I don't play games but I own almost every system...WHY ?

[y-bot]

I almost never play games except when I am testing out stuff to sell/trade. I probably have about 50 systems and 1000 cartridges in my collection and I can't remember the last time I played a game purely for fun. Also all of my games are put away in boxes so I can't even look at them. I guess I get enjoyment out of hunting things down and trying to complete collections. I keep telling myself that someday I will play them.
y-bot

[Nesmaster]

I know what your saying Jonjandran, I go through the same thing. I spend many more hours hunting, searching ebay and talking about games than I do playing them. It seems I have to almost force myself to actually sit down and play a game. Usually when I do find a game I am totally absorbed in it but they are few and far between. Last three games I did this with were Tales of Symphonia, Star Wars: KOTOR and Dues Ex 2... all shortly after their respective release.

I also play games and get marginally interested in them enough to get right before the ending and then quit... so many RPGS and current gen games I cannot even attempt to count them. I have probably loged in at 6 hours of game play in May and June so far... I am far more interested in the gaming society than the damn games themselves...

DING DING DING! you descirbed me word for word, sans the last 3 games part.

I cant count the amount of times i force myself to play games, or get remotely interested in a game, play through most of it, then give up. I have become more collector than gamer...

suppafly mentioned its about getting and not about having... I can partially agree with this. i died for 4 years to get flintstones 2, and when i finally did get it, it wasnt that big a deal. BUT, having it is just as important as the years wanting it... i spend more time looking at the cart and thinking "finally" then i do playing it...

still, the thrill is in the hunt. I'll continue to buy games that i'll clean (i love cleaning) test, and then shelf, and forget completely that i own the game. But you know what? i LOVE doing it!

[Sylentwulf]

Does anyone else here do this sort of thing, or do most people here actually PLAY games and collect also ?

Honestly, I don't play the classics much at all. I have my MAME arcade for arcade games, and I play my PS2 a LOT. But as far as my non-current-gen games and systems go, I buy them, I look at them, I poke them, then I leave them. I don't play them much at all, BUT..... If I didn't have them, I WOULD get the deep-seeded NEED to play them. That's what got me collecting to begin with, was NEEDING to play certain games from the past, then once I got them, I barely played them at all, but I didn't feel that need anymore, so it works for me

[TeddyRuxpin]

I kind of do that too. But not so much on purpose. I buy things as cheaply as I can. Since NES, 2600, N64 carts are so common they end up at thrift stores a lot more often than TG16, SMS, Colecovision, etc. So that leaves me with Systems with few games, or just one as with my TG16 an VirtualBoy.

With my Colecovision, I've only bought one extra game that I specifically wanted since I got the system last year. I've had the VirtualBoy since 2003 I think, and it still only has the game that was in it when I got it, Mario Tennis. I was lucky to find the Jaguar that I did, for the price I did ($40 for system + 9 games!) or it would be another TG16 or VBoy.

Overall, the system I play the most out of everything I have (list linked in sig) is N64.

Gamecube probably comes in at #2 . I really do neglect the poor Gamecube. I have 2 games I bought last year on sale at Target that I still haven't even opened. Pisses me off I can't finish Luigi's Mansion too...

Dreamcast comes in at #3, despite being a CD-R enabled model.

[gepeto]

I experiance the same issues. I believe the reason I collect is because it takes me back to a time in my life where gaming was pure fun no bills minor problems. I enjoy wacthing the young ones play more so than me also I think that as an adult my attention span is alot shorter. When we were younger and we bought a game we were usually stuck with it because it is all we could afford and we would play the game to its completion crappy or not. Now with more money we get spoiled and move on quickly. I do enjoy pulling out a rare old game and play from time to time ex tyson punchout. Will I beat lunar 2 complete I don't know but it is there to be beat I get my fix and put it back. But to balance out my crazyness I often think of all the people that have bought played traded in games for 10 plus years. and now have no games where did the money go? I grew up in the arcade era. gaming will be in my blood until the end.

