Do you overthink your Steam categories or are you normal?

Steam has categories?

Thank you for giving me inspiration of what to do with that feature!

And here I thought I had a huge backlog.

I could never be this organized, but good for you tbh

The majority of backlogs being in "other" is because you bought hundreds of games you don't remember buying or what genre they are, right? 😆

Mostly games that don't fit into an existing category that I don't feel like creating a dedicated category for. Like I could create a stealth category for Thief and Hitman, but it would only contain those two games. Then there's games like Transistor, Cloudpunk, Spiritfarer, etc where I just don't know how I could even categorize them.

I go by main genre - so Action, Adventure, RPG, ARPG, Rhythm, VR, you get it.

Then a Beaten, Beaten 100%, Shelved, "The Bin", and a "Multiplayer" category. Games are allowed in multiple categories. The Bin does not hold many games, you've gotta earn being thrown in the trash.

That way, when I think, "I wanna play a Rogue Like" I don't have to recall all their titles or anything. Then my Steam Deck came around and the default big picture view makes my sorting... Mostly useless.

Well my list is this:

installed shit
all

There are categories? My 446 entries are just kind of there, alphabetically.

Man, calling them "backlogs" seems like a very unhealthy way of thinking about it. They're games you play for fun and enjoyment, not work you're behind on.

My categories are: Games I shall play one day: just all the games I haven't given a fair shake yet and would like to get around to at some point.

Games I am playing: games that I am actively playing, usually with some activity within the last month

Games I am done with: games I no longer want to play for whatever reason. Used to be "Games I have completed" but that didn't make much sense with multiplayer games or roguelikes, and it worked better for games I hadn't completed and just could not be arsed to complete.

Free games: games I have gotten for free and so have no plans to play.

Also have one for online multiplayer games and one for local multiplayer for when friends want to play something

Most of the time tho I just use the sort by recent and only installed bittons since those are the games I want to see anyway

i have 3 categories:

hentai

not hentai

stupid

Smart move, you're playing Game Categorization, the Game for free on Steam’s dime.

It's not free, though. All the items in the list are paid DLC...
- We’re not buying games, we’re categorizing games. Again, the game we’re playing is called “Game Categorization, the Game,” and it costs nothing to play it.
One of my favorites, I can't wait for the sequel

Dishonored 3? Where did you find that one already?
- It's a category that has 3 items: Dishonored, Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.
This is the most logical
- I hope that someday this will be automatic

TIL there are Steam categories

Steam user since the early days, and no categories here. Why bother. Thousands of games, too much work.

Same thing with profiles, like what do I need that shit for?

Edit: I do want to say, I admire your organization.

..... New Years resolution to say something nice a lot more often, we call could use it ......

Same here. I do use 2 dynamic collections: Installed Locally and Full Controller Support. That's basically just to make it easier to pick stuff to play from the couch.

Otherwise it's all in one big bucket, but it's a searchable bucket, so that's fine.
Steam has the ability to create dynamic collections which is great for larger libraries
- Oh I know they exist... I have thousands of games. Category: games.

I’m surprised I didn’t see it mentioned here (unless I missed it) but I use the “hide game” function liberally. Anything I’m not interested in, gave up on with no chance of trying again, completed with no desire to revisit, or won’t touch for any other reason just goes away, out of sight. It helps give a real sense of progression through your collection and you can pare it down to favorites you would likely revisit and things you have yet to play. And the hidden tab is easily viewable if you ever want to look at everything for any reason like rethinking putting a particular game in there.

I have over 300 games in 2 categories:

Favourites
Uncategorized

I actually like that... Mostly I have categories for genres, publishers, and planning for playing (not like I actually follow it...) but I like some of yours and will probably adopt them

I would do this.

And then only play Rocket League.

My list is just my entire list, sorted by installed and recent. No folders, no organisation, just a very long list

sorted by

no organisation

Objection!
- Ok, fair but it's definitely not folders and shit haha

I currently have it sorted by year (I used some year date from Steam, but that isn't super accurate as I think it's the date it was added to Steam). I think I used Depressurizer?

I used to have it sorted by the Steam score, IIRC.

Only one custom category for the best indie games.

But I dont really need it since I uninstall games I dont play and my library view is filtered to installed only:

Mine is pretty similar, except I just throw my backlog into a big category called "Haven't Touched". Been meaning to make a separate folder for Early Access games I've temporarily dropped until they release.

