Register Now!

Media

  • scanner scanner
  • scanner screengrab
  • modern materialist the modern
    materialist
  • video 61 frames
    per second
  • video the remote
    island
  • date machine date
    machine

Photo

  • slice slice with
    giovanni
    cervantes
  • paper airplane crush paper
    airplane crush
  • autumn blog autumn
  • chase chase
  • rose &amp olive rose & olive
Scanner
Your daily cup of WTF?
ScreenGrab
The Hooksexup Film Blog
Slice
Each month a new artist; each image a new angle. This month: Giovanni Cervantes.
ScreenGrab
The Hooksexup Film Blog
Autumn
A fashionable L.A. photo editor exploring all manner of hyper-sexual girls down south.
The Modern Materialist
Almost everything you want.
Paper Airplane Crush
A San Francisco photographer on the eternal search for the girls of summer.
Rose & Olive
Houston neighbors pull back the curtains and expose each other's lives.
chase
The creator of Supercult.com poses his pretty posse.
The Remote Island
Hooksexup's TV blog.
61 Frames Per Second
Smarter gaming.
Date Machine
Putting your baggage to good use.

61 Frames Per Second

Do You Keep What You Buy?

Posted by Amber Ahlborn



I have over one hundred games in my library that span 4 console generations and 3 hand held generations. My collection is certainly not as impressive as some, but the point is I have a lot of older games. I also still play every last one of them. The idea of selling a game simply because I've played all the way through it is utterly foreign to my gamer psyche, yet, it seems many if not most gamers trade or sell games as soon as they're finished with them.

Most books in my library have been read half a dozen times, and I watch movies over and over again. Just because I know how it ends doesn't mean I can't enjoy revisiting the journey. That's not to say I never get rid of anything. Every now and then I'll do what I call a “cull” and pull out anything I have no desire to play or watch or read again, but most pieces of entertainment that captured my interest the first time will continue to do so. For me at least, replay value in a game I enjoyed is a given.

What about you? Are you a video game pack rat or do you have gamer ADD and immediately sell the old stuff to make room for the new?



Related Links:

Where is… Oh Wait, Hydrophobia’s Right Here!

Fami Star Wars: Just Because It’s In English Doesn’t Mean It Makes Sense

My Name is Joe, and I have a Metagaming Problem.


+ DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT

Comments

Roto13 said:

I have at least 250 games (I haven't counted in a while) spanning from the Atari 2600 to the present, including a bunch of handheld games from the Game Boy onward. I rarely ever sell them or anything. Only if I really don't like them, and even then I usually just give them away to friends who would enjoy them.

Though recently I've been wondering what the hell I'm going to do with Oblivion, since I don't know anyone nearby who wants it but doesn't have it, and my crappy little area isn't exactly the easiest place to sell or trade video games. It's the only current gen retail game I own that I regret buying. I need to find it a good home.

March 30, 2009 12:52 PM

RoboSheep said:

I've sold off a fair number of my games because it simply gets to the point of me having too much stuff and realizing "I am never, under any circumstances, going to play this game again"  The problem is that the trade-in value for so much of this is so rapidly devalued that you have to either trade in right away or keep until the point of the trade-in value being worthless.

Trade-in potential for me is based on a few things, Multiplayer and replay value being the most important.  I'm a lot more willing to trade in a JRPG than a puzzle game for example.

March 30, 2009 1:10 PM

Amber Ahlborn said:

When I do clean out my collection, I either sell my games on gamer message boards (my "garage sale" posts) or give them away.

March 30, 2009 1:18 PM

Bob Mackey said:

These days, I pretty much only buy and keep games with low print runs (like anything published by Atlus), because I know I'll at least be able to get top dollar for them on eBay down the line. I used to be somewhat of a collector, but certain economic realities and the pain in the ass that is moving nipped that in the bud about three years ago.

March 30, 2009 1:38 PM

LBD "Nytetrayn" said:

I can't bear to part with games anymore, not after doing so with some titles such as Contra and Duck Tales early in my gaming days.  It eventually became one (two?) of my deepest regrets, and I vowed never to do it again.

In fact, while I won't refuse to play a game by other methods, to me it usually comes down to purchase or nothing.

I'm sure many a suit in the industry would be proud to know that.

March 31, 2009 12:56 AM

Odin said:

I am a pack rat, or a "collector" as I like to think of myself.  I have culled my bookshelf a few times over the years, and I've sold off a couple dozen video games, but I own several well-read shelves of books, a stack of movies, and a massive collection of 560 games.  At present I've played through (to the ending screen) 60% of the games and I plan on working through the remainder over the next couple of years.  I was fiscally irresponsible for a few years, and bargain bins and pawn shops helped me track down almost every game I had ever heard of being decent from the NES to the PS3.  Now I'm finding the time to play them all while saving some money for the first time in my life.

March 31, 2009 1:04 AM

Steep said:

at over 450 games, selling or giving away games only happens when i end up with doubles of something. there is one occasion where i sold one just because it was truly awful and i couldnt get any enjoyment out of it. even if i dont play something all the time or even once in a while doesnt mean i wont get the urge to play it some day

April 1, 2009 12:22 AM

Leave a Comment

(required)  
(optional)
(required)  

Add

About Amber Ahlborn

Artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

in

Archives

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


Send tips to


Tags

VIDEO GAMES


partners