The gamer you were when you joined VGcollect vs. the gamer you are now in 2023

[kashell]

I joined the site in either 2012 or 2013 at the request of disgaeniac. I can't remember which year, but I hardly posted because I was too lazy to start cataloguing my collection and didn't feel like trying to get too deep into another forum. Especially one that revolved around collecting video games. Reason being that I never saw myself as a collector prior to joining the site. I just had a bunch of games that I held onto for various reasons. And seeing others with collections getting into the thousands was a shock to the system.

But, in 2014 I got more into the idea of collecting and participating in the discussions on here. There were ebbs and flows in collecting because I'm luckily located in a city with a lot of used media stores. The prices weren't bad, but nowhere near what they (supposedly) once were back in the late aughts/early 2010s. Still, going from place to place to find things that looked somewhat fun was a good time. At one point, I had this bizarre ambition to collect every Sega Saturn game released in the states. I made surprisingly good progress, but eventually the thought of getting games that wouldn't "fit" my vibe stopped being appealing. That applied to every console; not just the Saturn.

Which I guess brings us to the present. I'm right back where I was before joining this site. I'll go through pruning phases in which I just offload a bunch of stuff that doesn't fit anymore. And it's pretty damn rewarding since the market continues to be hot. I know that we all have a distaste for flippers/scalpers/resellers but they've given me a lot of what I like to call "fun money." In other words, selling stuff that I no longer have any use has allowed me to fund other ventures or hobbies without having to dip into the work funds you get from the 9 to 5. For example, selling a couple of games let me hire someone to build my website. I've been able to spend a little extra on vacations. Things like that. In some ways, it's a bummer that the market has become saturated. In other ways, it's been a benefit for other things. And the best thing of all is that I still get to partake in this forum that has led me to some incredible friendships and connections.

I'm still a gamer, of course. That'll never change. Collecting was just a brief period of my life that I look back on somewhat fondly.

[bizzgeburt]

I joined VG collect in 2020, when my original collection-database-site retrocollect went down.

Damn, RetroCollect went down? It's buried in my long post but I started there so it did have some importance to me. That is a shame, I wasn't there long because back in the day (maybe this changed in the near decade) it was focused on UK collectors so it kinda sucked for American collections.

I actually don't know if the site ever went up again, I didn't bother to look it up, for my collection's new home is right here

The site is back up again if where talking the database, but the forum is probably not going to return anytime soon.

That being said I always found that database to be quite messy to use. prefer this one. The forum was interesting though so that not making a return is pretty sad.

I liked retrocollect for it's way to display your collection, but after more than 2 years as member of THIS community, I def prefer VG collect, because I can submit and edit data by myself, helping to accumulate as much and as complete data as possible, making this site a really impressive database for games. Mentioning this, I want to shout out a big salute to all of those dedicated members, checking and correcting all those edits submitted, cause they do a great job! :-)

I'm curious what strong points where there for retrocollect in your vision display wise.

Because from my perspective even on the european stuff most items lacked pictures even outside of niche items and you have less info per specific item compared to vgcollect.

One of the few things I'd say it has over vgcollect maybe the looking up part of said database seeing all versions of said games which is a big thing for europe. but most of those would lack pictures and have very limited info. so it's mostly just text.

I simply liked the way of display as it looked like a shelf I agree with you in all other points. That may be also one reason for me to stay here instead of relaunching my profile on retro..

[tripredacus]

When I joined I was still actively playing console game, but over time that changed. I have not played a console game in a long time and have re-focused my personal backlog to prioritize digital games just because I know that some day those will go away when the physical games won't. The 52 Games Challenge thread here has gotten me to stop focusing on just one or two games for a long period of time and at least spread out what I am playing. Currently not counting that since I'm playing a game that has a long playtime before I can get to the end-game but it still counts in my book as I've never completed a Minecraft playthrough before. I don't consider killing the Ender Dragon to get the credits to be enough.

Maybe more importantly, the site has changed the way I collect. Before I had gone on my spree of Genesis collecting, I went through a period of buying cheap games that weren't in the db or didn't have any info, just so I could document them. And as time went on and I started working on international stuff and working on the ID section of the forum, I then got real interested in games from other countries and have been buying more of those than ones from the US.

