I'm mildly proud of how I categorise my games on Steam and interested to see others' methods
They're in order of likelihood of being played. Craig is a mate of mine who I play with when time permits.
Newest trending game tag in steam Craig-like and Craig-lites.
Survival Craig
Action RP-Craig
Not pictured: Won't make the mistake of playing with Craig again
I just use dynamic collections, eg. group games by their store-tags, eg. arpg, fps, puzzle, walking-sim, online-coop... etc, whatever I consider handy when going through all of it.
Sure, the categories have a lot of overlap, but I don't mind, the games list is a disaster anyway (>1300 games on account... yea.).
I used to maintain my own categories, but at some point the number of games started to be too much to do it by hand.
edit: One of the better features is to group games with online-coop with friends who have it too. Makes it a lot easier to find the next adventure to start after few beers.
This is how I go about it, too. I also use the favourites feature to self-curate games to reduce choice anxiety when I want to play something.
Whenever I buy a game, it gets favourited, whenever I'm done with a game, it gets unfavorited.
If I play some game a lot or feel like playing some game when I have time, I favourite it.
This way anytime I want to play, I have a short list of games to consider, instead of trying to look through my whole library.
yea I do also use the favorites (and two other manual lists), but thats about it. Mostly I just use the "last played" view of the library and hide games which aren't installed locally.
I tried to sort by genre too many times and failed due to how specific some games get. So now they are sorted by completion.
I also have a huge word document that has a very detailed, color-coded checklist of every game I have sorted alphabetically & by franchise, this was made so I could include any games from my other devices.
What’s in “DONE - DIDN’T LIKE”? I’m curious as to what you’ve finished despite not really digging it!
"Done" doesn't always mean complete, generally that's where games go that I didn't finish, never returned, and don't plan on ever playing again.
But to answer your question
Far Cry: horrible update, AI is broken, don't care to fix it
Far Cry Primal: Didn't hate it but I didn't love it, caused major eye pain too so I couldn't play long.
Penumbra: Requiem: Abandoned the vibes of the previous two penumbra games which were the precursors to the amnesia games, didn't enjoy the puzzles either.
Planet Centauri: Development Hell, no interest anymore.
Sniper Elite: weird funky controls just not enjoyable for me got about midway through before tapping out.
We happy few: mostly abandoned by the devs, game suffered due to being rushed.
Out of those I beat 3, the rest I either didn't make the return window or kept for library collection reasons.
I do like the use of square brackets to abuse the alphabetisation.
This is amazing! May I please copy your system? :')
Of course!
Saving for reference. You've got a good thing going here. I need to steal some of your ideas for my own collection.
I just have "Craig" and "Not Craig".
I think you'll find my naming scheme perfectly cromulent.
Naming Scheme 'Em Ups
I just wonder how Lindsey compares to Craig.
come on! Lindsay 'em up!
that is so my wife can find the games she likes and I am trying to make it as easy as possible for her without my nonsense
eroge?
Wow am I the only gamer who had no idea you could organise games into groups in steam? It never even occurred to me to look for this feature
i had them organised once upon a time but then i switched laptops and the categories didn't transfer so i just, never did that again
same happened to me, super annoying.
there's third party tools that seem to be able to back up your categories and restore them, so for anyone who's put an effort into the categories and doesn't want it to disappear, look into it. personally i didn't trust these third party tools enough, so now i only have automated categories, and favorites for the stuff i care about right now.
Yeah seriously the only two categories I have are favorites (games that are installed), and everything else (games that aren't installed).
Installed Locally (17)
Uncategorized (1447)
Like this
I need me a Craig.
We're around
I'd play games with you as time permits.
mine would go something like:
stuff i play: 1
stuff i used to play: 3
stuff i got just because it was cheap: 983785789567
Craig
Lol, I have virtually the same system, though my Craig is called Dan
Oh fuck! To start, and to finish! What a great idea.
I just have genres, series, and have really nothing based on what I still have to play
I have mine set up with a bunch of categories that are sorted with a prepended 3-digit number. Allows me to have different sections of category without it getting mixed up. ex:
010 S
011 A+
012 A
013 A-
014 B+
etc...
350 plz play soon
355 wont play
...
800 dont remember buying this
I theme mine on how I play them:
And yes, a bunch of uncategorized
Very similar to my own system!
Rhythm Games (15)
Favourites(12)
Uncategorised (210)
Only ~250 games? Those are rookie numbers! /s
"Would play with Craig again" could contain 2000 games though.
“Welcome to the British Museum Collection of Egyptian Antiquities… My name’s Craig…”
I still dont understand how people play varied games so far. I only have limited times and I can only slot it to play my comfort games. Even when i have extended times, eventually I just play the same things again.
