Which Came First ...

[Flack]

Here's an interesting question for you all. I was actually wondering this as I was boxing up Star Wars things last night, preparing to paint.

Are you a collector who happens to collect video games?

... or ...

Are you a video game fanatic and that's why you collect?

The point I'm trying to get at is ... do you collect more than video games?

When I got married, my wife dubbed me "the collector of collections." Not only do I collect video games, but also guitars, music CDs, DVDs, Halloween crap ... and of course, Star Wars, which is probably my biggest collection of all.

So, I think I'm the type of guy who collects things by nature, and just happens to collect video game stuff because I like video games. Are you that way, or are you a person who just loves video games so much that that's what you collect exclusively?

[digitalpress]

I have always been a packrat. It was baseball cards, non-sport cards, comic books, for a while matchbooks, stamps, coins... I was finally able to get my attention focused on one thing and I've never looked back.

It really started as a fascination with electronic gaming but the innate nature to gather many similar things into a shared area took over. This is where I am today.

[petewhitley]

I'm self-diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (though it's qualified diagnosis). Anyways, that coupled with my 20+ year love of videogames kinda just forced me into collecting.

[§ Gideon §]

I would say that I am very organized by nature. Collecting manifests itself as an extension of my desire to keep things within my sphere of organization... yeah, I know that sounds weird.

So, I'm not a collector in the sense that I collect for the sake of collecting. Rather, I'm an organizer that likes to play video games!

[nesuser2]

the reason i collect video games is not an easy subject. but i collect a few other things. some cd's, lots of DVD's......and well.......electronics. i love electronics and i love having 100 little things versus one big thing. video games also makes me feel young again, which is high on my priority list for unlisted reasons. while i like to collect......i hate clutter. so if i buy something at a garage sale for trade bait, i want it gone the next day LOL

[Querjek]

My parents have always said that I Come from a family of packrats... I at one point collected Star Wars stuff, then X-men, then Pokemon stuff, but eventually lost interest. I am now into game collection, and hoping to be for a long time. I also have a collection of Pez in my room (100-200 dispensers).

[Balloon Fight]

My parents have always said that I Come from a family of packrats... I at one point collected Star Wars stuff, then X-men, then Pokemon stuff, but eventually lost interest. I am now into game collection, and hoping to be for a long time. I also have a collection of Pez in my room (100-200 dispensers).

You are like a clone of me! :) I collect everything you have, except Star Wars. Whats your best Pez? I have around 225 nowadays. :D

Edit: Just like to state that i USED to collect pokemon stuff. ;)

[Ed Oscuro]

I have always been a packrat. It was baseball cards, non-sport cards, comic books, for a while matchbooks, stamps, coins... I was finally able to get my attention focused on one thing and I've never looked back.

It really started as a fascination with electronic gaming but the innate nature to gather many similar things into a shared area took over. This is where I am today.

Same thing for me. I've never collected matchbooks (instead I have a number of drink bottles, the bulk of which come from my recent visit to England, all contemporary stuff though) but I have my share of baseball cards, a couple comic books (though I could probably count them on one or maybe two hands), some stamps, a good number of coins (none terribly valuable, but I've got them).

The Nintendo 64 really got me back into gaming after a year when the two Sega PC ports on the first Windows PC of the household had gotten somewhat old. That, and my opinions of PC game development which seems in a deathlock with idiocy surrounding the sometimes-enjoyable FPS genre, that I never really can kick back and relax in front of a PC, and my recent revelation that the game boxes sitting on my top shelf for half a decade or more look like crap, and the generally less exciting nature of less exotic five-and-a-quarter domestic releases combined with a two dollar marketing/packaging budget have kept me away from serious PC game collecting. To be fair, I'd like to get some of the more recent RPGs such as Bioware's stuff, Morrowind and some of the other classic FPS titles in their original form, but even though there's a whole lot of these titles, they just don't do it for me.

Emulation really got me started on the classics, and thankfully I've progressed past that point. Even though my current Genesis 3 setup only has sound in one channel and bleeds pixels to the left, playing games like Shadow Dancer without savestates are a whole lot more fun than on a PC.

