I'm a bit spastic when it comes to my gaming tastes: They'll change on a whim, and there have been many times (as my Steam profile shows fairly well) where impulse buys get the better of me. My backlog is enormous, and my patience is limited. 'Oh, I'll HAVE to get this new RPG, I heard the guy that wrote the music for the commercial has a cousin that knew a guy that worked on this game!', I'll say to myself. To be fair, as I've gotten older, this impulse has dropped considerably, but with a mix of low prices, digital distribution, and rose-tinted glasses, it's still a bit rough to kick the 'habit'. 
 
It's odd, because one of my favorite genres could actually help my habitual backlog growth: MMORPGS. I've played everything from Anarchy Online, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, and more recently, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, and Everquest 2 (which is my current love). Now, this could do me some favors, as I'll be 1) saving money through a month (as only $15 or $30 a month could be a HUGE improvement to current next-gen spending habits, even with trade-ins), and 2) it'll give me persistent content, sugar-coated and greased up in rare loot drops and sexy equipment. It'll give me incentive to stick with one game, and one game only. Perhaps after dedicating my time to one or two games, that discipline will carry over to my console/handheld/general PC gaming habits.
 
What ways have you all learned to cure your backlog blues? What behaviors do you practice? Do they work? I think it's an interesting discussion, and I'm hoping one of you fine duders (or duderettes) could come up with a makeshift cure. My wallet thanks you.