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We've all been there. You've got a friend or two checking out your collection and someone really likes a particular game. They like it so much, they don't want to quit playing. Finally, they just come out and ask if they can borrow it. But since they no longer have that old Atari, they'll need the system as well. Plus some controller, power adapter and those old timey hookups. Maybe an old TV too.
So, what are your thoughts on lending out games/systems to family and friends? Perhaps you'll only lend to those you know very well and trust with your life. Or maybe you don't even lend out the most common of games. Or maybe you're a really trusting person and will lend anything to anyone as long as they say they will return it eventually.
Also, feel free to share your experiences with lending games, whether they be positive or negative. Did you lend out that super rare game to a friend only to have them move away with it? Or did they return it in deplorable condition? Talk about good experiences as well, maybe you let a friend borrow a game and he was so grateful, he gave you a box of old games he doesn't play anymore.
I was about to post this in the
Collection Diary, but it was getting kind of long and off topic for that, so I decided to make it a blog post instead.
Anyway, here's the situation: my parents had a "card party" last night, which included 4 of my cousins, two around the age of 10 and two closer to my age. Me and the older ones get along great and we were playing Guitar Hero III, but then the younger ones wanted to play also, and kept "trash talking" us saying they were better and we were playing too slow. So I hooked up a spare PS2 and another guitar with Guitar Hero II on another TV for them. They got bored with it after 5 minutes, and then wanted to play Duck Hunt, so I set up an NES with that. At this point I was tired of listening to them, so I left to play cards with everyone else, but every 5 minutes they were coming to me asking me if they could play the Wii. I told them "No" every time. So a few hours later I go back up to find the youngest playing World of Goo on my Wii
I don't mind them playing my games, as long as I set them up because I simply don't want them breaking something. It's bad enough when they're tripping over cords and stepping on guitars, but it really irks me when they go against my permission and start playing something I don't want them to.
It seems like every time they come over and play my games, I have bitter feelings about it. On one hand, I know they're just games and they're meant to be played, but on the other hand, they're
mine and I don't like others going through them and playing whatever they want. To a very small degree, I have a similar feeling as when someone gets robbed, how they just feel violated that someone touched their stuff without permission.
And I think the worst part of it is, that they have no respect for not only other people's stuff, but for the games themselves. They see most of my collection as "old junk" and think it's worthless and don't care about it whatsoever. They just don't understand how a 20 something year old boxing game is worth more than their precious Rock Band.
So, now I'm thinking of banning them from my game room altogether. I don't really want to, but I
really don't want something to break either.
Now, this wasn't supposed to be just a rant, I want to get your opinion on how other collectors feel about other people touching
your stuff. So give the world your opinions on how you feel about friends/family members playing your collection.
Form or Function?