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Organizing your Steam library
Linas Dec 7, 2020
I recently tried to organize my Steam library and came up with the following system.

  • Completed - or got bored with
  • Not Played
  • Playing Now
  • Garbage - low quality bundle filler, and games that do not work because of technical problems.

Each game is only in one collection at the time. I also use Favourites to mark the games I plan to play -- a subset of Not Played.

How do you do it? Do you use external tools, or just rely on built-in categories and search function in Steam?
Julius Dec 7, 2020
The new automatic filters are somewhat useful (I use them to filter out VR capable games).

Otherwise, I am on an legacy genre category system that I started years ago, which totally got out of hand and by now is more cumbersome then helpful. Does anyone know how to quickly wipe all categorization in Steam to start fresh?

I like your idea of sorting them after what you actually still plan to play.
Salvatos Dec 7, 2020
First, I have a Replayable category at the top for mainstays like roguelites, arcade and multiplayer games. Next I have Unfinished for games I haven’t finished or even started. I have an Ignored category for things that I didn’t enjoy, that I got for free and don’t intend to play or that no longer work or are obsolete (e.g. replaced by a remastered edition). Then I have various genre categories alphabetically and I add the games to all that apply.

Last edited by Salvatos on 7 December 2020 at 12:16 pm UTC
omicron-b Dec 7, 2020
Quoting: LinasI recently tried to organize my Steam library and came up with the following system.

  • Completed - or got bored with
  • Not Played
  • Playing Now
  • Garbage - low quality bundle filler, and games that do not work because of technical problems.

Each game is only in one collection at the time. I also use Favourites to mark the games I plan to play -- a subset of Not Played.

How do you do it? Do you use external tools, or just rely on built-in categories and search function in Steam?
Mine is very similar

Favourites - real favourites
Playing now - trying to keep only those I plan to play in the coming 2-3 months
Installed - the name says it. Handy when you want to play something else but now download it
New - every game goes here by default
Finished - not planning to come back to the game, but it can also be a favourite, so...
Uncategorized (built-in Steam category, always back down in the list) - doesn't run on Linux

I also keep an .odt list of games to track all games (steam and non-steam, how much I paid, when I bought it, 100% achieved or not, how much games (excluding DLCs) I have).

Last edited by omicron-b on 7 December 2020 at 3:39 pm UTC
Linas Dec 7, 2020
Quoting: omicron-bI also keep an .odt list of games to track all games (steam and non-steam, how much I paid, when I bought it, 100% achieved or not, how much games (excluding DLCs) I have).
Dude, that must take an insane amount of effort.

Half of the time I would be looking at "Bought in 2015" and wonder what was I thinking at the time.
Arehandoro Dec 7, 2020
I have a very similar setup, although a bit more granular:

- Favourites: Real favourites or games that I play often.
- Completed: Completed games
- Completed Wine: Completed games played under Wine/Proton
- Linux: Native games to play.
- Wine: Windows games to play.
- Didn't like: As stated.
- Co/op games: As stated.


And I will be borrowing from you the Garbage section for games I don't even know why they are in my library :D
omicron-b Dec 7, 2020
Quoting: Linas
Quoting: omicron-bI also keep an .odt list of games to track all games (steam and non-steam, how much I paid, when I bought it, 100% achieved or not, how much games (excluding DLCs) I have).
Dude, that must take an insane amount of effort.

Half of the time I would be looking at "Bought in 2015" and wonder what was I thinking at the time.
I don't have THAT much games, there are less than 350 entries in the file, it includes paid DLCs (they just have a "count" of zero)
denyasis Dec 8, 2020
Quoting: Linas
Quoting: omicron-bI also keep an .odt list of games to track all games (steam and non-steam, how much I paid, when I bought it, 100% achieved or not, how much games (excluding DLCs) I have).
Dude, that must take an insane amount of effort.

I do something similar, but in an .odb file. I mostly have it as title and store weather or not I've played it. I keep it to make sure I don't already own a game, particularly on steam since I've gotten a lot of odd games via bundles and tend not to use it very much. I haven't used it in a while as my purchasing had slowed way down, especially bundles.

Some of your all's organizational accumen are seriously impressive.
Sojiro84 Dec 12, 2020
I have my games by collection.

So all the Half-Life games (HL1, HL2, Team Fortress, CS, Day of Defeat etc.) are all under Half-Life. Tomb-Raider games are, well, you know.

Unfortunately, we cant delete beta/test/alpha's from our library, so they get their own section and hidden from sight.

Still got many singular games without a category, but don't know how to handle that yet.

I only want my game in my list 1 time. So a F2P section or horror won't work because that means a game might appear twice in the list and that is just wrong.
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