I really don't see the point in video game collecting. Long ago, I thought it was cool. I remember being 12 or 13, seeing James Rolfe's video where he shows off his NES collection, and thinking to myself "wouldn't it be cool to have a full-set DS collection in 20 years?" It honestly felt like a little slice of pop culture history on a shelf.
Now, I see it as nothing but hording or just investing. Not only is it impossible to get into, thanks to Youtubers like PatTheNESPunk, Metal Jesus Rocks, Happy Console Gamer, and LGR, but there is simply no point, especially if you are not going to play all those games. It's clearly impossible to do so. It's clear that this hobby is either an investment or an addiction.
I mean, just look at these YouTubers. Some of them openly admit to sleeping on mattresses without bed-frames just so they can afford more games. How pathetic is that? Think about how all that money could've gone to something useful. Imagine having a huge video game collection while having kids. You have this moral dilemma because you have this nice collection of video games that you don't want ruined, but you also have a bunch of games that your kids would want to play. This is probably the reason why you don't see that many collectors having children.
And don't get me started on the fact that video game collectors are enablers of the cancers of the modern video game industry because they have to buy EVERY SINGLE GAME of their favorite company or franchise, regardless of whatever shitty business practices they are making. To me, having a complete collection of a series, company, or a console does not make you a true fan. A true fan would want to avoid the bad stuff (at least buying them directly) because they want to see their favorite company or franchise actually improve. But no. These people think that they need to own every single game to show off how big of a fan they are.
The only way I feel like video game collecting is justified is if you are actually preserving rare or prototype games that either haven't been dumped or can't be emulated yet. I will give MJR credit for this though, in that he did dump the BIOS for the American 64DD prototype.
But I just can't see the appeal anymore. I never had a big collection, but I bought two WonderSwans and a couple of games years ago because I thought it would be cool to have Japanese imports, but the novelty went away real fast. Most of the games I can't even play anyway because they are text-heavy RPGs and don't have fan-translations.
Can we please drop this mentality that you need to collect everything of your favorite company/franchise to show your love for something?
@beardalaxy You should at least try each game, but why waste time doing that when the vast majority of every platform's library is shovelware garbage? Digital collections are different. It's all just information at the end of the day, and it's no different than not using every feature in a game. I'd rather just play games that I find on recommended charts on /v/ or something.
Though the N64 collecting you did, was certainly no where near the levels of collecting you see on YouTube. Just watch some of their home tours and just look at the disgusting houses/apartments they live in.
John Hancock is probably the fucking worst. This guy has a wife and kids and built an extension to his house just to hoard more video games. He doesn't even let his kids play his newer consoles. The guy has a full time job as a teacher so either he isn't playing these games or he is and is neglecting his children when he is off-work. Not to mentioned, that he begged a lot of money for a video game museum that I think still hasn't happened.
@xianc78 I got a little bit into game collecting, mainly N64, a while ago. But yeah I realized that I just do not play any of it and it's not cool to hoard stuff like that if I'm not gonna use it, imo. Digital collections even got to be like that for me. Sure, I have every NES-N64 game on that little emulation box but am I ever going to play them? Nah. I realized I spent a lot of time, mostly, working on building these collections and making them presentable and stuff only for them to gather dust while I continue to play the same games over and over again anyway.