Which Type of Collector are you?

What type of Video game collector are you, are you the type who just buys any game that is rare, or are you the type who collects good games like me, or do you just want to have lots of games for a particular system no matter how bad the games are.

Here are the stages of collecting I have gone through (in order):

1. Buying games that I want to play.
2. Buying only "good" games -- games that received an average of 8 or more from the critics regardless of whether I would ever play it.
3. Buying games that fit the first two criteria and any game considered hard to find.
4. Buying games from all previous categories in addition to any game under $20.
5. Buying any game I can afford.
6. All of the previous categories plus games I can't responsibly afford.

So I have no descretion any more, I just want them all.

My goal has always been to put together a video game collection of the best and funnest games. Well not just critically acclaimed, but the games i want to play as well. Youre not going to find a game that i was never interested in apart from halo 1 (i just bought it so i can give it a shot.) and games that were given to me as a gift.

well now that games are $10 more than previous gen, i'm getting more picky about it. If its not a game i want, you won't see it in my collection. i can't just try a game out like i did for the ps2 generation like beyond good and evil,ico, demonstone etc...not saying 9.0 or anything, just games i;m really hyped for. i don't think my game collection will exceed 500 games.

So I have no descretion any more, I just want them all.

aspro73

I have gotten rid of a few games though over my time as a collector where they stunk so bad or I disliked them so badly that i couldn't stand to have them in my collection. So I don't buy everythign or hold on to anything, but living in the time we do now, there certainly is a lot of good stuff at our fingertips, past , present, and future.

I buy games to play, with a few minor exceptions of Shenmue 2 (EU Dreamcast copy), Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES), and a couple of Castlevania DS games all sealed, meant as investments for the future. I also like to have near mint to mint copies of my games whenever possible, because I like to have stuff that has been treated well.

It mainly depends on how much disposable income I have at the time, but generally I just buy to play and get the games I'm fairly sure I'll like. No matter how rare or special something is, if I'm not going to play it at some point then I won't buy it. There are a few exceptions, and of course if I've got more 'play money' then the rules get blurred and I will to take more risks with what I buy.

I'd like to just splash out on something really rare and expensive from time to time, just can't do it though. I have this terrible need to justify things to myself...

I limit myself to buying games that are not in either one of these genres : Sports, Puzzle, RTS. and Well, I dont have a lot of RPG's, well... most of my collection is either 2D/3D Platformers but I do have some shooters and some RPGs as well.

I don't buy a game every time I go to a game store, It has to be a good game, Id rather have 200 good games than 400 bad ones. The game has to be fun to play, even if it was a movie based game, (I don't have any those)

So I have no descretion any more, I just want them all.

aspro73

Once again Aspro has proven to be a Philosopher/Poet King.

That pretty well sums up my collecting in one line. In University I normally limited games to stuff that I really wanted to play and as a result I past up on a ton of games I would have loved that simply did not fit into my narrow scope.

Once I was able to cast off the shackles of Student living and had the means, there was no longer much rhyme nor reason behind most of my buying pattern. I still buy the games I want, but I would say the majority of my collection this generation has pretty well fallen victim to:

"Wow, Denied Ops is thirty bucks? I have never seen it for less then fifty bucks and as such had zero interest in owning it till this moment and it has now owning said game has become my sole reason for living till I buy it and never play it"

I really truly wish I could honestly say that every game I have purchased is a game that I could "one day" play, or I had some interest in playing it but that would be a lie. I used to kid myself and leave a pile of games on the coffee table with the hope that one day I would be so bored that I would blow through the pile but it rarely happens.

I buy games, so that I always have selection and I always have choice.

After previously posting in this thread, I went back and looked at my game collection...I have come up with the following explanation. It should explain my collecting philosophy in a nutshell...

I have Drake. I bought Drake less than three months ago, when the fact that it may be the worst game ever produced was widely and legendarily known. I should have known better...I bought it anyway.

Like Aspro, my game collecting has evolved.

