Video Gaming and Materialism: What are your thoughts?

norton9478

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I don't know about you guys, but I had a period (age 16-22) where I had almost zero interest in video games. They were probably the best years of my life.
 

Kiel

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I don't know about you guys, but I had a period (age 16-22) where I had almost zero interest in video games. They were probably the best years of my life.

I'd say that's when I was most interested in games. They were probably the best years of my life.
 

TonK

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I'd say that's when I was most interested in games. They were probably the best years of my life.

Yep.

Great childhood, lots of excitement for new releases.

Scanning PAK WATCH for upcoming releases that were never announced and those Funco ads.
 

Marek

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On topic : Games as art. Comparing games to Mona Lisa is not really where I'd go with it. Mona Lisa is amazing, but for some, that type of portraiture does absolutely nothing. Those games you mentioned are artworks of great importance, complexity, subtlety, and artistic significance. It would take a single man a very, very long time to make any game that we would consider a legitimate contender for "this game is a work of art" by himself. That is the main difference.

But, that said, if there was a person who single-handedly made a megalithic game over the span of 20 years, from scratch, wouldn't he/she be widely considered the most legendary videogame artist of all time? Imagine if Shadows of the Colossus came totally out of nowhere by some random guy who had been creating his own systems and full-on designed his own game from nothing. That person would be like DaVinci.


I had a reply ready and then I saw Kate Upton's bouncing tits and completely forgot what was going on in this thread.

Same! Hahaha. I was coming out the Upton fog when I read your post.
 
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trenog

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On topic : Games as art. Comparing games to Mona Lisa is not really where I'd go with it. Mona Lisa is amazing, but for some, that type of portraiture does absolutely nothing. Those games you mentioned are artworks of great importance, complexity, subtlety, and artistic significance. It would take a single man a very, very long time to make any game that we would consider a legitimate contender for "this game is a work of art" by himself. That is the main difference.

Well the whole games as art thing if you compare it to the Mona Lisa is really just an instance of a piece of work getting a lucky break and being attached to someone with some degree of consistent quality in their efforts. Just gotta be careful about throwing the word "art" around as you have people wanking games into existence in the name of "art" and it turning out to be all postmodern bullshit instead.

I think it's a lot easier and more productive to uplift games as being of superb craftsmanship instead.
 

SML

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To address the thead without being flippant, I do have a problem with compulsive purchasing/aquiring. I'm living in a ~900 sq. ft. space so it tends to manifest in intangibles like all the psx isos on an hd and a few thousand dollars poured into my steam and gog accounts on games I don't actually have the time to play. Do I hold a moral high ground over the people who are buried in their collections? I really doubt it. I can't pare down my virtual hoard, either. But externally and by many of the measures mentioned I appear "unattached" and "free."

I'm not sure, really, where I'm going with this, but "freedom," since it's come up, is not something any one decision is going to grant you, and I don't think it's something that you can possess or be. To say "I am free" seems delusional, especially so if you "are free" by following a dogmatic prescription. (The only way to be free is to [lose everything, do what you want when you want it, etc.]) Freedom, if it exists, seems more like a process; something akin to Mindfulness.

Shit I gotta go lecture. :-J
 

Lagduf

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I'm just going to say that I agree with Magician when I view video games as nothing more than disposable entertainment. I play them, finish most of them, then move on.

I recently got rid off most of my 360 and PS3 games. I occasionally throw games away - I did last week - tossed out some old Xbox games. Simply not worth my time to sell or pawn.

I have a few older titles lying around (FFT, Vagrant Story, etc) but not a whole lot really.

I do have a collection of board games, firearms, and books so I've not managed to cease "collecting" - I just realized collecting video games isn't what I want to do.
 
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Joneo

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I occasionally throw games away - I did last week - tossed out some old Xbox games. Simply not worth my time to sell or pawn.
No nearby thrift stores where you could drop them & make some poor schmuck's day? :)
 

OMFG

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My Collecting days are pretty much over. I collected just to make up for all the childhood gaming I missed out on. Just to get a taste of having the real hardware, real games. Made me feel like a kid again. I still have most of the major stuff that I collected through out the years, but if I run into a situation were I need cash, I'll sell it all and just stick to emulators, flash carts. I hardly have any time to play games any more anyways.

I'm in the same boat right now. A majority of my retro gear has been either sold or I'm just too busy to sell the rest. Recently, I've was thinking about parting ways with some of the candy cabs and some pcbs. Then I realized how much of a pain in the ass it is to get them nowadays. Pricewise, I could care less what they're worth. The time invested finding certain items can never be recovered. With all the traveling I do, I hardly even play the modern systems. The systems that I have been playing for the last year (Cabs, SNES, PCE, Genesis, PSP, 3DS) have recently been getting more attention than the current generation consoles. The 360 mainly been used for XBLA and Netflix/PS3 for blu-rays/dvds.

