Are you a COLLECTOR, or are you a GAMER?

[sabrage]

And not just money; unlocking a single amazing power in an RPG feels great, but when every person in your party is getting boss-shattering moves, the fun is taken out.

I don't think you'd like Diablo 3 very much.

[GameMasterGuy]

And not just money; unlocking a single amazing power in an RPG feels great, but when every person in your party is getting boss-shattering moves, the fun is taken out.

I don't think you'd like Diablo 3 very much.

Have you seen DinnerX's sig lately?

This isn't buying a game; this is buying permission to play a game. I don't care how many pictures of the disc you show me, this has all the negative aspects of a downloadable game and *then* some.

Take a guess as to which game I'm talking about- and this is just on the way Blizzard handles the game, not the content itself.

[dtrack]

not only emulators are overhelming but sites like racketboy too.
when i follow the system and genre guides i usually feel oh shit i should get this and this. "back in the day" (whatever it menas to you) there were some printed magazines and usually all of them hosted the same news and games. it was much easier to decide what you really want.

[dunpeal2064]

That's too philisophical for me, can you explain how that works with videogames and emulation?

Pretend you lived in a world with no piracy; wouldn't owning the actual game feel more rewarding than it does in this one where you know that some guy got the game for free?

Even If he got the physical game for free I'd be just as happy with my purchase. I thank god people could emulate Dimahoo or ESP Ra.De, or else I'd have a lot less people to talk about the game with.

I don't enjoy having a game because of its exclusivity.

All that aside, you don't get a free game, you get a dump of one part of the board, its like playing a bootleg with some games.

I'll just leave it there, I didn't mean to spark this age old discussion, even if it is slightly relative to the topic.

[sabrage]

not only emulators are overhelming but sites like racketboy too.
when i follow the system and genre guides i usually feel oh shit i should get this and this. "back in the day" (whatever it menas to you) there were some printed magazines and usually all of them hosted the same news and games. it was much easier to decide what you really want.

I think that's a fairly common reaction to racketboy, but it's also a very good diving board for people like me who already have plenty of games but are looking for something very particular.

[Stark]

What I want to know is "Are you a MEXI-CAN, or are you a MEXI-CAN'T?"

[Gunstar Green]

not only emulators are overhelming but sites like racketboy too.
when i follow the system and genre guides i usually feel oh shit i should get this and this. "back in the day" (whatever it menas to you) there were some printed magazines and usually all of them hosted the same news and games. it was much easier to decide what you really want.

I think that's a fairly common reaction to racketboy, but it's also a very good diving board for people like me who already have plenty of games but are looking for something very particular.

Indeed. I've already covered the well knowns and a few hidden gems that I had back in the day. Sites like Racketboy help collectors expand to other titles they might like but never heard of.

[Nyne]

I'm almost exclusively a gamer. I buy games, case or book not required, play them, and sell them. My permanent "collection" also known as games I cannot bear to be without, consists of Ocarina of Time, Persona 4, and the Jak and Daxter series.

However, I am seriously considering to start collecting games from my favorite series. A playing copy, and a sealed copy. The series I'm considering are Metroid, Castlevania, Megaman, and the Legend of Zelda. Pretty much anything else I'm fine with selling.

[BurningDoom]

Can I answer both? I was a gamer first. And then as time went on I became a collector as well. The more games I obtained and the more nostalgic I got towards older games, the more I started leaning towards the collector side. But I've never stopped gaming.

[Tempest]

"back in the day" (whatever it menas to you) there were some printed magazines and usually all of them hosted the same news and games. it was much easier to decide what you really want.

Agreed.


Responding to the original topic:

I buy games to play them, not to brag about them. I do like to purchase games people of forums like this say are good because I want a well rounded gaming lifestyle. However, as I’ve aged, I’ve found myself buying more games than I can play, mostly because I have less time to dedicate to games. Also, as I’ve grown, my gaming tastes have expanded, so rather than purchasing games of specific genres I like, if I’ve heard something good about a certain game and I find it cheaply, I’ll buy it to see what it’s like and expand my gaming experiences.

I’m more of a bargain hunter than a collector. While I have standards of the condition of the games I buy (I need the case, manual and disc/cart in good condition) I like going on the hunt to pawn shops and picking up cheap games. I don’t stoop to picking up games I’ll never play, but if something interests me and the price is right, I’ll usually pick it up.
I don’t buy games because they are rare or because I’m a completeist: I buy them to play them. In that respect, I guess I’m more of a gamer. I just have a large collection of games.

Recently I’ve gotten to the point that I’m so overwhelmed by the amount of games I own and haven’t played much more than testing to see if they work. So, I have committed to not buying any more games this year because I want to play and enjoy those I own. Otherwise, I feel pressured to play the games and that’s not fun, which is what gaming is meant to be. I am making exceptions for big name games, like Skyward Sword and Diablo III, but I'm still waiting for my copy of the latter and haven't found a well priced Skyward Sword yet.

Over the years I’ve had the tendency to buy a game, play it a little, then sell it, and eventually buy it again because I want to play it some more. I think this is part of my tendency to buy too many games and not invest enough time in them.

I find I am more partial to buying games for systems like the Saturn and N64 because these systems seem to have a set list of ‘good’ games, where nearly anything SEGA, Nintendo, or Rare released on these systems was awesome. This doesn’t really seem so with the sixth generation of consoles, except maybe the Cube, whether ‘good’ has become more subjective as the quantity of quality games has risen.