How do you organise your game library/ies?

[Oussebon]

I suspect this will sound familiar to more than a few people here...

Steam tells me I have over 1000 titles in my library. While I tell myself that it must be lying, I can't deny it has a point and that there are an awful lot of games - far more than I can hope to tackle even in the distant future, even with the quarantine. I'm also pretty sure there are several bundles I've not even activated yet...

Worse yet, it's not just Steam. It's Origin, Uplay, Epic, Battle.net, Twitch, GOG, and more. They're all in on it. I've cultivated many flocks of digital chickens, all of which are coming home to roost.

The consequence of bundles, compulsive freebie collection, and other unnecessary purchasing is that is I now need to wrangle my back catalogue into some kind of intelligible shape.. I need to visualise what's there, and then decide what order to cut through the backlog. I'm determined to get my money's worth from this.

So far I've listed all games on a spreadsheet(!) Old school, but also doubles as a list to track spending, so dual purpose. I'm intending to give the games a priority banding, 1-6 (6 being bundle content I can't fully believe I activated on my account, 1 being 'how have I still not played ROTTR?')

But, I'm interested to hear what others do (+ esp. steal ideas).

Are people using Playnite or the new GOG Galaxy 2 for cross platform library management? Do you make use of Steam's refreshed library organiser and the collections feature? Were you wiser, less Smaug-like and just didn't bloat your library to begin with..?

 

[SWard]

Ousse, are you an EVE player by any chance? Your spreadsheet mojo is 13/10!

 

[Oussebon]

I played just enough Eve to decide it wasn't for me Too complicated a UI plus I'm basically a carebear. Though Eve is in my Steam library, because of course it is...

The spreadsheet is probably just bravado to mask what I feel when I launch Steam:

https://imgur.com/1JJwEmg

View: https://imgur.com/1JJwEmg

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I've got a relatively tame 189 games over all launchers, but I've been using GOG Galaxy 2.0 for a couple of months now and I find it works quite well for me. You can link Steam, Uplay, Epic, Origin, Xbox Gamepass, and even PSN to it. Although you can't do Battle.net. It mostly updates your play times and achievements as well.

I didn't used to like buying anything outside of Steam, only because I prefer everything in one place. But since Galaxy 2.0 came out I've bought a few things from GOG too. Most games I have on launchers other than Steam are promotional ones that I was forced to activate there.

Steam still has by far the most bells and whistles, but GOG is my game launcher. You can sort them and group them in various different ways, and its very easy to use.

 

[Inspireless Llama]

I have about 700 games over all platforms (including my PS3 then). I mainly use Steam and I stick to using that, I like their library update alot. For Uplay, I usually know I have it and what games I have on there, so someday I'll play them. I don't use GOG and Origin for me is not worth remembering. If possible I'll add a non-steam game to my library manually, but I don't think that's possible for xbox gamepass games.

It's the main reason why I prefer to get games on Steam. It's not that I don't like Epic (well I don't) but if I get most games posssible on a single platform I won't have all the others to look after.

But your topic reminded me I have Control on Epic, and I have Wolfenstein on the Bethesda launcher. The amount of launchers just is getting too much lol.

EDIT: Whenever I finish a game and want to start a new one, I''ll just scroll down my library to find something intereting. At those time I'll remember other launcher and go through them too to get a new game. I just try not to install too many games (still have like 20 installed) because I need to finish them or know I won't finish them before doing something else. Otherwise I just won't finish games .

 

[Johnway]

Atm its nothing too complex.On steam i break them down into played, unplayed and playing. For the unplayed games i sort them by year i purchased them.

Deciding on what to play is a little more complex and something i don't follow constantly. Generally i go by year i purchased, genre and whether its an indie or AAA games.

If i've been neglecting to play a certain genre, for some time, i make time for it. So if i haven't played an RTS game, i play that as i don't want to get burnt out playing a particular genre or be left with the dregs that i don't feel like playing.

of course, it all on a whim if i can't stomach it or there is something i must play now, i overrride my current rules.

Right now having finished the witcher 3 some time ago i'm spending time playing indie games and POE. With me achieving the 24 challenges i'll blitz the indie collection to reduce the size of my collection and then i'll focus on some much needed AAA game. But i really should play endless legend. i've not played it i bought it 4 years ago.

