Are you a collector or a gamer?

[WiseSalesman]

I look at those rooms in the Game Rooms section of the site, and I can't help but wonder.....with maintaining your collections, and making the money to buy the games, plus the time you spend hunting for them, do you actually have time to play them? Factor in some sort of social life, and it becomes a real dillema.

I'll be voting gamer, myself. I know I certainly spend more time playing games than I do collecting, in fact, I usually won't buy a new game until I've finished the previous one. My lousy collection of under 150 games pales before most here, but that's because I play them, instead of just collecting them.

What's your take?

[michael]

I'm totally a gamer but I do like to collect the rares and game boxes but i love gameing!!!

[congobongo]

Can't vote cause I'm both. you need to add an "all of the above" option

[WiseSalesman]

I knew someone was going to ask for that....I'm asking what you consider yourself first....like, if someone came up to you and asked you which was more important to you. Or, if you had to fill out forms and you could only check one box, would it be gamer or collector?

Take me, for example...I do collect, I never sell my games, and rarely trade, but I collect games for the purpose of playing them.

[NE146]

Guess I'm a combination. Most of my "collection" is stuff I've kept since I was a kid and never threw away, and of course that consists mainly of games I like to play (luckily my parents spoiled me ).

I barely have any "rare" games but that doesn't bother me as most of them are crap :P (except for maybe Quadrun) That being said, I'll GLADLY buy should I see them at any cheap/old second hand game I see at Goodwill or any other thrift/pawn shop in a heartbeat. But I don't go out of my way to do it... umm not *too* much at least

[kainemaxwell]

I'm a gamer first but getting moreso into both collecting and gaming too.

[Lady Jaye]

I consider myself as a gamer. I collect stuff I wanna play. However, I do have admiration for other people's extensive collection. I just don't have the time, space and money to spend on weekly game hunts.

[Savedman]

I just had to choose collecter. In the same fashion that I buy crap that I know that I will never use just because I got a killer deal on it I also buy video games and systems that I know that I will never have time to play. It must be some sort of personal conquest of mine. Maybe I should see a therapist or something but anyone who has shopped the thrift stores know that feeling you get when you see that some poor ignorant fool threw out his atari 2600 with 40 games because he didn't believe that anyone would want that antiquated old stuff. And even though you know that you already have 4 2600's in your basement you just can't help yourself! You start to get a little weak in the knees and you slowly look from side to side to see if anyone else has seen it sitting there quietly on the shelf. You wipe the sweat off of your palms as you reach out for the precious item and place it gently into your cart. You race feverishly toward the checkout counter and can't get to the trunk of your car fast enough as you lock your latest treasure away with a Mojo Jo Jo like "MWAAAA HAAAAA HAAAA!!!".

Sorry....I guess I got a little carried away.

[Raedon]

I wouldn't collect interactive media if I didn't play them first.

[zektor]

I'm a gamer by all means. I only collect what I collect to play them. Rare/common really means nothing to me. If a game is good I play it, if it stinks...well...I don't. So my collections really consist of games I like to play. This does not however go for my rom collections. I just download pretty much anything when it comes to that....and that is only because I have hard drive space to burn

[ventrra]

I pretty much would say the same things as Zektor except, I like most of the games that almost everyone else thinks stink.

...Well, OK. Sachen's Challenge of the Dragon was even too bad for me, but I LIKE the games that Data Age, Color Dreams, Wisdom Tree, Mythicon, etc. released.

[maxlords]

Well, I've BECOME a collector due to the fact that the stuff I tend to like is all collectible now. I started collecting games in 1995 when I realized that I wanted to play a stack of games that I'd traded in a while back for more games, so I made a solemn vow never to sell a game I liked again. Now I have about 550 console games, and they're all ones that I want to play. I don't collect to complete sets, but instead, only to get the games I want to play.

