awalterj: For many people, all the money spent on games is just peanuts so there is no need for them to be worried about the financial aspect of things. However, even if someone can easily afford all purchases there still remains the matter of why one buys so much, more than one possibly needs?
What hole in their existence, what void are people filling?
Maybe it's just residual stone age genetics that lead to hoarding and collecting more than you need, or maybe someone has other issues. Of course, those other issues can't be resolved by not buying games. But it's an important first step to stop and say wait, what am I doing and why?
That is a very apt description of what I believe is going on for myself and many others. So with that said...
Hi my name is Tarnicus and I have been a game-hoarding addict for as long as I can remember. It started in the early 1980s when I was the first person in my school(that I knew) to have a personal computer. It even
had a colour monitor! Check out those mad four colour graphix :P (that isn't my photo). I was made the class computer monitor, and swiftly absorbed everything I could about them. I have taught many classes (unpaid) as my knowledge exceeded that of the school or college teacher.
Soon personal computers became more common, and we learned all manner of tricks with them, such as punching a hole in a 5 1/4" floppy to make it double-sided. I spent all of my pocket money and money from odd jobs on computers and computer games, most of it on blank disks. We shared everything freely (just as we did with music and movies) and the concept of piracy and software licensing was a foreign one. Given that the price of games was generally $80-100, after paying that much, as far as we were concerned, we owned them! I have so many fond memories from my younger years relating to playing computer games and talking about them with friends. Birthday parties were often spent around a computer.
My collection grew significantly, and in those days I actually played them and even finished numerous games. I believe the nature of my current addiction stems from those nostalgic memories. Gaming was my escape from a mostly unpleasant childhood, just as my trips to Eden and the outdoors were. When I was working full-time, I amassed quite a collection of games, almost all of them purchased from bargain bins and on sale. I rarely played ANY of them but I loved the look of them on my shelf. The ones I couldn't find or get to work on 'modern' systems (this was late 90s to early 2000s), I downloaded from abandonware and pirate sites. I had many discussions with friends about the ethics of doing so. I had all manner of justifications, which were usually based on "fuck you, I've bought this game 5 times already and I OWN it" or "prices in Australia are ridiculous" or "censorship" (that one I still believe but have yet to download a pirated uncensored version of anything).
Still, with all of my hoarding, was an intense lack of
playing. I spent most of my gaming time playing MMORPGs such as Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, and numerous other games. I truly loved the social interaction (not grouping) and being able to be generous to others, as I amassed fortunes in those games. Somehow it seemed to balance out my isolated, casually employed/unemployed, permanent-student existence. I felt a place of belonging and a sense of purpose that I struggled to find in 'real' life.
After a particularly bad time in my life, where I almost left this physical world, a dear friend of many years introduced me to both GOG and Steam by purchasing me The Witcher(I've actually played it but never finished it, much to his disappointment!) I had been anti-Steam for as long as I could remember. That was 2011. Boy was I pissed off when they made Day of Defeat require Steam!
Since then I have met many wonderful people (not in person yet, unlike my MMO days where I would meet up with people) who have helped me to begin to find a sense of purpose and belonging again. The down-side? I CAN'T STOP BUYING GAMES! I need help please...
My current collection (without going through all of my codes and sites) is 1202 on Steam(409 DLC), 264 on GOG, and hundreds across various other sites. And I don't even play them. My most common game is selling Steam trading cards and chatting lol I've amassed $261.76 since I started selling cards as an experiment last August. Please GOG, do NOT introduce such a system here.
