[QUOTE="waflerevolution"]ok, I just bought Ikaruga and have a LARGE shipment of PS1 big box games comming and I just bought about 400 bucks worth of games including rezgmsnpr

I don't think that this thread was supposed to be about "I'll outbuy you!!!" posturing. I guess I'm guilty of introducing that element, but I was trying to be funny about catching 8-bit in a couple of months. Neither of us can do that without playing fast and loose with our finances or buying "for numbers"; I won't do either thing. Though it might be hard to believe, my collection's size is a side effect of interest in lots of games and realizing that they aren't worth selling at a loss, not an end in itself.

P.S. Ikaruga is a ton of fun and one of the hardest scrolling shooters I've ever played, I think you'll like it.

I recently had a couple of small yet serious miscalculations as regards my bank account, which resulted in a large amount of my money leaving me against my will. Debits hit early, my deposit to cover them hit late, and by the time it was all over, I was $353.12 in the red. I only buy two categories of things: video games and things I need. I don't need very much; I seem to budget well enough for rent, groceries, etc. The problem is that I forget that I use my debit card to "bargain shop" for vintage games here and there, which led me to an overdraft situation and lots of nasty $25 service charges, a series of 10 of them, all deducted last night.

What I want to impress upon you is that this video game obsession that I have developed, centered on acquiring lots of games that I think I will play but never do, is at an end. To cover my overdrafts, I liquidated a large number of my games; check my journal if you're curious which ones they were. I am going to slowly sell or trade away the games that I don't actively play until the collection that I am left with is manageable, of high quality, and most importantly, fun.

My wife and I were talking last night about the last time we enjoyed a game together. It had been a few months and the game was Safari Hunt, by the way. Then I thought about how long it had been since I had played and finished a game on my own, and it had been about six weeks since I polished off the X-box version of Leisure Suit Larry. I remember that when I was a kid, I had video games, but I bought them, played and beat them and then I sold them. It was a simple system and it worked. I recall being a lot happier about video games when they were not part of "The Collection".

As my job (I am a graduate student) has taken up more and more of my time (I near the end), I have basically stopped playing games owing to time constraints. Sadly, my game consumption has not slowed with my play time. Prior to today's sell-off, I had more than 100 games still new in the shrink-wrap because I simply never got around to trying them. I will be the first to say that this is a serious problem. My rampant buying had become more habitual than enjoyable and I am glad to receive this wake up call, even though it was very costly.

If you are a collector of video games, and chances are good that you are, then I would caution you against a "buy it all" attitude. I can tell you firsthand that it can spiral out of control, and it isn't pretty. If you can still find the time to play and enjoy all of the games that you collect, then my hat is off to you, though I will bet that is rarely the case. I am really looking forward to playing a small number of games again, rather than buying and cataloging the giant and largely untouched pile of games that I have amassed over the last couple of years.

gmsnpr