• Buying only games that I want to play. (This hasn't changed. All the games I buy I would like to play at some point)
• Buying only "good" games -- games that received an average of 8 or more from the critics regardless of whether I would ever play it. This used to be much more important to me. I didn't want to have any "bad" games in my collection. However, this changed due to the realization that some games I really love got poor review scores, so scores can't always be trusted.
• Now my philosophy is to buy as many games as possible in the $5 to $10 range as long as they are decent or interesting to me. I would rather spend $30 and get 3-5 games that I sorta want than get 1 game I really want. I figure the game I really want will eventually fall in price. :)
• I'm also a series completist. So if I get Spiderman, for example, I feel the need to get Spiderman 2 and 3 to own the whole series.
• I want to have the widest array of games in my collection as possible. I also want to have a good assortment of games from each category. I purposely increased the number of casual and puzzle games in my collection for this reason. I also have good sports games from most major sports for this reason. (and because I found most of them dirt cheap)
• Games I won't buy at any price are games that:

1. Are broken (like Sonic the Hedgehog for GBA for example. I could have had this for $5 but didn't get it because reviewers said the game didn't port well.)
2. Used games where the paper insert or booklet is torn or in bad shape. I want all my games to end up looking "like new". (The actual game cases are not as important because I can always replace those)
3. Games I just don't like or don't think are very good. DragonBall Z games for example.
4. Games that I don't think are very playable on a given platform. I passed up Star Wars Lethal Alliance DS for $7.50 for this reason. I also wouldn't get Guitar Hero on the DS for this reason.
5. MMOs that aren't playable standalone.

Like alot of us here, I only buy games I'm interested in playing. Sports games don't interest me and you won't find any in my collection (with one very minor exception: Front Page Sports: Golf. That is in my collection because my bro-in-law and Vance Cook (lead developer for Links and Links 386) founded Headgate software, and right before the release of FPS:G my bro-in-law sold the company to Sierra and that's why my sister is rich and I'm not. But he did give me a copy of the game).

I too like to have complete series. When I play a game, that's part of a series, I like to have played it's predecessors. I think it makes the game more enjoyable to sort of see how the series has progressed.

I'll buy bad games occasionally if they're cheap just for fun.

I only buy the orginal label games. If you look at the pics I posted in the photo thread recently, you'll notice that none of my PS2, Xbox, GC, PSP or N64 are the releases, they are all black label. I've got some stragglers in the PS1 collection that I've not cleaned out but I do plan to.

Along with that, I also only ever buy complete copies of games. It's against my rules to buy loose carts or games without manuals or whatever. I'm very picky about that.

And whenever I can, I buy new. I will pay more to have a new copy. That's how I roll. The gamestop guys at the store around me know now to not even bother asking if I would like the used version for $X.XX cheaper.

That's about all for me.

I have Drake. I bought Drake less than three months ago, when the fact that it may be the worst game ever produced was widely and legendarily known. I should have known better...I bought it anyway.

jollyroger78

It could be worse. I bought Drake because you said you had Drake.

+ Buying only "good" games -- games that received an average of 8 or more from the critics regardless of whether I would ever play it. This used to be much more important to me. I didn't want to have any "bad" games in my collection. However, this changed due to the realization that some games I really love got poor review scores, so scores can't always be trusted. someNONSENSE

I think there are 2 other kinds of collectors here that haven't really been mentioned.

"Library" types, which I think are really cool, who pretty much just want to collect an entire collection for a system more or less the same reason the library has stuff (rather than in an obsessive/completist way of just buting everything to say they have everything) and enjoy gaming-as-culture. There are a couple on here. I'm not one of them, though.

I think there are a few folks like me who prefer a certain genre i.e. for me it's survival horror (i.e. just got obscure 2, which aspro gave me the heads up) . I know there are some (hardcore) JRPG and fighting folks genre collectors on here too.

[QUOTE="jollyroger78"]
I have Drake. I bought Drake less than three months ago, when the fact that it may be the worst game ever produced was widely and legendarily known. I should have known better...I bought it anyway.

aspro73

It could be worse. I bought Drake because you said you had Drake.

Word to the wise...that's a BAD idea. It's a 50/50 proposition whether something I buy is a gem or an utter pile. :P

LOL. I'll have to shell out the $1.99 and get drake one of these days.

Sometimes bad games are great. Look at Shaq Fu and Violence Fight. I play through Shaq Fu whenever I need a laugh.

