dtrack wrote:"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.