A game journal is a record of what you played, what you thought, and what you want to remember later. It does not need a perfect completion rate or a heroic backlog-clearing streak. A few honest lines can be more useful than another list of games you meant to start.
That distinction matters because gaming libraries have become very good at counting. They can tell you what you own, what you finished, and sometimes how many achievements you earned. Those numbers are useful. They are also incomplete. They cannot tell you why a game stayed with you, why you stopped halfway through, or why a title you bounced off in 2019 might deserve another chance now.
Start with the game you actually played
The easiest journal to keep is attached to the moment. When you finish a session, add the game to your record while the details are still there. Perthro lets you track games you are playing, have played, plan to play, or shelved, so the entry does not have to wait for a clean ending.
That is important. Shelving a game is information, not failure. So is moving something from the wishlist into your backlog and then deciding it is not the right week. Your record becomes more useful when it describes your decisions instead of pretending every game followed the same path.
Write the part you will forget
A rating gives you a quick signal. A review gives you the reason. You do not need a formal critique. Try answering one question:
- What did this game make easy to enjoy?
- What kept getting in the way?
- Who would I hand this to?
- What do I want to remember six months from now?
One specific detail beats a paragraph of general praise. “The last hour finally made the strange combat click” tells future you more than “great game.” So does “I liked the idea, but every session felt like work.”
Perthro supports 5-star ratings and reviews of any length. Use that range honestly. A short note is still a note. You can come back to it later when your opinion changes.
Keep a backlog you can live with
A backlog is helpful when it answers a small question: what might I play next? It becomes heavy when it tries to represent every possible future evening.
Use a next-up view for the few games that genuinely have your attention. Keep the wider backlog for things you still want to remember. Reorder it when your mood changes. Move games to a custom list when they belong together for a reason, such as “short games for busy weeks” or “games I want to revisit.”
The point is not to empty the list. The point is to make the next choice easier.
Let friends add context
A journal does not have to be private. In Perthro, you can follow players, see activity in your feed, and react or reply to what they share. That gives a recommendation somewhere to live after the conversation ends.
A friend’s note can also save you from treating every recommendation as a command. You might see that someone loved a game for its atmosphere while you care more about combat. The useful part is not agreement. It is seeing what another player noticed.
Bring your old libraries with you
If your play history is spread across platforms, starting from an empty journal can feel pointless. Perthro can import libraries from Steam, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live, including achievements or trophies where supported. That gives you a starting point without asking you to rebuild years of memory by hand.
Once the library is there, you can decide what deserves a rating, a review, a place in the backlog, or nothing more than a quiet record that you played it.
A small habit that lasts
Try this for a week: after each session, record the game’s status and write one sentence. Do not wait until you have a finished opinion. “Still figuring it out” is a valid entry. “Not for me right now” is one too.
Over time, those small notes become a map of your taste. You will see the games you return to, the ideas you keep chasing, and the kinds of experiences you leave behind. That is more interesting than a completion percentage, and it is much closer to why we play in the first place.
Perthro is free on the App Store for iPhone running iOS 17.0 or later. If you want to keep the conversation going, visit the community or support.