Collecting : Playing Ratios...

[112]

Eh??? 8 Xbox 360 games? With the average full price of console games being around £40 each, that's more than the price of the actual console. You could've saved that money and bought a 360, and still had some left over for a game!

heh, i meant i had 8 unplayed 360 games but i brought them from here so some were sealed and some were played, but unplayed by me. So i didnt pay rrp for them. Still the 8 games did lead me half way to getting the console. But the idea was that i really did want to play these games because they were 360 exclusives yah see.

Perfect Dark
Saints Row
Ridge Racer 6
DOA4
Dead Rising

amongst others...........

Of all them games i had the only ones i really wanna play now and wish would be released on the ps3 is Dead Rising lol........

In a way i think not having a 360 may have done me some favours as it means i have one less platform to horde and also means i get to pick up all the cheap budget games when the 360 goes out of fashion in a few years or so. THEN i will get to play Dead Rising........

112

[Ady]

Ah, I gets ya.

[mekanor]

i think i have a good system going. my philosophy to gaming is:

1. buy anything nintendo and then anything else im interested in.

2. i play all games to completion. this varies as to the game if its something i can do 100% (mp3, smg) or something that i just play to the end of the single player campaign.

so far this only applies to this and the last generation, but im branching out into some retro goodness. this seems to work well most of the time, though in practice, it does mean i have a draw full of games i havent touched as im still finishing others.

[Skull Commander]

I have managed to shift some of my games that I'm not playing, in the last few days and it feels good
I'm not going to miss them, as you can't miss what hasn't been looked at for long enough!

[kallbrand]

I'm downsizing right now, from 100+ games to about 30. In the past I kept games even though I was finished with them just because 'they were good' and because I wanted to own everything I thought was good for my systems, but no more. If it has no replay value and I dont feel any other attachment to it (retro or new stuff), it gets sold. Less really is more I've discovered and its great not to think so much about my stuff anymore. I also really like my "40 Lcd that I bought with the money I made from selling

[Wools]

I?ve always loved videogames since I was a kid and when growing up I was exposed to videogame culture in Japan. Japan, during the Dreamcast to Xbox era when I was most interested in collecting, seemed to be so bright and full of interesting gadgets, games and collectables that were not available in the UK.

During the PSone to Dreamcast era I was most content with videogames. I played a lot, spent the majority of that time playing multi player and I was experiencing new game play types such as RTS?s when I was introduced to the PC. This was my golden era of videogames and I will look back fondly as everything was new and experimental. So it was almost inevitable that someone such as myself who enjoyed games, wanted a career in them and was now 16 and earning disposable money, would take an interest in the import and collecting corner of my local independent store, the Kart Klub. Oh, and the internet!

I still loved video gaming during this time, 2002 ? 2005, as Halo brought Co-Op to the battlefield which me and my little brother would spend literally hundreds of hours playing and enjoy every second of play time. However it was during this phase that I would buy import videogames that I could not play, expensive collector editions of games and sealed versions I already own. The reason? Because I would have a pristine copy I could keep encase my original version scratched itself...

Strangely enough, getting a job at the Videogame Developer I dreamed of working at in 2005, was the catalyst for getting rid of all of this collectable garbage I had been harbouring for years. I had over 25 consoles, over 400 games and around 6 collectable boxes of junk I really did not need. It was only late last year when I was finally able to finish off selling or throwing away my collection to the good folk here at NTSC-UK, eBay and our local rubbish tip!

Whilst offloading my collection, I realised how worthless collecting is and the prices that are deemed expensive by the collecting community, are in fact in the real world, paltry. Not only are prices when selling small but the demand was when I was selling, no longer there. I paid ?120 for Neo Geo King of Fighters 98 and had to let it sell for ?30. I paid over ?100 for Samba and sold it for ?60. All of the Neo Geo games tailed off in value whilst I was selling, Dreamcast was expensive whilst it was still being manufactured but now commands nothing and I could go on and on! In the end I managed to sell around two thirds of my collection over the two year period and early last year I put the last of it up for sale and sold barely none of it. Rather than keeping it all I threw it away in a very cathartic weekend, I threw out mint copies of Burning Rangers, Limited UK copy of Final Fantasy VIII, Saturn Collection, loads of JRPG?s and so many others. When I posted in my thread at Rllmuk that they had all gone as I threw them away I got over two pages of people being outraged that I had done such a thing, and the least I could of done was give them the game they wanted for free...

After all that and then being scolded by geeks from an online forum, I really saw how pathetic it is to collect anything epically when it is something you enjoy doing which in turn means you never get around to playing the things!

Now I?m glad to say I own no clutter and have only the essentials to enjoy gaming. I own an Xbox 360 Elite, 7 games for the system and a little plastic box that contains around 25 games that I really could not bear to throw out. They?re mainly my favourite games that are spread over multiple platforms. Such as Tomb Raider which was a 12th Birthday gift from my Mum & Nan, Shenmue, Resident Evil 2 and a few others.

To anyone reading this who is collecting and losing their love of gaming or to people who are thinking of starting a collection then please stop and sell it off or don?t start in the first place. Collecting products that you enjoy may look good on a shelf but they?ll take over your room, your life and be a waste of money. Eventually you may become so overwhelmed with it, you?ll stop playing, buy and talk about them more and then it just becomes another collectable thing rather than what made you love them in the first place.

