You won’t be able to be a completionist on every game and that’s okay. Some games you won’t want to beat, and others may be nearly impossible to complete because of their open-ended nature. So, tip #3 to beat your game backlog is to determine your own goals.

What are Your Requirements to Beat a Game

First, determine for yourself what you consider are the requirements for any game to be “beaten”. Is a game beaten when you’ve experienced the story? When you’ve defeated the final boss? Created the most powerful character? Collected all the hidden items? Explored all the paths? Played all the characters?

You can come up with a general “beaten” requirement for all games and then refine it for each game or genre of games.

Will You Enjoy Playing this Game to Completion?

Second, determine how much time you are willing to spend on a game before deciding if you are going to try to beat it. You may start playing a game and decide that you hate it. Don’t force yourself to finish a game if you don’t want to. On the other hand, give the game a fair try before completely giving up.

A good rule is to try every game in your backlog for at least an hour, then you can complete the games you tried and enjoyed without guilt.

Make Short-Term Goals

Third, make short-term goals – beating your backlog is a long-term goal. Short-term goals do not take a major commitment, unlike long-term goals. Making short-term goals help you translate your long-term goal of beating your game backlog into actions, motivates you, and optimizes your time. Measuring your small wins gives you confidence and excitement.

They can also help you evaluate your progress and the techniques you followed to get there.

An Example of Making Goals

When I started going through my own game backlog, I came up with a list of criteria for some games. Last spring, I made a short-term goal for Hearthstone to reach 100 ranked wins in each of the nine classes which I completed. I also recently reevaluated my criteria for Hearthstone, as I realized that some of the goals were unattainable for me and many were also too open-ended to ever be completed.

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Game Backlog Tip

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