Gaming Librarian - A New Class of Gamer?

h8b1llg8ts

For the past three and a half years my role of a gamer has truly changed. With the birth of my daughter my gaming lifestyle has evolved from a social to almost a gaming librarian.

I've been a kind of collector all my life. I inherited my fathers 2600 and from the NES on I've kept all my games in pretty prestige condition. But with the passing of the PS1, Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast I seemed to have missed all the good sales and low pricing that come with the next gen systems. Now with the end of the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube I find myself able to procure 3-5 games for about $40 a week. The same price I would spend at Starbucks a week on a coffee.

My living room has transformed from a soothing gathering place to a mail room/stock room. There is a sort of conformity and organization there, don't get me wrong. But I would say out of all my recent acquisitions about 15 - 20% of the games have actually been played beyond the Title Screen.

And it doesn't look like I'm alone http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/28/11-of-gamers-have-unopened-games-survey-shows/. Though I do open my games just to make sure my Ebay transaction is truly complete and I get what I pay for though my question is am I a new class of gamer?

SageinaRage

No, 'Dork with too much money' has always been there.

edit:: Not saying I don't also fall into this category.

skarsol

I'm gonna have to say if you don't actually *play* games, you're no longer a gamer.

h8b1llg8ts

skarsol wrote: »

I'm gonna have to say if you don't actually *play* games, you're no longer a gamer.

I'm just not playing every single game I collect. Though I am purchasing games that I eventually do want to play and know I will enjoy.

slash000

I don't have a lot of time in my life to play through tons and tons of games, so I have to be selective in what games I spend my time playing. However, it doesn't stop me from buying up older games, and last gen games, that I missed, that are now cheap. I'm like the OP, I like having these great games, because while I may not have all the time to play all of them, I know that eventually I want to get around to playing and enjoying them. But there's something nice about having and collecting them, and having a "small library" of these things.

Plus, and I assume the OP probably does something similar, all of my games from every generation are highly organized and shelved. (organized by generation, and then titles ordered alphabetically).

Gyral

I buy games I don't intend to play at that time, largely because I know I will want to play them some time in the future and I don't want to have to hunt them down (Atlus games).

RedDawn

I would say game collecting has been around for a while. It is just a different part of the culture I would say. I know a few people that I wouldn't call gamers, however they are huge game collectors and their collections completely dwarf mine. Not that I really have that many.

desc

How is being a librarian different from being a collector?

Roshin

Unless you allow strangers to borrow your games, I'd say you're a collector, not a librarian.

h8b1llg8ts

RedDawn wrote: »

I would say game collecting has been around for a while. It is just a different part of the culture I would say. I know a few people that I wouldn't call gamers, however they are huge game collectors and their collections completely dwarf mine. Not that I really have that many.

I've seen some of those collections but I'm not at that point and don't see myself at that point ever. I think I'm more inbetween hence the 'librarian' reference and not a 'museum'.

Toxin01

I feel like a loser sometimes because all my friends know I'll pick up the cool new game coming out (STALKER, Dead Space, Fallout 3, etc) and can just borrow it from me after I'm done.

I own over 300 games, and I'd say almost all of them have been lent out at least once.

FreddyD

Gyral wrote: »

I buy games I don't intend to play at that time, largely because I know I will want to play them some time in the future and I don't want to have to hunt them down (Atlus games).

I do this too. Although it's starting to make my backlog really embarrassing.

The problem is that if you pass a game up there's no guarantee that you can go back and find it later. I had to chance to buy Guardian Heroes for less than $10 back when the Saturn was on it's way out (but I never did : ( ). Same for Marvel vs Capcom 2. I bought Team Buddies for a tenner way back when and now it's some kind of collector's item.

EvilBadman

I figure when I'm 65 and retired, all the random PS1 RPGs I have collected can whittle down my sanity quicker than just senility alone.

SkepTiKal KloWn

It's good to know I'm not the only one. I've got a collection going all the way back to the NES, but I've only beaten about 1/3 of them completely. I know I like them all, and I want to play them all, but there's just so much, especially since I got a 360 a few months ago and I can actually get excited when I see a cool game ad on TV again. I'm trying work my way through it though, I'm trying to beat every game in my possession before I have any of my other systems shipped out from home, so now I only have my Xbox and PC libraries to worry about. That alone though, is quite a collection (70+ PC Games!).

Kris_xK

Ever since I sold of my Dreamcast (which I regret to this day), I've become a bit of a hoarder in terms of games.

The description of "Librarian" wouldn't be that far off for me as I do loan out a lot of my games. Hell, I even have a fucking sign up sheet for the popular ones. Of course, if I didnt live in an apartment where 9/10 of the people on my floor were gamers I doubt this would happen as frequently.

SirUltimos

I love collecting games, possibly more than I love playing them. I know that one day I'll get around to playing everything, and even if I don't I still get enjoyment out of just owning them and having a small, personal library of games.

h8b1llg8ts

SkepTiKal KloWn wrote: »

It's good to know I'm not the only one. I've got a collection going all the way back to the NES, but I've only beaten about 1/3 of them completely. I know I like them all, and I want to play them all, but there's just so much, especially since I got a 360 a few months ago and I can actually get excited when I see a cool game ad on TV again. I'm trying work my way through it though, I'm trying to beat every game in my possession before I have any of my other systems shipped out from home, so now I only have my Xbox and PC libraries to worry about. That alone though, is quite a collection (70+ PC Games!).

