How do YOU organize your steam library categories?

[aozgolo]

I have over 500 steam games, so organization is of utmost importance to me, not to mention I've turned it into a metagame of it's own. The current categories I have are:

2D Platformer
3D Platformer
Action RPG
Business Simulation
City Builder
Crafting
Fighting
First Person Action
First Person Adventure
Hack n Slash
Life Simulator
MMO
MOBA
Multiplayer Only
Open World
Party-based RPG
Point & Click Adventure
Puzzle
Real Time Strategy
Roguelike
RPGMaker Games
Sandbox
Shooter
Sports & Racing
Stealth Action
Survival
Tactical RPG
Third Person Action
Tower Defense
Turn Based RPG
Turn Based Strategy
Vehicle Simulation
Visual Novel
Z-Early Access
Z-Incomplete Series
Z-Missing DLC

So obviously I have some cross-over categories, like several games that are first person action are also shooters, but not all FP games are shooters, and not all shooters are FP so I felt the distinction needed. I attempted something similar for RPGs with FP, Third Person, and Top-Down but felt perspective was far less crucial to RPGs than it was to action games in terms of how you play.

I also have my Z Categories which are usually collapsed but help me keep track of games that are part of a series that I have something missing in (like I've got all the Far Cry games except 4 so those games are in there), games that have DLC that I haven't acquired (that I might actually want of course), and games currently in Early Access.

I had considered adding genre setting categories for things like "Fantasy" or "Sci-Fi" but I've already got a huge list.

Anyway I'm curious to see how other people categorize their steam games!

PS: In case anyone didn't already know about this, google "depressurizer" for a tool to make categorizing large steam libraries easier

 

[Bad Jim]

I have mine arranged in alphabetical order.

The thing about categorising games is that even with my mere 158 titles, there are still a fair number that I haven't really played including a number of indie titles that I don't even know what genre they are (which is a shame because many that I have played have been really fun). So categorising would be a lot of work, while simply remembering the name of whatever game I want to play is pretty easy.

 

[Lilani]

Eh, to be honest, in my head I just sort of sort them as "installed" and "not installed." I have a 1 TB hard drive, but between animation projects I have stored and how large many games have gotten it's already pretty full. So I keep the games I've played recently or would like to play installed, and uninstall them if I don't want to play them anymore or haven't played them in a long time.

 

[bliebblob]

A simple 2-axis system: online future

The online / offline one is handy when the internet goes down or the rare times I don't feel like dealing with other people. Just close all categories but 'offline' and bam, there's my options. Also works the other way around of course.

The past / present / future one works like this: 'past' are games I've played to the point of exhaustion, but occasionally the flame still flares up. Like skyrim or team fortress 2.
'Present' is for the games I've yet to finish, usually recent purchases. Like hearthstone or transistor. They move to 'past' once I've thoroughly completed them or have moved on.
'Future' is for games I'm hardly done with, but can't or won't play yet for various reasons. For example borderlands 2, because my PC can barely handle it and it's boring on my own. Once whatever the issue is has been resolved they move to 'present'.

Again the idea is to always see my options ASAP. That's why most days I'll only ever look at 'present'. Those are the games I'm most likely to want to play after all. But if I feel nostalgic for an old love, it's just a tab away too. The 'future' one doesn't really serve any such purpose though, other than to remind me that they're there.

 

[EXos]

Similar to that list. Though I also put series together if they have more than three titles or are just that good.
Like Hitman (Five Games) or Walking Dead.

 

[small]

mines a bit more detailed than yours as i list by general and specific type for example:

simulator - military vehicle
simulator - civilian vehicle
simulator - space

that sort of thing for different categories. It was a pain in the ass initially organising them all but its paid off in the long run

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Here's mine:

Spoiler

I have a few more games than you, OP, so suffer a similar issue with organisation but have far fewer categories. I think I may pinch a few of yours I didn't consider splitting RPGs into sub-categories, but my hardest ones are games that aren't any one genre (Hitmans and Tomb Raiders f.ex).