Though very few games approach my perfect vision of a legendary video game, most all of them I've encountered have many of the hallmarks of a great production. From the technical brilliance of ink or brushwork on a well done RPG cover to the impressiveness of compressing hours of gaming into such a small medium, I find elements of a job well done in most every game that make it worth keeping.

For me, a particularly good console title has many elements you may find within a collection of manga or comic books, sports, drama, and fine performing arts ranging from opera to a jazz band livening up the nightlife in a corner bar. Unlike any of these elements, however, a game has to find the right balance at all times, and should the outcome be enjoyable (at least, not annoying) throughout it is truly a game I would like to have.

[RetroYoungen]

I used to collect Pokemon stuff too, and I'm still working on beating Ruby (yup, I was suckered back in...), but I've collected a few things, naely baseball cards, comics, and for a small stint Magic cards. I also have probably a few hundred Pokemon cards still left (I can build some killer decks, so I'm waiting to see if the fad makes a good comeback so I can school n00bs...), and I have probably 500 or so Pogs (if I can find them...).

[ubersaurus]

In addition to being something of a packrat, I've always wanted to get as many games as I could as a little kid...going up to the store with my allowance money and buying clearance atari games, getting NES, and SNES games on the cheap when the prices dropped, and generally grabbing whatever game stuff I could get my hands on. SO I guess I'm a gamer who just happened to collect, unwittingly.

[hamburgler]

It doesn't really matter because I do both all the time. :D

[Flack]

I was kind of a weird kid. I have Star Wars toys that people think are mint and then they ask me where I got them and I say, "well, I got that when I was 5, that when I was 7 ..."

I don't know what I was that way. A good portion of both my video game collection as well as my Star Wars collection are things I bought new when I was a kid and still have them.

[rolenta]

I started collecting Matchbox Cars, baseball cards, and comic books (Superman-related). The Matchboxes and baseball cards are long gone and I only stopped getting comic books this year (after over 35 years). When I bought my VCS in 1979 I naturally started getting every game available and the collection started from there.

Other collections that I have:
Monopoly sets (over 80)
CDs (800+)
Elton John Memorbilia (includes over 100 CDs and DVDs)
DVDs (150+)
Books (1100+)

[Flack]

Interesting. I figured it would be about 50/50, but if you read through the responses, it seems like everybody here collects (or collected) other things as well.

[Keir]

I was born a collector. I've collected coins, rocks, Smurfs, potato chip bags, nails, and who knows what else. I was always a big fan of video games but for some reason never thought to collect them, I just played. Once I started collecting video games though, as Joe said, I've never looked back.

[jgenotte]

I am a gamer. Only started collecting because NES is SOOOOOOO awsome. Now I collect just to play new games.

[NE146]

I am a packrat (which means I have a lot of old stuff) but not a natural collector.. I have a hard time keeping just a couple of things in order LOL. However, I am a videogame FANATIC. That has caused me to have quite a large number of them. Since I was a kid I've just been always naturally interested in playing them and watching them. I do NOT collect anything else. Videogames are by far the thing I have the most of.

I still don't really collect.. I usually get the games for a particular console while it's active, then once that era ends, whatever I accumulated during that time constitutes my "collection". However, I'll never turn down a good deal on older games if I happen upon it.

Since I mainly into it for the games, a lot of emulation satisfies the need for playing older games I don't have. I'm pretty contented playing a large number of 2600 commons on a cuttle cart than having the actual carts. I'm pretty contented playing a lot of SNES/GENESIS games on the xbox versus having the actual carts. As far as I'm concerned, I already bought all the games I really wanted for any system during it's time. The rest is all fluff and bonus. I figure, as long as you KNOW the difference between emulation and the real thing (of course the real thing is better in so many listable ways). It's all good to me :)

One thing I DO want to collect and will start to do so once I settle down though.. is classic ARCADE GAMES. Now for THAT to me there is no substitution.. Mame is good for Jamma games, but let's face it, it sucks for the classics. So once I'm ready, I'm snagging that Taito Space Invaders, Robotron, and Donkey Kong arcade cab :P