Tildes' 2023 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion
Three weeks in! Update your bingo cards and tell us about what you played! Q: I missed the beginning of this event. Can I still join? A: Of course! It's open all month. Topic etiquette: It is fine...
Three weeks in! Update your bingo cards and tell us about what you played!
Q: I missed the beginning of this event. Can I still join?
A: Of course! It's open all month.
Topic etiquette:
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It is fine to make multiple top-level posts throughout the week if you play multiple games.
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It is fine to respond to yourself with updates if you're continuing a single game and walk to talk more about it as you go.
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If you are playing Backlog Bingo, feel free to make a top-level post with your card that you edit as you go, while making new posts underneath that to talk about the games as you play them.
Gameplay guidelines:
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Goals for this event (if any) are entirely individual and self-determined.
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You do NOT need to finish games unless you want to. The point is to try out games and have fun, not force ourselves to play things we're not interested in.
Backlog Bingo
Thanks to the amazing efforts of our very own @Wes, we are debuting Backlog Bingo! This is a completely optional way to participate in the month.
You can generate a unique Backlog Bingo card from a collection of 73 different categories. Choose the ones you want in your batch, and then use Wes's custom-made online tool to automatically create your own individualized bingo card.
Wes's tool automatically assembles the markdown for your table, so it will paste beautifully into comments here on Tildes. For example:
Bingo Card Example
| Bingo! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not super popular (e.g. <50 user reviews on Metacritic) | Is one of the oldest games you own | Arcade game | Has DLC | You own on physical media |
| You have to tinker in order to get it running | You got from a bundle | You wanted to play it when you were younger but never did | Owned for more than five years | Has cute, feel-good vibes |
| Co-op game or campaign | From now-defunct dev studio | ★ | Has a non-human player character | Owned for more than one year |
| Not found on any distribution service | You can save/pet/care for animals | Begins with one of your initials | You paid full price for it | Solo-dev project |
| Has an animal player character | From a series you have played | Has number somewhere in the title | Owned for more than three years | Came out more than 5 years ago |
Play games throughout the month to check off categories in the Bingo card. The ★ in the middle of every card is a free space -- there are no requirements for that square and any game you play fits there!
The most basic win condition is five-in-a-row, but, if you're feeling really wild, you might go for a win pattern that's a little more involved. Your choice!
Here's an example of someone "winning" the card above:
Winning Bingo Card
| Bingo! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not super popular (e.g. <50 user reviews on Metacritic) | ✅ Terminal Velocity (1995) |
Arcade game | Has DLC | You own on physical media |
| You have to tinker in order to get it running | ✅ World of Goo |
You wanted to play it when you were younger but never did | Owned for more than five years | Has cute, feel-good vibes |
| Co-op game or campaign | ✅ Blur |
★ | Has a non-human player character | Owned for more than one year |
| Not found on any distribution service | ✅ Super Metroid |
Begins with one of your initials | You paid full price for it | Solo-dev project |
| Has an animal player character | ✅ Rise of the Tomb Raider |
Has number somewhere in the title | Owned for more than three years | Came out more than 5 years ago |
Bingo Golfing (thanks @Wes and @aphoenix!) is also an option: trying to clear a pattern by counting multiple categories for a single game, thus “winning” with as few games as possible.
Step 3 of Wes's tool includes instructions for checking off games, which has to be done manually. If you need an in-thread guide, you can use the following example below:
Filling in a Square
This markdown:
||
|:-:|
| ✅ ~~Struckthrough Example Category~~ <br> **Bolded Game Title** |
Gives this completed square: (ignore the header row that markdown requires for its tables)
| ✅ Bolded Game Title |
If you can't figure out how to check off categories or you break the Markdown for your table, feel free to ask for help in the comments or PM me and I can help you out!
FAQs
What is this?
Your "backlog" is all those games you've been meaning to play or get around to, but never have yet. This event is an attempt to get us to collectively dig into that treasure trove of experiences!
How do I participate?
Choose a game (or several) from your backlog and play it/them. Then tell us about your experiences in the discussion thread for the week! If you're not sure what you might write, take a look at our 2022 or 2020 events to get an idea.
Do I need to finish the games I play?
Nope! Not at all. There aren't really any requirements for the event so much as this is an incentive to get us to play games we've been avoiding starting up, for whatever reason. Play as much or as little as you like of a given game. Try out dozens for ten minutes each or dive into one for 40 hours. There's no wrong way to participate!
What's the timeline?
I will post an update thread weekly, each Wednesday, all through November. At the end of the month, I think it would be neat to tally how many collective games we all removed from our backlogs, as well as what the best finds were from our collective digging into our libraries. I expect we'll turn up some good hidden gems, as well as interesting insights.
Do I need to sign up?
You don't have to do anything to officially join or participate in the event other than post in these threads! Participate in whatever way works for you.
But November has `Big Name Release` coming out. Why *this* month when people will be focused on that new game?
I'm doing the best that I can! A "problem" with 2023 is that it has been an absolutely stacked year for gaming releases. There simply hasn't been a "slow" month. With limited time left, I figured November was at least better than December. Think of this as an opportunity to cut down on your backlog before all the end-of-the-year sales hit.