruder made Cthulhu saves the world, even the characters were similar in their personalities. 

So time for a new game. The first game I got was Might & Magic 6... a game that I don't like. So redraw, and now I got Secret of Mana... another game that I don't like. 3rd time is the charm: Blackwell Convergence.

That was short... Steam claims that I spent 47min playing Blackwell Convergence from start to end, though it did feel more like 1½h. I wonder if steam is just beinga  bit buggy. And if this game took me 47min, where the heck did that other time go? 

*edit* Yes that was steam being buggy, on another place it says that the game did take me just over 1½h to finish. 

And the next game will be.... Galactic Assault, apparently. A strategy game that I bought a while ago on a whim. Apparently based on some Soviet era Sci-fi novels. 

*edit 2* Eh, walsh, is there something that you are not telling us? 

Like how long have you actually been on that site, and how the heck were you there before it was created?

Interesting... I could sure use some incentive to play through my enormous back catalogue.

Is there some way to mass enter games? Like linking to one's Steam profile? I have nearly 200 unplayed games on Steam alone, and I don't even want to think about the ones outside Steam. It is true, I never need to get another game again, but we all know I will anyway

Point being, I could actually make a real dent on my backlog in the time it would take me to manually enter all my games on backloggery.

I think I can at least enter the ones on my short-list, way too long itself. That could work.

Edit: Ok, my fortune cookie chose Blackwell Unbound, funnily enough the game I intented to play next anyway

My backloggery username is N1kolas

Originally Posted By Fnord (23 JAN 2012 7:07am)

*edit 2* Eh, walsh, is there something that you are not telling us? 

View Attachment: walsh.JPG

Like how long have you actually been on that site, and how the heck were you there before it was created?

Heh, what can I say? I can't understand it either, unless by 'years' they meant minutes.

Hehehehehehehe

  I happen to personally know that Mr Innocent  has almost every Adventure game ever made.  He and I once traded duplicates of games we had, (sadly this was before the time that Steam came along) and we'd sent each other lists of our games that we own, and he admitted that one of his (then) goals in life was to collect every adventure game known to humanity.

[size= 11pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif']So, Mr Innocent, cheers to many many busy hours....      

Ah, good, now we are 4!

And I guess I'm the only one who is obsessive enough to actually add every game I own

Originally Posted By Fnord (24 JAN 2012 8:41am)

Ah, good, now we are 4!

 

And I guess I'm the only one who is obsessive enough to actually add every game I own

 

I'm glad i gave away or deleted a lot of older games, so my list is almost complete. 

I just have to rummage through the cd-roms i still have to see what i've missed.

I have a hard time throwing things away

oh god, that compilation reminded me of the tenthousands roms for Mame i've got somewhere. I'm so not going to dig those up, let alone put them in my backloggery. 

It's been years since i played one of those.

...

I 'completed' a second game Book of Legends. It became tedious after a while and the narration was very poor.

Up next: Whispered World, one of those game i always pushed back on the backlog because i always found something better to play, so it's time i finish this one. I've got to start from scratch since i lost my saves.

edit: since the download takes some time i already cracked the next cookie, X3: Reunion

Damn, what a game breaker, an open-ended game is never finished is it? 

I found it quite a boring game and didn't like it very much.

But since i only played it for 12 hours according to steam, i'll give it a second chance. 

I'll put some hours into it again and see if i really don't like it.

You are allowed to reroll in case you get a game that you don't want to play. X3: Reunion has a main story, and as long as you finish that, I guess it would count. On the other hand, expect to spend 100-150h with the game before you reach the end. 

And Galactic Assault is turning out to be quite a challenge. Got to level 7 (out of 17 according to the manual) with the last 3 levels being finished by the skin of my teeth. Level 7 is turning out to be an incredible challenge though, so much that I turned the game down to easy. And it still managed to beat me, twice

And the most embarasing bit is that level 7 is the last tutorial level, according to the manual. Of course, the manual is rather poorly translated, so I guess they must have made a mistake somewhere (new concepts are still being introduced at level 7, and the game explains them, but I would hardly call it a tutorial).

For a poorly translated manual, there is a surprising lack of spelling or gramatical mistakes, but on the other hand the things in it don't always make a whole lot of sense.

Here is the introduction:

Maxim Kammer (Max) is a daring young man who enlist in his country's space exploration program. During a mission, his ship is shot down over Saraksh, a remote planet that is slowly recovering from a savage nuclear conflict...

Upon recovering from the crash landing, Max finds himself in the Land of unknown Fathers, a country ruled by a network of mind control tramissions. Max soon seek out and destroys the Central Brodcasting Station, collapsing the mind control network and causing the nation's inhabitants to suffer various aftereffects, which include falling into a coma-like state. The neighboring Khonties, eager to take advantage of their weakened foe, seize this opporunity and attack the country from the north...