Remember when you were at the seaside and saw Daytona USA running in the Arcade, or when you stood outside Dixons and saw Sonic looping the loop, or when you held the N64 Controller for the first time in Toys R? Us and guided Mario over the Castle Grounds? You know, the moment where you were really shocked by how good video gaming can be?

Where did collecting boxes and trinkets come into that?

There is no cake.

P.S. I apologise for the long post, I read this thread yesterday during my lunch break and really wanted to get that off my chest!

[thebuddahman]

^ Here, here.

Today I feel like selling everything I own because I hardly play it. Trouble is, tomorrow I will want it all back again.

The lure of having these items becomes too great

[Salsa Party Animal]

I think I should downside my game collection but getting rid about 70 games will be hard as you can't trade in imports. I probably got about 40 XBOX games on USA XBOX and haven't switched on my XBOX in last 4 or 5 months.

I wish I could go to USA game store and trade in about 70 games for Rock Band PS3 kit. But if you know a suitable import shop in UK can do that I will be very happy to do it.

[Matt]

Great post Wools. I'm against collecting anything TBH. I think it serves no real world purpose. I mean no offense to those that do. Just my opinion.

[MikeRox]

I used to hoarde like mad (GC collection got above 100 at one point) purely because I liked to try anything and everything. I've cut back big style this gen though. I sell off games I lose interest in, I only have 4 games for my PS3 at the moment, about 15 Wii games and about 15 Xbox 360 games.

I consider that a huge success considering I now own less on all 3 current gen formats combined, than I used to own per console last gen. I've actually found I have a lot less time for gaming now that I'm working full time, but the time I am spending gaming I seem to be enjoying a lot more, by focussing on just a few titles at a time. Tbh, the 40-50 current gen games I do own, could very easily be cut down to about 25.

Main reason I end up hording these days, is quite simply the joke prices you get for second hand games that are more than a month or two old.

[Juste]

I really like collecting, and I really like playing games too, it's just I don't think I buy very much for the collecting side of me to make me feel negative or make me feel in a bad way about it. When I look at my games and stuff, I think my ratios for playing and collecting would be 50/50, but I know when I am looking to buy new things I look more for the games I want to collect first. I just like collecting and I guess I have been that way for many years, it hasn't changed my view about anything or made me play games any less.

If I am tiering of anything, it is modern gaming not collecting. I wouldn't tell anybody to stop collecting and sell it off or don't start at all. I guess I just don't understand the dislike or hate for it.

[superstarbeejay]

I've found that the less time I have the more I turn to collecting and not gaming. Generally, I'm too tired to play during the little bit of time I have at night whereas I can collect while doing other things (at work on ebay etc, on weekends while shopping with the family etc.). My booting trip is the one individual activity I have left and enjoy getting out of the house to do something for me. I wouldn't give up my collecting for anything.

[parkinho]

Superb post Wools, I was edging in that direction a few years back and it really did sap the fun out of everything. Nowadays I think I own a total of about 25 games, some of which I'm trying to shift and a few that hold great sentimental value but are worthless in monetary value so will keep stored away.
Once a game is finished it goes. If I happen to want to replay it I may repurchase, 99% of the time much cheaper than what I sold it for. Best method in my mind.

[superstarbeejay]

A good post

Cheers for the post. I remember when you threw all that stuff away. I was undoubtedly one of the ones giving you stick for it.

To me, it sounds like collecting wasn't something you wanted to do at that time of your life. You were going through a stage of expansion in your life with new opportunities and your games collection was getting in the way. I have often felt in the past that my collection gets in the way and I wish it would all just dissappear.

However, it doesn't bother me in the slightest right now. It may well do again in future. I think the difference for me was that I had a gaming break between the ages of about 16 and 23 so missed out on almost all of the ps1, n64, saturn and dreamcast eras as well as all those 16 bit games that I could never afford. Therefore, every day I am discovering new titles and bits from that era that interest me.

My current gen collection is probably about 50 games at most and I can't see that growing significantly.

I've clearly seperated collecting and gaming in my head. I enjoy collecting and always have (football cards, music...), videogames are just my latest collecting interest. I'm also not bitter about the amount of money I have spent, like it sounds like you are. My collection hasn't cost me penny overall (although it has cost me time and effort) so that doesn't nag in my mind. I could throw my entire collection out today, and not feel financially or emotionally bitter in the slightest.

It sounds like you did the right thing for you by clearing it all out and I'm sure that there are people out there who really shouldn't start collecting. I fear, for me, that if it wasn't games it would be something else. If this wasn't the case then I'd probably wish that I hadn't started collecting games too.

I'm happier sitting here with piles of games rather than piles of stamps or ornaments or some other crap that I don't care for.

[fallenangle]

I just don't get why collecting (good) games ie. ones you want to play even if it ends up you won't for years, if at all, should affect your enjoyment of gaming.

In this case your collection is just a growing entertainment resource, there to use as and when you want. Getting rid of it in some sort of cathartic gesture seems to me a pointless waste. I think some people here are mixing up collecting for its own sake or as an investment (hah!) with the enjoyment of buying games you actually want to play.

What it sounds to me is that some people here have developed a kid in sweet shop attitude to gaming where having such a large choice encourages them to flick from game to game leaving them half-played and consequently unsatisfied.

Self-discipline, that's the key. Forget about those 100+ other games you have, commit to the one you're playing. Wring it dry of it's entertainment value, sell it on if you want afterwards then start the next one. Isn't that really just what those who've dumped their collections say they're now doing ie. focusing on just one or two games at a time?

The thing is - you didn't need to get rid of all those other games to do that. It just required a change of attitude.