Do you believe the more games you own, the less you play?

[Steven]

"the more games you own the less you ACTUALLY play." Ironic, but if you really think about it, it makes a ton of sense. Too many choices to pick out of 500 or 1000... meanwhile the guy with a meager collection of 10 games he loves, will rotate them constantly, while you're pondering what to play before going back online to buy more games and saying to yourself "I'll get to that game ONE DAY." One day usually never comes...

Do you agree? Are you EXACTLY in the position above described? I admit, particularly in the past, I am guilty of just looking at my collection sometimes debating what to play, before deciding to just do something else.

[Hammy]

agreed. i have this problem very often. back in the days when i only had a dozen or so games, i'd play the hell out of them, but now it takes much too long to decide/find the game you want in all the crap games that you will never play.

[Iron Draggon]

This is definitely true for me. When I only had a few games, I played them all the time, but now that I have 1000's of games, I often find that I would rather surf ebay looking for more games to buy than to play any of the games that I already own. Sad but true. The thrill for me in getting a new game is more in the joy of filing it away in my collection and checking it off of my list than in actually playing it. And of course I love the thrill of breaking the factory seal too.

[Pantechnicon]

Absolutely. In 1984 I had a grand total of 9 Atari 2600 carts that kept me occupied for hours, every day, all summer long. Now at over 260 carts - let alone the other systems - you could call me enthralled if a game holds my attention for more than 5 minutes.

I'm painfully mindful of this because I still regard myself as a gamer 1st and collector 2nd. But after a certain level of accumulation it's very hard to keep from teetering definitively over into the latter category. Not that there's anything wrong with that... x_x

[Arcade Antics]

"the more games you own the less you ACTUALLY play." Ironic, but if you really think about it, it makes a ton of sense.

Too many choices to pick out of 500 or 1000... meanwhile the guy with a meager collection of 10 games he loves, will rotate them constantly, while you're pondering what to play before going back online to buy more games and saying to yourself "I'll get to that game ONE DAY."

Ironic, yes. But it doesn't really make any sense when you think about it. 'Cause you're talking about two different things: actually playing a game, and deciding what game to play.

Having 10 or 1000 games is no different as far as the decision making process goes, and that decision making process hinges entirely on the individual. Some people may take a little longer to pull a favorite game from a list of 1000, but again, it's an individual thing, YMMV.

When it's time to play a game, grab one and go. The end.

I do understand what you're getting at. But I think it has nothing to do with deciding what game you want to play out of N# of games and more to do with being disenchanted wth / taking for granted the library you have to choose from.

[boatofcar]

But I think it has nothing to do with deciding what game you want to play out of N# of games and more to do with being disenchanted wth / taking for granted the library you have to choose from.

I disagree. When I look at my stacks and stacks of games, I can never decide what I'm in the mood for, and usually sulk off to vbender

[Cmtz]

I used to play Mega Man 3 non-stop for my Gameboy back when I was limited on money. Now I buy the game I want play the first couple of stages and then put it away for mabye another day.

[Teknik_SE-R]

Ii have found this to be true also, but I am resisting.

I find myself less motivated to finish a game also.

I have reverted to a sort of chronogaming for some series so I force myself take the time to appreciate and enjoy the games i own. I also limit myself to having 6 games going at once. Then I stay good at those games so I can finish them. For me If I play too many games at once I never get good at any of them and i never end up having any favorites, no matter how good a game might be.

[BydoEmpire]

It's true to a point. My game playing time is limited more by work and other things, not really how many games I have. Although I do end up spending too much time looking at my games trying to figure out what I'm in the mood for. When I had fewer games in the 8-bit eras (pre and post crash), I really played each one to death. Of course, I had a lot more free time to play games then.

[Edit] I also spend way too much time online reading about games. Twenty years ago, those hours went into the games themselves.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Do you believe the more games you own, the less you play?

No,..I just have more to play..More choices..
I usually make a stack-list of games that I want to play then go about playing each one..Depending on what it is I will finish it or it may be a quick fun romp...I tend to play more new type games then anything and most of them I try to finish..If I get stuck to no return then on the shelf they go until I find a way later to pass the part I'm stuck in..

When I want to play something old I have it to play..

