Yesterday I had a bit of a grouch about the changes Steam Calculator has made to how they calculate your backlog and percentage played. It’s a silly thing to complain about in the bigger picture of things, but I’m glad I did.
Thanks to Krikket, I don’t have to scrap all the time I’ve put towards my Steam Challenge because I have a more accurate replacement for the Calculator. It was right in front of my nose all along (isn’t it always?) – Steam Collections.
I’ve been using Steam collections for quite a while to keep track of the games that I want to play, have played, are gifts, etc. But for some reason it never occurred to me to use it as a means of calculating my backlog.
My Collections
When I decided to look into using collections as a backlog tool, I noticed something I’d not messed around with before – Dynamic Collections. When you go to create a new collection, you have the option to make it dynamic.
I didn’t realize how very useful this feature was until I explored it more.
So, when you create a dynamic collection, you can set specific filters on that collection that will automatically move titles into it when that title meets the proper criteria. For example, you can make a dynamic collection of games you’ve already played like so:
Now, every time you play a new game, Steam automatically categorizes it as “Played” and moves it into this collection.
You can do this with unplayed and with games currently installed to make categories such as Not Played or Currently Playing as I have.
Because some of the titles overlap in my other categories (for example, a game can be a Gift, but still be Really Want to Play), it’s a more accurate snapshot for me to create dynamic collections for both Played and Unplayed games.
I can then add those together to get a total number of owned games – and games only, because you can control what your collections include when it comes to games vs tools vs soundtracks vs software. I can then do the math to see where my percent played stands and…
Yes! I’m back to the 69% played that I had before the Steam Calculator site went on the fritz!
It’s not as pretty as the Steam Calculator page, but as accurate as can possibly be. Thank you again Krikket for the suggestion – I’d never have looked into it this deeply without your input!
