How to Crush Your Backlog with the GG| App

Published: July 8, 2020 11:00 AM /

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Whether it's scrolling through your much-too-large Steam Library or shifting through stacks of PlayStation 4 game discs on your bookshelf, the sheer number of video games today can be overwhelming. What's in my backlog? What have I played? What should I play next? And, most importantly, which games are worth my time and money? Leveraging technology for the sake of organization is a favorite pastime of mine (yes, I am very cool), so when my years-long search for a solution finally brought me to GG|, I was excited in the nerdiest way possible. These problems for other forms of media have already largely been solved; Goodreads for books, My Anime List for anime and Letterboxd for movies.  Luckily, GG| has stepped in to fill that void for video games.

Update 10/05/20, 11:14 a.m. PT - TechRaptor editorial added a disclaimer regarding the author's relationship with GG|.

GG| is a platform-agnostic service that lets you organize your games, track your play status, and make lists and rankings that can be shared or for your own reference. With access to a database of nearly every game ever made, it's an easy way to catalogue what you've been up to and plan what's next. You can organize and sort through games depending on their play status (playing, dropped, shelved, beaten, etc) or by using lists ("Every Game I Own on PS4"). And here's the best part: GG| is both a web browser app and available in the App Store and the Google Play Store, all with the same functionalities and synchronization across platforms. Oh, and it's free.

Get Organized with Lists

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Your wishlist can contain games that are already out (Disco Elysium), games that are coming out later, like The Wolf Among Us 2 or Cyberpunk 2077.

After cataloging your library, I'd recommend exploring lists. I suggest starting with a wishlist. The main benefit of this wishlist over the one built into Steam or the Xbox Store is that it's platform independent. I have a gaming PC, Switch, and PS4, so the benefits of keeping track of interesting-looking games here should be pretty apparent. I've also found this wishlist to be an easy way to share what games you're looking forward to with friends, who in turn can add a game to their own list if they find it interesting. It's also been a great way to keep track of small indie games that have caught my eye during one of the seemingly thousands of press events and directs this summer.

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Now that I look at it all at once, there is a lot of Zelda on here.

But why stop there? Lists can also be ranked, so your fist natural inclination will be to do a top 10, or 25, or maybe 50 of all time. But you're still thinking inside the box. Why not rank The Best Alligators and Crocodiles in Video Games? Figure out if you and your SO can survive any of these Relationship Tester Co-op Games? Or see how many of these classics you've completed to earn the title of ♡❤ Gamer Girl 2002 ❤♡ ? The possibilities are endless! Lists are a great, nice-looking way to share sets of games with friends, even if they don't have the app. There's a convenient share button built right into the app as well. Pro tip: Clicking "List Order" in the top right on any list will let you fade out the covers of games you've played, so when your friend sends you a favorites list you can quickly see where you stack up. Now get to grouping!

Read and Write Game Reviews

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Just a few of my reviews. I've tried to write something for every game I've ever touched.

This is one of the main reasons I chose to use GG| to get my game library organized over the half dozen competitors. The process of writing a review is as simple as clicking on a game, clicking the Review button, giving it a star rating and typing in your thoughts. No minimum character requirements either, so you'll see that I've written reviews ranging from 10 words to 2,600 at times. Going to a game page shows the average rating from the community and a list of all reviews, so diving in to see real players' thoughts in a constructive way is an easy way to peruse your backlog for what's next. With just a few exceptions, I've found the reviewing community at GG| to have genuinely thoughtful reviews of most games already.

Finally Tackle Your Backlog

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You know the wildest thing here? All of the games in the first row were just in January.

GG| has absolutely helped me wear down my backlog, and I've got numbers to prove it. I've been maintaining a spreadsheet with all this data for the last six years, but seeing a visual representation of the data alongside reviews and ratings really spurred me to knock more games out of my backlog. According to my record keeping, the following are how many games I beat each year for the last five years:

  • 2014 - 10 Games
  • 2015 - 15 Games
  • 2016 - 15 Games
  • 2017 - 11 Games
  • 2018 - 13 Games
  • 2019 - 15 Games
  • 2020 (so far) - 20 Games

Woah! I started using GG| last fall and have just about doubled the amount of games I've finished in the first six months of 2020. I set my end of the year goal for 2020 at 30 games, so I'm making good progress. I feel that progress begets progress; that is to say, every time I glance back at my list of completed games so far this year I am motivated to keep at it. Visually managing my library across platforms in one space has merged that disconnect between my different consoles and the half-dozen launchers I have on PC, making it easy to see all at once what I've been up to. I'm actually an "essential worker" and never quarantined, so I haven't really had more gaming time this year than last—I'm just using the time more efficiently because I'm more motivated. You, too, could be like me and finally crush the backlog that's been haunting you since the 2016 winter Steam Sale.

More Updates are On the Way

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You wouldn't believe the number of times I link my Definitive Sonic Rankings on Twitter and create a... we'll call it lively discussion. Well, maybe you would.

GG| is developed by one person in his spare time, but new features are constantly showing up. GG| has no ads, even for free users, so the site operates 100% on premium tier (Elite) members. Expect some big updates coming soon though, including revamped searching and browsing capabilities, rating spreads and notes on games and lists. Anyone can submit ideas for new features in the very active Discord Channel or through the roadmap on Trello, and you'll usually get a response from the developer within hours. I am an Elite member myself and enjoy the perks, but it's mostly to help out an independent developer with a great idea that I use nearly every day. Whether you're into list-making, reviewing, or just crushing your backlog, GG| has something for you. Stop on by my profile for some ideas to get started!


Disclosure: The author is part of the GG| App team and failed to disclose this to the editorial team at the time of publication.

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Nirav
| Former Staff Writer

Nirav is a 27 year-old unpaid Nintendo shill. When he's not blackmailing his friends into buying a Switch, he's probably stanning for Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage… More about Nirav