People who don't play or rarely play video games, why do you collect?

[seether]

Because I deserve to have Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, PaRappa the Rapper 2, Silent Hill 3 and Sly Raccoon on my shelf.

And I don’t care if you’d play them more or like them more in your collection

[oldgamerz]

Because I deserve to have Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, PaRappa the Rapper 2, Silent Hill 3 and Sly Raccoon on my shelf.

And I don’t care if you’d play them more or like them more in your collection

and I'm happy for you  , but those games don't interest me and I don't have nothing to play them on anyway, and you deserve them indeed

[ferraroso]

Well, I see myself as more of a collector than a gamer, so maybe I am qualified to answer to this question.
In my case, games have alway been something I was interested in. In the 90's, I used to have a lot of fun just by looking at those old gaming magazines and reading about games and consoles that I would never have the money to buy.
Now, as an adult, even though I have almost no time (or even interest) to play video games anymore, I finally have the opportunity to own some of those things that seemed to be unreachable over two decades ago...
Everytime I buy a Neo Geo, Saturn or Dreamcast game, for example, I feel like I am back to a childhood that, in fact, was never mine...

[hoshichiri]

I imagine people who collect, but not play, do so for the reasons people collect other unused/nonuseable things- the thrill of the hunt. Tracking down certain titles can be quite difficult. Having them can be a bragging point to other collectors- be it a Little Samson cart or a Princess Diana Beanie Baby.

Collecting for profit is quite foolish- much like those Beanie Babies, the prices are tied to public interest. If that interest ever fails, you lose all your value. The useage of games vs. other collectibles makes it a little safer- people buy to play, and that usually doesn't just go away, so drops in price are slower. But, for the really big-ticket items, it's still dangerous. If the market bubble bursts, no one is going to care about your minty CIB Stadium Events when a cheap World Class Track Meet lets them play the same game.

I know someday they will drop the hammer on ROM's considering the gaming industry instead of making 6 billion that could make even more by attacking ROM distributor and ROM holders , already people are getting arrested or fines by companies such as Nintendo for having ROM's. Even though it is not vary often it will happen, people are savages these days,

Nah. Even if companies wanted to do that, the average person is not likely to get arrested for having ROMs.

1- We already have historical evidence from the Napster days that it makes for very bad press.
2- Since the majority of older games that are available via ROM aren't available in other ways, proving financial damage is difficult.
3- by limiting access, interest wanes, which makes re-releases of old content less likely to sell. Companies know this.

Going after ROM distributors is easy enough- "We own this, you don't, stop giving it to people". But actually targeting ROM users? That's a legal rat's nest- and it's not worth the company's time or the lowered opinions of your paying audience.

[wartoy]

I love to collect and I like to be able to view the artwork on my games. that's the biggest thing for me besides playing them of course. I usualy go threw spurts sometime I don't play much and collect more.Last year I found myself playing much more and Im having a blast playing again and I hope this continues.

[pzeke]

The artwork.

Lost the will/interest to play them, but happen to be so entwined with the hobby that they're on autopilot.

The thrill of the hunt.

Just for the sake of having something to do.

It has become an addiction.

Financial gain.

Expendable income.

Asperger's.

Hoarding.

Coping mechanism.

No responsibilities other than having a roof over their head, food to eat, and paying the bills. In other words, not married with children.

Choose your poison, there's plenty of reasons.

On a related note, I do find it funny how Sigmund Freud posited that collecting comes from an "unresolved toilet training conflict". Quite possibly one of the many ideas/theories this guy had that pretty much helps further the notion he was full of shit. Pun intended.

However I have just had a major loss in my life, my partner died suddenly and sorting through all of her things has made me realise that someone will need to do this with my VG collection. And it would be hard enough for me to sort out let alone someone that doesn't understand where the value is or even what they are looking at. So maybe now is a good time to start slimming it down. Who knows?

My condolences.

I think a will with precise instructions could help in such a situation. I know someone who collects cars that has one where he has listed all the cars he owns and what to do with them in the event of his death; as far as I was told, the will is very thorough.

What about people who collect sealed lego boxes

ton of people who buy lego's withouth ever building it.

Whats the point of buying that now that's just insane imo.

The same argument can be used with those who collect sealed games, especially with those who have them graded.

To each their own, as they say.

I have one thing to say about people who are just in collecting for the profit, Do onto others as you would do to yourself, because lets say you don't like video games and have 10's or 1000's just to waiting to turn a profit, I believe someday and someway that person will be on the other side of things, and have vary bad luck. Luck is not of the side of the greedy

Well, good thing I don't believe in luck.

Joke aside, I don't think people that collect for the sake of turning a profit truly care about that. Often times they do it as a way of staying afloat or fund the hobby, and while it may be infuriating to some, there's nothing wrong with that. Sure, an argument can be made against scalpers, like you basically did, but hey, that's the ugly side of capitalism. While scalpers are a problem, I think consumers should know better, perhaps inform themselves and be on top of what they're looking for, and if they miss whatever they're looking for, then so be it. Just because you missed it the first time doesn't mean you will never find it again—good things come to those who are patient. And I know I belabor that point quite a lot around here, but I do it because it's true.

I know someday they will drop the hammer on ROM's considering the gaming industry instead of making 6 billion that could make even more by attacking ROM distributor and ROM holders , already people are getting arrested or fines by companies such as Nintendo for having ROM's. Even though it is not vary often it will happen, people are savages these days,

You exaggerate quite some whenever you bring up ROMs and such. Sure, it's illegal, and we can be here all day arguing that as well as the gray areas therein, but this isn't Napster, as bad of an example as that may be. Are websites having their curtains closed? Yes. But nobody is going to jail or prison over this. The websites that have been fined, as far as I know, were because their owners were making money off of them by running ads. Many other ROM-hosting websites have decided to close their doors for the sake of avoiding this from happening. Nintendo, for example, isn't going to go on a crusade to make every user that has downloaded their games pay for doing so. They did what they did at a time where they were in the process of readying their online services where they would have NES and SNES games, so in essence they were protecting their product to ensure people would invest in it. Was it a dick move? Sure. But they were well within their legal right to do so. This scenario is very true for when Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS was nearing its release where Nintendo went after AMR2, a fan-made remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus. It was truly unfortunate seeing AMR2 is a superb game that took a decade to make, but I guess those are the risks. C'est la vie.

As hoshichiri said, in the event a company wants a ROM website gone, all they have to do is send a cease and desist notice and it's done.