LOL. I'll have to shell out the $1.99 and get drake one of these days.

Sometimes bad games are great. Look at Shaq Fu and Violence Fight. I play through Shaq Fu whenever I need a laugh.

guinness4life

I stil contend that Shaq Fu is a decent game. But yeah, as most of you know I have a soft spot for games with horrible reputations.

Some games genuinely are so bad they're good. But there's a fine line between that and just plain sucky. I've found most bad games fall into several categories:

3. Games that we used to think were good but upon playing them in the harsh light of today we realise they are in fact just plain sucky. totalgridlock

Those are the saddest to me. In my mind the only "bad" game is one that is broken. I'd say that the games I enjoy the most usually get in the 5-7 out of ten range from the critics and I think that is because of expectation levels. Whenever I sit down to play a game that the public or critics have raved about, I almost dread it and I always find something to complain about in the first 2 minutes.

But if it's a game that got a 6 and cost me about $6 I'm defending it for the first two hours of play, "That's not so bad", "Oh I see what they are doing, embracing the punk mentality of game design" and so on. It's why Kia and Daewoo always get the highest post-purchase satisfaction ratings and Porsche is at the bottom of the same polls. "Hah! My Daewoo has a beverage holder. This is great!" as opposed to "Hmm, my Porsche only has two complimentary iPods in the glove compartment."

[QUOTE="jollyroger78"]
I have Drake. I bought Drake less than three months ago, when the fact that it may be the worst game ever produced was widely and legendarily known. I should have known better...I bought it anyway.

aspro73

It could be worse. I bought Drake because you said you had Drake.

+ Buying only "good" games -- games that received an average of 8 or more from the critics regardless of whether I would ever play it. This used to be much more important to me. I didn't want to have any "bad" games in my collection. However, this changed due to the realization that some games I really love got poor review scores, so scores can't always be trusted. someNONSENSE

whats weird with me is that gs is pretty close to what i figure a games should be rated as. It was actually more accurate when gregk was around but generally if it got a 8, then i usually enjoyed it... thats why i said good games that i wanted to play. i don't care what the score is if im not interested. its why i'm not picking up bioshock...it just doesn't look interesting to me.

[QUOTE="aspro73"]

[QUOTE="jollyroger78"]
I have Drake. I bought Drake less than three months ago, when the fact that it may be the worst game ever produced was widely and legendarily known. I should have known better...I bought it anyway.

jsmoke03

It could be worse. I bought Drake because you said you had Drake.

+ Buying only "good" games -- games that received an average of 8 or more from the critics regardless of whether I would ever play it. This used to be much more important to me. I didn't want to have any "bad" games in my collection. However, this changed due to the realization that some games I really love got poor review scores, so scores can't always be trusted. someNONSENSE

whats weird with me is that gs is pretty close to what i figure a games should be rated as. It was actually more accurate when gregk was around but generally if it got a 8, then i usually enjoyed it... thats why i said good games that i wanted to play. i don't care what the score is if im not interested. its why i'm not picking up bioshock...it just doesn't look interesting to me.

I tend to disagree, but then again I'm not really in GS target demo. IMO, their reviews of survival horror are, well, quite bad. I prefer Chris's Survival Horror Quest. GS compares everything to resident evil, then list the genre conventions (i.e. puzzles, inferior weapons, lack of action, intentionally poor aiming) as flaws. Their adventure game reviews do the same thing. They generally fault the games for using lateral thinking puzzles and more or less for not being console action games. Their CRPG reviews are OK, but their D&D game reviews are generally riddled with inaccuracies (see: Dragonshard).

Anyways, did you like System Shock 2? If so, get Bioshock. It received a lot of hype, but it's really, really good. It's not as good as System Shock 2, but what is? I've played lots and lots and lots of horror games. This is one of the better ones in recent years. Doom 3 was the only game that got the System Shock 2 vibe down better. It's more sci-fi than horror, but it's a real winner if you like horror, FPS, or adventure games.

