Gaming Owning a flash card = Not appreciating any games

drakorex

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Another option is to quit your job, go on wellfare, and use all your new found free time to catch up on all the games that passed you by :D
 

kristianity77

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I'm appologizing ahead of time for the wall-o-text...

I personally find this an interesting topic as it hits home on a strategy of mine for keeping games fresh for me. Many buy games and start one, say A.C. N.L. and will play for 20-40 hours the first day (or try and beat the newest Xbox game in a day) I say what s the point? I'd rather have 100+ hours of my favorite game that I never finish (Advance Wars (GBA+ DS)/Fire Emblem again GBA/DS) than even one game that I'll finish too quickly.

If a game takes me a while to finish, I pace myself and restrict the amount of hours playing it daily, so it stays fresh for my tomorrow play-through. I will force myself top stop that new game after a certain period, before I tire of it, so it will ispire me again tomorrow. In the rare even I get tired of a game I already have and before buying yet another game to add to my collection, I have a strategy of going to the game selling sites and re-reading the sales description. This has the effect of re-exciting me to why I got the game in the first place and adds value for me as to why I bought the game in the first place.

It also serves to make me want to pay games (I own) that I haven't played in some time. This may not work for everyone though.

Regarding pirated or 'free games', not being as interesting, that has not been my experience. I have gone out and purchased 80+ games over the last year, that I 'tried for free' from the DS catalog, many which I will start on a rainy day. But even though my first loves have been and will always be Fire Emblem (see above) and Advance wars (see above) this is a game I periodically need a break from to not get bleary eyed.

These 'free trials' as I like to call them (Harrrrrr) have caused me to buy many-a-games I would never have looked at twice had I had to buy them full price before trying. IOW it iproved thier sales..NOTE: Most of these just mentioned I bought new to support the developers with cash where possible.

I do have a gripe (particularly with the online aspect of newer games (read=latter half of DS library + newer 3ds games) that are so quickly hyped , sold/pushed and the industry(review sites, developers) moves onto the next one, that basically, the day a game drops, it's life-clock starts ticking.

If you don't play that online aspect within the first few weeks you may lose the opportunity to do so, since the companies are supportng the online aspect shorter and shorter times these days. Since the push-desire for online is so great, I personally feel this is draining the life out of many games. We as consumers are pushed onto the new ones before we've had the opportunity to really get into those we just bought yesterday before the newer one drops tomorrow. This last gripe may be why so many people are becoming complacent with the library they presently have awaiting thier rainey day play sessions.

Enough of this drivel, thanks for listening.. just my opinion and experience.



I stopped reading at the bold part. come on man, your gonna have to share with me your secrets of fitting in 20-40 hours game time in one day! I need to know the secrets of this!!:bow:
 

ILOVETOPLAYNESGA

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As someone who owns over 2300 distinct console games, I have to admit that I usually buy in bulk used, normally for one or two games in the lot... as such I actually play the games less if I buy them than otherwise. For some reason when I spend full price on a game at launch, I find myself less likely to play it. It is weird, but whatever.
 

FAST6191

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Well, I went from a dirty bastard cunt pirate to someone who buys 3DS games twice (retail for the shelf and download version because it's fucking convenient). You can change, too!

I could but there does not seem to be any benefits to that move and quite a few downsides.
 

Jayro

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Or better saying, aren't we trying to make it up for the primitive hoarding of food, animals and stuff we don't need to anymore trough other type items? (I myself don't have a problem with games but I have a music video collection that spans through 10TB and about 15k video clips I never watch :|).

Dude, I don't know ANYONE who has 10 Terabytes in their computer. I don't even own a single Terabyte drive yet, good lord... This is truly the generation of digital packrats.
 

vbkun

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Dude, I don't know ANYONE who has 10 Terabytes in their computer. I don't even own a single Terabyte drive yet, good lord... This is truly the generation of digital packrats.


I think its something easy to find in the 'born in the 80's' generation. I know plenty with tbs of storage, but my younger friends (about 9/10 years younger), I seldomly see those having more than 2tb disk space and they seem all pretty happy with streamings.
 

Jayro

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I think its something easy to find in the 'born in the 80's' generation. I know plenty with tbs of storage, but my younger friends (about 9/10 years younger), I seldomly see those having more than 2tb disk space and they seem all pretty happy with streamings.

I don't stream anything, I hate streaming... I download movies, videos, etc too, but I've only got a 250GB harddrive, and another 320GB. Which are about full. I can't afford a larger harddrive. :/
 

Pedeadstrian

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I don't stream anything, I hate streaming... I download movies, videos, etc too, but I've only got a 250GB harddrive, and another 320GB. Which are about full. I can't afford a larger harddrive. :/
I got a 1TB hard drive for ~$70, and recently bought a 3TB external for $120. I'd say it's quite worth it.
 