The biggest factor is my Son..and nephew..
My Son is so much the gamer and he plays everything..
Lately He's been playing MAPPY,Galaxian and Pole Position with interest though he's always playing the new stuff.
As I write this he's playing the Tekken 3 Arcade machine..
So having a lot to play gives him a lot of choices/variety of games to play..

My gaming time-desire method hasn't changed no matter how many games I've owned.
I buy games to play them...My gaming only changes with what time I have to put into it....As get into other things I game less.

[kentuckyfried]

It's called transcending

You move to a higher plane of existence......

[Poofta!]

"the more games you own the less you ACTUALLY play." Ironic, but if you really think about it, it makes a ton of sense. Too many choices to pick out of 500 or 1000... meanwhile the guy with a meager collection of 10 games he loves, will rotate them constantly, while you're pondering what to play before going back online to buy more games and saying to yourself "I'll get to that game ONE DAY." One day usually never comes...

Do you agree? Are you EXACTLY in the position above described? I admit, particularly in the past, I am guilty of just looking at my collection sometimes debating what to play, before deciding to just do something else.

couldnt be closer to the truth =]

in fact, i find that i dont play ANY of my games anymore. i play a couple DS games and the occasional driving/fighting game with a friend thats it. im becoming more and more a collector and less and less a player (i still consider myself a gamer, even though i never played God of War, i can tell you much about it).

[Fighter17]

Ture for me...

[ACCarl]

I think thats what made me stop collecting. I had all these damn games and I never played them. I just kept trying to buy as many dreamcast, Saturn, SNES, Genesis games as I could. I finally just stopped and asked myself, "why do I need all this stuff?" I then was watching one of those antique hunting shows that had people searching for Cambell soup products at flea markets and pawn shops like it was their mission. I just laughed and thought how pathetic it was. I then realized it was just an obsession to collect. It was the same obsession I had with games. I realized I was pretty wasting my time. I now just pick up stuff that I played during my child hood that I really enjoyed. I sold quite a lot of my stuff the last two years and haven't regret it. I always laugh when people freak out and believe that the used game market will soon dry up. It won't and game collecting will be a fad. You will see lots of guys like me turn around and throw their games up on ebay in a few years. Then collectors like you guys can cash in.

[cyberfluxor]

This is quite true with me. I'm always buying games but only when they are affordable and appear to be a great deal for what I'm looking for. Now, this means if it's over the general market price, if I REALLY want it and haven't found it up to that time, I'll get it to a certain degree just to have it on the shelf for whenever I might play it. I can say I've spent a good 5 minutes on most of my games, but only few get exceptional amounts of play into it. Personally I do it for collection purposes and to be able to play it if I ever decide to. I know that once I graduate college and move out on my own I'll be damned if I'm not playing these games when it's a nasty day outside.

So I guess yes, it is true but I plan on doing most of my gameplay on the randoms I buy today later when I'm on my own.

[eightbitonline]

i find that i can always find a game to play, i just have a hard time committing to a game. when i only had 15 games i didn't have much choice. now i can play a game for fifteen minutes and then say

"wow this game kinda reminds me of blaster master.... yeah, blaster master.... it's so good.... man, i kinda.... i sorta..... i feel like playing blaster master right now!"

so i jump from game to game too fast. last weekend i really needed to grind on Tales of Destiny but i couldn't keep focused on it and kept switching to a shooter or something. when i went to my parents' house this weekend and took Tales of Destiny with me and had no other gaming options available i played for six hours straight.

[Haoie]

Pretty obvious connection.

Also now that I find as I age [oh the humanity] I play less. Especially now, since I'm a postgrad, and researching junk is time consuming.

[staxx]

Yup as my gaming collection grows, I tend to play less games. Now I have to take into account I work a lot more now and have more responsibilities. I make more money than I did when I was in High School and I can buy more (reason that I have a larger collection). But after a long hard day at work I am pretty much drained and just don't feel like playing a game. I guess I'll wait till I retire and see if I spend a lot of time playing games

[Vectorman0]

Yes, this is fairly true when I look at myself. It's also one of the reasons I plan to sell off some of my games. However, once I am back down to a less excessive amount of games, I don't think I will start playing more often. But who knows, maybe I will.

[§ Gideon §]

There's a correlation; so far, it seems we've all agreed. But that doesn't mean there's a causal relationship.

The factor could very well be age. Adults with disposable incomes have more responsibilities and therefore less time on their hands.