This all started years ago on the gaming forum NeoGAF, and 2014 is now the third year I’ve participated. If you don’t know what it is, here’s a quick breakdown, taken directly from this year’s thread, with some additional notes:

Basic Rules:

• If you finish a game, no matter when you purchased it, it counts as a +1.
• If you buy a game, that counts as a -1.
• The goal is to have as high a number as possible at the end of the calendar year; a negative number means you bought more games than you finished.

Special Rules:

• Clean Slate: You only count games as a -1 that you’ve purchased this year. As of January 1st, your total score is reset to zero, and any games bought or received prior do not count as a -1; only a +1 if you beat them.
• Freebies: It is the consensus that a free game does not count as a -1. I don’t count gifts as a -1 either, since I am not paying for or making those decisions.
• PlayStation Plus/Games With Gold: Same as freebies. I count the annual subscription fees to these services as a -1, though.
• HD Collections & Bundles: I count these as a single -1 purchase since you can’t pick and choose what games are included. However, I treat each game within a collection as a +1 if I finish multiple.
• Multiplayer Games: As with any game that technically doesn’t have an ending, count it as a +1 when you’re ready to move on.
• Hardware: While these can be monetarily significant, I don’t count them here since the focus is on games and the goal of backlog reduction. I know, buying a new console doesn’t help!

The page will provide links to each month of the year, where I track my progress, provide short reviews of each game, and break down the numbers.

2014:

January (+12 for the month, +12 overall)
February (0 for the month, +12 overall)
March (+2 for the month, +14 overall)
April (-4 for the month, +10 overall)
May (-1 for the month, +9 overall)
June (-7 for the month, +2 overall)
July (+6 for the month, +8 overall)
August (-2 for the month, +6 overall)
September (-4 for the month, +2 overall)
October (-1 for the month, +1 overall)
November (-7 for the month, -6 overall)
December (-18 for the month, -24 overall)