Collecting: Collector's Dilemma #4 - What about channel 4?

Museum or Arcade?

Collector's Dilemma: Arcade or Museum?

Strictly an Arcade; what's the point of having it if you're not going to play it.

Strictly a museum; this stuff is valuable, no one can touch it, EVER.

Mostly arcade; most of it is playable, but a few things are off limits.

Mostly museum; everything but the most common and worthless stuff is under lock and key.

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Now, we don't all have the pleasure of having a huge room devoted to our gaming collections, but we've all got something. Whether it's a small corner in a basement or a building built solely for games, we are all proud of what we've got. But, we all look at our collections a little differently.

So, my question to you is, how do you treat your game room/collection? Is it like a museum where everything is on display and nothing can be touched. Or more like an arcade where everything is out to be played a no one cares if a game label gets scratched or a CD gets a few scuff marks?

So, how do I look at my collection? Well, I'm all for letting people play my games. I love it when family members or friends come over and want to play something, especially pre-N64 stuff. But, that rarely happens. It's usually PS2 or Wii that people want to play, which is fine I guess. However, I do have a small display case of stuff that is off limits for other people to play. But nothing that's so valuable that I wouldn't play it.

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Comments

Kimoosabi said on 10/2/08 12:12 PM

None of the above for me I'm afraid. Every game I get has to be complete and in mint condition, as I am just anal that way, but I play any and everything I own, and so can others so long as I know they'll handle them with care.

Sirgin said on 10/2/08 12:29 PM

Mostly arcade for me. I can't think of anything that's so valueble in my collection that nobody would be allowed to touch it.

Tan said on 10/2/08 1:24 PM

@Kimoosabi:

Same here, loose games have no display value to me. I baby my games as I baby any form of media and they all stay mint. If the boxes get a couple creases from usage that's fine, it's a mark of a well used item and not a shelf piece, everyone I know understands that. Also I keep everything in the living room. After all it is the place where my primary TV and stereo are located as well as best furniture. Closets and basements are for spare hardware & books.

logical123 said on 10/2/08 2:58 PM

Nothing is off limits, but if you damage my stuff, you get me a new one. Scratch a disk, you pay for a specialty buff or buy me a new one. Nothing is under lock and key.

Ando said on 10/2/08 5:01 PM

Yeah, nothing is all locked up or anything, but I handle all of my stuff with extreme care (my cardboard boxes are all in mint condition, etc.). I'll let my siblings play certain games as well, but certain other uber-rare items (like my MOTHER3 Deluxe Box) are pretty much off-limits to everyone except for one other person whom I know I can trust, and I HAVE - I've left my MOTHER3 micro over at his house for several days and nothing bad happened to it! Unfortunately other people are so careless that he's the only one I can trust. >_>

I KNOW I can't trust people based on the quality of used games. Always so dirty and scratched up... even the case itself... what the heck, people.

Chainclaw said on 10/2/08 7:16 PM

You also missed a sort of sub-heading under "arcade" : do you lend? I only lend common, cheap games that are easy to replace, that I trust the person I'm lending to to replace them. I had some nasty lending experiences as a kid, the one I remember the most was in high school, I lent one of the Command and Conquer games to someone, and the discs came back covered in syrup, and I couldn't get the guy to replace them or anything.

Mr. Ksoft said on 10/2/08 10:12 PM

I believe in buying games to play them, so every single thing in my collection is available to pop in a console and go. However, I do make sure that anyone who handles my stuff treats it well. This is quite an adventure with my rambunctious brother... but it's worked well.

Now what I don't do is let my games leave the house (unless of course I'm carrying them), because I know that it's human nature to steal games if I lend them out and that once they're taken it's nearly impossible to get back, even from someone you see every day... I know it firsthand, because I still have two N64 games I borrowed back in 2001 and I haven't returned yet... (admittedly, they've never asked for them back)

And an exception to the above is my handheld stuff. I'm a rather popular target on the marching band buses for people looking for GBA stuff to play, so I do let them borrow whatever they want. But that is pretty much the only stuff I let get passed around.

Tondog said on 10/2/08 10:15 PM

I am a strict believer in buying games to play. I don't see any point in having them just on a shelf collecting dust (even if a lot of my games do that...).

Tan said on 10/3/08 12:03 AM

As a gamer/collector, your in it for the long haul. So you shouldn't feel obligated to play everything every month. In fact, you can take solace in the fact that with a backlog, you always have games to play when there's nothing interesting out or your strapped for cash.

Ghost Soldier said on 10/3/08 8:04 AM

Mostly arcade for me as well. However I am strict about who touches cd games. I even go as far as leaving games behind that I find out in the wild if there scratched. If one of mine becomes scratched up, I'll look for a better copy. The stuff that is not collection standard goes into the sons collection. Being 5 years old he could care less if a game is scratched.

Yurf said on 10/3/08 10:50 AM

Strict arcade: I collect games to play them, not to display them. Wink

Talen said on 10/4/08 10:11 AM

Pretty much Arcade. I buy both to collect and to play, but nothing I have is so valuable as to be off limits. If I buy something just for the collection, it would be a 10$ game that I might never play because its of questionable quality, not a 200$ super deluxe box set of a game I would have to keep in a display case.

I have had trouble lending out games as well, I try not to, as I have lost several copies of my games. Those were among my closest friends as well, and they are always a pain to get back.

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