Collecting vs. Hoarding

[AmishSamurai]

I mainly buy games that interest me. So if somebody says something is "essential", I still may not buy it unless it appeals to me. However, I have a lot of games and end up just playing through them once and leaving them collecting dust forever. Occasionally I'll pick them up again, but not often.

If you don't like Pokemon, you don't like it. As a diehard Pokemon fan, I'll say that Red and Blue have not aged well at all, and there's serious balance issues not present in later games (Psychic Pokemon rape everything, since all RBY bug and ghost attacks are worthless unless you plan on pissing that mewtwo off to death with Confuse Ray). I personally would try FireRed/Leafgreen, Platinum, or HeartGold/SoulSilver if you want a good Pokemon game.

[noiseredux]

I'm just not interested in the series as a whole to be honest. I only got Red/Blue because they were sort of important to the history of the GB.

[Reverend]

I've been doing a bit of both for a while now. Due to the frequency of garage sales in NJ (the most densely populated state), my collection of games is pretty huge. I know how to put it to good use though. Before I go to college, I'll be trimming the fat of my collection by selling the unessentials to help pay for college. It won't make much of a dent, but every penny counts and I need to get rid of some of this stuff.

I personally like the Pokémon games and they have the nostalgia factor, so I can't say much about that. And yes, their importance to the history of the GB cannot be denied.

[sevin0seven]

it seems like i know who to blame for this thread. "Pokemon".

[noiseredux]

it seems like i know who to blame for this thread. "Pokemon".

haha, Yeah! Suck it, Pikachu!

[Flake]

I blame the industry for making so many freaking games.

[noiseredux]

I blame the industry for making so many freaking games.

nah, I'm glad there's a lot of options out there. It's just I need to learn to get rid of things sometimes. Why do I feel the need to keep every GB cart I find? Y'know?

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I try to buy 1 game at a time and play through the game before getting another. Seems to work well for me.

[noiseredux]

I try to buy 1 game at a time and play through the game before getting another. Seems to work well for me.

I know that's rational, but hard to do when you collect for a console that means you can easily score games for $2 a piece. haha.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I am 29 also, and I have a substantial collection of games for multiple systems. With regard to more recent games, I have every intention of playing through every game that I own. (To show my age, I consider Saturn and PS1 games to be "recent" releases.) If I like the game, and think that I might play it again, even for a moment, I keep it. If not, I sell or trade it. ( I have quite a backlog at the moment, but I have no intention of purchasing any system after the Wii; and, with the limited number of interesing titles for that system, my Saturn, PS1, PS2, GC, and Xbox backlog is slowly receding.)

With regard to older games, I collect them for the purpose of collecting. (Two caveats, I only purchase games "in the wild", i.e, pawn shops, thift stores, yard sales, flea markets, local Craigslist postings, etc., and I never pay more than $15 for a single game.) I have no intention of ever playing through many of the games that I own (the NES Bible games come to mind...). For me, the fun of collecting is searching high and low for that one game you need to round out a segment of your collection. As a result, I try not to purchase "older" games from eBay or other websites; it takes all the fun out of it. (This isn't to say that I never play the older games in my collection. I do. I just tend to do it in short bursts, and I tend to gravitate toward the same, few timeless titles.)

Collecting something for the sake of collecting something is a perfectly normal, healthy hobby. Some people collect things like basketball cards, bottle caps, and Precious Moments figurines. At least with video game collecting, the enjoyment of my collection is not limited to merely looking at it on a shelf (although that is pretty enjoyable).

Anyway, all of this Pokemon talk reminded me that I do not have a single Pokemon game in my GB collection. I guess I will just have to add them to my "To Get" list, even though I have intention of playing thorugh any of those games ever again.