Those are the first words in the manual, and I have to say that I don't feel the least bit wiser in regards to the games story after having read that. The game never gives a good story introduction either, so I am basically left in the dark to why I'm fighting those "Khonties", or who they are for that matter. Good game, lousy story & translation. 

Games that never really end, like Dota, Heroes of Newerth, Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike and such, I add with the "null" tag in backloggery, so they don't actually count in my "unfinished" games.

Got sidetracked with Sonic CD, and I'm having a somewhat serious operation tomorrow, that will put me out of gaming commission for 2-3 days :\. Still, I'm starting Blackwell Unbound right now, I understand it is the kind of game one can finish in an afternoon.

Indeed, Blackwell Unbound is 1½-2h long, so it is the perfect game if you want something that you can finish swiftly.

And good luck with the operation. I hope everything goes well. 

Originally Posted By markornikov (24 JAN 2012 3:04pm)

oh god, that compilation reminded me of the tenthousands roms for Mame i've got somewhere. I'm so not going to dig those up, let alone put them in my backloggery. 

It's been years since i played one of those.

 

...

 

I 'completed' a second game Book of Legends. It became tedious after a while and the narration was very poor.

Up next: Whispered World, one of those game i always pushed back on the backlog because i always found something better to play, so it's time i finish this one. I've got to start from scratch since i lost my saves.

 

 

I might have a save for you if you're interested.  It's not all that far in, Spoiler Alert(after being captured, and escaped) but it's better than starting from scratch.

Originally Posted By Mr Innocent. (25 JAN 2012 2:22am)

Games that never really end, like Dota, Heroes of Newerth, Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike and such, I add with the "null" tag in backloggery, so they don't actually count in my "unfinished" games.

 

Got sidetracked with Sonic CD, and I'm having a somewhat serious operation tomorrow, that will put me out of gaming commission for 2-3 days :\. Still, I'm starting Blackwell Unbound right now, I understand it is the kind of game one can finish in an afternoon.

 

Good luck with the surgery, Mr Innocent.  Please keep us updated on your recovery.

Originally Posted By Traveller (25 JAN 2012 12:52pm)

Originally Posted By markornikov (24 JAN 2012 3:04pm)

oh god, that compilation reminded me of the tenthousands roms for Mame i've got somewhere. I'm so not going to dig those up, let alone put them in my backloggery. 

It's been years since i played one of those.

 

...

 

I 'completed' a second game Book of Legends. It became tedious after a while and the narration was very poor.

Up next: Whispered World, one of those game i always pushed back on the backlog because i always found something better to play, so it's time i finish this one. I've got to start from scratch since i lost my saves.

 

 

 

I might have a save for you if you're interested.  It's not all that far in, Spoiler Alert(after being captured, and escaped) but it's better than starting from scratch.

hmmm, i don't remember that. It's been too long and i have a terrible memory when it comes to storylines of games and movies. So i don't mind starting all over again but thanks anyway 

I'm nearing the end of Galactic assault, so I just drew a new fortune cookie, and got: Thunderfox     *edit* Done with Galactic Assault *edit 2* Arcade games should probably only give ½ point each. Thunderfox was less than ½h in total. *edit 3* Now I got Legend of Lotus spring (and no I don't know how to turn off the text centering). One thing is for sure, picking what game to play with this method results in a lot of variety! *edit 4* Lotus Spring does not run well on my computer at all. Understandable, as it is a Win 9X game, but a tad bit annoying. Funny enough, Backloggery thought that I should play Shadow of the horned rat instead, a game that does not run at all on modern computers. Next suggestion was Serious Sam: The random encounter, so I guess I'll go with that. *and yet another edit* I'm evoking the "It is alright to drop a game if you don't like this" clause of the guidlines. Serious Sam: The random encounter is not a good game. I was bored with the combat by the second level, and there are so many random encounters in it that it is downright silly. And instead I got Capsized. I'm a bit worried about this one as well, because I have not heard anyone say anything good about it, but I'll give it a try (this was one of the games that I got for free during the steam winter sale). 

Operation went well. Doctor says I'll be good as new by Sunday .

Did finish Blackwell Unbound, but I'll do a second playthrough to get a couple of achievements I missed. Knowing what to do, playing the game start to finish won't take more than an hour and a half.

Capsized finished. If I keep playing these short games, I'll get a very impressive list

Originally Posted By Fnord (26 JAN 2012 10:42am)

Shadow of the horned rat

Gee, that sure brings back memories!  I wonder if I still have that disk...

@ Mr Innocent:  glad to hear that your surgery went well.