As for this quote:

The point i'm trying to get across is HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE REALLY HAPPY UNTIL YOU GET OUT THERE AND LIVE YOUR LIFE A DIFFERENT WAY AND POTENTIALLY DISCOVER THINGS THAT HAVE MORE MEANING, THAT YOU MAY NEVER HAVE EVEN KNOWN WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPIER THAN GAMING, OR COLLECTING ANYTHING IN GENERAL?

I've spent time deployed with the military, traveled, and have gone through long periods without gaming in the past. Games tend to be 'the campfire' between my circle of friends, but we all have lives outside of the hobby. There comes a point where one takes a look at their hobby and decides how much they want to invest in it. I personally would rather just keep my cabs, PCE and sell the rest. Time spent with family and friends tends to trump gaming nowadays.

I never did understand the concept of collecting with the intention of never playing a game.
 

goombakid

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greedostick

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I'd say that's when I was most interested in games. They were probably the best years of my life.

Same here, that's when I was in high school and saved my lunch money to buy games at the flea market every weekend, and discovered I could sell them for profit on ebay. I remember picking up a sealed Keio Flying Squadron for less than a dollar and selling it on ebay for over $350.00. That was before Amazon.com was discovered by every vendor and I could get games for ridiculous prices. That's actually how I got deep into gaming. Wanted to re-live my childhood, and if possible sell games and get mine for free. Which is why from time to time I still buy in bulk on ebay and resell and keep the games I like. It's really the only way I can justify keeping games anymore. If their free.
 

greedostick

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i do it too. How many copies of NHL 96 do i really need?

Trade them in here www.gamereproductions.com

I cleared out every store in columbus and traded them in when he had a trade in deal and got $4.00 per title. You could get a english translated earthbound which retails for $30.00 for less than $5.00 if you shop around and haggle buying sports games in bulk.
 

Neo Ash

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I also have a family, a house, vehicles to maintain, bills, my daughters activities, work, responsibilities ECT.

Letting material items ruin your life, or put you in a position that you have to sell them to fix a car or pay a bill is ridiculous.

Quit buying shit.

Very well said and to the point.

At one time I was very OCD/anal about my video games collection. Condition was everything, almost to the point where I didn't want to play the games.

OMG teh insertion marks!!!!1

I was selling/trading games to move up the condition scale. The shit was stupid.

Now they are just games. I still try to take good care of them...but they are still just games.

A big part of the change is simply getting older. I have multiple interests.

I also have bills, cars, a house, a wife, etc...etc... All those things take time and money.

So...stop buying shit if you can not afford it. If you have to pawn stuff...you're buying too much shit. If you consider title pawn on a car...you are buying way to much fuck'n shit.
 
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SonGohan

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The only thing I collect are NES titles, but I'm in no rush, and I'm definitely not buying games I won't play. I play the fuck out of them, too. Every weekend my kid and I sit down and go through a game or two. It's incredibly fun, and he loves it. As hard as those games are, they're simple enough for a 4 year old to understand, which is something many of the new gen games aren't.
 

wataru330

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The only thing I collect are NES titles, but I'm in no rush, and I'm definitely not buying games I won't play. I play the fuck out of them, too. Every weekend my kid and I sit down and go through a game or two. It's incredibly fun, and he loves it. As hard as those games are, they're simple enough for a 4 year old to understand, which is something many of the new gen games aren't.

This. Sharing time w/ the kiddos=1000% win.
 

HeartlessNinny

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Why would you feel sorry for someone who had the time of their life? This is either a bad attempt at trolling or the height of pretentiousness -- take your pick.
 

xb74

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To that I reply with the following thread. http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?232620-Viability-of-collecting-MVS-kits

For the record, I keep all of my consoles. The games that I collect I play the F**K out of them!

After reading some of the posts here, I'm kinda contemplating why I'm doing what I'm doing...then I realize that my OCD makes me do it...

As the original author of that thread, my reasoning for posting was part noob numbheadedness and part misunderstanding. That aside, when I recently got back into retro gaming I was suddenly alarmed at how badly I wanted some games and how quickly I spent the money. It hasn't taken over my life but holy shit it creeps up on you. The need to take a step back and reassess is very important for balance in life.
 

greedostick

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A few years ago I think I noticed things were a problem because I spent more time shopping on ebay, and arranging my game library, and making lists of "wants" way more then I actually played games.
 

Dolphin

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I liquidated my collection in its entirety between the years of '06 and '08. I haven't been tempted to reacquire any of it since that time.
 
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