I'm considering actually making "Ubisoft" and "Square Enix" categories just to put some of the more troublesome ones somewhere. I do like that they changed it (recently?) such that we can now add a single title to more than one category. As such, I'm thinking of approaching it as a "tags" mentality, rather than "categories"....would be nice if we could import from the store/other steam users. I think tags would be much more useful for a larger library, as well as allowing for searching by many different criteria.

 

[dangoball]

Wait... You can organise your Steam library? I never knew!
Though I'm kinda ok with just the alphabetical order. I have some 130 games on Steam, so it's not as much chaos as 500 would be. Though having my games spread over several providers is slightly annoying (Steam, Origin, Battlenet, HumbleBundle and GOG, pobably U-Play but I haven't played anything Ubisoft in quite some time).
Just for the record, how do I sort my games if the fancy ever strikes me?

 

[Maximum Bert]

I dont to be honest but then again I only have like 16 games or something on there most of which I will never play (got a lot of them from a humble bundle but ony wanted one game on there).

 

[wooty]

Everything goes into favourites, just so its all at the top of the menu.

 

[Gizmo1990]

Games that I like and are part of a series get there own catagorie with the series title as the name. Games I like that are single games or yet to have a sequel just stay in games. Games I did not like go into a special catagorie I made simply titled 'Crap'.

 

[zumbledum]

got just over 300 games in my library its all in one massed unorganized list. its great i havent got a clue what stuff i bought in sales years ago and havent ever installed. i found endless legend the other week and its AWESOME! you never know when a lost gem will be spotted . makes every day like christmas

 

[Idlemessiah]

I just have mine alphabetical on the tile screen, that way it looks like a massive digital display shelf.

 

[nesbitto]

Three categories; Finished; Not Arsed; and In-Progress.

 

[gorfias]

Here's mine:

Spoiler

I have a few more games than you, OP, so suffer a similar issue with organisation but have far fewer categories. I think I may pinch a few of yours I didn't consider splitting RPGs into sub-categories, but my hardest ones are games that aren't any one genre (Hitmans and Tomb Raiders f.ex).

I'm considering actually making "Ubisoft" and "Square Enix" categories just to put some of the more troublesome ones somewhere. I do like that they changed it (recently?) such that we can now add a single title to more than one category. As such, I'm thinking of approaching it as a "tags" mentality, rather than "categories"....would be nice if we could import from the store/other steam users. I think tags would be much more useful for a larger library, as well as allowing for searching by many different criteria.

How did you get there? I have "games". How do I make a folder under there and start separating them out? About 350 games, about 50 of them high priority!

 

[Total LOLige]

I don't, can't be arsed with organising. It's easier to think "I want to play Football Manager" then just jump right to the Fs in the list.

 

[CommanderZx2]

Here's mine:

Spoiler

I have a few more games than you, OP, so suffer a similar issue with organisation but have far fewer categories. I think I may pinch a few of yours I didn't consider splitting RPGs into sub-categories, but my hardest ones are games that aren't any one genre (Hitmans and Tomb Raiders f.ex).

I'm considering actually making "Ubisoft" and "Square Enix" categories just to put some of the more troublesome ones somewhere. I do like that they changed it (recently?) such that we can now add a single title to more than one category. As such, I'm thinking of approaching it as a "tags" mentality, rather than "categories"....would be nice if we could import from the store/other steam users. I think tags would be much more useful for a larger library, as well as allowing for searching by many different criteria.

How did you get there? I have "games". How do I make a folder under there and start separating them out? About 350 games, about 50 of them high priority!

Right click a game and select 'Set Categories' then once a category is created you can add any other games to that same category.

I use the Recent order option and find that it works really well, as it keeps anything I've bought or played recently at the top.

 

[Tyran107]

Huh, it never really occurred to me as a thing to organize my games. Even with the 397 I have they're just in alphabetical order only divided by installed/uninstalled. I guess what with starting steam in it's beginning days I never saw a reason to organize as that's how my list has always been.