[Graham Mitchell]

I'm real busy right now with school, so I definitely buy more than I play, especially for the NES because a)the games are cheap, and b) you can't save or take passwords on many of them so you'd have to play for hours to make it worthwhile, which I can't.

I do try to only buy games that I'm interested in for one reason or another, as with music. Doesn't mean I play them all, but they are of interest to me. It's like having a library. If I read something interesting about a game, it's there for me to investigate further and experience firsthand. I like following the history and progression of games, so it's interesting to me to have access to a bunch of games from different eras. It's pretty cheap to do so since most of them are old, but if I actually sat down and mastered everything I owned on a regular basis, my life would be in the toilet.

As for your situation, Jonjandran, I wouldn't worry about it. Like I said before: if it's not fun, stop. If you enjoy it and it's not impeding your life, keep at it!

[Alex Kidd]

My dad has a warehouse with quite a few cars in it that he's bought and customized, which he wholey appreicates.
And most of those don't get driven more than 100 km a year!

You don't have to use something to death to make it appreciated. I like to refer to it as the Dragon's blood, when you have that craving to just HAVE a lot of stuff and not really use it. but that could be a mix of the D&D and the pot and the whnatnot...

Alex Kidd

on a side note, there is a post above by one "Alex Kidd", and at first I thought, 'Is that me?' and after I read it I thought it WAS me until got to the end about having a Turbo... i don't have oine unfortunately... and then I seen the avatar was different. And all this time I thought I was the only Alex Kidd here!

[buttasuperb]

Who knows, I sold most of the stuff I don't play at least now and again...

[shvnsth]

i am the same way, i have shitloads of old games, but i play the newest games with glowing reviews first. trying to get back into some of the older titles i own, but it is very difficult with splinter cell's and resident evil 4's just waiting for me to beat.

[SlayerOfFurbies]

what i can see is that your a console collector. there is nothing wrong with that. heck samuraismurfette collects consoles(and games when they are cheap). as for me i've been playing my game cube and n-gage and all off my older stuff is sitting collecting dust on the shelves. for me i think it is because my collection has grown so much, 600 titles over 4 systems, that it is hard to find time to play old stuff. In time i think i'll sell the whole lot and start fresh, because at the beginning everything got played!

[demen999]

I experiance the same issues. I believe the reason I collect is because it takes me back to a time in my life where gaming was pure fun no bills minor problems. I enjoy wacthing the young ones play more so than me also I think that as an adult my attention span is alot shorter. When we were younger and we bought a game we were usually stuck with it because it is all we could afford and we would play the game to its completion crappy or not. Now with more money we get spoiled and move on quickly. I do enjoy pulling out a rare old game and play from time to time ex tyson punchout. Will I beat lunar 2 complete I don't know but it is there to be beat I get my fix and put it back. But to balance out my crazyness I often think of all the people that have bought played traded in games for 10 plus years. and now have no games where did the money go? I grew up in the arcade era. gaming will be in my blood until the end.

WOW! I thought I was the only one that was feeling like this lol
So there are a bunch of us that the hunt gets more excitement, than the game we play. So weird.....

Now I am thinking about selling a bunch of my stuff, cause I want to get a DS ( always a nintendo fan). But I always said my future kid will ge tmy collection, so I'm having a hard time selling things too lol

[Goblin]

I used to play games...... A lot.....

But for the last 10 years I have found myself doing something that some might consider quite strange.

I buy every system. It seems I have to have them. I love to get them and check them out and even play a few of the more popular games on them. But then I just wind up putting them on the shelf and never touching them again.

And also I have to have every new handheld that is made, including the Imports. I get every one and then I don't wind up buying hardly any games for them. I just hack them and put emulators on them, mod them with fron-lights, etc.

And I also have to mod all my newst Nex-Gen systems. My Gamecube , Xbox, and PS2 (plus my Saturn, and PS1) , thay all have mod-chips and are modified to play copied games. But then I don't D-load or copy any games. I just like the fact that I can if I want to.

Well I guess just like anything else it's just a Hobby. But maybe I should seek some Professional help.