NOTE: Perhaps i should also do a filter for games for easier management.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I have a spreadsheet that records:

• all of my launcher games, rows coloured by launcher (midnight blue for Steam, orange for Origin, etc);
• the date I bought them;
• a function for my age at the date of purchase;
• the cost;
• an adjusted cost figure showing 1p for paid-for games I picked up for free,
• the logarithm of the adjusted cost;
• the time spent in game;
• an adjusted time figure showing 1/60th of an hour for unplayed games;
• the logarithm of the time;
• the £/Hr figure, cost over time;
• an adjusted £/Hr figure using the adjusted cost;
• the logarithm of the adjusted £/Hr figure;
• a manual 0-1 score indicating how much of the experience I feel I have explored / left to explore (0=not started, 1=sufficiently completed);
• a residual showing the amount of money wasted based on the adjusted cost and the completion score, conditional formatted white to blue;
• a function scoring the games based on how much residual there is and how long it's been sat in my library - old games and high residuals get upweighted, conditional formatted white to red.

Then I have six charts using these figures:

• Scatterplot, Cost shown logarithmically plotted against Time shown logarithmically, played paid-for games only, trendlines are:
  • linear;
  • linear with 0 intercept;
  • quadratic;
  • quadratic with 0 intercept;
  • exponential;
  • power;
  • a line for mean £/Hr (currently y=1.02x, 97.7p/Hr);
  • a line for median £/Hr (currently y=2.23x, 44.8p/hr);
  • a line for cost-weighted mean £/Hr (currently y=4.40x, 22.7p/Hr - this is the most important metric);
• Scatterplot, log Cost plotted against log Time, played paid-for games only, trendlines are:
  • linear;
  • quadratic;
• Scatterplot, adjusted Cost shown logarithmically plotted against Time shown logarithmically, played games only, trendlines are:
  • linear with 0 intercept;
  • quadratic with 0 intercept;
• Scatterplot, adjusted Cost shown logarithmically plotted against adjusted Time shown logarithmically, all games, trendlines are:
  • linear with 0 intercept;
  • quadratic with 0 intercept;
• Scatterplot, log Cost plotted against log £/Hr, played paid-for games only, trendlines are:
  • linear;
  • quadratic;
• Bubble scatterplot, Age plotted against inverse-scaled £/Hr shown logarithmically with Cost as bubble size, played paid-for games only, trendlines are:
  • linear;
  • quadratic;
  • exponential;
  • power.

And that's it. There used to be more to it but I decided to stop over-complicating things. Now it only shows me the data I actually need.

Gamifying it like this has been hugely helpful to me in controlling impulse buying. I now really care about making sure I get good value for my money. I've wasted a lot less money than I used to. I can still buy games I know I'm going to love, because it's easy to get lots of hours out of them. But I've cut back on the bad £5-10 impulse buys that turned out to be a real Achilles heel. It's also helpful to be able to see instantly which games I haven't got my money's worth out of yet, so I can move them to the top of my "to-play" list.

 

[spvtnik1]

I have a spreadsheet that records...

Wow. My father does this with his vinyl records and compact discs. He has thousands of them. o7

I could never catch up with the amount of music albums I have, it would turn in to a huge project, I've attempted to before, but at the present I put no where near that much energy in to music anymore.

So, for me, video games rank even lower on the prioritization list. I mean, when I spend less than a takeout lunch on most of the title's I buy, there isn't any need to realize the value of the experience. Most of my purchases pay for themselves in entertainment and even time spent. The most recent full price title I purchased was RDR2. I think the last time I paid full price for a game before that was GTAV.

Anyway, this is how I organize:

Primary SSD (120GB):
No new installs to this drive unless it is a reinstall.
Holding currently installed "legacy" games.

Secondary SSD (1000GB):
All new game installations go here. I'm already down to ~125GB after 6 months.
Some archival information is being stored on this drive until I purchase a hefty (4TB+) external drive.

STEAM categories are as follows:
+ Favorites (33)
+ Adventure (26)
+ Classic (16)
+ FPS (15)
+ LO-FI (24)
+ Simulation (19)
+ Strategy (15)
+ Valve Games (18)
+ Uncategorized (3)

I try to keep it simple. I have 146 games on Steam. Some of them I still haven't even installed (by choice or by software error).

I try to keep it "moving along" and usually play a new game every month. I just started "Observation"... once you get over the control and the story digs in it's pretty satisfying.

