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nickfil
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The games you have vs the games you want

by nickfil Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:55 pm

Been thinking about game collecting a lot lately and started mentally crunching some numbers. Something to consider before getting that hot new game.

I have about 100 games across the switch, ps3 and ps4. This is probably a pretty common number of games for anyone collecting since the ps3. About 15 years of collecting. Each of those 100 games is about 40 hours long. Some longer (dragon quest 11s) some shorter (wild guns reloaded) but an average of 40 hours for each game. That is 4000 hours of game. As an adult with a job, I usually have about 8 hours a week to play games tops. That is 500 weeks of gaming to play all the stuff I currently have. Or just under 10 years. This is how it piles up.

I really can't help but buy more than I can actually play, because I can only play so much. I've started grouping games and asking myself, if I haven't played all the tomb raider games I have, should I bother getting the uncharted games I'm missing? The answer is no. I just did that with Luminous arc 2. I thought about getting a copy from ebay. I didn't know there was a sequel and I missed it. Enjoyed the first game, but don't remember it all that much. Then I realized- I haven't played Fire Emblem Awakening, and if I'm going to reach for a tactical rpg, that is going to be the game.

I started to realize exactly what was happening and exactly what games I had time for by keeping a journal for the last couple years. What did I play, briefly what did I think of it, and how many hours clocked. At the end of the year, I tally up what I had time for, and how much I bought.

Not only am I spending less now, but playing more this way. Want to start filling those uncharted holes or get Luminous arc 2 in the collection? Play what I have first. Same goes for comics or anything else collectable that you actually use. I'm trying to use what I have, and be realistic with my time. So much game collecting and hoarding happens because of fomo. 'I gotta get it now while its cheap!' I've been gaming for 30 years. Collecting for a solid 20 years now. Truth is you probably won't play half of those 'got em cheap' games. I know I didn't. By putting them on the pile and not playing them you don't have to worry about fomo, you missed it and you paid for the pleasure.

Buy what you want- play what you want. No judgements. Just something I've been thinking about lately.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: The games you have vs the games you want

by o.pwuaioc Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:02 pm

Backloggery will get thrown around here a lot. You'll also find a lot of sympathetic voices here, too. I think quite a few of us have decided that the collectathon isn't as fun as it once was, and the game overload is impossible to truly tackle. I was having similar thoughts in 2013, and have for a long time now been an advocate of "less is more" when it comes to owning games. I even introduced a hard stop: no new systems (with very, very few PC exceptions) at all.

For me at least, that stop comes at the PS2 generation. With how little I actually play games now, I have enough 2D games to last me for the rest of my life. I will never be able to sit and master them all. So slowly they are loosened from the collection, until there really isn't a collection at all, just some games I enjoy playing from time to time.
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JoeAwesome
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Re: The games you have vs the games you want

by JoeAwesome Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:06 pm

I’ve had similar feelings, even more now that I’ve started a family. My mindset is to move as much as I can of what I’m on the fence about, as quickly as I can, for at the least, not a financial loss.

And when I started to do so, pre-COVID, it felt cathartic. I can remember all that I sold, but don’t feel any issues with them gone. I thought I would miss a few of the games, but I was wrong!
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Re: The games you have vs the games you want

by Nemoide Fri Sep 17, 2021 9:40 pm

I've been moving in the opposite direction over the past couple years and just buying many games that I think I'd like to play at some point.
My backlog is now totally out of control, but I also am really liking having TONS OF GAMES. I still tell myself that I'll play them all, although I've come to terms with the fact that I'll never BEAT them all. I want to keep games like Bubsy in my collection for nostalgia, but I'm never going to beat that game.

But I think I need to change my ways and go back to my ways of trying to shrink the backlog and keep over 50% of my game collection beaten. Maybe I'll aim for that for next year!
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Jrecee
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Re: The games you have vs the games you want

by Jrecee Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:58 pm

I think the last retro game I bought was almost 5 years ago. I purchased an sd2snes last year and have really enjoyed it. Being able to sit on the couch and scroll through a list actually results in playing stuff, including some stuff I never would have bought. Having to get up, clean carts, bang on systems... it was just getting in the way of playing. I also bought a Switch recently (first new console since Wii) and have been picking stuff up here and there for that.
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Re: The games you have vs the games you want

by SamuraiMegas Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:11 pm

I've thinned out my collection a fair amount and only purchase games that I'll play for the most part. I am going for a full set of Virtual Boy games but I think that's pretty obtainable,I think I'll be getting Waterworld soon and I'll only need 3 more games. I pick up games on the cheap to resell on occasion, but I price stuff cheap, and use the money to fund my other hobbies (mainly vintage/designer clothing) now.
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nickfil
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Re: The games you have vs the games you want

by nickfil Sat Sep 18, 2021 10:16 am

Jrecee wrote:I purchased an sd2snes last year and have really enjoyed it.


Flashcarts have been a *game changer* for me. I've started to make a distinction between "what I want to collect for nostalgia or because I enjoy it" and "what I want to just play" because of them. I hit about 6 or so comic cons a year (or did pre-covid), and I made a rule that I'm only going to start picking up boxed copies of stuff I want to collect at shows like that, or at local shops. No more e-bay, and fewer pickups overall. I can still play as much as I want, but the actual collection has gotten much much smaller and far more personal. Banished are the must haves and hidden gems and the collection has narrowed into just "stuff I like." I recently got Luigi's Mansion 3. Didn't like it and it went right on ebay after about 15 hours of gameplay. Why hold onto it if I don't like it?

My other line in the sand since picking up some flashcarts, and recently ODEs, is that I'm terrified of everything that comes with disk based games. Rot. Laser failure. etc. I recently sold my sega cd collection and picked up a MegaSD. Sold off my gamecube collection since the prices got bonkers this last year, picked up a GCLoader. I boxed my wii collection and soft modded my wii. Boxed my ps2 collection and installed a harddrive in it. Sold off my Saturn collection, picked up 2 different ODEs for each Saturn I have. Getting rid of the Saturn collection felt incredible. Not only was I terrified of disk rot, but those cases are so fragile. Every time I was messing with a Saturn game it felt like I was going to break something, or have something fall apart. I was worried about lost value. I feared dropping a 20 year old $1000 disk into a housing and spinning it at 7000rpm or whatever. They were more of a burden than anything else. The flipside is that carts- especially genesis carts in plastic housings- feel bulletproof. I have no problem collecting some of those from my childhood every once and a while because I never have to worry about it.

I'm happy to let go of this stuff just to have *less* stuff, but I'm also happy that after I've had my time with it to put it in the hands of another collector who is going to enjoy it.

Nice to see some more like-minded people on here. Video gaming youtube is full of people who it seems are just hording piles and piles of games.
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Re: The games you have vs the games you want

by marurun Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:11 pm

I definitely don’t mind emulating, but even when emulating I prefer to own the original. The original is for ownership and the emulating is for access. As a librarian, however much I disagree with the current oppressive state of modern copyright and IP laws I have a professional responsibility to at least try to respect them.
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