I tend to disagree, but then again I'm not really in GS target demo. IMO, their reviews of survival horror are, well, quite bad. I prefer Chris's Survival Horror Quest. GS compares everything to resident evil, then list the genre conventions (i.e. puzzles, inferior weapons, lack of action, intentionally poor aiming) as flaws. Their adventure game reviews do the same thing. They generally fault the games for using lateral thinking puzzles and more or less for not being console action games. Their CRPG reviews are OK, but their D&D game reviews are generally riddled with inaccuracies (see: Dragonshard).

Anyways, did you like System Shock 2? If so, get Bioshock. It received a lot of hype, but it's really, really good. It's not as good as System Shock 2, but what is? I've played lots and lots and lots of horror games. This is one of the better ones in recent years. Doom 3 was the only game that got the System Shock 2 vibe down better. It's more sci-fi than horror, but it's a real winner if you like horror, FPS, or adventure games.

guinness4life

If you ever feel like writing an article on the subject we'll put it on the front page of the union, just PM me or any of the officers if you are interested.

Reviewing D&D titles must be very intimidating, in their defense. I notice in a recent GI they did a one page review of the new D&D series (paper) and the author left his name off, probably to aviod getting inundated with e-mail pointing out the inaccuracies. The guy did a decent job though now I think about it.

I've thought about this in a different way, and I've come to the conclusion, that I don't think I'm a collector, because when I buy a game or DVD, it's not like I'll just put it on my shelf and than never consider playing or watching it, I'm never going to buy something just so I can say that I have it, but... let's say I'm at a Game store and I find a sealed copy of FFVII, I'll buy it and treasure it, even though I'll never open it, I'll just have it, because.. well... It's extremly rare.

So, I'm more of a.... guy who spends his money on things for entertainment, but I never rent, I buy and enjoy what I bought and than stack it on my shelve for collecting purposes and... well for entertainment purposes in the future.

Anyways, did you like System Shock 2? If so, get Bioshock. It received a lot of hype, but it's really, really good. It's not as good as System Shock 2, but what is? I've played lots and lots and lots of horror games. This is one of the better ones in recent years. Doom 3 was the only game that got the System Shock 2 vibe down better. It's more sci-fi than horror, but it's a real winner if you like horror, FPS, or adventure games.

guinness4life

System Shock 2. Damn but that game is good.

I enjoyed Doom 3, in fact I'm replaying it at the moment. But I do think it tried too hard to fit into the System Shock mould of the "first-person sci-fi/horror action-adventure with story" when it would have been better sticking to the mindless bloodshed of the original games. It's too focused on the endless waves of baddies for any real atmosphere to build up IMO.

I've thought about this in a different way, and I've come to the conclusion, that I don't think I'm a collector, because when I buy a game or DVD, it's not like I'll just put it on my shelf and than never consider playing or watching it, I'm never going to buy something just so I can say that I have it, but... let's say I'm at a Game store and I find a sealed copy of FFVII, I'll buy it and treasure it, even though I'll never open it, I'll just have it, because.. well... It's extremly rare.

Dymond7

Oh, but it isn't. :P

The number of copies I see... it's like a sports game. Seriously. Pretty easy to find a mint black-label and the platinum version is still available brand new here, along with VIII, if you know where to look.

[QUOTE="jsmoke03"][QUOTE="aspro73"]

[QUOTE="jollyroger78"]
I have Drake. I bought Drake less than three months ago, when the fact that it may be the worst game ever produced was widely and legendarily known. I should have known better...I bought it anyway.

guinness4life

It could be worse. I bought Drake because you said you had Drake.

+ Buying only "good" games -- games that received an average of 8 or more from the critics regardless of whether I would ever play it. This used to be much more important to me. I didn't want to have any "bad" games in my collection. However, this changed due to the realization that some games I really love got poor review scores, so scores can't always be trusted. someNONSENSE

whats weird with me is that gs is pretty close to what i figure a games should be rated as. It was actually more accurate when gregk was around but generally if it got a 8, then i usually enjoyed it... thats why i said good games that i wanted to play. i don't care what the score is if im not interested. its why i'm not picking up bioshock...it just doesn't look interesting to me.

