Ever felt like easing up on gaming?

[Champloo]

Im still as addicted now as i ever was, i look at my shelves & feel a massive amount of pride in what i have managed to collect. However dont mistake me for someone who has masses of games still sealed (^_^) out of the 300+ games i have, i have played all of them & 95% have been completed.

I guess this is were i'm different. I used to love looking at my collection, but as I said, not so much anymore. I'll be glad to see a lot of it gone.

I don't play all the games I buy either, I play most, i'm not too bad, but not all. There's a fair few i've never gotten around to playing, and many i've never finished.

Anyway, the first lot went of in the post today, by the end of the week, my room is going to be very bare.

[Champloo]

We inherit a societal bias towards games that says they are an idle and ultimately pointless past-time, and on top of that I have both a strong sense of ambition and a very stern habit of self-reflection that tends to make me feel like I'm wasting my time or that my gaming habit is the cause of all my faults.

I can definitely relate to that, seems a lot of people here can.

[Wools]

Its my main hobby, so deciding to cut back on it is quite a big deal. I'm sure a lot of people can relate, gaming is definitely fun, but it can become a bit mindless when you're simply buying games for the sake of buying games. I feel stupidly greedy when I look at my collection, and the fact that I buy at least one new game a week. I do the same with CD's but I guess I don't feel so guilty about that, I listen to most of them, its not so much about collecting.

Pre 2004 I spent possibly tens of thousands on Videogames amasing over 600 games with many more than 15 consoles. I worked part time in the videogame industry at that time but then got my first big break in 2005 working at a brillant UK Developer.

It was at that point I realised. The 5 tier shelf displaying hugely expensive boxes? The 6 plastic boxes in the loft housing 400 games? The feeling I'm living & breething games? The new found knowledge you dont complete or enjoy any game you buy? I got that.

Now in 2007 I have just under 100 games with a well played GBA, Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 on the go. I honestly believe I have never been happier playing games.

Sell everything if it's a collectable, sell everything if you wont play it and get rid of any merchindise. "Free your mind, your ass will follow"

[EvilBoris]

I had a similar thing, perhaps not on such a grand scale, but hanging onto the games for no good reason when I would never play them again was just wasting away my money, so I generally play them to death then trade them once I'm done.

[EvilBoris]

Im still as addicted now as i ever was, i look at my shelves & feel a massive amount of pride in what i have managed to collect. However dont mistake me for someone who has masses of games still sealed (^_^) out of the 300+ games i have, i have played all of them & 95% have been completed.

God Bless the Action Replay

[importaku]

LOL will you drop that

I only cheated on fzero its just too hard & im not skillfull enough to do it.

All the rest were completed minus the AR, not that i didnt want to but the fact finding japanese ar codes is nigh on impossible

[wod]

i have eased up as i've not played a game in months, i've still got all my games out but just dont bother with them anymore but i wont sell them

just needed a break as i became abit obsessed

it ages since I've been on here as well it feels weird

[Champloo]

Sell everything if it's a collectable, sell everything if you wont play it and get rid of any merchindise. "Free your mind, your ass will follow"

Exactly what i'm doing. There's quite a few games which I woud actually like to play that i'm going to pick up, as well as a Wii and then i'm sorted gaming wise.

So far i've got rid of about 50 MD games, the saturn is probably going to go and the 30 odd games i've got for that, lots of PS2/XBOX/GC games, GB/DS games, lots of merchandise/strategy guides and so on. The Master System stuff is gone, a lot of my PS1 RPG collection is gone and i've got more to auction. And loads more bits and bobs - my room is feeling rather empty already and its only the second day i've been to the post office with stuff - i'm going to be doing this all week.

Hopefully i'll make over ?500.

[Ian(not Ian)]

Given my penchant for playing MMORPGs such as WoW, DDO and Vanguard at the moment, I should be cutting back as MMOs take up a lot of time, in theory I shouldn't have the time to play GoW, Oblivion and the like but somehow I manage it.
I should be dumping the 360 and other consoles in favour of grinding my time away on the PC, but for some reason I find myself ordering a PS3 from VG+ in order to get the BC funtionality
Once it arrives safely Play.com will be one pre-order down and Sony can find another Euro-mug to buy the Euro-PS3 I'll be passing on.

