Collecting Fullsets vs. Collecting Good Games

[Rickstilwell1]

A lot of people collect only games they like to play while many others like collecting whatever they can get their hands on. What do you think is more impressive when it comes to display? A large stack of almost 2000 games even though most of them suck, or a smaller collection of just a few hundred games that are actually fun or part of a series?

My collection consists of many loose cartridges and game discs that I bought dirt cheap when a game store was being liquidated, but I also have many good games in there. The thing is that I have the idea that I might like to pull out each game and at least give them one try. Personally I would like to hang on to these because I can imagine that if I ever did want to complete a system set it would be hard to get all these back again for under $2.50 a piece (when shipping for 1 game is usually no less than $3 anyway). It's probably worth more money to hang on to them.

At the same time, it's getting harder to store the collection and there are better games out there that I still don't have.

[Malon_Forever]

Most impressive? A full set would include all good, so I would say a full set is definitely is more impressive.

[Blanka789]

Personally, I don't go for fullsets. However, I think they are more impressive to both casual people and collectors alike.

That said, I like to play my games. If that means trading a rarity that I never play for a few really gun games, I'm all over it.

[coreys429]

I am not much of a collector. I do a lot of buying and selling of games. Though the people that do impress me the most are the ones that are going for the full set. Right now I have three different friends going for a complete America Sega Genesis Set. That is box manual and game. Hunting titles down for them is fun. When I have people wanting to complete playing a game series like Zelda, I break their hearts talking about CDI version and then they tell me well those don't count.

[tubeway]

I'd be more impressed by quality over quantity. If someone had 1000 games that were the best and most interesting titles across five platforms, I'd be more impressed by it than by the collection of someone that managed to get, say, all of the USA Sega Genesis releases. I understand the appeal of collecting an entire set -- not unlike a full set of baseball cards or a full run of a comic -- that feeling of completion and accomplishment is nice.

However, if you have a room filled with fullsets, then odds are, you also have a room filled with at least 60% crap or mediocre games, and you're stuck with all of them, because as soon as you get rid of a couple titles you no longer can make the claim you have a fullset. With a really quality collection, though, you can always selectively pare it down, swap out games as your interests changes, and not be trapped in essentially having a warehouse for a living space.

[mobiusclimber]

Fullsets are impressive, but individual games usually impress me more. I know, I know, the person w/ the fullset HAS the impressive individual games (or some of em depending on what console they collect for), but I think I'm just as impressive by the person with a collection of just good games as I am by the person with every game for a system. And logistically, it's usually not feasible to house such a collection unless you're collecting for a system w/ a small library, which ends up negating the impressiveness of having a full set. ("I've got every US Virtual Boy Game!" Heh, oh, erm... cool?)

[Rickstilwell1]

I think what I might do is stick with what I've collected so far but then from now on, when a system is emulated I will try out games before I buy.

It's obvious that the games I have already bought won't be found any cheaper in the future. I put a lot of time into cleaning my local store locations of their games and checking them off so I wouldn't want that to be a waste.

That is unless there is someone who would actually pay more than I did for these loose games. Should I post a list in the Buy/Sell forum and see if anything beneficial happens? Or do you think the youtubers who say they like my collection will be disappointed in me?

People seem to be impressed with the amount of systems alone rather than the games for them.

[Swamperon]

I can definitely see the appeal in owning a full set and it's something I intend to start seriously aiming to achieve in a years time (Must finish uni and get a job first!) but currently am only generally collecting games that interest me.

Also, full or even large collections of games do look impressive, even if half of them are crap.

[Kevincal]

I collect everything I can afford. Then when money gets tight, I sell what I don't need / want. I always try to hang onto my best / favorite games. I'm totally addicted to collecting though. Especially right now with so many people selling game stuff. There are good deals to be snapped up everywhere! Personally I find it rather insane going for fullsets, because you are going to end up spending too much money on a lot of the games because of the feel that you NEED this game to complete your fullset. Me, I'm always on the hunt for a good deal. I don't really care about fullsets EXCEPT for systems with few games. For instance I have all 44 originally released Jaguar carts. Wasn't that hard or expensive to get them. I have a lot of the 32X carts. So I can understand collecting fullsets for systems like that. But something like Genesis, NES or PlayStation, with hundreds if not thousands of games? Holy crap, you have to be really patient and have a lot of money. Neither of which I have. :P

That said, if I had unlimited money I would be at eBay ALL damn day just buying stuff left and right! So many times big lots go for great prices on ebay and I always wish I had the money to buy all of these big lots...