Thats a lot of categories. I've got "current", "Done with", "never again" and the uncategorized, since functionally that is my backlog.

VR and non-VR for me.

I just sort by recent and that's it 🤷‍♂️ if it falls off and I forget about it, I guess it's gone

I don't use them

I didn't know they existed, haha.
- Same I learned something

I have an _installed, a backlog in general, genre based dynamic categories, and a few special categories such as "bad games that should feel bad", "broke shit check for patch later" "GFWL Broken" and "games of lost interest"

No man sky was one of those broken games. Now I'm 65 hours into it.
- It is always nice when a game can turn itself around

I stopped doing that after the first few hundreds... Now I'm at >5000 or so and only do a "bought to actually play" category 😁

Tf🤨

Categories? I don't use categories. Just a single giant list! Also, I never clear out my email inbox and let it pile up into the thousands! And no one can stop me. MWHAHAHAA!

Do you have some time to hear about our lord and savior the 'sudo Recycle AI'

Yes, I've got then by genre, completed, to be played, "butt ugly indies" and "devil's lettuce approved"

I'm migrating away from steam and starting my library over.(Moving away from accounts and drm) So in the future my library will only have games that I have actually played and will play.

Yeah I'm buying games twice but no one likes captain hindsight.

I mean, if you've already paid for the games in the past, and you're going totally DRM free anyway... I feel like you're morally all good to go sailing.
- Modern games are a pain in the ass and the download speeds are horrible. I'd rather just buy them and download the game in 2 hours.
  
  I don't mind supporting the devs I like, anyways.
Good for you. That's the way. I've only ever bought one game from steam and it cost me $0.99. Most of my games are from GOG where I can actually download the .exe file because I should be able to, because I own the fucking game. I know there are drm free games on steam, but I've always liked GOG. I have a bunch of games .exe files backed up in several places. I also have a bunch of PS4/PS3/PS2 games, physical copies.
- Valve has made it so I can game entirely on linux. I remember when Steam started and I hated it, I didn't want an account. But after all these years its been nothing but ways that benefit me.
  
  I like GOG but they can't be bothered to even create a library tool. Yes third party ones exist, but you would think they could at least try.
  
  And in the end, if it all goes away, it was just games. Not like I couldnt get them back if I really tried, and if you really wanted to do something about it, you CAN archive your steam library.
That's pretty cool! If you don't mind me asking, how are you doing the migration? Last I've checked, most games on steam are sold on there & perhaps other consoles & platforms, but rarely as a direct download from the publisher/dev. The only ones that come to mind are Factorio & Starsecter. So how are you building that library?

Unless your using GoG, itch (which would be limiting I'd think), or piracy (which from another comment you implied you weren't doing?), I don't see how this would be practical.

Not trying to throw shade, just really curious.
- Pretty much just GoG. Most of the games I want to continue playing are on there.
  
  If not that, then looking for FOSS alternatives(Like instead of minecraft I have VoxeLibre)

Installed
Finished
VR
Borked Anti-cheat
Everything else

Borked for Linux, or just broken in general?
- Borked for Linux

Guess I'm kinda normal. I just install what I wanna play, filter by playable and store by last played.

I tried, but dynamic filters were not good enough, so i gave up.

Only have "Ready To Play", "All Played" and "Uncategorized" now.

I think that's part of why you have a backlog.

In all seriousness though, I have a couple lists for like "Workshop" and "Souls like," otherwise it's just sorted by what's installed and most recent.

I do have a favorites list though.

No I already have a full time job.

I just have a finished one where I move them after I finish the story or I'm done with a game.

Whoa I don't even know you can categorize steam games like this, thanks for showing

I categorize them based on their franchise. But if they're not part of any franchise or they're the only game I have they'd just be uncategorized.

my dad's garage is like this

A lot of backlog eh
- I'm onto his antics.. it's a mix of strategic time waste projects, shit being worked on that continually needs more, and the far off dreams of a man with more free time

I am in awe of your organization.

Goals. Holy, I know what I'm doing tomorrow instead of gaming.

Ooh, emojis? The possibilities!

Not Steam emoticons though, unfortunately.
- What a miss by steam! I might finally have something to use them for

I was playing this game too much, with complex system which never actually encouraged me to play any of the games I have categorized (and I had similar system as OP). Please dear fellow gamers - don't fall into same trap =)

Now I have only 4:

WTP - want to play games, be them new or on repeat.
VR - same as WTP, but for VR.
Done - for games which are finished, but I have a feeling that I would like to recall them several years later.
Done-done - for games which I'm not going to ever play again. Either bad games, or which have fully fulfilled their purpose and there is nothing to do anymore.

