Just before Black Friday, I started receiving an influx of emails from every possible retailer I’d patronized over the last several years reminding me that Black Friday was a thing and that it was happening rather soon.

Dozens and dozens of tedious and repetitive emails, sometimes handfuls from the same retailer.

I love Amazon, but I don’t need a dozen emails from them over the course of a few days.

I love Modcloth but I don’t need five emails in one day reminding me they sell things and that they would probably be selling them for less for a short time.

I could keep going, but I won’t. You get the idea.

Oh wait! Just before Cyber Monday rolled around, the emails began anew (or kept rolling in, as it were) and it started to get really silly. I received four emails in one day from MAC; more than that from Amazon. When I woke up on Monday morning (and, keep in mind, it was just before 7am), I already had 19 emails, all from retailers.

It was too much. I love sales on things I already wanted to buy as much as the next person, but this year it was just ridiculous. Because of how IN YOUR FACE it all was, I decided to partake as little as I could.

And, honestly, I think I did okay. I bought only two games, both from Amazon: Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. I got both combined for less than the retail price of one game, so I think that’s pretty reasonable.

At a time when I’m trying to be a lot more cautious about what games I’m buying and when, there were a few awfully tempting options out there over the last week. I’m kind of proud of myself for resisting all those well-intentioned urges.

Both games I bought have already arrived. Have I played either? Nope. Have I even finished Dishonored 2? Nope.

Am I still playing many, many hours of Pokemon Sun?

Yes.

I’m glad I got the two games on deep discount, but I still have a little buyer’s remorse since I know I won’t get to one or both until who knows when.

With that I ask: what did you come away with from the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales? Did you buy games? Consoles? Digital games or physical? Or did you manage to make it through all the sales without buying anything (and, if so, I applaud your willpower)?

How do you feel about sales? And, subsequently, what shape is your backlog in? Is it heaving under the pressure of a zillion games? Or are you mostly caught up (I know at least one person out there is! You know who you are!)? Roughly how many games are in your backlog? The last I checked (I keep a detailed spreadsheet of all my games both physical and digital) my backlog of games I have (and have yet to play) is literally hundreds of games deep. It is massive and awe-inspiring and fairly embarrassing.

I look forward to hearing about your experiences with both the sales as well as your backlogs. Let’s commiserate.