When it comes to New Year’s Resolutions, the first step is to actually make a resolution. Mine for 2024 is pretty straightforward: just play every unplayed PC game.
Not just Steam, btw, but GOG, Amazon Prime Gaming, Epic Games Store – you know, all those free games we have been collecting that are virtual dust magnets.
I know you’ve heard it all before—from yourself, your loved ones, or your friend who buys way too many bundles and $1 Steam sale steals. We all say we’re gonna tackle our backlog, and do we? Hell no. It’s an unruly mess, a beacon of guilt, a huge-ass timesink. I’m guilty of it too; I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve installed games, proclaimed that today is the day I’m finally going to play it… and then I uninstall it two months later, still as untouched as it was the day it took up 60GB on my hard drive.
This year I’m finally going to tackle my gaming backlog—please take me seriously, I have a plan and everything | PC Gamer
Was refreshing reading a PC Gamer article from an author with similar aspirations, although he wants to complete every game he hasn’t played. I do not have the gaming time available for that lofty an aspiration. I also don’t buy games and install them and then not do anything with them. No, I buy them and then don’t install or play them. Usually, when I plan to play a game, I install it, then play it almost immediately when it finished installing.
My PGM member friends will chuckle at the mention of a spreadsheet in the article. Not sure if I’ll be using a spreadsheet as of this writing, although of course I think that’s a good idea. I’m somewhat intrigued with the idea of using Steam collections to track unplayed Steam games.
How To Create A Dynamic Collection for Unplayed Steam Games
Can a collection be made showing all unplayed Steam games? Sure, use a dynamic collection. Here’s how to do that:
STEP 1. Inside the Steam desktop application, choose LIBRARY->Collections
STEP 2. Choose + Create A New Collection
STEP 3. Enter name for your collection, I chose “UNPLAYED”
STEP 4. Check the box for “Unplayed”
Now, you should see a new category along the left hand side populated with games you have never played on Steam. As you buy new games and don’t play them, the category will automatically update, and it will remove the games once you play them. Looking at my list as of this writing, I’ve got some serious playing to do.
273 unplayed games! Since there are only 12 months in a year, that means I need to play around 23 games a month on average to meet my goal. This also does not account for any new games purchased during 2024. I buy a fair amount of games, too, especially during the two big sales (Summer and Winter). And this is only Steam, not Epic Games or GOG or Prime Gaming. I have over 100 Epic Games Store games, but some of those I have played other versions of the game, whether it be on Steam or consoles, so I don’t think that list is over 100 games.
Yowsa.
Whatever the case, it’s about a game a day, which if we think of my ongoing #GameADayChallenge entering year #3 now, this will align pretty well. I can choose from the “Unplayed” category on my Steam Deck for inspiration for games to check out for this challenge throughout 2024.
Well, at least I know the size of the mountain to climb.
Had a similar situation toward the end of 2022, where I wanted to play all unplayed iIRcade games and had like 200 to play through. This culminated in my longest to date Twitch stream event where I played over 100 unplayed games in a single day. Think that stream went 16+ hours. Obviously, I wasn’t able to play any of those games very long, so that probably isn’t a strategy to be employed for 2024. I would like to spend at least some time playing these games and maybe getting really into some of them, hopefully.
Anyway, that’s my one and only 2024 gaming-related resolution. Had another gaming events-related project which I’m going to postpone until 2025, to give me extra game-ready time to play all these PC games in 2024. Also, ended Season 1 of Humpday Wednesday pinball and decided to allocate most of that time I was spending on Visual Pinball and Future Pinball playing PC games instead. I’m thinking this puts me on a path of having more time for PC gaming in 2024, maybe than I’ve had ever, since can’t remembering every focusing on PC gaming for a single year like this in my 50 years or so of gaming.
Your turn, friendly gamer readers. What are your 2024 gaming-related resolutions?
UPDATE 4/18/2024 @ 11:30am PST: I do have a spreadsheet for the UNplayed PC games and here’s a quick screeenshot of progress through this update:
I was streaming a lot of these games during the Wednesday Humpday streams, but my son bought a Stern Jaws Premium machine and once it arrived that has taken over my interest over playing UNplayed PC games on the stream, anyway. Star Wars month is coming up in May, however, so will likely get some Star Wars PC game streaming in.
UPDATE 6/6/2024 @ 5:30am PST: Progress has slowed a bit since the last update, but am still plugging away. Around 140 games just on Steam that I still haven’t played.
Besides Steam, it’s onto the other PC game services like Epic Games Store, where I have over 100 games there (some I’ve already played, just not through Epic Games, however).
Great article Todd. I like the implementation of categorizing the games in Steam in this way. I’ll be doing something similar myself.
I don’t have any goals for this year in particular with gaming, but I have shifted my mindset when it comes to purchasing in general. My focus with games, books, music, movies, etc. will be to truly enjoy what I have so far. It’s so easy now to get something and after a short while be thinking about the next thing, or want to play something someone else has picked up. It takes practice and energy, but I do like taking a step back to ask the simple question do I really need this now?
I enjoy a higher % of game purchases that friends play and recommend than strangers, so will continue to watch what others are playing and pick up the games that appeal most to me. It’s possible a game that people I know are playing a *lot* hits my shopping cart sooner, even when it’s not in a genre I’d typically enjoy. Also, I will always have a softer spot for creative games: games that I’ve not seen/played very much or ever before.
I need to do an update on this article with progress so far this year, as I’m closing in on having played 200 previously UNplayed PC games. It’s not been nearly as much fun a gaming-related goal as had hoped for.