I tend to disagree, but then again I'm not really in GS target demo. IMO, their reviews of survival horror are, well, quite bad. I prefer Chris's Survival Horror Quest. GS compares everything to resident evil, then list the genre conventions (i.e. puzzles, inferior weapons, lack of action, intentionally poor aiming) as flaws. Their adventure game reviews do the same thing. They generally fault the games for using lateral thinking puzzles and more or less for not being console action games. Their CRPG reviews are OK, but their D&D game reviews are generally riddled with inaccuracies (see: Dragonshard).

Anyways, did you like System Shock 2? If so, get Bioshock. It received a lot of hype, but it's really, really good. It's not as good as System Shock 2, but what is? I've played lots and lots and lots of horror games. This is one of the better ones in recent years. Doom 3 was the only game that got the System Shock 2 vibe down better. It's more sci-fi than horror, but it's a real winner if you like horror, FPS, or adventure games.

i can only handle soo much sci-fi. when i saw big daddy,something inside just got turned off. it looks cool, but it just doesn't strike me as "i want to play it". if anything i'd enjoy watching someone play it instead. story is cool, but not my cup of tea.

never played systemshock 2 so maybe thats y.

If it is an RPG or an Atlus title, it's a must buy. The other half of my collection are games that looked fun, interesting, unique, etc. Though some of my more recent purchases have been well recieved games that I generally don't purchase because they are not my preferred genre.
Mathurin47

Damn, got me pegged word for word. I also test run a lot of games that I might or might not want to buy. Trauma Center being a recent example. Test ran that one, plan to snap them all up tomorrow because I liked them so much.

I'm also a cheapskate when buying games. I wait until they're less than $20. If I feel like they won't drop in price substantially I'll pay more, otherwise non.

System Shock 2. Damn but that game is good.

Is that game anything like Metroid Prime?

System Shock 2. Damn but that game is good.

Is that game anything like Metroid Prime?

Eh... sort of... not really.

It's like System Shock 2.

It has its own genre. A dash of System Shock 1, a sprinkling of Fade to Black, a pinch each from William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, a slathering of your worst nightmare, all wrapped up in the guise of the Best Game Ever(TM).

Metroid Prime does have some similar elements; it does the "first-person action/adventure/shooter with story" quite well. And chances are if you like one you'll like the other. As you should, they're both brilliant.

Edit: Damn I hate this place sometimes. My HTML is perfectly formed, thankyouverymuch. Grumble. Grumble.

[QUOTE="Dymond7"]

I've thought about this in a different way, and I've come to the conclusion, that I don't think I'm a collector, because when I buy a game or DVD, it's not like I'll just put it on my shelf and than never consider playing or watching it, I'm never going to buy something just so I can say that I have it, but... let's say I'm at a Game store and I find a sealed copy of FFVII, I'll buy it and treasure it, even though I'll never open it, I'll just have it, because.. well... It's extremly rare.

totalgridlock

Oh, but it isn't. :P

The number of copies I see... it's like a sports game. Seriously. Pretty easy to find a mint black-label and the platinum version is still available brand new here, along with VIII, if you know where to look.

Well I used FFVII as an example, Well, let's see, how about Panzer Dragon? are you gonna find a sealed copy of it? It's the rarest RPG game to date. I should've used Panzer Dragon as the example.

but for me, a guy who cant order stuff from the internet I'd say FFVII is rare.

[QUOTE="totalgridlock"]

[QUOTE="Dymond7"]

I've thought about this in a different way, and I've come to the conclusion, that I don't think I'm a collector, because when I buy a game or DVD, it's not like I'll just put it on my shelf and than never consider playing or watching it, I'm never going to buy something just so I can say that I have it, but... let's say I'm at a Game store and I find a sealed copy of FFVII, I'll buy it and treasure it, even though I'll never open it, I'll just have it, because.. well... It's extremly rare.

Dymond7

Oh, but it isn't. :P

The number of copies I see... it's like a sports game. Seriously. Pretty easy to find a mint black-label and the platinum version is still available brand new here, along with VIII, if you know where to look.

Well I used FFVII as an example, Well, let's see, how about Panzer Dragon? are you gonna find a sealed copy of it? It's the rarest RPG game to date. I should've used Panzer Dragon as the example.

but for me, a guy who cant order stuff from the internet I'd say FFVII is rare.

Panzer Dragoon Saga.

