Sudden loss in the interest of my video games

[Deathstar]

It seems like it happened so suddenly.

I don't care to play ANY of my games anymore.
All of my old games sit their, collecting dust.
Everything just sits there, nothing happening.

I am thinking of just selling it all, anyone else had this problem before?

[Flack]

Sure. I don't know how old you are, but we all have things that come up in life that drive us further away from our hobbies. It's tough when you work on computers all day long to come home and spend even more time in front of monitors and televisions.

My personal advice to you would be, box everything up and give it a rest for a while. You may find you feel differently in a couple of months, and it would be a lot easier to just unbox stuff than it would be to sell stuff and then try and rebuy things.

Flack

[Sylentwulf]

Always happens, DON'T sell. It usually passes after a couple months at most, you sell now, you will DEEPLY DEEPLY regret it.

[Slipdeath]

never happened to me, on the other hand iim still young

[Deathstar]

Well, thanks for the tips.

Just kinda sickens me looking at it collecting dust.

[TRM]

That happened to me towards the beginning of this year. I felt like getting rid of everything, but I decided against it because I figured that I would regret it later. Good thing I didn't sell.

[ShinobiMan]

I would like to second what Sylentwulf said. There have been times when I've sold a game that I knew I'd never play again, one that I burned out and was almost disgusted with.

I sold it.

A year later I find myself hitting my head against the wall because I got rid of it. I wanted to relive those memories again. Same goes for games that I sold for one reason or another when I was younger... like DJ Boy and Atomic Robo Kid for the Genesis. I have since ended up buying them again. And now I enjoy them more than I did.

I sometimes go through what your going through. A period where I just don't want to have anything to do with games. I'd rather write, watch movies, listen to music, etc. Sooner or later I regret those feeling after I hook up an old system and game out, or I get a new game that I can't put down.

Trust me, if your that much of a gamer to even post on this wonderful board, your the kinda gamer who is a gamer for life. Like a relationship, it can be a bumpy road, but odds are, you won't be getting a divorce from your video games.

[1bigmig]

There was another thread with this exact topic not too long ago. It had a lot of good replies too. Maybe someone here can find and post the link. I will look also.

Oh, and if I cant find it...DONT SELL. 10 to 1 you WILL regret it if you were serious about games at one point.

EDIT: Here is the link, this should be helpful:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16423

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I'll add my voice to the 'don't sell' chorus.

I don't burn out as much as you guys seem to...but then again, I've got other hobbies. 8-) That's another approach I highly recommend.

[RoboticParanoia]

Don't sell. I regretted letting my brother sell his SNES for a PS. We had great games too...and now I hate that PS with a passion that only a fury sun knows.

[Captain Wrong]

I am thinking of just selling it all, anyone else had this problem before?

Yep, I've been going through this for the past 6 months.

[Delgrace]

Yeah, it's like the gamer's equilvalent to artist's block. I've gotten it before; hit sometime early last year, and even though it hasn't fully disapated yet, it's better than it was.

Don't sell your stuff; just go do something else for a bit. Works for drawing, should work for gaming.

[Evil E]

I think everyone goes through this from time to time. I certainly do. I have had many hobbies in the past, and still have many. I used to be enthralled in car audio, lost interest, and collecting reptiles was a hobby of mine for years and years, and since buying a house a few years ago, I lost interest in that as well--not enough time for them. Videogames have been a hobby of mine since I was a kid, and it comes and goes sometimes. I agree with others thoughts of you maybe picking up another hobby or two. Besides videogames, my hobbies are sports--especially fantasy football, and since owning my house, I am into plants and trees!! EEK!! That's scary huh? Hobbies grow and morph, and sometimes change, but don't sell your videogames/systems--you will almost certainly be sorry you did. Take a break from gaming for a while if you want, but my guess is that you will be back!!

E.---

[lendelin]

My pragmatic advice is (like others said before), wait two years, and if you still have the same feeling about games and playing them, then you can consider selling.

