Another Day, Another Method

To say I have a bit of a gaming backlog is an understatement. To say I have a huge one is barely scratching the surface. I know gaming is just a hobby but I still felt like I needed some little push to get me in order in the games I play. What with today’s social networking and letting everyone know every little thing you are doing, a site has popped up in the past whenever that lets you get a bit of a handle on your massive unplayed gaming collection.

The spirit of The Backloggery is summarized in their tag line “You have the games. Play them.” Since a few of my friends had been using it they had been bugging me to join as they knew my unplayed game situation was much more dire. I dreaded entering all my game data into yet another place after having recently switched to Gamepedia, which I still happily use. But after a friend offered to input them for me, I had no excuse. Now I use both Gamepedia and Backloggery as I definitely prefer having something stored on my computer¹ but Backloggery gives me a bit of connection to the outerworld and motivation from other gamers. It is definitely the little things that help.

That’s not to say Backloggery is not without its faults. It has a beautiful skeleton with a lumpy, unpleasant body surrounding it. Getting your games in may be a quick and pleasant breeze. Changing the information of your currently playing could be a little smoother. The site’s design feels like something out of the late 90s. This isn’t bad as it does exactly what it sets out to do. I just expect a little more out of sites today. I hate to say it but it feels like they could take a page or two from how Facebook runs things. After that I think a real community could build and the motivation would really flow.

That said, there is nothing wrong with using the site now as it is. That little bit of extra organization and motivation has helped me so far in the past few weeks and I plan on using it for the foreseeable future.

1. And the iPhone syncing is also excellent with Gamepedia. [↩]