The Achilles heel of being a gamer is that we are locked ceaselessly in a battle against our backlogs. No matter what we do, we just can’t seem to ever quite get out from underneath that growing list of titles that we put aside for a “slow period” that never materializes. We get side-tracked by the next shiny major release, that new game that everyone is talking about, or a game that our friends beg us to play with them. There are an endless number of forces working against us in this most noble crusade to eliminate the backlog.
I come before you today to propose some minor respite in this battle of the backlog. A window. An opportunity. The cavalry, if you will. I propose that the video game community adopts an industry-wide moratorium on new game releases, beginning at 12:01AM the day following The Game Awards. No game can release beginning at that time, with new releases resuming on January 1st of the following year. And I am only half-joking. The industry is almost to that point of its own volition, as dropping a major new release after The Game Awards is largely a fool’s errand that gets lost in the hustle and bustle of the holidays. I say we stop with the half-measures and commit fully as an industry. The last three weeks of December shall be hereby dedicated to annihilating the backlog, full stop.
Of course, this also requires a certain amount of self-discipline from us gamers. No grabbing a handful of games on a deep price cut during the holiday sale on your platform. No starting a second play through of your favorite game. No downloading a free-to-play MMORPG just to see what it’s like, risking getting sucked in for dozens of hours. Who does that?
This is all much easier said than done, of course, but I stand resolute before you, dear gamers. Shall we unite to defeat the almighty backlog, or continue to tremble before it on bended knee?
With these tenets in mind, today I'll be finishing up God of War Ragnarok (finally) and then testing out Genshin Impact for the first time because a friend wants to play it. And I'll do it in spite of needing to return to Ghostwire: Tokyo or dozens of other games in my backlog. Listen, some of us are just stronger-willed than others!