[dhaabi]

As a gamer, I did not have an ideal gaming setup and generally resorted to playing some games through Steam with regularity when I joined in late-2015. Within the year, while I was able to gain a much better gaming setup to play my consoles as my preferred platform, I lost the available time I was to play games as life became incredibly busy and stressful for a long time. Now, in the last few years, my time for gaming has opened up again, and I'm generally spending a moderate amount of time doing so, although I now spend time pursuing other activities unlike before. Looking forward, I don't see my current situation changing either way in any either direction.

As a collector, my collection has increased a lot by my standards since I've joined. The kinds of games I'm interested in hasn't really changed, although I am recently making an attempt to try some genres I hadn't played before, such as survival horror and Western RPG. Something to consider is that my collection is shared by two, so we certainly have our own interests in the medium. With that said, having the kinds of items I wouldn't personally have considered purchasing on my own as part of my inventory makes trying out new kinds of games more easily possible, if I'm wanting to. At this point, I am not usually adding items to my collection, as I would like to focus on my backlog. If there are games I become priced out of as the market has heavily shifted since 2020, then so be it.

[turf]

Dang!  I’ve been a member since 2012. A lot has changed since then.
2012 me was having a blast playing Xbox 360 and buying up all the NES games I could. I still had dreams that I’d find a Stadium Events or an NWC cart in a yard sale. I was probably playing UFC Undisputed 3 at the time. I loved the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in those games. In fact, I need to go back and give that game another shot.

Present day me barely gets to play games. I’m doing my best to play through Super Mario 3D World. I forgot how much fun this game is.

[zenimus]

I sort of drifted here from Neo-Geo.com in 2012... the site had a reputation for drama, and it's definitely warranted. I met some cool people there though.

The most noticeable change in my gaming habits is I don't play Street Fighter style fighting games as much anymore. I love Street Fighter, but I'll never understand why they chose 6-buttons for the inputs. Most people don't have 6 fingers, and in a fast game like that, you can't afford the "travel time" to get to the different buttons. Neo Geo's fighters are so much easier to get into because of this. 4 buttons means each one is always ready.

Dark Souls came out about 10 years ago and has become one of my favorite series ever.

Nintendo has been completely revitalized since 2012. With the Wii, Wii U, and even the GameCube, it seemed like Nintendo's best days were behind them... but the the Switch came out and became a haven for all kinds of great games.

[Warmsignal]

I sort of drifted here from Neo-Geo.com in 2012... the site had a reputation for drama, and it's definitely warranted. I met some cool people there though.

I've found the more niche the gaming community, the more eccentric, or possible autistic, they can be. There's loads of a weird, petty and incessant drama that follows the Atari Jaguar scene. I imagine with the barrier to entry for Neo Geo it's probably even more pronounced.

[zenimus]

I've found the more niche the gaming community, the more eccentric, or possible autistic, they can be. There's loads of a weird, petty and incessant drama that follows the Atari Jaguar scene. I imagine with the barrier to entry for Neo Geo it's probably even more pronounced.

Drama even with the relatively humble Atari Jaguar?

Yeah, with Neo Geo, you have no idea... You'd get people extremely hostile to newbies just trying to buy a few of the cheaper AES games, older members insisting on the use of the term NGH (Neo Geo Homecart) instead of AES since "SNK never called it AES", members complaining about life constantly and jeering each other, tribal hostility over a duo called "NeoGeo Freak" that may or may not have legitimately held a distribution license at one point, people constantly polluting your sales threads with "Your prices suck", people posting pictures of themselves licking game carts, constant unwarranted political vitriol (and that was during the Bush years, who knows how it's been over the last few cycles...), moderators altering your profile with insulting titles if they didn't like your opinion on something, supposedly high profile members allegedly finding English copies of a game that was never officially released in a storage unit, then disappearing... on and on... 

