Should download-only games count?

[Zionmaster]

I mean should they count towards a "complete" collection?

Services like Satellaview or the Sega Channel offered games that weren't ever available in a cart. Some of them were really good too! Even today with the PSN and Live Arcade, there are hundreds of downloadable games, and some are removed, or made unavailable for purchase- mainly the actual arcade games offered when the xbox first launched, titles like Tapper and TMNT arcade.

So since there are tons of full-fledged games that you can't actually "have," what do you do? I suppose there's always ROMs and flashcarts, but has anyone ever come up with a better solution? And should they count towards owning a full set? Along those same lines, do you have to have protos of unreleased games to have a collection considered "complete?"

[RCM]

If it was originally offered as a download-only like Omega Five for 360 I consider it part of my library. But I don't count Virtual Console downloads like MUSHA in the same way. I have to own MUSHA physically on Genesis for it to count.

[Swamperon]

I'm pretty sure no one has ever counted download only games as to have a complete collection. At least no one around here. I think it would be literally impossible to acquire some of them without resorting to bootlegging/roms, which would negate the whole point going for a complete collection in my view. Having said this there probably is 1 or 2 hard core collectors in Japan who do have individual carts for all of the Gen/Snes downloadable games etc.

Personally I wouldn't and I don't count downloaded games in my own collection either. I'm not sure why. I was tempted to change this for Pushmo/Pullblox (3DS) however.

[Edmond Dantes]

Short answer: no.

If its not a physical media, then it basically doesn't exist. For a bit of my reasoning, see this blog post and skip to the part about DLC.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Real answer:

Only if you want them to count.

[Bojay1997]

Real answer:

Only if you want them to count.

Agree. There will never be a consensus on this issue, so it's up to every collector to decide what comprises their collection and whether or not it's complete.

[kedawa]

There's really no debate to be had.
If you're collecting every cartridge/disc for a system, then of course you don't count the downloadable stuff.
If you're collecting every game for a system, then you count the downloadable stuff.