Methodology Update

I've both bought and sold a lot of games since the last update, but I'll avoid going into the specifics of them. Instead I have a bit of a methodology / backlog rules update I'd like to try.

First, trying to budget games into my savings account is a nightmare. Things move around way too much (this includes funds, prices, and release dates) for it to make much sense. Especially with how I have it set up (one account, detailed spreadsheet)

So I'm separating them, except for big ticket items. Like a rare game I want ($100+), expensive DLC (DOA5:LR season passes), or expensive hardware purchases (starting to save now for the NX/ NEO).

Basically the idea is to only use the savings account for things that are too expensive to be an impulse buy, or to plan for hardware.

The other plan is to limit the frequency of random game purchases. I'd also like to limit the pre-orders I'm not super excited about, but this hasn't worked to well in the past.

So, as is typical. Anything with an extremely limited run (summon night 5) or something I'm very excited about (Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Special Editon) are immune.. maybe. Need to find the sweetspot with some testing before completely committing.

So what's the plan?

The simply version is this: Beat 2 games, get 1. Budget time to play things that don't count as chipping away at the backlog

To accomplish this I'm adopting a bit of a 'slots' mentality again, but pairing it with 'days'.

There are PROGRESSION days for beating games in the backlog, and CONTINUOUS days for just playing something that's fun.

PROGRESSION DAYS: Work on games in the following order: 2x NEW, 2x Highly Rated (personal), 2x Random. This should be a good mix of the latest games, the games I think I want to play the most (I rate every game when I put it in my backlog on Darkadia, and I really suggest anyone else do the same), and Random to kind of mix things up and ensure no corners of the backlog get outright neglected (a game that doesn't have release date info in its GiantBomb entry, messing up Darkadia's sorting, etc)

But it serves another purpose. To vary the new backlog games coming in!

The idea is that when I beat two new games, I unlock a "pre-order" credit for myself. Whenever I pre-order a game, I'll spend one of these fictional credits.

When I beat two highly rated games, I'll get the game with the highest rating (that isn't a pre-order) from my wishlist. I also rate everything when I add it to my wishlist spreadsheet.

When I beat two random games, I get a random game. Again, this makes sure that a low, gut-feeling rating isn't the kiss of death for a game in my wishlist. If I realistically would never make it to 2.5's and lower I'd probably never add or never rate something 2.5 or lower in the spreadsheet. So it needed some wiggle room.

I'm also not going to be afraid to 'shelve' or 'null' a game that I don't ever want to beat when coming across it here. In general, retiring a game won't count as beating it but I should really consider selling it if I disliked it that much. If I sell it, it's okay to count it toward unlocking the chance to buy a new game.

CONTINUOUS DAYS: These are for games I just really love. It's not about completion, but I may have milestones or goals of course. For me, these games seem to be: World of Warcraft, Audiosurf, Hatsune Miku games, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, Pokemon (FireRed / LeafGreen / Red / Blue / Yellow / Virtual Console releases.. I like Gen 1), Valkyrie Crusade, Sakura Clicker, or finally: I can take a look at games I've beaten and just see if there's anything I feel like playing more. Like a random fighting or shmup game I technically 'beat' easily, but that didn't really do it justice.

It's also important that these be able to trump progression days if I feel like it. Sometimes I have a game 'assigned' to play and I just won't touch it for days, finding something or nothing else to do but I also won't just relax and play the games I love out of guilt for not making progress when I should. That's useless, and having a 'rule to break the rules' I think would help me quite a bit.

Current flow is set up like this:

Alternate PROGRESSION and CONTINUOUS every other day (continuous can trump progression if you just don't feel like it)

PROGRESSION

NEW StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops Mission Pack #1

NEW Dead or Alive Xtreme 3

RATING Time and Eternity

RATING Aegis of Earth: ProtoNovus Assault

RANDOM Puyo Pop (Ngage)

RANDOM Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix

Success will result in:

NEW: Pre-order Credit +1. Current count 0

RATING: Croixleur Sigma (PS4/Vita)

RANDOM: Eternal Destiny (Steam/PC)

CONTINUOUS

World of Warcraft (main)

World of Warcraft (alts)

Dead or Alive 5/5+/Last Round

Audiosurf

Project Diva F

Project Diva F 2nd

Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen

Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow cart of VC release

Valkyrie Crusade

Sakura Clicker

And that's the plan! We'll see how it goes. I think the bump in the road will be the same as always. Games are long (especially all the JRPG's I play), and it's easy to buy more than I play. This is a step toward trying to correct that. (after all, if I pass on buying something I can just wish it in my wishlist with a high rating and it'll flow in natually).

Often my concern is that a game will get more expensive later, but if I pace it out like this I don't think it'll be a problem. If a game gets more expensive from the print drying up it's not a huge deal since that won't happen to all of them. MOST of them SHOULD get cheaper, and since the buying rate will be slowed these two things together should result in extra cash to put up for something a bit more rare / out of print.

Thanks for checking in, and sorry for going idle for a bit. Good luck with your backlogs and I'll see how this system works out for me!