Gaming Journaling Anyone

[HTBandicoot]

Does anyone keep a journal of the games they play? I try to journal in my daily life normally, so I thought about combining what I already do with gaming.

If you do this, do you mainly keep up with achievements or what?

If I kept one, I would do it for the overly complex open world rpg games. For example, today I played Daggerfall and took a quest in a random tavern. I was sent to a different city to retrieve a letter, and then I had 0 idea of the first town I was in. So the quest was useless and I had to start from my last save.

So it might be helpful for me to keep track of where I accepted a quest and be as detailed as possible, and then make a note of the towns I have traveled to and when. With a map as big as England it’s the only way to keep it straight, in my mind at least.

 

[Antilocal123]

I keep a mental list of the games I beat and beat to, like Super Lesbian Animal RPG. /j

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

I've never kept or made a gaming journal before.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Not perse , but my phone's notepads tends to have hints for my games when i don't want to cheat using a guide

 

[RanmyakuIchi's iconRanmyakuIchi]

I'm pretty fast and loose with games, I can't even remember everything I've played or finished.

That said, if I'm making any kind of content, writing, or just trying to sort my thoughts about a game then I'll take notes as I play through.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Yes. Do it. Old RPGs expected people to take notes, kind of like a table top game. I have dozens of handwritten notebooks about stuff from work or gaming. At some point I didn't write but I kind of missed it. I've tried a few tablets with a proper stylus but, I dont know, those pencils I "borrowed" from work are just perfect, they help me being mindful of the task.

Nowadays I also use Youtube and Twitch to record the games I finish. It's funny how I can get caught with tunnel vision on games, and rewatching the stuff makes me realize some obvious way to play better or solve riddles. And I've started to play with Retroachievements, I'm surprised how well done and fun they got some of the achievement sets I tried.

 

[Stingy Perry]

I kept a list of GameShark and CWC cheats.

 

[RageBurner]

I've never done it, but journaling is good for long and/or complex games like RPGs. Sometimes I have to start an RPG over because I literally forgot what I was even doing. This is tangentially related to mapping and checklisting, also useful in many cases.

 

[Aziamuth]

For older games I sometimes take notes or draw maps because that's how they were meant to be played. With more modern games I rarely (if ever) do that

 

[Elwiwi]

For legal reasons I need to say yes , I keep a journal of a game I'm playing

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

I have my Backlog-gaming list on my phone.

When i see a reason to play a game through again in higher difficulties , play new games that im very interested in or i got new games into my collection that i ordered/downloaded from a website , game-shop or from a Flea-market ,
then i put in my Backlog-gaming-list .

When im bored and wanna play games but i dont know what game i should take , my Backlog-gaming-list helps me out immensly .

But are there games that caught my eyes that were very cool and i had no time to check it out : Thats where my interest-list comes in . Thats how i can remember the name of the game without making unnecessary research of it . Especially when nowadays many algorythms and AI engines in the searchbars screwing around with the results and i cant get what i actually searching for .

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

I tend to keep a record of the games I beat (meaning I saw the credits or did all I wanted to do in them). I did it last year, and I’ve continued to do so this year.
Current for 2025:
Games I beat 2025

• Super Mario Land
• Pokémon Puzzle League (Normal)
• Dolphin Blue
• Aliens (Arcade)
• Virtua Fighter 2 - Expert Mode
• Astal
• ENA: Dream BBQ
• Fighters Megamix
• Yoshi’s Story

Many of the games I end up spending lots of time with are actually short in nature. I don’t find myself playing that many RPG’s, despite thinking they’re very cool, since I have a habit of hopping between games so much.
The most memorable plays this year so far were Astal (worth every penny I put into it and I’m still replaying it to get even better at getting through its gorgeous world more consistently), ENA Dream BBQ (I had a friend watching me as I played through it. Made for a very fascinating experience. It JUUUUUUST hits my “too weird” bar, but I was able to get through just fine and adored my time with the wild world and characters presented within), Fighters Megamix (I spent an evening just grinding away at it. I intend to go back in someday and get that weird minigame that’s only in the Japanese version, but that’s for another time. For now, I’m happy with it and will return from time to time to discover new combo routes with characters that you wouldn’t expect to have nearly any sauce.), and Virtua Fighter 2’s Expert Mode (How could I forget the hardest fight I’ve ever had?).

I guess it’s less of a journal and more of a list, but the memories associated with just reading off the names of the games I’ve played makes it good enough! You can easily see from this list that I tend to lean into arcade stuff and shorter games more often than anything. I can always return to them to play better, so for me they have the kind of longevity that I personally love!

 

[fake-kun]

Even if I did, I'd get bored eventually.

 

[Combo]

I've been journaling every game I've beaten on Backloggd since 2021.

 

[Hourai]

Back in the day, I had a notebook to write down cheats and passwords on account of dial up. Couldn't have the internet available at all times.

Nowadays, I tried keeping a journal of my thoughts on games. Went well from August to January. I've slacked a lot starting mid-January this year for stress reasons, though. I also have an account on Backloggery that I give brief thoughts on a game on, once I beat it.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Back in the day, I had a notebook to write down cheats and passwords on account of dial up. Couldn't have the internet available at all times.

Nowadays, I tried keeping a journal of my thoughts on games. Went well from August to January. I've slacked a lot starting mid-January this year for stress reasons, though. I also have an account on Backloggery that I give brief thoughts on a game on, once I beat it.

If cheat sheets even count, I did actually have a sheet of Sonic 2 cheats when I was younger. We found it under something when we were cleaning out the loft area in my family’s home before I left. It was all torn up, but the Super Sonic cheat was STILL THERE!

 

[rugal]

i have a writen down every game i have beaten and what i though about the game

have a notebook where i write down cheats. how to solve puzzles. all optional quests.
hidden bosses. secret events and maps.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I can try to start one but never commit because there’s too many games to list. Backloggd especially has this problem for me since I can only go one at a time

 

[Donte]

 

[Raziya The Seeker]

Tried it in-character with Fallout 4 once before. Kind of a hassle sometimes, but it was fun. Made it all the way to beating Kellogg, though I did rush the main story up to that point.

Otherwise, I kinda treat my Steam screenshots as a journal of games I play. Usually adding funny commentary in the process. ;)

And if it counts: I also have a text document on my computer and Google Drive, chronicling every game I remember playing. There are four categories I use -- a "blank" one for games I didn't finish, a "Finished", a "Beloved" for games I've beaten multiple times and love... and a "Never Again" category that's self-explanatory.