I haven't added anything to a category other than favorites in a while. Just can't be bothered. I use my 'favorites' as an installed and/or probably will play again.
Nice. I have favorites and uncategorized 🫠
Although this might be why I never know what to play
Ah, don't worry, I'm often paralysed by choice despite my system.
i just put everything i actually buy in favorites and categorize everything else
favorites
not hentai
hentai
I like the implication that there's a third state of neither hentai nor non-hentai games.
before steam had the built in library categorization I used a third party tool that created categories automatically based on tags
which is to say I have way too many useless categories now and need to wipe them all and start over 🙁
TBH tho I usually just use recent activity, but having genres, mechanics, and "vibes" helps me find the game I'm in the mood to install and play. Some of the catagories are essentially useless tho as most people who tag games have no clue what certain genre's actually are, so I have to curate some of these I care about, I have too many games to do it without steam tags though.
Wait what's the difference between "Craig" and "Would play with Craig again"?
Haha! I'm not the only one with categories that are just "friends name"
I just hide everything I don't want to play again. "Favorites" means "games I am playing right now". I have one real category of my own, which is "Finished", and actually means "maybe I beat this, or maybe I just got close enough and watched the ending on Youtube." Very few games are actually visible in "Finished" because mostly I don't replay games, so if I beat something, it goes into "Finished" and then gets hidden.
Friendly reminder that “backlogs“ are prisons of your own making. There is no moral imperative to play or complete every game you buy!
(Hall of honor as of now contains "Brothers: A tale of two sons", game brought me to tears so I created the category, shoved it in there and never played it again.)
I would play with Craig too
Wouldn't games under Craig and Would play with Craig again overlap? Unless Craig has currently playing games.
They're games we've not got around to yet or not finished yet, whereas the "would play" is ones we're more or less done with but might come back to in the distant future. We don't get to do it very often because we live in different timezones and he's got two young chiddlers.
They say Craig is a mate they play games with when time permits, so I assume those are in progress games
Favs, a category just for PoE, semi-favs, and then some dynamic lists to get a fake "all" list.
I love how PoE sits between "Favorites" and "Anything I might actually like". I think that sums up my relationship with PoE as well.
Sorry, what in God's name is a dynamic list?
The ones that have a lighting are dynamic. You know how when you go to search in your games it lets you filter to get only the ones with the rpg tag, or multiplayer, and so on? You can create a category that has all the games with the rpg tag, which updates dynamically. When you go to create a category it gives you the option, it should be straight forward.
A man of class
I have
The Rest ist unmanaged. Oh and I also just hide a game if it's a one-playthrough-only thing and I am finished.
Always looking for couch co-op recommendations if you have any to share?
These would be
I have three categories:
They go into In Progress when they're installed.
They go into completed when I've finished them. Either 100% achievements or completed to my own satisfaction if no achievements.
If I lose interest and uninstall they drop back into Uncategorized until I'm ready to pick them up again.
We have to categorise?
We have to play?
We have to install?
You don't, but I do!
Currently:
Soon to be added:
The games in progress I mark as favorites, I have “Finished” and “Play Next” categories, and I have a big dump category called “Won’t Play”.
Aside from that, I have some big categories for collections of old games from humble bundles and steam sales, like legacy Myst, Wizardry, or Sierra games, or like Star Wars game collections.
I have no category for games I play often, I have "played" for games I likely won't play again. And I have "shitty trash" for well those. I also have uber trash for sacred 3 and two worlds
Favorites - Games I'm playing very frequently
Bugged - Games I might try again if specific bugs are fixed.
Classic - Games I play less frequently but still plan to again
Couch - Games that would only be fun to play on a couch with friends. if I had a couch. or friends.
Doze - Games that require tweaks to proton to work on my Linux desktop.
Meh - Games I'm not playing again.
Old - Finished games I'd only install again if it had a massive update.
Testing - Uncategorized games I haven't made up my mind on.
Looking at some of these... I'd never even considered sectioning them by genre - mine's mostly by physical location - if I want to play that game, where's it already installed?
So there's :
Desktop, Laptop, Deck Internal, Deck SD1 (and SD2, 3 & 4 for removable SD cards)
Then like most people, I've got a "Complete" and a "Maybe [person's name]" for ones the missus might enjoy.
The only sort of grouping is "Wheel Games", which is basically driving games, but the type you want to play with wheel & pedals, not just a controller. My wheel and pedals aren't set up permanently, so when they are set up, I pretty much only play all the Euro Truck/Bus Sims, Dirt Rally, F1, Revhead, BeamNG sort of games etc.
