The Need to Collect

[AgentCupcakes]

I've fallen into a gaming rut in the past 6 months or so. I have no real desire to play games (with the exception of Minecraft and Pokemon White) but I still have this urge to collect them. Especially Atlus or Nippon Ichi games. WHATS WRONG WITH ME i keep buying the games but dont ever play the damn things......also solutions on how to get back into games.....

[puke_face]

For me, it usually helps just to take a break from the entire gaming scene. I love gaming, but sometimes it can just be too much to take in. Learning the new controls, new characters, new interaction, more money spent, more time spent... especially if you can't quit buying them. Just be thankful and satisfied with what you have, not everybody is in a position to be able to buy games like you can. Don't sweat about the ones you don't have, otherwise you'll have too big of a backlog to be able to keep up. Take up a different hobby that will allow you to take the focus off of gaming for a while. Try anything that sounds interesting to you. Read up on it, be as passionate with it as much as you are now with video games. After a while, you'll go back and enjoy it again.

[hashiriya1]

I go through that often, I am sure most of us here do. I just focus on my other hobbies for a while then when I get back into games I feel refreshed and ready to play. My longest break from games was like 2 years. I didn't play much of anything and spent most of my time (and money) on the car hobby. Around mid 2009 I got back into games. As mentioned earlier, it's good to take a break from it. You'll be back in action in no time.

[BRIK]

Yeah around 2006 I lost all interest in gaming. I really didn't game that much at all until about 2008 when I bought a PS3. I have been gaming hard ever since.
So maybe don't take two years off, that's a long time.
I didn't choose to stop gaming btw, it just kinda happened, and then I got back into gaming automatically.

[yomomma1]

I did that recently, too. I bought a lot of games and didn't play a single one of them. I couldn't get into the games, even though I wanted to play them. I just stopped buying games for a little while. I got back into games by just buying games I really wanted to play. So far it has worked out.

[env963]

Shopping addiction...


I have a ton of games that I even burned with some sort of "intention" of someday playing... well how the hell is that going to happen. I keep finding new games that are coming out that I want to play.. LOL It's almost time to sit down and go through those old games as well and decide do I need to really keep this?

[kelsoanim]

I totally know where you are coming from. I used to go on gaming binges, playing hardcore for hours a day for a week or two, then play almost no games for a few weeks. I've since evened my gaming out. It helps to plan out what games I want to focus on for the next week or two so I don't get overwhelmed by all the games in my collection. You can pick a genre or system you want to focus on and only play those games for a while, or pick a series of games you want to play through.

I've been thinking about it recently and I think that collecting games and being a gamer are two separate, but not mutually exclusive things. Collecting games is similar to collecting any other sort of item. You don't collect items to necessarily do anything with them, you just want to have them in your collection. I think this has more to do with the thrill of the hunt in searching for that next item to round out your collection. And I think that's all fine. If you want to collect games just to collect and it makes you happy, go ahead and do it. The only things I would worry about is letting the cost of the hobby get out of control. But if you've got it under control and give yourself a monthly budget then why not have fun collecting?

I've actually got a personal project in the works related to this. I'm going to go through my older games in order and play each of them at least until I run out of lives or continues, or I finish a round or boss level. This way I can feel like I've made an effort to enjoy each and every game I've collected. As a secondary rule, I'm going to sell any games that I don't have fun playing. No point in owning a game that I never want to play.

[BurningDoom]

I understand the need, brother. I have the OCD of collecting, too. I collect not only video games, but also comics and comic cards, and am now getting into DVD collecting. It's not that I won't play or watch what I get, I will. I'm just not sure when because I buy them faster than I can play/watch them. But I do manage to get through all my comics. I only have like 10 issues left in my read pile.

[Xeogred]

I don't recommend this solution, but unintentionally being absolutely dirt poor for about a year and half now has really cooled down my impulse buying/collecting. Much easier to relax, take my time, and actually play games I want and hit up that backlog.

[AznKhmerBoi]

i only get that feeling for cart based games. CD base not so much not sure why...