Thing is, a LOT of the stuff I picked up a long time ago cause I liked it has now become collectible and expensive, so I have quite the collection as a result. I only sell games I don't like at all, and never sell ones that I'm just "tired of". SO really, a gamer first and foremost and a collector by default. I buy stuff I know is rare that I don't want, just to sell it for money to get the games I do want tho

[christianscott27]

needlessly divisive poll me thinks, lets quote the homepage shall we, yes here we go "Digital Press Online is dedicated to the "Pac-rats" among video gamers... short attention spans, library-sized collections, consoles precariously wired in spider-web fashion... Sound like you?" sure does, thats why i'm here.

i'm not an elder statesman or any sort of mod here but i think this board sometimes runs away with the modern gaming stuff and forgets it roots, there are thousands of sites to do your system bashing on but only a handful where you can brag about your 5200 find. DP makes a collectors guide, compiles and publishes rarity lists and so on, sounds like a theme to me...

there is no contradiction in claiming to be gamer and collector equally, one week i might do one more than the other but either way i enjoy this hobby. fanboy/gates haters in other threads tire out my eye rolling muscles, who cares which system is better in your eyes, we are gamers, i'll proudly own an xbox someday, just as i proudly own my channel f and my jaguar. ok that was a topic drift but i needed to vent that, geesh people the xbox never did anything to you. back to the topic- i play games and have a monster sized collection, thus i see myself as a well rounded gamer. why do you feel the need to make it a 51%-49% thing?
________
Granny black

[WiseSalesman]

No need to get offended....this question came to my mind, and I found myself curious as to how the other people on here I had talked to would answer such a question. If you don't like the poll, there is certainly no obligation to participate in it. It was never meant to divide people into "gamers" and "collectors" and cause some sort of rift....I was just curious who here collected just to collect and who here collected because they wanted to play them.

It's like the age old comic book collector's debate: Do I leave this comic sealed, knowing one day it will be worth tons of cash, or do I open it, because I love to read comics?

[ROBOTRON]

Can't vote on this one...I'm both.

[ClubNinja]

I too think it's a little hard to choose one side that's more prominent than the other. Some months, it's more gamer, while others are collector-mode. Lately, I've been mostly a collector, as I haven't had the time to really sit down and play anything. That doesn't mean that these games will never be played, though. They'll all have their day(s)!

Regarding the comic book parallel - I always open sealed games. Always. How else will they breathe?

[spoon]

Gamer, I am a collector of NES, but I still get really into the games, and the only reason I am a collector, is because I was/am a gamer!

[Stark]

I had to say collector. I only play certain games but I love having as many as I can get. Most of my stuff is boxed up due to lack of room.

[digitalpress]

I'm definitely a gamer FIRST, collector SECOND. The only reason a collection ever started for me in the first place is because I had piles of games around that I *had* to play. Nowadays I fill in holes by collecting but not a day goes by where I don't PLAY, whereas many days go by when I don't COLLECT.

Great poll! Interesting results, too.

[Neo-Jorge]

Gamer 1st collector Second. My love for gaming is what made me a collector, I think as the internet grew and the gaming communities came together It seems as though it was the in thing to do and have a giant collection to display to the masses. I would have to say I have always enjoyed showing off my personal collections to my friends and family and I was a bit surprized when I saw so many collections online and knew that I was not the only weirdo around that collected game stuff.




Thanks

[Revolt]

Im more of a gamer. I do collect, but only the ones I will play.

[wberdan]

originally i was just a hardcore gamer.... but after the thousands of hours wasted on games between the ages 4 to 14 i pretty much completely burned out. now collecting the items is my main priority, more than playing them.

willie

[Andy Rampage]

" i AM A GAMER! ~TOTALLY!!"

"i AM Totally, A GAMER!!"

"COLLECTOR? what's that??

[Arrrhalomynn]

I'm definately a collector. I used to be a gamer, but then I bought more and more games. And I started playing them less.
When I play a game I usually only play 1 game for some time. Several weeks baldur's gate, several weeks GTA, a week sega rally. Etc. I get games a lot quicker than I can play them.
And I collect PAL saturn games. And most of those aren't even worth playing

[GENESISNES]

i collect a helluva lot more than i game.