Just thought I'd share that with you guys. Been bothering me lately.

I feel for you and understand your compulsion. I'm very much the same way. I have a closet full of systems that I've modified. I'll obsess for a few weeks, with the new system and then get bored. Once I hit that stage the system goes away until something else comes out that I want to try.

I don't feel I need to own every system out there, but when I do think about buying one, the ability to modify it weighs heavily. This even transcends game systems. I recently bought a DVD recorder, and I made my final decsion based on which one had the ability hack the firmware.

I like having the ability to do other things with the consoles. It's the engineer in me wanting to make things go further. I finally had the opportunity to try a PSP, and I was extremely impressed. I was tempted to immediately go out and get one, but then I decided to research the hacks and saw many only work with a 1.0 firmware. Now I'm going to wait to wait a bit. Probably for the best since the time I wait will lead to what I hope is a drop in price and maybe and improvement in quality (dead pixels, sticky buttons).

I've even bought some things I normally wouldn't have just becuase they could be modified. Case in point the C64 DTV system. I didn't have a C64 as a kid, but just knowing that I could add a keyboard, and disk drive was enough to get me to buy one. This was a low cost example, but after about 5 hours of playing it too went in the closet.

I have been trying to get better and actually play some of the games I own. Maybe we should start a support group.

[loporjai2003]

For most collectors it isnt about the having, its about the getting...

Hit the nail on the head for me there .... it seems it is now more the thrill of the hunt, finding that "hidden treasure".

Afterwards, it sits there on a shelf or in a box .. still got a suitcase full of stuff I got on a trip to Japan sitting there and that was almost 2 yrs ago !

[Anthony1]

This is a very interesting discussion. It reminds me of an internal conflict that I have going on between me and my games.

I first started off as the type of guy that didn't give a rats ass about old games. I only wanted the newest most state of the art stuff. I would sell off my old systems, and buy new systems and never look back.

Then a few years ago, I slowly got into retrogaming. At a certain point I was a full blown retrogamer, so much so, that I didn't even touch my XBOX or Cube for like 8 months.

All I would play is old school.

Then I got back into the new consoles. So for a few months all I was playing was the new consoles and that had me somewhat worried about all the money I had spent going retro and acquiring all the old stuff. Was my brief stint with retrogaming just a fad? Had I spent several thousand for a brief fling?

Luckily, that wasn't the case. I got back into retrogaming, and now I play a mix of retro and modern. The key thing, is that I don't really spend money on modern games. I mostly rent games or buy them when they are dirt cheap. So the only money I spend on modern stuff is the hardware, for the most part.

Which leads me to the Next Gen. After going retro, I thought, "Wow, this is going to be the first time that I haven't been an early adopter and bought a system the day it came out. I have no need to buy the new systems right away, because I'm a retrogamer and now I can wait".

Well, I thought that way when I first got into the retro stuff, but now that I play both modern and retro, I found myself getting excited about the next generation. And now I have a $50 deposit on a XBOX 360. So this November, I'm going to add a new member to the family.

I'm curious as to what effect it's going to have on the amount of time I spend on my retro games. Thing is, I still very much have a passion for my TG-16, SNES, Genny, Jaguar, etc, etc, but there are only so many hours in which I can play.

So I find myself buying lots of old school games and only playing them once or twice. The good news is that I'm a cheap ass gamer, so I don't spend big bucks on complete or mint stuff, and I feel like if I ever completely get out of retrogaming, I can recoup about 70 percent of what I originally spent.

So I'm cool where I'm at.

But definitely one of the biggest problems that I face on a daily basis is, which game for what system do I play? I have so many systems and so many games, that it actually becomes a very difficult decision, and then once I start playing that game, how long do I just stick to that game. I mean so many damn systems to play and games to play, that I find it hard to keep playing the same game for a long enough time to really get "into" the game.

I've thought about forcing myself to play just one specific game, until I've complete finished it, but I haven't been able to convince myself to do that.

Oh well. Life goes on. The daily dilemas of a retrogamer nonwithstanding.