[wolff242]

I've only been here 6 years, and I was drawn here because I was going for a complete NTSC base set for Xbox 360. I wouldn't say much has changed for me, I still collect games and play games. Luckily I finished my 360 set before the covid boom, but dreams of doing any kind of PS3 set have been crushed by the price increases. Overall I'm at a very happy place when it comes to my collection. Mostly just picking up physical copies of games I own digitally on PS4/XB1 and adding the occasional new PS3 game I find in the wild.

[bikingjahuty]

I sort of drifted here from Neo-Geo.com in 2012... the site had a reputation for drama, and it's definitely warranted. I met some cool people there though.

I've found the more niche the gaming community, the more eccentric, or possible autistic, they can be. There's loads of a weird, petty and incessant drama that follows the Atari Jaguar scene. I imagine with the barrier to entry for Neo Geo it's probably even more pronounced.

I joined Pinside about a year ago when I decided I was going to try and buy a pinball machine and I've observed this as well. There are a ton of "I know what I have" boomers on there that have basements full of pinball machines and like to flaunt their collections like it's an extension of their penises. But the worst are people that freak out over thinking certain machines are good, or even by referring to a pinball machine as a "table" even though that's a pretty standard term. I mostly enjoy that site, but it's far more hostile and ridiculous than it has ever been here.

[shfan]

Joined at the beginning of 2016, difference between then and now is massive.

Got rid of the bulk of my games and got them back again several times over a period of about a decade, before finally settling back on collecting as much as possible within my interest areas, that was before i joined the site here. By this point I was aware that getting rid of games now means I can't afford to get them back and have zero chance of finding them cheap in the wild.

Then in 2018 my wife became pregnant, pretty much squashing my interest or ability to collect or even play games much, then in 2021 I lost a parent and had to sell a lot of games due to expenses, then continued to sell them to help with household expenses.

That leaves me where I am now, completely out the other side of retro-collecting beyond games which really appeal and ones I used to own and value as memories. Still picking up modern games where I can for the Switch and PS4, but a couple of years ago I crossed the picket-line -- I was staunchly anti-digital and would only play physical versions of game releases. I had to change that a few years ago due to lack of funds, its changed me from a console gamer into a pc gamer, its where I spend 90% of my playtime. Instead of hunting for non-existent treasures in the wild I scour Kinguin every now and then for cheap game codes, but just like my physical game collection I'm constantly pruning my Steam games so I just get left with the replayable or just plain excellent and bin the rest.

The actual types of games I play haven't changed - still hate the idea of online multiplayer and 'games as an experience' type guff, but everything else is on its head.

[soera]

I joined the site in either 2012 or 2013 at the request of disgaeniac.

 


On my own personal note, I joined back in like 2011 or something. Was the COO of a big retro game club and wanted to start cataloging my stuff. Darko mentioned this place and I've been here ever since. My collection focus has changed so many times in those years but I think I'm finally where I want to be.

[stealthrush]

Joined - December 28, 2012

Took a halt on collecting and started completing the games I already own. These days I'm more active on HowLongToBeat blogging my progress. Occasionally log new games I buy which are usually for Wii and Wii U. Finishing games on psychical CD/cartridge, Everdrive /emulation is my primary focus today.

[pzeke]

When I came here straight from an unrelated Google search and became a member, the hobby was already the beast it is today, prices having already spiked and rising with most everyone going crazy over retro games and all that jazz. Granted, it was nothing like now post-COVID where things skyrocketed out of left field, but overall things had already blown up. Comparing myself then and now, I'd say the song remains the same, as both a gamer and collector. I will say, though, that from then and now I've learned to not care about the games I once had or once could've had, completely freeing my mind of that yoke and letting go of the "guilt". I've staunchly preached patience since joining here, so I must abide by it and just let those alabaster-skinned cetaceans swim their way to me.

[...]

The past is price locked to all but the most wealthy or irresponsible and the future is digital slavery

[...]

A tad [melo]dramatic, but I like it.

[wartoy]

I joined back in 2014 and was mostly a modern gamer/collector at the time Xbox 360 and Ps3 were my main systems. I started playing/collecting way back in the 80's so luckily I already had a lot of the older systems and games and could focus on modern stuff. But now I mostly play/collect the old stuff I could never find or never knew about and stuff I always wanted to try. (except I'm going hard on Switch) My modern collecting days are over for the most part.