Yeah, that'll do it :P

Metroid Prime does have some similar elements; it does the "first-person action/adventure/shooter with story" quite well. And chances are if you like one you'll like the other. As you should, they're both brilliant. totalgridlock

I actually loathe Prime, so thanks for the warning on that one.

Personally I find collecting just for the sake of collecting an idiotic means of pissing away money. If you're not going to make use of it in one way or another, what's the point? All you're doing is hoarding it from somebody who's probably waited half their lifetime to revel in its goodness. That's kind of like buying the last loaf of bread in front of a hungry kid. The only reason why I buy a game is to play it, not sit it on a shelf for show and tell. BladesOfAthena

I can understand that attitude, because I feel that way about expensive clothes, stamps, coins, etc.

However, this union attracts lots of different types of collectors. I buy games to play, but I don't have the time to play everything I buy right now. Sometimes I buy a game that I had when I was 8, and by buying it I hope to play it and recapture just one minute of that innocence and joy. Even if I don't get to play it, I can still see it on the shelf and feel whisked away just from looking at it.

Personally I find collecting just for the sake of collecting an idiotic means of pissing away money. If you're not going to make use of it in one way or another, what's the point? All you're doing is hoarding it from somebody who's probably waited half their lifetime to revel in its goodness. That's kind of like buying the last loaf of bread in front of a hungry kid. The only reason why I buy a game is to play it, not sit it on a shelf for show and tell. BladesOfAthena

That part about the bread made me cry, I feel so cruel now!

That's kind of like buying the last loaf of bread in front of a hungry kid. The only reason why I buy a game is to play it, not sit it on a shelf for show and tell. BladesOfAthena

Is it wrong that I LOVE the fact that I have so much rotting bread in my gaming room.

Is it wrong that I LOVE the fact that I have so much rotting bread in my gaming room.

cosmostein77

But...but....the children...oh will you please for the love of God think of the children?!

[QUOTE="cosmostein77"]

Is it wrong that I LOVE the fact that I have so much rotting bread in my gaming room.

BladesOfAthena

But...but....the children...oh will you please for the love of God think of the children?!

Athena, I think you'd cry at my backlog of games T_T. I buy with the attention of playing it (as stated earlier i the thread) but sometimes meaning well doesn't make the end result the same :PGAMECAMILLER

Oh my.... :o

I could certainly build a house with that. Then I'd call it the "funhouse.":P

[QUOTE="GAMECAMILLER"]Athena, I think you'd cry at my backlog of games T_T. I buy with the attention of playing it (as stated earlier i the thread) but sometimes meaning well doesn't make the end result the same :PBladesOfAthena

Oh my.... :o

I could certainly build a house with that. Then I'd call it the "funhouse.":P

Ugh... flashbacks to torturous kids game shows... Pat Sharp gave me nightmares.

I'm hunting down the full libraries for the NES, SNES, and Sega Masters. I was shocked when I realized there were so many titles in these libraries, but even more shocked when I realized that I had actually played most of them. For me it is bringing back my childhood and hopefully playing the games with my kids some day.

Other systems get collected on because I want to play the games or because they were given to me.

I'm hunting down the full libraries for the NES, SNES, and Sega Masters. I was shocked when I realized there were so many titles in these libraries, but even more shocked when I realized that I had actually played most of them. For me it is bringing back my childhood and hopefully playing the games with my kids some day.

Other systems get collected on because I want to play the games or because they were given to me.

thegroove13

[QUOTE="thegroove13"]

I'm hunting down the full libraries for the NES, SNES, and Sega Masters. I was shocked when I realized there were so many titles in these libraries, but even more shocked when I realized that I had actually played most of them. For me it is bringing back my childhood and hopefully playing the games with my kids some day.

Other systems get collected on because I want to play the games or because they were given to me.

gmsnpr

Umm...yeah. I was a bit of a nerd and had no life back when I was in middle schol and high school. I couldn't rattle off all the names, but when I start popping the games in the systems I'm like, "Oh, I remember playing this. I never really owned them. My friends and I traded around quite a bit and rented a bunch as well.

are you the type who collects good games like me, or do you just want to have lots of games for a particular system no matter how bad the games are.

Dymond7

yes to both of those! that describes my collecting in a nutshell