[Spartacus]

I did a fullset one time with the original Xbox. I enjoyed doing it because there wasn't a complete list of Xbox games that I could find at the time to make a fullset simple to do. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed doing all of the research and cross-checking necessary to make my list accurate. Finding them all was sort of fun too - I guess.
But once it was done, I realized that having a hundred or so games who's titles start with NBA, NCAA, NFL, MBL, NHL etc. was kind of boring to me. Thank God the Xbox wasn't heavy into games involving music, dance mats, or karaoke mics. YEEESH!
Not that I was expecting it to, but when it was done, it never impressed a single person who's seen it. I'm the only person who knows what was involved in accomplishing it and that's the satisfaction I derive from it. But I really can't see myself doing it again, honestly. Apparently, I don't have a collector gene in my body.
Nowadays I limit myself to genres of games that interest me the most. I find that if the subject matter interests me, I don't give a shit if anyone else thinks the game is good or terrible because I'm doing something in the game that I enjoy doing. Mostly just shooting shit and blowing stuff up, maybe a little hack and slashing. Sex sells, of course, and if a title finds itself on some crusaders shit list for WHATEVER reason, then I definitely feel I want to have it on my shelf.
I try to keep my favorite genres interesting by being willing to track them down no matter what region of the world they were released in. Figuring out what's been released and where and then trying to get my hands on it seems to be just as fun to me as actually playing games.

[garagesaleking!!]

I dont get the impression the op was referring to owning full sets, he just meant in general many or a few good ones. I think owning a smaller amount of good games is more impressive to a collector. For example if someone had all the good rpgs for ps1, that would blow me away more than many other things.

xbox was the only system i ever really got crazy into collecting, buying every game i saw, at one point i had about 200 complete xbox games. However as soon as 360 came out xbox games basically became worth shit. I was once very proud of my xbox collection though, and i like to think all the games i owned were all the good ones for the system.

[WildWillyWilson]

I'm going for a full Jap MD set. Yes there's a lot of strategy games that are pretty unplayable but its about the box art as well, plus seeing what the games were like graphically and audio wise in these cases.

Its also great to unearth games I hadnt heard of before- like when I bought Twinkle Tale about a month ago. True gem.

I've only got 56 games so far but looking at the 2 rows of shelves they take up just looks fantastic, so much colour and some of the artwork is fantastic.

But I do play the games as well so its both sides really.

[megasdkirby]

I am...well...both. More a collector now than a player.

Before, I would get games to play and collect. I loved getting the newest game, finishing it, then getting a new one. Those were great times.

However, as time transpired, I kept getting more and more games, to the point in which I could not play them all. To date, around 90% of my collection has yet to be played.

The problem of getting alot of games is that, besides never playing them, I get immediately bored with them when I do play them. Before, I would stick to a particular game, no matter what. Now, if I start playing a game and I don't like it, it will be "forever shelved", meaning that I may never play with the game again. Also, my patience has diminished quite a bit during the past few years, to the point that if the game is even a tad hard, I quit. It must be a GREAT game for me to continue with it.

Sometimes, I think I should stop collecting and play the games I already have. Hell, I bet I have enough games to last a lifetime.

[garagesaleking!!]

I have the same problem, i get bored with games unless they really get me from the beginning, i always want to move onto something new and just cant be happy with what i am playing.

[SegaAges]

I am...well...both. More a collector now than a player.

Before, I would get games to play and collect. I loved getting the newest game, finishing it, then getting a new one. Those were great times.

However, as time transpired, I kept getting more and more games, to the point in which I could not play them all. To date, around 90% of my collection has yet to be played.

The problem of getting alot of games is that, besides never playing them, I get immediately bored with them when I do play them. Before, I would stick to a particular game, no matter what. Now, if I start playing a game and I don't like it, it will be "forever shelved", meaning that I may never play with the game again. Also, my patience has diminished quite a bit during the past few years, to the point that if the game is even a tad hard, I quit. It must be a GREAT game for me to continue with it.

Sometimes, I think I should stop collecting and play the games I already have. Hell, I bet I have enough games to last a lifetime.

I could not agree more.

But then again, I am the owner of multiple fullsets (Virtual Boy, HyperScan, N-Gage). I normally only go for American games. I just think it is awesome to see every single game lined up. I think libraries of a system are awesome. Now if you have all sports games for snes, that is not all that impressive (unless, of course, they are all complete in box).

I do enjoy looking at rare compared to quality. If somebody has some uber rare game, even if it is a crappy game, I think it is more awesome to see one of those than if somebody had every final fantasy game on ps1.

There are multiple types of collectors, and the joy of this site, is that regardless of the type of collector, it is all good here.

I enjoy looking at others collections regardless of size. For me, personally, I love fullsets because for me it is still all about the hunt of the games. It is very fun to do

[Dangerboy]

I"m a full set mongrel. PSX to be specific. I already have the entire list sans like 11 demos.
Almost done with all known variants.

And I know I'll play each and everyone of them someday. I have to, I'm archiving them. : )
www.game-rave.com

[Zing]

If I saw someone with, say, a full PlayStation collection, you know it would be 98% shit and most games were bought for pennies in bulk. Not impressive. Seeing a full Virtual Boy collection or something like Wonderswan would be impressive. Things like that take at least some dedication.

I personally only keep playable games. Also, to curb my obsessive nature, I enforce a strict first-party rule for my GBA/DS/Wii games. Sure, this causes me to miss out on some good third-party games, but I don't have time to play the games I already have. My PlayStation collection is pared down to only the finest games as well, totaling around 45 games.

[mrmark0673]

Having just completed my loose licensed NTSC NES set, I understand the benefits of both. I began collecting for the NES because it was the system I played and loved as a child. While playing amazing games like Mega Man 2, I always wondered what other amazing games there were for the system that I had missed or if there were better games that I had never heard of.

