This week Nintendo has announced that they will close the eShop for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in March 2023 (see here). They are also offering a page for your Nintendo 3DS and Wii U memories, where you can take a look at your play history, though with some bugs and issues (for me it shows 700 more hours in StreetPass Mii Plaza than I actually have).
Anyway, this was another painful reminder of all the games that I have yet to play or beat on these systems, despite owning them. My backlog includes Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem Fates, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Luigi's Mansion, Luigi's Mansion 2, Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Splatoon, and more...
I wanted most of these simply for my collection, but it's still irking me from time to time. Meanwhile my Nintendo Switch collection kept growing and looks very similar by now, where the situation won't be resolved any time soon, or ever, because the new system has my primary attention. So, if I'm starting to clear house, it will be on Nintendo Switch, where games like Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and even Cadence of Hyrule are still waiting to get said attention. The last Nintendo Direct was another reminder of this, where most of these games are getting a sequel in 2022.
It also doesn't help that I've re-purchased some of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games that I actually had beaten / completed, like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Hyrule Warriors, again for the Nintendo Switch, because I liked them so much that I may want to play them again on the new system. Or that Nintendo decided to add content to the games that I already had completed, like Metroid Dread or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It just never ends...
Let's not start talking about digital libraries, though I'm mostly a physical collector when it comes to Nintendo, but I have some Steam sale skeletons in the closet as well, where the biggest ones are DOOM (2016) and Skyrim. Yes, I have never played Skyrim. Shame on me.
And most people who are interested in gaming have this problem: the so called "pile of shame" (commonly known as "backlog"). Whether you got the games because you are a collector or because they were cheap, it doesn't really matter, you've purchased a whole stack of products that you will likely never consume. And this often includes games that are generally regarded to be good, where many will advise you to finally play them.
But why haven't you? And should you really be ashamed that you haven't played these games yet? Or is it actually the other way around? Should maybe these games be ashamed that you couldn't be bothered to play them, despite all their accolades? Or is it just so that you haven't found the time yet?
Here is the thing: if you really want to play a game, you will make time to play it. Of course this isn't always easy, because life has so many more priorities, but when a game truly appeals to you, you won't be procrastinating it for months or even years. You will eventually find the time to play it, because it gives you the kind of enjoyment that you seek in your free time.
That's not to say that those virgin games are terrible, but they simply might not be for you, at least in the moment. In my case I really have to be in the mood to play the very slow-paced Fire Emblem games for example, which I rarely ever am. But this may change in the future.
And this is also a good point. It can't hurt to have these games ready for when you're finally ready for them, even when this may never happen. In the past, with all my video game systems prior to the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, I only ever purchased the games that I truly wanted to play at the time. This was a very good consumer behavior and also helps with avoiding such a pile of shame in the first place. But then I got interested in some other games years later, only to realize that they were now hard to find in a good shape, because they weren't officially sold any longer. So, I found it more regretful to not own an interesting game that I could have bought back in the day than owning a game that I didn't play in the end. The latter can always be sold if I really don't want it any longer.
So, these are two sides of the same coin. And it certainly helps to view your unplayed games not as a "pile of shame", but as a box of toys, as a collection for your future entertainment whenever you want it. The more you feel an obligation to play all your games in possession, the more you're likely to be demotivated right away. But the best games are timeless anyway, so there is no need to hurry. Or... maybe I'm simply here to justify why I haven't played Three Houses yet. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, as it always is...
5 comments:
I actually agree with you but I usually see the term "backlog" user instead of pile of shame. Never liked that mindset it because it makes playing games feel like work instead of a way to kill time.
Would definitely say it's bettter to own a game that you might not play for years (especially a Nintendo one since prices rarely drop) just because gaming preservation is a joke compared to other mediums like film and music.
Yeah, "backlog" is the common term, while "pile of shame" seems to stem from the German gaming culture, where we even use the English word for this. I decided to go with it here, because it made it easier to get the message across.
I think it can also depend on the gaming genre and completionist issues.
I find it INCREDIBLY hard to get to the end credits of games with major luck-based time-gated mechanics (Final Fantasy and Xenoblade are certainly offenders here). I don't want to finish the game until I have unlocked all the things and haven't missed a gate by ending the game. So I hadn't played Xenoblade 2 since 2018 or 2019, and only just now picked it back up to try to actually finish it before Xenoblade 3 comes out. And the major reason is the Gatcha mechanics and wanting to get the last of the rare blades before moving on to the final chapter. I've been literally in the semi-final chapter for years.
So it's not that I don't love the game. It's that it's hard to complete.
And I think you make a very valid point about how the games should be ashamed of this. If developers heard the criticism of the gatcha mechanics, hopefully it means there won't be gatcha mechanics in Xenoblade 3.
It took a global pandemic and extended quarantine for me to finally get around to playing Wii games I bought up to 15 years ago! A Boy and his Blob, Zack and Wiki, Epic Mickey, the Wii Sonic games (Secret Rings, Unleashed, Black Knight, 4 episode 1, and Colors).
Also Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy on PC, Yoshi's Story on Wii U VC, and even Metroid Prime Federation Force on 3DS. And it turns out, they're all mostly good. Can't say I had a good reason for postponing playing them this long. I had started Boy and his Blob back in 2010, but stopped after a few levels. I just needed to dedicate the time to get good at it and make it to the end, instead of replaying Mario and Zelda games over and over (despite their undeniable higher standard compared to most of these).
I liked both Colors and the Wii version of Unleashed so much I decided to finally play the other 3D Sonic games from the GCN era. Games I had skipped completely for no reason. I've just completed both Sonic Adventures, and just bought Heroes.
I just had this urge to clear not only my game backlog, but also my movie backlog (finally watched a LOT of Hollywood classics from the 1950s) and my book backlog. Again, it took a pandemic for me to finally set some goals. Goals I'm glad to be fulfilling over the past 2 years.
@Marandahir:
This is certainly true. Luckily, with RPGs, like Xenoblade or Fire Emblem, I don't really have this mindset of completion as of yet, because I'm more interested in the story, characters and world than the actual gameplay. So, I would probably settle for just beating them, unlike Zelda games, where I want to find every last Korok and so on.
But the Zelda games had similar issues here and there, mainly with the Nintendo DS titles, where getting the ship parts and treasures was entirely luck-based. That was just bad and something that needs to be fixed should they ever remake/remaster those games. Gacha stuff shouldn't be in any game to begin with.
@Eduardo:
With the pandemic I got more into games that can be played on a daily basis, mainly Quake Champions and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This made it actually harder for me to focus on my backlog, because I always have something to play right now. It takes something truly interesting to get me out of this routine, like Metroid Dread and Death's Door in the last couple of months.
But it's great to hear that you've cleaned house like that. While the point of my article still stands, I can't deny that it feels good to finally check those boxes.
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