The reason is: your "disinterest" is probably temporarily, and in all likelihood not an indicator of less interest in games at all, on the contrary, it's an indicator of a deep interest in games, maybe even of a deeper interest in games than ever before!! You get bored with it becasue you got spoiled, played too much, and probably are more demanding what to expect from games! You want something fresh, something new, and get bored running around in 'Oddworld' collecting lil items you've done so often before.

If we really like something, there are phases we get bored with it because we got more demanding. I played soccer from 6yrs old until I was 24, at the end on a semi-professional level, and I loved the game and was obsessed with it, but there were always phases in which you ask yourself, "Is that all? Is there nothing more? I wanna do something else." We like variety, new experiences, even if we are obsessed with what we're doing.

During the N64 times when I didn't have a PS1 and waited like a fool for RPGs to come out, I got tired of the cartoony platformers, and didn't play much for two years, but Castlevania SOTN and Gran Turismo 3 and Final Fanatsy X rekindled my love for videogames. In the last four weeks I didn't play much at all although I have so many great new games on my shelf. Sometimes I find it more interesting just reading about games, get the great RPGs for the PS1 I missed out back then. Sometimes there are things in your life going on which are more important than games and require attention and energy. At my age and my experience with lackluster phases of enthusiasm for games, I know, it will always come back. If love is there, I know it will be sparked easily again, although there are less stormy periods.

[brandver3]

Man, I am right there with you.

Its been 3 months, and it is starting to come back, but it takes awhile to get back into it as much as your were. It's just a burn out, happenes to everyone.

Don't sell. I'm glad I didn't, cause getting it back, I can't imagine what I would have done If I had sold half the stuff I wanted to get rid of a month ago.

[Slipdeath]

hmm we should name this, hoe about "videogame sindrum"

[nesuser2]

i go through phases........usually every couple weeks. but gaming gives me a break.....just to think about getting new gaming stuff. even though i don't play it that much, i enjoy it alot when i make the time. even for an hour or two when i should be sleeping :-D

[NE146]

Put it in a box, store it away and forget about it.

If it's like me and the 2600, you'll find it 15 years later (after doing 'other things') and thank your ass you didn't toss it away like some fool :D

[Oobgarm]

There was another thread with this exact topic not too long ago. It had a lot of good replies too. Maybe someone here can find and post the link. I will look also.

Oh, and if I cant find it...DONT SELL. 10 to 1 you WILL regret it if you were serious about games at one point.

EDIT: Here is the link, this should be helpful:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16423

Hey, that's my thread! :rocker:

I agree with the "don't sell" mentality. If you read the link above, you'll see that I was in the same kind of rut. I just "rode it out" so to speak, and now I'm back in the swing of things, buying way more than I could possibly play, since F-Zero is still so demanding of my (little) free time. LOL

Not to worry, you'll snap out of it. Just don't sell anything you're even remotely attached to, or you'll kick yourself later. :)

[anagrama]

Hmm. I'm going to contradict what most people have said here (and what I said in the other thread that was mentioned):
My interest in gaming has just been re-sparked after a few months off, but ironically enough, what reignited the spark was deciding to sell off a large bunch of my stuff.
Rising debts, lack of space and general apathy towards electronic entertainment combined to persuade me to shift a bunch of stuff that never (or extremely rarely) gets played [all my NES stuff, N64, all handhelds, pongs, home computers, all duplicates, Xbox, Megajet, magazines...], but it was the process of sorting through everything that gave me twinges of nostalgia, and made me want to play/collect stuff again, and so I'm currently streamlining my collection [keeping all Master System & Megadrive stuff, keeping all MegaCD/32X/Saturn/DC stuff for now, but these may be thinned out in the future, keeping SNES games I want to play, selling the rest, and keeping my woody VCS, but selling the Jr], and have once again been scouring charity shops & eBay, and spending an hour or so a day browsing DP, aswell as resuming work on my PAL Megadrive list [expect rarities to be added before too long @_@ ]).
So personally, I'd suggest figuring out what you actually want/enjoy and getting rid of any you KNOW you won't miss, but hanging onto everything else. But hell, what do I know? :/

[GrandAmChandler]

Hey DON'T sell.