Before completing my goal, I found some AMAZING games that I had never heard of or would have likely have stumbled upon if it weren't for my drvie to complete the library. Power Blade, Panic Restaurant, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, Toki, Kick Master, and countless other games never would have made it onto my shelf if I stuck to collecting just the "good" games for the system. I've had a blast playing some of these games and I have to attribute some of that to my complete collection.

Having said that, you can imagine games like the Playschool series or the Sesame Street series don't see a whole lot of action over here. Collecting rehashed variants of the smae game (Taito vs Ubi Indy, Gold vs gray Zeldas, etc.) definitely does not please the gamer in me, and when you add in games like Stadium Events which is the same game as WCTM with the exception of a title screen, different label art, and about a thousand dollars, the full set scenario can seem downright silly.

I'm still happy to have done it though, for both my collection and gaming habits it fits perfectly. It was nice looking to see if I really had missed a better game for the system then Mega Man 2...

And no, I never did

[Ze_ro]

I enforce a strict first-party rule for my GBA/DS/Wii games. Sure, this causes me to miss out on some good third-party games, but I don't have time to play the games I already have.

Not only are you missing out on some "good" games, you're missing out on what are easily some of the BEST games on all three systems... while (I assume) getting plenty of garbage titles just because Nintendo stamped their name on it. Not everything they touch turns to gold.

--Zero

[Dangerboy]

Uh, Zing...

If I saw someone with, say, a full PlayStation collection, you know it would be 98% shit
Wow...quite possibly the most uneducated, doesn't-know-a-sliver of whats available to play, and doesn't understand how much of the current generation owes it's life blood to the original PlayStation. A majority of today's most popular series, both main stream and cult, all began on the PlayStation One.

...and most games were bought for pennies in bulk.
Not even close. Though that sentence fragment is so vague that it describes EVERY SYSTEM EVER MADE when they were tossed aside for the next generation's introduction. Atari 2600, Nintendo, any system that GameStop or Blockbuster closed out of inventory (N64 games were $1 a piece, including rares), etc. If this thread was made 7 years from now, we'd be using XBox 360 instead of PlayStation. Hell, You can buy most of the 360 launch games for $5 or less, and it's only three years in.

Not impressive.
Oh it is. It's impressive enough that Sony's own forum members awarded me a $3,000 Entertainment system and LE PS2 to certify it. Also the Guiness Book of World Records Video Games, Official PlayStation Magazine, and PSExtreme would disagree with you as well. Among many others here.

Seeing a full Virtual Boy collection or something like Wonderswan would be impressive.

No offense to those who collect them (I respect any and all collections), but those are the worst examples you could have used. An American VB set has one, maybe two truly hard games to get, the rest is just are easy pickings. Hell, EB was liquidating the systems at $20 each - I spent $75 in one visit at the time and had all but 3 games for it. Hoo boy, dedication.

As for the Wonderswan, purely from an English speaking standpoint, I like to be able to read all the games I'm collecting.

Things like that take at least some dedication.
Yes, you're completely right. It took absolutely no dedication for the 3 years it took to track down a working copy of NBA 2 Ball AND the single programmer who did it(1), the 5 years it took to assemble a Mortal Kombat 3 variant (2), discover a variant to a Holy Grail (3), personally talking to the CEO of a defunct company to sort out 9 variant covers and inserts (4), or that there are whole sites dedicated to nothing but attempting to track down all the undiscovered PSX items (5) - including my own.

When one of Sony's own Engineers tells you you have more games than they do, and then calls their Copyright / Properties office in front of you to tell them he's got a source for references, no, that's absolutely not dedication at all.

I personally only keep playable games.
Unless there's a crack in the CD or there's a PCB issue, all games are playable.

Also, to curb my obsessive nature...
Ah, yes...there it is. There's the little piece of evidence I was looking for. It's not that there's 98% crap on my favorite system, it's that you're jealous of others. Your own self inflicted rules have prevented you from doing what you most want. Which would explain your system choices of earlier - go for the smallest libraries / most 'oddball' collection and call it impressive. That way it's not over shadowing your 45 games.

I enforce a strict first-party rule for my GBA/DS/Wii games. Sure, this causes me to miss out on some good third-party games
A 2nd limitation? A masochist indeed! But a sadist as well, but that's if you willingly bought Wii Music!

...but I don't have time to play the games I already have.
You make time. You find it. You stay up a little bit later. I'm happily dating, work full time, run a web-site, and do freelance graphic design, and I finished 3 PSX games just this week.

My PlayStation collection is pared down to only the finest games as well, totaling around 45 games.
They ain't wine, son. Even the finest games become stinkers in time.

Still tracking the final known PSX items, SEVEN YEARS RUNNING.
Jason

References:
1.http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playsta...scs/nba_2ball/
2.http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playsta...t_3/index.html
3. http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playsta...ase/index.html
4. http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playsta...igns/index.htm
5. game-rave.com
playstationcollecting.com
playstationmuseum.com
sonyindex.com
http://www.defconsoft.co.uk/
and on and on....