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one ...

But am I the only one who collects games such as Street Fighter Alpha (Saturn), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Saturn), Street Fighter Alpha 3 (PS1), Gem Fighters (PS1), then goes out and gets Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PS2)which has all the games in one.

This formula also works for Mario, Sonic, MKII, and many others ...

SkepTiKal KloWn

Well I did but Final Fantasy Chronicles even though I owned Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV on SNES. AND I own FFIV on the DS, AND I will be buying Chrono Trigger for the DS. So yeah, you're not alone.

fodderboy

I'm in the same boat, cept i've reached the growing family stage (# 5 on the way).

I have the nasty habit of buying new games and then not playing them. Zelda, Metriod, Mario Galaxy, Bioshock, GTA 4, i bought when they all got released, i've just finished galaxy last week and finally almost done with Bioshock.

I doesn't help that I have WoW always pulling me back.

Part of the problem I don't have time to play games, between work, school, family i have much more limited time. And with kids i can't play certain games in till they go to bed (i'm looking at you Deadspace), btw this is a self imposed limit - not a spousely thing.

Besides new stuff, I collect old games and systems. I used to snap up every SNES, or NES w/ games i found at yard sales, um, just cause i think. I've backed off that and just concentrate on rarer stuff or systems i don't have. But that leaves me with: when do i get to try this stuff out? I've probably played 2% of all the old generation stuff in the last three years. Last week i picked up a Gameboy Camara with Printer - i'm not sure if i'll ever use it. It just gets added to my collection.

I think it is partial habit and nostalgic with a that thought, "i've always wanted this as a kid, why not now?"

I focus now on classic or rare games or that odd ball system i don't have, and i can pick up on the cheap. I prefer thrift stores or yard sales cause you'll never know what you find. Sealed copy of dragon warrior? TG-16 with 5 arcade sticks? 3D0? NESII? found 'em all dirt cheap.

Its fun to whip out some of the old multiplayer games to do with the kids (5 player snes bomberman anyone?). My older kids 6 and 8 prefer the GC verion of Smash brothers to the new version. My oldest daughter loves to hop on line and play Mario Kart Wii with me. My son (6) loves the TMNT arcade on xbox live, my daughter prefers castle crashers.

Can't wait till they can play Rock Band 4, and Halo 6.


How about gamer packrat?

Doc Holliday

I hunt for classic games via Garage Sales. I guess I'm more of a "hoarder". Although if I grab a duplicate of anything I will sell it.

Delzhand

I wish I had the money to build a collection.

Doc Holliday

Delzhand wrote: »

I wish I had the money to build a collection.

Step 1: Find tons of garage sales.
Step 2: Go to said garage sales
Step 3: Ask each and every sale you visit if they have video games they want to sell
Step 4: Offer something absurd like $2 for their NES and 10 games
Step 5: Dive into your Hueg Collection, Scrooge McDuck style.

slash000

Doc Holliday wrote: »

Delzhand wrote: »

I wish I had the money to build a collection.

Step 1: Find tons of garage sales.
Step 2: Go to said garage sales
Step 3: Ask each and every sale you visit if they have video games they want to sell
Step 4: Offer something absurd like $2 for their NES and 10 games
Step 5: Dive into your Hueg Collection, Scrooge McDuck style.

Or craigslist for older games. You can find tons of classic games from any generation. It's how I got a great deal of my large NES collection for cheap.


Hell you can find current and last gen games for pretty cheap doing this. People are always llooking for convenient ways to dump off old stuff. Especially if they can get more than the $2-$7 they'll get for their games from gamestop.

Djiem

Many people don't know the worth of old games to us, or to eBay. For them (or their parents), these are a very old game machine that lil Bobby didn't touch in ten years. If they can get 5 to 10 bucks for this piece of crap and its 20+ games that are all collecting dust, good for them... and for you.

My brother worked for a small chain where they bought back old NES games. They gave like 2 bucks a game and sold them back from 5 to 15 bucks, depending the game. What my bro did was simply to buy them all from the customers for his own self, rather than put them for resale (his boss didn't give a shit), and our NES library is now 30+ titles larger than it was.

As for new games, there is only 2 or 3 of them that I never got more than 5 minutes of play from (one of them I didn't even try yet). I usually play all my games at least a little bit until a new one comes out and becomes my current time-waster. Usually, when I'm sick and stay at home, I pick one old game from my backlog and get farther in it. Who knows, maybe I will finish God Hand someday.

TeeMan

Like the OP, I don't have a good deal of time to play games either but like to collect them for a "rainy day".

About a week ago I had a massive craving for all things Burnout, and thankfully I was able to play Paradise at home, Legends on the plane to work and Dominator after work The latter two have been largely unused for about 6 months and I now consider them worthy purchases all that time ago.

Toxin01

I've kind of considered trying to sell my game collection, actually.

I don't think I could get nearly as much out of it as I would like however.

Zilla360

EvilBadman wrote: »

I figure when I'm 65 and retired, all the random PS1 RPGs I have collected can whittle down my sanity quicker than just senility alone.

This.