I’ve had several people ask me how I keep track of my games
and how I’m doing in them. It’s not hard
and it’s not a secret. I use an Excel
Workbook.
When my brother, dain bramage, and I started playing
together we didn’t have very many games.
We would give each other games as gifts if we hadn’t bought that game
for ourselves previously. After a while
it got hard to remember who had what game.
We both sat down and created an inventory of every game we owned. It was just a simple Excel spreadsheet. One for each system. We also added a column for “dain owns” on
mine and “Pengwenn owns” on his.
Once we did this it was very easy for him to pick the games
for our little challenge that started this blog oh so many years ago. It was also easy to figure out what games to
get the other person. And when I got
robbed it was a godsend for filling out those claim forms. Plus it is an easy way to check off the games
I had replaced as I was recovering from the theft.
Here's a snapshot of the first couple games on my Xbox 360 tab. You can see I haven't play these games very much. (I did changed my brother's name because I don't call him "dain bramage" in real life but that's what you know him here in my blog world.)
If you have a lot of games (I also have a similar list for
my movies) I would highly recommend creating an inventory for said games (or
movies). There’s so many useful things
you can do with this information. You
can search for games that are almost complete in their achievements so you can
focus on those and finish them off. If
you marked which ones you’ve finished you know what ones you can blog about . .
. of help your friends with or recommend something. It’s also helpful to seeing trends in your
game buying.
I went through a “buying only RPG” phase. Don’t remember what set that off but I have a
bunch of games I know I got at around the same time and they’re all RPGs. Most of them I haven’t even played other than
to put it in the machine to make sure the disk will load. I also went through a “FPS” phase after I got
my Xbox 360. That phase I can point to Gears
of War and Call of Duty 4 specifically.
Another way I’ve organized my list is by games with strategy
guides. If I have a guide I’m likely to
play the game knowing that if I get stuck I’ve got something handy to help me
get unstuck. But even though I buy the
guide for most games I really don’t like to use them unless I’m desperate. I much prefer to figure things out on my own
even if it will give me headache while I’m trying to do so.
I’ve also been able to organize my list by games with no
gamer score. I don’t like seeing games without a gamer score. There’s just something about that “0” that
screams “YOU NEVER PLAY ME” and while that might be true I feel terrible about
neglecting one of my games. There are
just so many hours in the day so it’s unavoidable to not getting around to
certain games. But that doesn’t mean I’m
not at least thinking about them. Now
that I can isolate which ones they are I can work on playing them and getting
some achievements. It worked for Too
Human. I now have 150 points in that
game.
Until recently I had the games listed alphabetically, but by
release dates for collective franchises.
That means that while Assassin’s Creed would list 1-4 first before
Brotherhood and Revolution my list was showing them in order of the release
date. That way I could play them in
order as they were meant to be played without messing up the timelines. Unfortunately the last sort I did messed that
up and I haven’t gone back and corrected that mash-up.
And speaking of release dates, I have a separate list with
the release dates of all the games.
Why? Because I feel bad for not getting
around to playing Batman: Arkahm City, but I feel even worse for not playing
Kamino. Why? B:AC was released in October 2011 but Kamino
was released November 2005. It was a
launch title and I haven’t gotten very far in the game. That game (among others) have been sitting
around longer so I’ve had more time to play them, but haven’t. But whatever you do don’t get me started on
my original Playstation games that I haven’t played. The number of those un-played games will just
spiral me down into depression if I think about that too long. Again, not enough time in the day.
Despite this fancy, organized spreadsheet I’m not running a
well oiled machine here. I still can’t
decide which games to play. I still play
games I’ve finished but can’t get enough of.
I still can’t get to all my older games.
And I still give up to easily when things go south.
I’ve been really trying to evaluate any new
purchases on a scale of what I’m really dying to play (there’s a spot on my
list for those games as well).
Unfortunately I occasionally give in to the hype and buy a game that I
had originally planned on passing on. I
won’t mention any name Call of Duty: Ghosts.
I might look organized but I just say “meh” and play whatever I’m in the
mood for at that time.