[bizbiz]

I spend much of my money, sometimes all of it on old video games that I will never play or make use of. I collect games, yet I hate playing video games. I guess I do it because it is fun. Not everything has to be straightforward. Man A who mods systems for no reason is no different than someone who likes to play video games. Its simply a way to have fun and forget about your other worries in life. I know when I am thinking about what games to buy and looking at my collection, I completely forget about my surroundings - which is a good thing for me. And think about it, here I am collecting games, spending money, wasting time, but I never play games, I literally hate video games. So, be proud of your achievements in modding systems. It sounds fun and challenging - if you enjoy it, that is all that matters.

[Kamino]

I spend much of my money, sometimes all of it on old video games that I will never play or make use of. I collect games, yet I hate playing video games. I guess I do it because it is fun. Not everything has to be straightforward. Man A who mods systems for no reason is no different than someone who likes to play video games. Its simply a way to have fun and forget about your other worries in life. I know when I am thinking about what games to buy and looking at my collection, I completely forget about my surroundings - which is a good thing for me. And think about it, here I am collecting games, spending money, wasting time, but I never play games, I literally hate video games. So, be proud of your achievements in modding systems. It sounds fun and challenging - if you enjoy it, that is all that matters.

I can no longer control my temper this time.
I HATE YOU.
Please. go collect stamps, or coins, or action figures, or something that people don't USE. PLEASE. Some of us here are building collections to PLAY games. If you HATE video games, why do you collect them? By your description, you could collect ANYTHING, and probably get the same 'feeling'. It's a methodical method of elimination. You've got a big ass list of bricks to buy to build a wall. WHY VIDEO GAMES? YOU HATE PLAYING THEM.
I know it's "your money" and theres nothing I can do to stop you, or anyone else here who piles up assloads of games and doesn't play them. It's just REALLY FRUSTRATING when the people holding the copies of Aero fighters snes, or Radiant silvergun for Saturn, or any other kick ass grail you can think of, haven't even played them, and never intend to.

[s1lence]

I spend much of my money, sometimes all of it on old video games that I will never play or make use of. I collect games, yet I hate playing video games.

What?!?! What are you doing making a interesting wall piece. Its your right to spend your money as you choose, but on something you HATE? Thats like going to the dentist because you like to have your teeth drilled.

[Crush Crawfish]

Good topic.

I'm a collector, but I only collect to play. I own over 900 games, and I can confidently say that at least 95% of them are games I want to sit down and play through someday. There was a point in my life where I bought lots of games that I never had the desire to play, but I eventually realized how much I hated having crappy games around that I only really owned for the sake of simply owning them.

So, I knocked my collection down from Its former 1200+ games to its current 900 or so. Nowadays, If I own a game I dislike, I simply sell/trade it away. Hell, I've even just given some games away to friends just because I felt like it.

Simply put, It's your hobby. There's no "wrong" or "right" way to collect games/systems. All that matters is that you enjoy what you're doing.

[GrayFox]

I spend much of my money, sometimes all of it on old video games that I will never play or make use of. I collect games, yet I hate playing video games.

What?!?! What are you doing making a interesting wall piece. Its your right to spend your money as you choose, but on something you HATE? Thats like going to the dentist because you like to have your teeth drilled.

That Bizbiz quote is killing me.

Why collect games if you hate their intended purposes. Seems extremely ridiculous to me. Games like Snatcher might not be played by some gamers, just because they're outbid by people on ebay by people that just 'want' the damn discs.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but 'HATE" video games? Seems so futile to collect then. I mean, I don't game as much as I used too, but I find collecting as a way of reliving the past and creating a certain sense of nostaglia for myself that I love to experience. That's why I like to collect.

Oh, I also like to collect to play the games.

[boozi2]

I think I have the same problem.. Well, not the exact thing, but a similar one. For example, I wanted to own all of the shining force 3 series for quite a while. I was able to achieve that last summer. I didn't play the games in a long time, and I have no idea why I guess I'm spending too much time online. Gotta play more games! This summer's gonna be full of games! Hell yeah!