I did also use to have lists for my laptop and hand-me-down PC, and one called "need a better computer", but my laptop's since given up the ghost and I have a better computer.
Needs a "morally obligated to never play again" for Spec Ops and OneShot
A few games in my favorites and the rest is uncategorized (i only have like 20 games though so that's not much of a problem)
I have 25 games on steam so I don't need to organize them
I joined steam in 2009
The ideal.
Didn't even know I could do that :') thanks
I'll come back to this when I sorted them... although I really do like your system.
I use genre categories to which I assign games I have completed.
Completed also includes things I decided weren't worth playing anymore, mostly from bundles back in the day. Stuff like Fallout Tactics and some of the XCOM spinoffs.
I just have installed and finished. Also emulator categories created by emudeck
Working on it - Stuff I'm in the middle of
Leeloo Dallas Multipass - Anying that is 2 or more players
Done Did - Games that I've done did
Then title groupings for anything with 5 or more installments.
"My favorite game" "My second favorite game" "My third favorite game" "One must not look a gift horse in the mouth"
I just leave mine in the recent activity sort, and then use the search bar when i want to play something that i havent played recently
I don't really need more than that.
i either group them by genres, or by series/franchises, or by developers.
with some stupid category names, of course.
i did this but didn't keep up with it. ended up with a big "unsorted" folder that occasionally has gems when i look through it
Something similar.
For example - "done and complete" is Portal 2. Great experience, but no reason to just replay it. "Done and meh" could be games where I gave up trying.
Then it's
Finally it's specific categories about how it makes me "feel".
The valve tags are better if i want granular.
I just have Favorites (all games installed, steam or non-steam), playlist (games I want to play but haven't installed yet), and finished games.
Everything else is mixed together to search through when I'm looking for something specific (coop, etc).
I just organize them in 3 categories for me:
It's a mess, but it's better than no organization because it makes the list feel more organized than it actually is.
And then the rest are sorted via genre tag.
I've got a category for the rating (/10) I give any games I've finished, as well as the following:
These categories don't overlap (ie, I don't give ratings to games I haven't actually finished, even if this means I dropped them with no intent to play them again)
Work pretty nicely for me and it's nice to be able to easily point to games I'd recommend to my pals
And the "wont play" category is largely just games that were in bundles, that I don't care for, or games that I thought I'd want to play but became uninterested in them before I got around to them
Might have to adapt this for my own use
Could be something to spend hours on, you know, instead of playing Horizon ZD, Jedi Survivor, Life is Strange, Tell Me Why, or the Tomb raider series.
And those are just the story based
I group them by general type. Shooters, Rts, Turn-based, rpg, platformers, puzzle etc. And then there's a separate category for games that suck. Like a category of shame, to always remember the lows of humanity.
I put the games I care about into genres. There's a lot in my library I don't really bother with though and I just lump that in its own category.
I tried that, but most genre folders have become pretty useless over time because they're either too similar to each other or somehow games found their way into wrong ones
I don't use the dynamic collections if that's what you mean. I have my own list of genres I care to categorise my games into, manually.
Putting how many games I have in each category in brackets since your screenshot included that info and I think it's interesting data to include.
I have "Uninterested" [7] as a category for games I will probably never play. "Backlog" [33] for games I haven't started, but do eventually want to play. "Story Started" [25] for games that I have started playing but haven't finished the core story or made it to the credits of (some of these games have been in this category for years). A "Playing" [7] category for a few games from the "Story Started" collection that I consider as games I'm actively playing. And a "Story Complete" [91] category for games that I've at least reached a credits screen or otherwise finished the core game/story.
If I enjoy a game a lot, through multiple playthroughs (or at least expect to return for another playthrough at some point) it gets added to my Favorites [14].
And then there's the 280 games in the Uncategorized list, I have played a bit of some of them, but for most of them I'd want to start over from the beginning rather than continue from where I left off.
Hmmm, I'd like to see Craig's list.
Let's see Paul Allen's card.
I have to play, playing, done i dont think i have any unsorted rn
My "to start" tab would be waaaaaaay too long to be useful as a category lol
I have:
1 - currently playing 2 - favorites (contains games that I often replay, even if I finished them) 3 - next up 4 - finished (games that I finished, I.e. i saw the credits of) 5 - completed (games that I finished and have 100% achievements on) 6 - abandoned (tried the game, didnt click with it, unlikely to be picked up in the future)
"Uncategorized (250)" sums it up pretty well
Uncategorized
Scrolling through all my preciouses that I'm never going to play again
You have managed to make me feel better about my self