Welcome to another edition of Gaming Tales. If you like these random thoughts, check out our other Gaming Tales, Paula’s Game Ramblings and YvoCaro Plays.
In this Gaming Tales with Kalina, I’m going to chat about playing games and my Steam backlog.
Gaming Tales with Kalina
Recently, I played and reviewed a little game called Wanderstop. It is a fantastic game that I liked very much. It was also one of the first games I really enjoyed, but I didn’t actually get a sense of completion with some of the storylines. I don’t want to spoil too much, in case you decide to go and try it for yourself, but some storylines in that game feel incomplete. Like the ending is missing. Or you are not meant to know the ending.
There are characters you meet and get to know, and then they move on without knowing the conclusion of their storylines. You won’t meet them again. You won’t know if they made it home. You won’t make up with them after that one big fight. And it’s not because I abandoned the game mid-story. It’s made to be that way. Just like life is sometimes.
Usually, when writing a review, I take screenshots and keep notes while playing, and then immediately afterwards, especially if I really really love the game, I get on with the writing. In the case of Wanderstop, I started writing the review almost a week after finishing the game. I loved it but didn’t know how to write about it. Even now, after the review is done and published, I am still not quite sure I said everything I wanted to about the game.
Steam Backlog
Afterwards, I played and read other things. I can’t say I kept thinking about Wanderstop for a long time. However, in the last few days, I’ve been looking at my Steam backlog and thinking about how to tackle it. It’s an ongoing issue.
I’ve tried arranging games by game time to completion, by genre, organizing smaller sections of games I really want to play, and so on, all with varying levels of success. I’ve had a folder with games I’ve started and need to finish for the longest time.
In the last few days, I’ve realized that I’ve turned gaming into a chore. And it shouldn’t be this way. It’s okay if I start a game I don’t like and don’t finish it. Much like those unfinished storylines in Wanderstop, it’s okay to play through the main quests in Hogwarts Legacy and leave completing all the Merlin quests alone. I don’t need as close to 100% completion to have really played and enjoyed a game.
Of course, it’s one thing to realize it and another to put it into practice. I am hopeful, though – I deleted that “need to finish games” folder, and I’ve finally marked Hogwarts Legacy as completed.
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