Divide the collection amongst your DP friends :D

[christianscott27]

you know it really depends on how you relate to your games, if you dont have that collectors bug then you probably should sell it. i mean if you just want the occassional gameplay fix then you'd do better to use emus and save the space and cost. if you've got the collecting bug then yes keep them around, you have to have something of a scooge mcduck mentality to really enjoy games that you dont play often or at all. i'm a confirmed sick collector, i get enjoyment out of checking off lists, hunting down games and stacking them up in my game room. i'll never waste even an hour playing my RCA studio II but its a proud addition to my trophy shelf...

[orrimarrko]

Like any typical obsessive compulsive, I go through this ALL the #$@%#$ time.

I get on a kick, won't shut up about it for months. Meanwhile, it takes up all of my time and money - and my wife wants to shoot me in the balls, just so I will shut the hell up.

For the past two decades, that battle has primarily been between Star Wars toy collecting and video games. Now that Star Wars is completely out of the collecting picture, my sole focus is video games.

However, time and funds are limited, so there are "down times". In those times, I don't hunt, don't play, and don't pay too much attention to the games.

And then...

Something will happen that gets me excited all over again. Sometimes it's reading this forum, or a new find (even though I wasn't really looking) or a game that really looked cool.

Point is, you never know when you will get the urge to Game on (or collect on) :) - so it's always good to have your stuff within reach.

Good luck!

Steve

[ianoid]

My recommendation is not to sell.

Throughout most of our lives, video games come and go. Maybe you discover girls or social things in high school and stop playing Atari. Maybe you play Nintendo for a year in college, but realize it takes too much time when there are so many other things to do. And then you have a year or two when you played Dreamcast because you had time. Not all of us are living in a continuum of playing or collecting.

I say, (if your collection fits in a reasonable space) shove it in a box and let it collect dust. You'll probably come back to it at some point. I wish I had on all accounts.

If you just like to play the most current games, then it doesn't matter. You can just turn over yesterdays games and buy Gamepube or whatever the latest is.

ian

[Raccoon Lad]

SELL!

...to ME

...and for REALLY REALLY cheap!

:-D

[ChuckthePlant]

Do not sell. I got a house and all the attendant tasks and worry, coupled with a new family, caused me to start downsizing. I deeply regret it. It is only in the last month or so that I have caught up again and began to surpass the old holdings. I try now to retain the essential stuff for hobbies I was interested in knowing that I will pick them up later. Embrace your inner dilatant.

[Felixthegamer]

For probably two or three years, I didn't touch any games. I wasn't interested. Now, I love them again and play all the time! I didn't throw anything out or sell it. I had them boxed up. If you don't feel like playing, box them up and put them out of sight. You never know when the fever will hit again and you'll want to play

[Slipdeath]

im telling everyone we should call it the "video game syndrum"

[Kid Ice]

Wait for the right game to come along to break the gamer's block. I've suffered from that before. Even with nearly 1000 games, I go through periods where I feel like I have nothing to play. A tasty new game can break you out of that, or a nice high-volume trade.

[Predatorxs]

I'll go with everyone that mentioned, "Don't Sell" Do as instructed, box it all up and put it away some place nice and dry and out of harms way, some where it won't be touched, it cud be 3 months 3 years or even 13 years (hell 33 years even :/ )

And if like me you forget you packed away a system and find it hibernating, years after it's a really nice surprise that will always bring a little smile to any collectors face (thinking of how good the games where and all the fun you had with them - ahhh childhood memorys! :-D )

Plus it won't cost a penny just box em' up, i have also found that the less you play the better, if your jumping from one system to the other you soon run out of steam and get sick of them, play maybe two or three times a fortnight! (old systems)

New systems! are different i'm always playing my GC but only once or twice a week (time permitting), it helps that it's all fresh stuff, instead of retro gaming which really is dead gaming since there are no new games / acces / news etc!?

Also it's rare i suffer from this sickness of videogames i just rub on some VideoGame O.E.S cream, that hit's the spot every time! $4.99 OR £2.10 over here in the UK!.. -_-

But i love my US SNES and am currently upto 623 games, i don't think i'll ever get sick of my baby, It tha best.. :D