I don't regard people, who amass games in "digital download form (only)", as collectors.

True collectors have one particular field of interest (some may have more than one).
But no matter, whether they collect in one or in several fields - they all have one thing in common: they collect something physical.

I wrote this in a similar thread some years ago already: go to a game collectors' meeting with nothing but a HDD full of digital downloads - and find out, what the real collectors think about that.

People in that thread back then didn't even know, what I was talking about.
That tells you all you need to know about "digital game collectors".

"Digital game collectors" don't collect games - they hoard files.

I'll explain this: France has no territories or sublease countries it keeps in the basement. Any part of France, is part of France. Therefore & Ergo: Both your tiny island and the island of Réunion off the coast of Africa are both part of the EU, being part of France. Quod erat demonstrandum.

So take it up with the local régionale des finances publiques or take it up with the Krajowa Administracja Skarbowa if you feel this is in error.

Or you could organize your fellow countrypeople to decolonize but uuuuuuuuuh, good luck with that; can't imagine anyone is eager to do that in these trying times.

Well, yes and no - 9 outermost regions (OMR) are part of EU: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Reunion Island and Saint-Martin (France); Azores, Madeira (Portugal); The Canary Islands (Spain).

13 Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT), including French Polynesia, do not form part of the European Union, though they cooperate with the EU via OCT Association.

Officially, Overseas countries and territories (OCTs) are associated with the European Union but not as sovereign countries, they depend on three EU Member States: Denmark, France and the Netherlands.

However, there is VAT in French Polynesia, standard rate is 16%, but VAT is not applicable in the following French territories: French Guiana, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Saint-Martin, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and Wallis and Futuna.

It is complicated, but that's just how we in EU roll :)


OT: sometimes, after 400 games in GOG library, 1000+ Steam/EA/Ubi/Epic game licences, and 200 PS4/PS5 games, I get a feeling that I enjoy searching for good deals on games more than I enjoy playing them.
And I really miss those times when PC games came in big boxes with some extras inside, it felt like collecting, and not just hoarding, like today, with digitial games.

My collection is completed, actually. Now i only buy in an opportunistic fashion and don't chase after specific games. It was never about the number but about the specific games, so i never counted. Probably in the lower half of the 4 digits if i had to guess how many i have.

Acquisition of goods stops primarily stops following an evaluation of my position; my means and my qualities. My position must be to not collect, but only to seriously purchase what I will actually play. In other words, any serious collecting is too addictive and elicits too many behaviours associated with hoarding as a coping mechanism that would be ruinous to me, so must be restricted to a percentage of my income. I may not be intelligent in many matters, but at least in this I have lucidity.

That just sounds like the rhetoric of an elitism snob to me, my fellow Scotsman. Why is the value of digital data written on a disc and sold by Sony (or other) of a higher value than one officially distributed by Sony (or other) and written by me to my own disc?

I've set a soft limit to 1.000.000 games. It is not a hard limit, only a soft one, so it doesn't really matter if I go beyond it.

Good that it's just a soft limit then. You wouldn't even be able to get everything currently on itch if it'd have been a hard one :))

Sorry, but as a non-resident of Tahiti, you obviously do not know of what you speak when it comes to Tahiti being in any way a part of the EU, period. We purchase items from other platforms that levy no surcharges, since they have no pysical presence here. That is the ethical way of conducting business. We can provide evidence of such upon request. QED.

If I trusted any of the online services not to yank things offline with little or no notice, I might be the same way. But Steam and some of the other stores can't be trusted not to take things down, (nor can the console companies, for that matter) and at least with GOG I can make archival copies of everything I've purchased.

I feel the same way toward streaming services. Too many TV shows and movies vanish for seemingly no logical reason, and if you don't own a DVD or BluRay you're screwed. I don't like the space requirement of my physical media collection, I'll grant you that, but I like it better than the possibility of something I've paid for disappearing into the ether. Barring a house fire or a robbery, everything I have a physical copy of is mine forever.

Except for the fact of physical media degrading. Hopefully not before you're in the grave though! ;)

I honestly don't understand where you are coming from and I certainly don't agree.

A collection is a collection. When since does the format it is in dictate whether it is or not.

And just for the record, my digital collection is physical ... files in folders spread over physical drives.

I can count them, I can list them, I can view them and even display them if I want.
I can organize them, I can transport them, etc, etc.

I can agree there are different types of collections, and a digital collection isn't a physical collection in exactly the same way, but I am yet to hear a coherent argument based on fact, that there is no such thing as a digital collection.

A true collector is someone who collects something, generally of a type. Be that stamps, bottles, photos, coins, books, games, music, movies, all manner of things. Nowhere in any definition I have read, does it state it must be physical and that digital isn't acceptable, and I wouldn't accept it if it did. There is such a things as being too narrow minded..

In any case, all games are digital ... all files on some type of media.

I appreciate, that there are value differences between media, but that's it. And I also believe that it is impossible for a digital product to be rare, once it has been released to the public, unlike something physical that is unique.

For sure, and I certainly did not mean a specific number when I mentioned count in the title of this thread. I see count as loosely suggesting amount, and when you amass a certain amount, you know you have a lot.

And for me now, I feel I have reached a point, where I need to be more selective and reduce the amount I buy going forward. Call it approaching critical mass if you want.

I will still continue to buy what really appeals to me, just that I have amassed so much now, that I feel I should be more discerning, not to mention spend less money and distribute my minimal wealth elsewhere.

I could go on doing what I have been until the day I die or become too senile or something. But what's the point of that. I know without a doubt, that I cannot play even just the games I love the most, in my remaining lifespan, and of course many of the untried games I have, are potentially more to greatly love.

I'm also not a young man, and have many other interests etc, that use up time etc.

So while I'm not going to completely stop, I have in theory at least, reached the point of having enough. I should be able to play what I already have, and be satisfied with that until the day I die and then some. I should never be in want or need of a great game, having plenty to choose from ... and that's without ever needing to replay anything.

I see myself as being rich in choices ... and that's how I always wanted it. It does not seem sensible to me, to go too much further now, than I have.