I think I'm going into a mid life crisis!!! UPDATE!!!

[MrPopo]

I want more stuff in life like a new car or a house or a bike. I want to travel with my family and do other things instead of buying games.

God damn, if I ever get this boring, someone take me out behind the barn and do me in.

That's not fair. Traveling, getting into bikes or cars, working on a house - these hobbies can be just as interesting and rewarding as playing or collecting video games.

While they all can be worthwhile, they cannot be as interesting or rewarding as video games. If you disagree it must be because you're actually an old man like Luke.

[fvgazi]

Just do whatever you feel like doing and take charge. It seems a lot of your posts (that CRT linked) are asking for others to make the decision for you. There is no right choice unless you're the one who makes the choice and feels comfortable with it. It's hard to be a hardcore gamer as an adult with several interests + a family. I only game maybe once a week on average.. and that's without raising a family!

I think everyone goes through spurts of intense gaming and then dry spells. I'm assuming gaming has been a part of your life for a while and probably has shaped who you are. If you're not disgusted by how they affected you, you might be throwing away an important part of your life.

Even if you sell everything off - no one is stopping you from ever trying to collect again in the future. Half the fun is "the find".

[bryan_65]

Since you seem to want others opinions in the past he is mine now, even though you said you won't read it.

I say go ahead and sell a lot of your collection, really you have almost 500 games and you never play them. I have sold a lot of stuff to fund other stuff and have no regrets. As long as you don't piss away the money you could always just cash out your next hobby too. I have to replace a couple of games in my collection that are keepers to me, but still never hesitated to sell them when I had to fund a big project. Sell your games for a Harley and discover America then when you are done trade it in too, maybe for some games!

[Haoie]

A crisis is more like, a desire to up and abandon your family for a floozie or something. This is more like a midlife hiccup?

[Gunstar Green]

People are always saying, "never sell anything" but those are collectors, with no intention of parting with their collection any time soon, talking. If you start to doubt your collection or start to feel like it's impeding other parts of your life you really shouldn't be collecting because that's when it crosses the line into addiction or in extreme cases, hoarding.

The best way I've seen people who have had problems with collections before is to sit down and really think about their collection. Really analyze what they love and what's just fluff.

Take a step back. Think about which games you actually play. These are the ones you go back to again and again. These are the ones that mean something to you personally. Set those games aside and keep them. Sell everything else. Make a promise to yourself that you won't buy them back and be done with it.

I'm dealing with some rapid changes in my own life right now and I'm faced with the reality that I may have to seriously downsize, so I can empathize. It's a matter of taking stock of what's really important in your life.

If you keep what you play and what you love you can still enjoy most old games through emulation while still having your absolute favorites on real hardware. Not every retro gamer has to be a collector.

[ZenErik]

People are always saying, "never sell anything" but those are collectors, with no intention of parting with their collection any time soon, talking. If you start to doubt your collection or start to feel like it's impeding other parts of your life you really shouldn't be collecting because that's when it crosses the line into addiction or in extreme cases, hoarding.

The best way I've seen people who have had problems with collections before is to sit down and really think about their collection. Really analyze what they love and what's just fluff.

Take a step back. Think about which games you actually play. These are the ones you go back to again and again. These are the ones that mean something to you personally. Set those games aside and keep them. Sell everything else. Make a promise to yourself that you won't buy them back and be done with it.

I'm dealing with some rapid changes in my own life right now and I'm faced with the reality that I may have to seriously downsize, so I can empathize. It's a matter of taking stock of what's really important in your life.

If you keep what you play and what you love you can still enjoy most old games through emulation while still having your absolute favorites on real hardware. Not every retro gamer has to be a collector.

As a gamer I think a major issue is when collecting is more enjoyable than the actual gaming aspect. That may sound weird to say on a forum like this, but I have had this issue in the past. Only recently have I broken this habit. Where collecting more games and wasting money is the 'fun', and I hardly actually played the games I was buying. Often I never even got to playing said games before flipping them for something else.

If you can balance both well, great. But I don't think I can. Over the past year I've become more and more a gamer and much less of a collector.

[8bit]

Useless threads where people ask for advice and then never return are useless...

p.s. mas, see that big key on the right side of your keyboard labeled "return" or "enter"... try hitting it twice once in a while...

[alexis524]

give mas a break. Where else can he really turn to and be open and frank about how hard of a decision he is thinking of making over video games. Those outside of our hobby can't/will never understand our fixation anyway.

Mas, i've posted a few times hinting to the same, and over the past few months i've significantly pared down my collection and it feels good. It all came down to "Will I really have time to play/enjoy 99% of my collection?" I had to be completely honest with myself, and the answer was no. I'm keeping a few consoles that I know i can enjoy, and the rest, well, some other collector can enjoy. The hardest thing for me was to come to terms with and accept that fact. I've known if for the longest deep down inside but just didn't want to accept the fact that my life has changed as well as what i can reasonably spend my time on and feel good about. Don't get me wrong, I love games and always will, but the time really has passed for me to read, hunt, buy, flip games. The last few times i did go out looking for games to buy, it confirmed the fact that i just wasn't interested anymore. I have more than enough to keep my busy and satisfied for the rest of my natural life. I've felt that i arrived at a happy medium of keeping only the few games/consoles that I know i can enjoy and the rest, good riddance. If i haven't picked it off my shelf for the last 5 years, i probably never will again.

Good luck to you my friend and i'm sure you will find what makes you happy and satisfied.

[indecks]

That's not fair. Traveling, getting into bikes or cars, working on a house - these hobbies can be just as interesting and rewarding as playing or collecting video games.

While they all can be worthwhile, they cannot be as interesting or rewarding as video games. If you disagree it must be because you're actually an old man like Luke.[/quote]


Working on cars can totally be rewarding. I've done minor to not-so-minor work on my car and it's extremely gratifying. I'm not even a gear head or that huge into cars. One of the jobs I did was replacing a cooling fan, which involved draining the radiator and taking a few other components out to get to it. It wasn't super difficult only-a-mechanic-can-do-it type stuff, but it also wasn't just as simple as changing out an air filter. I felt really good that I did it myself and saved myself the cost of taking it to the shop.

I wouldnt say that working on cars is my hobby, but it can be very interesting. You can't possibly begin to tell someone that their hobby is any less rewarding than your own, be it vidjagames or whatever.

[MrPopo]

You can't possibly begin to tell someone that their hobby is any less rewarding than your own, be it vidjagames or whatever.

Maybe I needed to add the sarcasm color.