[sadat]

The collection of stuff, whether it be sealed copies, limited editions, collection of a series, whatever, seems to be a problem for a few of us, myself included. I've got a real thing for Nintendo that I'd be best rid of. The amount of Gamecube and now Wii games / accessories / general junk that I own is frankly ridiculous. For someone of my age doing the job I do, a clean break would do me good.

The thing that I, and perhaps others on here, keep telling my/ourselves is that it'll all be worth a fortune one day. Which is a bit dubious, to be realistic. Do people feel their collections will either hold their value or, ideally, appreciate with time? Furthermore I'm not sure if I'd ever sell half of this stuff after getting rid of my Saturn and buying it all back months / years later. That's the catch - there's some emotional attachment, as there is with great films, the problem being that you can't just go out and buy the latest remastered edition on DVD / Laser Disc / BluRay / randomnewformat when you feel nostalgic. Yet.

The thing I've found really useful is XBLA. The games are comparatively cheap, and since there's nothing to collect there's nothing to get obsessional about. The gamerscore for each game is like a quantified account of how much effort / time you've spent with a game, and I've found myself going back to games I'd probably have shelved if they were physical, rather than go buy something new, partly out of guilt and partly through the gamer high score board mentality. I've tried to focus what precious little time I give to games on this, but NEED to break that hold that Nintendo has on me!

[x0dus]

Not at the moment, I have a decent pile of games (which I bought about a year ago) I want to play through and they are keeping me from going out and spending money on other things at a time when I really need to save every penny I earn.

So yeh, Im quite glad to be playing games at the moment.

[Champloo]

The thing that I, and perhaps others on here, keep telling my/ourselves is that it'll all be worth a fortune one day. Which is a bit dubious, to be realistic. Do people feel their collections will either hold their value or, ideally, appreciate with time?

A lot of stuff does decrease in price, some retro stuff isn't going for nearly as much as it used to, so maybe its best to shift it of now. Although of course some stuff goes up - hard to tell.

In any case, I havn't quite finished my clearout. I made about ?750 from what I did sell, which I was rather pleased with, and i've got some more to go when I get the time to do another round of ebaying - for now i've got some stuff on the trading forums here, most of which will be going to ebay sometime soon, next weekend probably, too much work at the moment. Its not going to be nearly as big as the last load, but i've got some of my more pricey items to go so i'm hoping to make a few hundred. The main point is getting rid of it though so i'm not that fussed about how much I make.

I must admit, the habit hasn't quite died yet, I have recently ordered a few games of the forums here and elsewhere which I really don't have time to play now. But I should get around to playing them, and I don't feel so bad about having a few unplayed games sitting around now, when i've cut down my collection so much. I'm also trying to think a bit before I buy a game, if I know its going to sit on my shelf for ages, and likely never get played, than I won't buy it - common sense really, something I used to lack!

[AngelsInFlight]

I'd say no at the minute, like x0dus, I need to save a bit of cash. I presume I'll be spending stupid money on a Reading ticket, which means I can't really afford to be spending stupid money getting charged at the weekends!

[SuperDanX]

Im not sure if im that intrested in this hobby anymore, after 28 years or so, i enjoy collecting for my gba (see, i said collecting) but i dont play anything even when i have the time. Ie now. Want to sell everything but cant bring myself to do it. (no you cant have my stuff)

[Charlie]

I sometimes feel a desire to ease up on gaming, especially after weeks of extended and repeated playing as I feel other, more important areas of my life have suffered through neglect (which, coincidentally, is about the time my girlfriend starts calling me a sad bastard ). Curiously however, I also consider easing up when I don't spend enough time playing videogames as other interests soon fill up my time and imagination and, during these periods, videogames seem quite trivial and rather pointless.

At the end of the day though, without a console in the house, my home feels incomplete and I'm currently enjoying videogames more than I have in a long, long time.