I’m torn here. On the one hand, in my opinion the vast majority of the old “classics” don’t hold up well. Most of the people who extoll them are only viewing them through the lens of nostalgia. Someone coming in without the warm endorphins of fond memories propping the game up is going to have a bad time. I just did…

First World: I am anxious, because there are too many videogames too play.

Backlogs can be intimidating. There are so many games, and even the most dedicated gamer can't get to them all right at release. I think it might help that anxiety if you give yourself permission to dabble. You don't have to pick a game and immediately play it through in its entirety, just pick something that sounds…

“So do all who live to see such times”

There is something to be said about having a history of playing all the big games of the past to learn from them. As in, not repeating bad game designs. Or even good, for that matter. Good ideas can’t go on forever. The gaming community will get tired of them real quick. See Ari’s new article on red screens, for…

To them, a backlog game is any you’ve bought and never played or only partially played. I, however, feel that a backlog is any game, owned or not, that you have at least a little bit of interest in playing. And this is where I get stuck.

Eh, I’m always at least 6 months to a year behind. I’ve come to accept it.

I laugh when I see people say they have a back log of games.... across all my systems (pc and console) I have around 25000 games.... give or take. Give me a couple hundred years of solid game time and maybe..... 

I’m a big believer in gamifying your backlog. I use hltbDOTcom to track my completion along with an annual list like Totilo would do. I also tackle my backlog methodically. I sort it into games I bought because I thought they’d be cool and games I actually *need* to play. I don’t necessarily stick to one list or the…

Whoa, Must be Backlog Friday, or something. This is like the fifth backlog-related article I’ve seen on Kotaku today.

I felt a lot of anxiety surrounding backlog until a couple years ago. To be honest, it hasn’t completely left. I read a blog (I wish I could find it) that talked about making a list of absolutes in your backlog and try to churn through them.

I whittled things down to a list under 200 and set a goal to play and finish…

1. Play games that you actually find fun.

You know, I was worried about my backlog for a while until I realized that thinking of my games as a “backlog” just made them seem like work. I play games to have fun and relax, and have gotten to enjoy games a lot more now that I take a “I’ll play it when I play it” approach towards my collection.

I’m kind of glad I finished watching it like a month before this news came out. Hooray, I got to enjoy it under the guilt wire!

Of course this just HAD to happen when I’m watching through Person of Interest for the first time. It’s actually quite good.

Yes, absolutely. But you would have to make the game, publish it, get sued, and then fight an expensive legal battle to determine whether or not it was different enough to not be covered by the patent. Which is possible, but requires you to have DEEP pockets AND the desire to litigate your game. Most people don’t want…

I’ve scanned through the patent and a big part of it is about the hierarchical changes and the way the information of those changes is presented.

Not sure, but doesn’t the specificity of the patent mean that its possible to create a system that looks similar, but differs in enough key ways to not fall under this patent?

Agreed! As an aspiring patent attorney I have serious doubts about the validity of this patent in the face of Alice v CLS–but who tf is going to litigate the issue? Huge stifle.

Yeah. That’s what I keep thinking about. If you are a developer working on an open world game with enemies that react to the player or evolve over time, are you now calling a lawyer to figure out if you can keep making that game?