Is keeping games getting to be pointless?

As an ex-collector, I just wanted to say that it only stings at the moment of sale. I have great memories of many games, and often times I go back to play them and they just do not hold up anymore.

I still have about 50 NES games, maybe 30 SNES, and the biggest reason I have not sold them is because my systems died while stored away and I can't test to see if the games still work.
 
[quote name='blaine878']I usually sell my games, unless I really enjoyed it. If I know I'm going to play it again within a year, I don't sell it. But if I beat it once and don't want to do it again any time soon, I just sell it. If I had a game that I didn't like, was awful or full of glitches, or was just too easy, I sometimes sell it before I beat it.[/QUOTE]

That pretty much sums up my style.

[quote name='TooMuchCoolness']The answer is simple. Keep the great AAA titles and throw/trade/sell the mediocre, average, below average games.[/QUOTE]
The problem with your approach is that AAA get re-released. Why keep your copy of SMB3 on NES when you can probably find it on a compilation disc sometime in the future? (Well, Nintendo USED to do that - i.e. Super Mario All-Stars on SNES - but with digital dist., they tend to really stick us with the premium, per-title fees).

Basically, the hottest titles of today will be repackaged and sold tomorrow. Trust me, your kids WILL hear of your old games... as re-releases sold via digital dist. or compilation.

The compatibility probs bother me more - the idea that (as some have mentioned) the old consoles won't work with new TVs. Sure, they'll sell 3rd party adaptors to fix that... but they won't really make the game look like it used to. I think it'll look all warped on the newer TVs without proper scaling or whatnot.

Then there are the RARE games you enjoyed but were commercial flops. Squaresoft's BOUNCER, for example. EVERYONE HATED IT! But I actually enjoyed it (except for the lack of continue screen and horrifically evil end boss fight), so I know for a fact that I'll most likely never see it released again. Nor will Square likely make another fighting game like it cause everyone was so quick to hate...

Or how about Zone of the Enders on PS2? Sure, we're getting a PS3 sequel... but what if it fails? Will they ever re-release ZOE on future consoles??? Who knows???

It's a mixed bag. You'll be selling your old stuff for little money. On the other hand, space = money, too. All those boxes need to be stored properly, and they need a section of house to be stored. That's kind of a downside in and of itself. You get older and your stuff grows. Before long, "just one more box" becomes a very big problem in a cluttered house full of boxes!

One last thing: this generation marks the first time I'm completely selling off all games and accessories for a console - the 360. I love the system, it has some awesome games, but it has the reliability of dead dog. One day I'll toss the ball and it won't come back. Microsoft is only going to support it for so long (like all OS's and M$oft products), and one day, you'll be playing your fave 360 game, it'll RROD, and you won't have anyone to call but an expensive reseller hocking old 360 for a premium. Screw that scenario.

Really, the only console you can count on, for sure, is the older Nintendo stuff. The NES, for example, will likely function even after we're long dead. I don't know if Nintendo planned for their consoles to survive Nuclear Holocaust, but by god, they will.
 
I'm a collector trying to become a "play it/get rid of it" gamer. Collecting just doesn't benefit my current lifestyle. I'm married, with a baby, living in a 2 bedroom apartment. There's simply no space to properly store a collection or time to enjoy it. Seldom will I play a game twice but if I do it's usually years later. If I wake up with the urge to play Dragon Force or some other rare game, I can afford to buy it. I could care less what condition a game is in, as long as it plays and I can get it cheap, that's all I care about.

It's difficult because as a CAG I'd like to get a fair price for my games. Dumping them off at GS isn't an option, and most games just aren't worth my time and effort to place on eBay. I'm trying to get rid of them by trading and selling through CAG, but I'm always buying new stuff so my collection just keeps getting bigger rather than smaller.

If I had an extra room all to myself and some play money then I might consider building a collection again.
 
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I used to own 250+ games, now I own roughly 20, and even now I feel like that's taking up to much space in my house. I'm so glad I stopped collecting... I never even played half of them. It's a million times better to just buy, play/enjoy/finish, and then trade/sell. I only keep games that I truly love, and can play again and again.
 
I got rid of all my N64 and Genesis stuff a couple of years ago, I keep everything else.

Mostly all i play lately are RPGs - they're fun to go back to after a couple of years. It isn't very likely those'll go on a comp or will get remade.
 
I used to hold onto my games, and also collected games. It helped me a great deal and hurt me quite a bit when I was unemployed in 2003 for nearly a year. I sold my collection for over $2500 which kept me afloat through some rough times.

Now I have a PS3 i barely play with about 6 or 7 games which I need to finish(at the end just not compelled enough to beat). I buy games used and cheap, talking $15-10 not much more. I'm actually buying PS2 games right now because I missed out on a lot of great RPG's and other games. I'll probably hold onto them until I feel its worth off loading them again. I'll tell you what though, selling my copies for Lunar + Lunar EB for the SCD in MINT, Popful Mail and the other WD games sucked. I really wish I kept them. Also my WD collection for the Saturn and SF 3 :|

Suikoden I and II :|
 
I had to do the same thing a couple years ago, saberz. It blew to sell some rarer games but it felt good that I had a nice enough collection to keep things afloat during rough times.

It also trimmed my collection down nicely.
 
Yeah it most definitely sucked. The whole shabang went. I had two Neo Geo Pocket Color's and 25 games which fetched hundreds(picked em up at GS for like $10 for the systems and $2 per game). Loved that little thing :p


It was fun to bust out some old games, like Shining Force III which didn't age so bad on the Saturn, Dragon Force was as addictive as ever, if not over simplified compared to todays games.
 
I had to get rid of a sealed copy of Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence Limited Edition. Went all the way down to Jerome Avenue in the Bronx to buy the only copy.
 
I've probably got rid of 2 or 3 games in the 20+ years I've been playing/collecting, and those were games I absolutely hated. Other than that I've kept everything from games to consoles to magazines and guides and couldn't imagine getting rid of my collection.

I did the whole "No room for a collection" thing for the last 10 years or so at my old condo, but we just bought a house and I have an enormous finished basement that I'm in the process of turning into a gaming paradise. I'm glad every day that I never decided to thin out the collection because of space issues, because I wouldn't want to buy back something I've already owned. Sure, I play the heck out of games that I own older copies of either via updated collections (ex. Super Mario All Stars), or via emulation, but there's something awesome about playing on original hardware - especially when I power up the same Sega Master System or NES that I have owned since I was 12... the memories that those machines bring back is priceless.

Oh, and about 7 years ago we were burglarized and I lost about a third of my collection... It didn't feel nice to see it at a smaller size, it sucked ass. Of course, that's probably due to the circumstances, but I still can't imagine being pleased to get rid of any part of my collection.

I was lucky enough to run a small game store for a while, so I got a lot of my collection at a steep discount, and this also enabled me to recover what I lost in the burglary without losing my shirt. Now I've got an alarm, an insured collection, and a couple of guns, so I'm hoping I won't have to deal w/that again.

Color me firmly in the "Keep everything forever" camp.
 
I'm a collector so I keep all my video games and memorabilia but I can see why people sell it off but the nostalgia and memories I have are why I keep it!!
 
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