I use recent sorting, which help a lot to mitigate any kind of lock on what to play today. It's more like recommendation

I am trying to free myself from finishing games 100% and avoid all side/boring activities, also now I'm free to pick whichever game I want, instead of planned (like work) consumption with previous system.

It has really brighten my playtime, now it feels more like joy than before.

I'm not organizing 1200 games. Nor will I ever play them all lol.

To Play
Finished
Unfinished (games I gave up on)
Time Sink (unending games, roguelikes, etc)
Multiplayer
Multiplayer (5+)
Local Multiplayer

I think I must use them wrong.

My categories are mostly used to organise by where they're installed - so Desktop, Laptop, Steam Deck Internal, Steam Deck SD Card 1, SD Card 2 etc. If I want to play that game, where's it already installed?

The only category that relates to the games content is "wheel games" which is driving games that work well with wheel/pedals/gearstick.

I have an "immediate backlog" of 5 games, about 30 in my "primary backlog," and about 60 in my "backlog." I promote or demote based on vibe and try to play 1 game at a time. I also have a tight curation of favorites and Steam Deck bangers.

I dont have this many lists. I keep mine as finished, currently playing, broken and then some dynamic lists based on category such as rougelike, horror etc

Favorites
Backlog
Completed
Uncategorized

I only have 3: -TO PLAY -BANGERS -Uncategorized

Poor VR, all the way at the bottom below shovelware.

Very much intentional since I don't own a headset at the moment. If I ever get one again, I'll give the category an emoji to push it back towards the top lol

I am somewhat bad about organizing on Steam. All I have for categories are pretty much games I got for free, paid for indie titles, paid for non-indie titles, and emulators. Would be better if I better organized them, but I wouldn't know where to start and would most likely procrastinate on it indefinitely because of the number of things I have in library.

I just sort my library by rating to see what I'll play next.

I feel you bundley pain. I have: favourites, check in future/ early access, completed, currently paying, deck games, escape rooms, games for my wife to try, horror, humble games to try, local multiplayer, multiplayer, new need to try, played kinda sucked, puzzle, RPG, RTS, shooter, sofa games, VR games.

New need to try is for the humble bundle games I'm actually interested in and the humble games to try is for the ones which are just extras.

I just have unplayed, installed locally, and good games.

I often forget to update the good games folder so it's iffy as to whether or not all of my good games are in there yet at any given time.

Why would you sort the ones you're uninterested in?

I sort mine by genre, plus a couple categories that overlap with others like "Space" or "No Killing" because sometimes I get in the mood for a particular quality. I don't have an active category, instead I uninstall games that I don't see myself playing in the near future and then use the "Ready to Play" button to see the active ones. Installing games encourages me to do something else, and the limit on how long it'll be helps, "Do chores for an hour while your game installs" is a lot easier for me than just "Do chores." Ideally, I try to limit my installed games to 10 so that I think more about what I actually want to play, I'm not always disciplined about it.

I categorise them by genre, but only those I've played. Everything else is unsorted and my backlog is whatever I have installed and uncategorised.

How did you put icons on your categories?

You can just use emojis in the name, all Unicode characters work as far as I'm aware.
- Time for some big eggplant energy.

I don't use categories, but I do keep a tab open with this loaded with my Steam ID. It uses all the tags games have on Steam so you can see if you have a 2D Sci-Fi Souls-like if you want.

How is your early access category so small?

I avoid early access in general, so I've only ended up with a handful from game bundles.

So what are the 4 Souls-likes in your backlog?

Sekiro, Code Vein, The Surge, and Steel Rising.

Honestly the first three are candidates for the "Dropped" category, I've started and given up on them before. I want to give them each one more chance at some point.
- Would be a shame to drop Sekiro. Definitely one of the hardest souls games but very redeeming once you get the hang of it.
  
  Code Vein is very rough around the edges but has a cool art style and interesting boss designs. Also has a banger soundtrack by Go Shiina, best known for Demon Slayer. Some of the boss themes go really hard. Pretty good in coop but probably wouldn't have finished it alone.
  
  Did not enjoy The Surge and did not play Steel Rising.

Shooting boomers is not very nice.