Going For Quantity Or Quality In Games

[oldgamerz]

I thought there was a thread on this subject but I could not find it.

When I was buying video games en mass, I was going for Quantity and not really much Quality. Of course a video games quality can be anyone's opinion good or bad.

I guess the question I have is do you save up your money for expensive or rare video games? or are like me and just bought any games that looks decent, or has a good deal.

[epicninjask123]

This is something I consider every time I buy games, although my metric is quality relative to the game's cost. I do want to have some rare and relatively expensive games to boast about in my collection. That's why I have games like Suikoden 2 and Eternal Darkness, great games which are hard to find and harder to find cheap and in good condition. But at the same time, I only let myself spend $45 weekly on games, if that, so a lot of weeks I'll buy 2-3 games I know are good but have a low enough market value. Right now I haven't expanded my collection to "bad" games or quality-unknown games, I don't have that much to burn.

So it really depends on my mood each week, and what I find in stores. Generally speaking, if I think I can get the game for less if I wait a few months, then I don't buy it. That's why I rarely buy brand new releases or DLC. After that, I just get whatever strikes me, and maybe I'll splurge twice a year or so to buy a new console or a game as expensive as Suikoden 2.

This might not have answered the thread topic specifically, but it's just my personal rationale.

[dreama1]

Quality. Quantity seems like it has strong hoarding tendencies.

[emporerdragon]

I'm more of a quantity guy myself. I basically look at every game and assign a maximum value to it or "What's the most I would pay for this game?". If it falls under that, I'll likely buy it unless something else gets my attention.

Besides wanting a large collection, I find it's worth playing some of the lesser known, cheaper games as you might be able to discover a hidden gem or find something that's just great to riff on MST3K-style with some friends.

[oldgamerz]

Quality. Quantity seems like it has strong hoarding tendencies.

I can see where your coming from, I care about other gamers which is why I stopped grabbing other games and now I only buy something if I really want it bad enough. I am satisfied to be honest (in spite of an earlier post I made). I generally care especially for people that have less than myself. pretty much all games are the same, just different storylines, controls and challenges or worlds and characters you sit and push buttons and make them or something move in a virtual world like an interactive movie anime or cartoon

[ferraroso]

For me, it used to be a mix of quantity and quality until last year or so.
However, right now I feel that I already own most of the cheap games I'd like to have, so now I focus much more on the quality or on how much I want to own or play a game.
For example, nowadays, when I go out hunting for games, I'd rather pay ¥15,000 (like US$135.00 or so) for a copy of Radiant Silvergun than spending the same amount in two dozens or more of PlayStation or Famicom stuff that, although good enough in themselves, for the most part, I'd probably never play...

[BinaryMessiah]

Quality ONLY. That's why I don't have 8,000 games in my collection as some people have. I literally created a Wishlist for only the consoles I want to play and the games that scored high, are the most popular, and hidden gems in a sense. I'm not someone to complete entire console libraries as I will never have the space or money for that. Over the years, my wishlists are pretty small now with just buying new games that come out and I've basically bought up all the common games that are cheap. I will also only buy CIB games and never loose ones including carts. If I stick to these golden rules I won't ever start hoarding. I'd rather spend $300 on a rare game that I will play than 30 cheap games that are $5 each because I just can and it makes my numbers grow. 2 months ago I bought Suikoden II for PS1 at a local game store and that was all I could buy that day instead of a bunch of cheap games just because I don't own them.

Someone stated quantity is hoarding and I agree. If I won't play the game I don't buy so I don't hoard. That's what sets collectors apart from hoarders is we collect, we have a list of items we specifically want, but some people aren't like that.

[sworddude]

Quality over quantity for me. If it doesn't look like fun to me It's a no go. My collection would have been multiple times bigger if I went that road.

The only reason I would see for having filler titles having some value is if you would go for full sets otherwise the reason ain't good enough in my opinion.

[mark1982]

Definitely Quality, and the meaning of quality for me is that I will play it. I only buy games that I’m gonna play, I won’t go out of my way to buy a game just to add into my collection. There are plenty of shovel ware games out there that I constantly see at thrift stores or the 2nd hand bin going for a couple of bucks, but I never pick those up. Rather save up those bucks and buy a quality game online that I know I’ll play and enjoy.

[baileykun]

Definitely Quality, and the meaning of quality for me is that I will play it. I only buy games that I’m gonna play, I won’t go out of my way to buy a game just to add into my collection. There are plenty of shovel ware games out there that I constantly see at thrift stores or the 2nd hand bin going for a couple of bucks, but I never pick those up. Rather save up those bucks and buy a quality game online that I know I’ll play and enjoy.

I can second this. I could never house all that shovel-ware. It would take up so much space so fast. I only get games I want to play.

[bikingjahuty]

I don't have anything against people who go for quantity, specifically people who go for full sets of relatively large console libraries, however I believe in collecting everything you really diminish the quality and value of your collection. I don't necessarily mean value in the sense of what your collection is worth, but value as in someone whose collection has 100 good games mixed in 900 crap/mediocre games is going to have a less impressive collection that someone with just 150 really good games. I've seen very large collections and it's always sobering to see how much shovelware, sports, and crap games there are for any rather large console library, hence why I don't collect this way.


On that note, I collect to play. Yes, it is highly unlikely I'll ever play every game that I own, but every game I own is there because I genuinely would like to play it someday. That is my metric for deciding whether or not I will buy a game; does this game look interesting to me and is there a chance I might play and enjoy it? If the answer is yes I buy it, if no then I don't. Obviously there are a lot of games that look interesting to me given the size of my collection and its continual growth, but every game I have isn't there by accident.

[hoshichiri]

A little of both, but with a definite focus on quality.

First off- never buy any game I won't play, for any price. I don't like sports games, ultra-gory stuff, most racing games, & licensed things. No matter how cheap they are, I won't bother.


After that, there's a sort of price-to-personal value ratio that must be met for me to buy a game. For example: Babysitting Mama is not a good name, but it IS a very novel game with its plush baby controller accessory. I wouldn't pay full price. I wouldn't pay half price. But a dollar for a copy complete with plush baby? That I'll do. Most titles I have a vague interest in I'll buy at 5 bucks or less, more than that requires a greater interest in the title.


Like most people here, I've reached a point where most of the titles I'd want that are cheap I've already acquired. Given a choice between a couple titles of middling interest, or one expensive game of great interest, I'll usually get the expensive game. Funnily enough, space plays a role in this too- I'm a fair bit more picky about my PS4 games these days, becuase I have less space left on the PS4 shelf than the others. Same for NES/SNES. I've still got room for Switch, Xbox One, & Genesis though, so I'm a lot more likely to impulse buy those.

[kashell]

Quality, for sure. And, by quality I mean something I'll play and (hopefully) enjoy.

[Flashback2012]

It's all about the quantify! 

[kypherion]

About a year ago I was going for quantity, but now I'm not spending as much money on games at the moment. I'm going to save for a better laptop so I can do schoolwork/games/whatever on a better processor and ram.

Now I'm mainly focused on games I want like Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Bloodstained, DOOM Eternal etc...