 

[Zloth]

Holy cow, @Hveðrungr!! That's intense!

I've only got 176 games. That's about a dozen games per year on Steam.

Favorites: games I've recently bought, am playing now, or just haven't collected all the screenshots for yet. There's 19 games there now but it will get bigger when the Steam sale hits. (X3: Terran Conflict is there, too. It has an honorary spot. )

Done: Games I've finished and don't intend to play anymore.

Trash: Stuff Steam sticks into my library (e.g. DOTA 2) or games that come with bundles that I have no intention of ever playing.

Uncategorized: Games I might play again (like older 4X games), games I didn't finish but might one day, and games I know I won't finish but haven't bothered to stick over into the Done category yet.

Really, though, it's just the Favorites that matter. Especially now with the Filter option in Steam.

 

[Frindis]

My games have revolted against any type of control🤷‍♂️

 

[SWard]

@Hveðrungr you are THE MASTER! :O

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

@Hveðrungr I so want to see even a glimpse of it's majesty

 

[Zoid]

Are people using Playnite or the new GOG Galaxy 2 for cross platform library management? Do you make use of Steam's refreshed library organiser and the collections feature? Were you wiser, less Smaug-like and just didn't bloat your library to begin with..?

GOG Galaxy 2 looks pretty cool, I might have to check it out! I've just had my Steam library in alphabetical order, not categorized. I kind of like the basic bookcase approach. Now that my games are being split up between other launchers though, a one-stop shop like GOG Galaxy 2 is very appealing to me.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Wow.

Holy cow, @Hveðrungr!! That's intense!

@Hveðrungr you are THE MASTER! :O

I don't think anyone here is surprised to learn that I am an intense kind of guy...

Also, I am a statistician, I make spreadsheets like this all the time for work, so it's actually kind of fun to make one for something pleasurable.

@Hveðrungr I so want to see even a glimpse of its majesty

That can be arranged:




image upload

(The blocked out column is my age, as per my description in the earlier post.)

The most important thing is that the trendlines in that final chart are heading in the correct direction!

PS/ Thanks for the likes, folks!

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

*gazes in awe*
You're madman. I salute you.

 

[Frindis]

@Hveðrungr You just reminded me of that "witch" from Monty Python I believe you could bring some valuable feedback on this survey: https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/...tars-id-appreciate-your-help.3157/#post-14763

Oh: That last picture made me want to play agar.io.

 

[Zoid]

@Hveðrungr you mad lad. I love it!

 

[I Will Haunt You]

So many spreadsheets and charts. The Homer Simpson in me just wants to scream "NERD!"

👻

 

[Hveðrungr]

@OsaX Nymloth @Zoid Thank you both! There is a fine line between madness and genius.

@I Will Haunt You You say that like we're not all posting on a computer games forum: I think the "not being a nerd" boat sailed long ago.

@Frindis I was going to do that survey but it started asking about coronavirus and it was too depressing to think about so I closed it.

 

[I Will Haunt You]

@Hveðrungr Gaming doesn't automatically put you in the nerd column, just the geek column. Things like spreadsheets and charts, though, push you over the geek edge into the nerdzone. 🤓

 

[Hveðrungr]

Given the choice between being nutty, and being a freak who bites the heads off chickens, I will be a nerd over a geek any time!

 

[Zloth]

Given the choice between being nutty, and being a freak who bites the heads off chickens, I will be a nerd over a geek any time!

Ummm, we can do both, right? Asking for a friend.

 

[spvtnik1]

I always had respect for Excel technicians, but I've never seen one flex like that. 👍👍

 

[MeFirst]

I am using the (relatively) new collections on steam. I also follow a "don't use it, loose it" policy in the sense that I don't keep things on my drives that I don't play.

When it comes to collections, I put the game in categories. I have one Category called "Backlog Reminder" in which I put in games that I would like to actually play/finish in the foreseeable future.

 

[randyl]

Steam Library - Most of my games (360) are in Steam. I use Dynamic Collections to create groups of games with similar characteristics or tags.

GoG - This is just for my collection of SSI Gold Box D&D, Ultima, and a few other older DOS games. This I run in a Win10 virtual machine from my desktop.

My OS is Fedora Linux so I play a few other games through Gnome Software and I also use WINE to run a few non-Steam games.