Parting with games you know you'll never play again...

My game collection's getting rather big, so I decided to finally get ruthless, go through everything and get rid of all the old games that I know I'll never touch again. After all, I'm running out of space and Onimusha 2's due out tomorrow and I'm short on bucks until I get paid on Friday.

But...when should you let go? I mean, I have games that I've beaten, but I will never get rid of due to the nostalgic value, or the fact that I might like to play them again one day. Then there's the games I've bought but never ended up playing, and probably never will at this point. Then there's 'decent' (at best) games that I bought, beat or at least played, have no use for but keep around anyway beacuse, while not overally engrossing, they have some degree of charm or something. Thise are the ones that should probably go, but I'm a real pack rat...I've gotten ruthless and gotten rid of a few games before, but not too many. It took a lot of nerve for me to get rid of Vagrant Story, as the art and style and story of the game were amazing, but I hated the whole risk breaker/weapon forging thing with a passion. I knew I'd never play it.

Anyway, what I decided to do was to take the games I had doubts about, remove them from my shelf, and place them aside for a few days. You know, pretend they're not there. If I end up missing them, maybe I'll keep them, but if not- trade-in city, babe. It's just that I keep hearing about how people here end up buying more games than they'll ever play, and it's just becomming wasteful to me. I tend to be more picky than I used to when it comes to buying games lately because of this, even though I have more money now- I rent a lot now before I buy, usually (I just bought The Thing outright, however. I knew it would be good, and it is). Besides, when I was younger, I had less money and a few games, and each one was special. Now it seems I have a lot of mediocre games that I don't play in addition to the special ones. I dunno...do you guys have this problem? Games that you want to trade in or something but can't bear to part with? Can't bear to finally get rid of that copy of T.R.A.G.? How do you decide when it's time to let go? :(

Two rules I follow:

1)Never buy games just to "fill out your collection". Only buy quality games that you want to play.

2)Never get rid of anything.


If you follow those rules, you shouldn't have any games you want to get rid of.

Works for me atleast :)

I used to believe that I should never sell any games I've purchased. Forget that, though.

A few games I've sold: Xenogears and Ape Escape. I let go of these simply because I knew I would not miss them and I had no interest in completing either game.

Out you go!

Well, I almost never sell, or trade my games. Unless I didnt like it, and now trying to sell it back. Thats why I rent alot, since if I'm not sure of the quality of the game, I will give it a rent.

But I agree that with all these new games, its hard to keep them stored. I already filled up my game shelf, and now have a stack of PS2, Cube and Xbox games 3 feet high :). And same goes for my dvd/vhs collection/ I will be getting new book case(3rd one for me:)) to accomidate my collection :)

This morning I finally beat Jet Grind Radio, and I will never, ever touch that game again. I hate it so much...but I think I'll keep it around just so I can periodically remind it that I made it my bitch.

That certainly seems like like a sound way of thinking, and that's the method I'm adopting. Hell, I loved Tenchu so much that I bought Tenchu 2, and the game ended up being horrible, but for some reason I've been keeping it. What a waste...like I said, I'm going to start renting more. My collection would probably be much smaller if I did that... :)

I only sell games that I didn't like and know I don't want to play again. I don't buy that many games though, so I am usually pretty smart about picking up games that I am sure I will like.

There are some games that you may not want to go back and play right now, but I figure in 3-4 years you might want to so it's not worth it to just sell and then have to reacquire.

The only other important factor is value. If a game is worth hundreds of dollars and you don't love it, then maybe it is worthwhile to sell it and use the money for something else. But on the other hand, if a game will only get $5, you may as well hang on to it because it's not even worth the trouble of selling it unless you really hate it.

Dolemite,

How do you determine which games you know/have a feeling you'll never play? I mean, you even say you have some "special" ones you know you won't play...

And related to that, I think the reason you enjoyed your gaming youth was simply that having less meant that you had to give every game a chance. I don't think gaming is necessarily better or worse than back then, although it is definitely different. But like, what criteria do you make for whether you actually play a game or not? I'm just curious. Because if you just simply played all your games, I think you'd find enough enjoyment to last you for years.

The only problem is that human aspect of the need to acquire more... (more recent, more technologically advanced, more games period).

I don't know... often times, I think the difference between now and then is our attitude toward gaming. Not necessarily the games themselves.

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Hell, I loved Tenchu so much that I bought Tenchu 2, and the game ended up being horrible, but for some reason I've been keeping it.

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Me too, me too. Odd thing is I've just taken to playing Tenchu 2 again the other day... Not as bad as I remembered.

I personally ditched my "sell nothing" attitude over a year ago, and since have probably sold 50+ games. And I haven't regretted a single sale so far. At first I would only sell games that I would make all money back or more, but it has got increasingly lax. Now I'm trying to sell as many games as I can possibly bear to. My goal is to get down to 130 games (I'm at 150 right now).

A lot of the games I have I consider "untouchable," like most of my Genesis collection and my all-time favorites. I really see no point in selling those off, even if I have no immediate plans to play them again. I usually ditch the games that are starting to feel like a burden to finish, stuff I don't like (obviously), and possibly some middle of the road games with good resell values.

Tip: do NOT trade in, unless you like getting ripped off. eBay is the way to go more often than not.

I've been thinking about this, and found that even my games that were stolen I miss from time to time and other games that are actually pure and utter crap I still enjoy depending on my mood (Ray Tracers). I usually get games depending on what I'm in the mood for, so while a certain game doesn't appeal to me now, it might tomorrow or the next day.

Makes it really annoying to slim down my collection, hence why I've only sold one DC game (TrickStyle) and about four PS2 games (actually, I sold all except Jak and Dexter to a roomie, so they haven't gone very far, but I needed the cash for VF4) because I knew I would never touch them again since I had better games in those genres should the urge for them hit me.