Full Steam Ahead : We are many

It has been over a month since I started Full Steam Ahead. I had become fed up with my ever increasing Steam backlog and felt the need to do something about it.
By now I've played four games and am ready to finish up a fifth one. I couldn't be more pleased with that result and I'm really enjoying analyzing the games I'm playing.
I would like to thank everyone who has been reading my posts so far and I appreciate the feedback I've been getting over Skype and on the Steamgifts forums.
This kind of response inspires me to continue my project.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said : "There is nothing worth thinking but it has been thought before; we must only try to think it again."
This couldn't be more the case for the basic premise of this blog. Since starting Full Steam Ahead I have met numerous people that are dealing with their Steam backlog in their own way.
With this post I'd like to share some of those projects.

When I posted about Full Steam Ahead on Steamgifts the first comment I got was "Why not join the Backlog Attack group?"
As the name gives away, Backlog Attack is a Steam group with only one goal : getting rid of the Steam Backlog. In order to achieve this each member of the group has to at least play one game a month and write a review about it.
This review is posted as a discussion on the group page in order to start a meaningful conversation about the game. If different people finish the same game, they all add their review to one discussion about that game.
In my opinion this group has three strong points.

• It keeps you stimulated to keep playing even if you're having a hard time with a game
• When sales come around you can go into the discussions and see what games are worth your money
• You meet like minded people

Is asked creator of the group AgeOfArmageddon why he started the group.

The idea originally began as a "30 games in 30 days" forum challenge I had setup for myself .
The idea was to do a quick impression/review for 1 new game every day, with the 30 games chosen by forum members.
Being that it was SteamGifts, I was also giving away a new game with each review.
Unfortunately, being that it was SteamGifts; the thread died out after some time, with people coming to enter the giveaways but no longer commenting at all.
There was a silver lining however; many posts indicated they thought the idea was quite cool, or wish they had done it themselves. One person even copied the thread idea and did his own.
Seeing this as an opportunity; I decided to make a group where I could continue my efforts, but do so in the company of other like-minded individuals.

When I asked what he believes to be the best aspect of the group he answered :

Chronicling my efforts to clear out my old games has been fun; as has reading the reviews of others. I think the best aspect would be the community that has formed around it.
I am often in group chat, and even after a few months; it is generally quite active.
Meeting new and interesting people who share a passion is always a fantastic outcome  of a project like this.

Backlog attack is a closed group though, so you can only get in by means of invitation and AgeOfArmageddon wants to keep it limited to around 100 people. If you're interested in joining though, there's no harm in asking of course.

I've been a big fan of Giant Bomb for years now. I love the site, the content, the crew and the community.
One of the things I like most about the site is that it puts a spotlight on original stuff created by that community. When I went over to the site a few weeks ago I saw this description in one of the community spotlight slots

Steam Completionist, Do you have way too many games in your Steam backlog? Well, Bio2hazard has designed a stylish website to organize, analyze, and destroy that pile of shame.

This immediately caught my attention of course so I went into the forum thread and found that Giant Bomb user Bio2hazard had become inspired by a Reddit post to create an informative and user friendly overview of your steam backlog.
I highly recommend every Steam user to check it out on www.steamcompletionist.net. You simply log on with your Steam credentials and your entire library gets displayed in a very clear way. Once you have indicated which game you have finished you can designate up to five games as 'next to finish'
In addition you can view overall Steam stats, achievement stats and use the page as an alternative to the Steam Library page. Seriously, go check it out!

Now as I said, Bio2hazard was inspired by a reddit post.
This was a post by Reddit user Multitasker dealing with the exact same thing as I was.
He started finishing games and posting his findings on reddit.
If you have a minute, give the page a read. There's some good reading on there.

If you are dealing with your Steam Backlog in a specific way yourself, please let me know in the comments. I'm always glad to meet more like-minded people and perhaps I'll make another post like this if I can find more interesting backlog projects.

Not sure what Full Steam Ahead is all about? Read this introductory post and get up to speed