Jean Karlo

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As a teen, i really hated the idea of "growing up"... I didnt enjoyed games that much anymore and i hated cause all my frienda would always talk about the new game they finished... I just stopped playing for a couple months, focused myself in school and other hobbies.. Recently i started playing again and I'm loving my games :D... Just give yourself sometime with out playing anything.. Not even flappy bird!! And youll get back on track (they all come back >:D)
 

Pedeadstrian

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As a teen, i really hated the idea of "growing up"... I didnt enjoyed games that much anymore and i hated cause all my frienda would always talk about the new game they finished... I just stopped playing for a couple months, focused myself in school and other hobbies.. Recently i started playing again and I'm loving my games :D... Just give yourself sometime with out playing anything.. Not even flappy bird!! And youll get back on track (they all come back >:D)
It will be a cold day in hell before you make me give up my video games.
 

Zamzummin

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I should have known that history would repeat itself. I cut my teeth as far as modding/hacking when I got my first Flash2Advance cart for the original, non-backlit GBA. By the time that handheld was officially dead in the water, I had hundreds of games on my hard drive, but had only ever played a handful of them.

Same thing when I got my first PSP. By the time that system hit the end of its life cycle, I had hundreds of games, but played less than 40% of them.

Then, again when I got my first DS, but that was even worse. With smaller games than the PSP, and MUCH MUCH MUCH more shovelware, I wound up maybe playing a quarter of the games I acquired.

Now that I have a Gateway 3DS, here we go again.

I've probably spent twice the amount of time fiddling with my ROMs, copying new ones to my card, then replacing it with a different game ten minutes later when I get bored with it, than I have actually PLAYING any games on my 3DS with my new flash card.

The newest Zelda and Phoenix Wright games are the only ones that really managed to capture and keep my attention. Even though I now have pretty much the entire library of games that I could buy at GameStop, I usually can't be arsed to even bother playing most of them.

I wonder how common this phenomenon is. Is anyone else here essentially a ROM hoarder, but not really that much of a hardcore gamer?

Neo Draven, this is a fantastic topic.

Your situation really affects me the same way and I know exactly where you're coming from. I have a few things to add:

Game Binging
As has already been touched upon, the real issue here is game binging. The more games in my collection, the less likely I am to play of them. It's very similar to the situation where parents will buy their child a single gift for Christmas and he is likely to play with that gift for a long time because he has no other choice. Next Christmas they decide to start gift binging and giving several presents at once and the child might try a couple of them for a while and then might end up bored of all of them and start playing with the wrapping paper instead. I feel like this is a human tendency, like a psychological resistance to having too much choice or having your attention divided over too many things.

Hoarding Games is an Addiction
I'm totally guilty of piracy hoarding. Attached is a picture of my PC games folder. The vast majority of those games are pirated. I've only ever played about 50% of them, and only played 13 of them for more than 10 hours. Hoarding free games is an addiction, one that is often more powerful than the urge to play the games. Also, tinkering with and organizing your collection simply adds more layers to the addiction. Sometimes I'll spend forever customizing the graphics settings for a PC game like Tomb Raider until it looks perfect, only to play it for less than 1 hour total. I once spent weeks modding the PC version of Oblivion with the perfect mods, only to play it for 5 hours and then get bored. The real fun and enjoyment was actually in setting up the mods to all work together.

The downside to this addiction is the deep sense of regret I feel when I end up not enjoying the fruit of my labors. I think you will know what I mean when I say there is a feeling of regret when you realize you spent a lot of time and effort and the payoff doesn't seem worth it.

Money is Not the Problem
I can say with certainty that cost has nothing to do with it, at least not for me. There are plenty of games I have paid full price for (GTA V, The Witcher 2, Dishonored) that I played for a few hours and then moved on. Likewise, there are some free or pirated games that I've played for dozens of hours.

The Bad News
The bad news is that this only gets worse with time. I first started pirating games on my PS1 when the swap trick became widely known and I burned ISOs to CD-R discs and played them for free. History repeated itself with the PS2, PSP, DS, PC, and now my latest game piracy device: the 3DS. I can say it only gets worse because hoarding games has gone from a part-time hobby to a full-on addiction for me. It's at the point where I visit Metacritic daily to see what new PC games have come out that got an 80+ score, then I immediately visit all of my trusted piracy sites to download it. It's sad, actually.

Are We Growing Out of Games?
I think part of the problem (at least for me) is that I'm slowly starting to grow out of playing games. Video games have been a huge part of my life since I was 5. Now I'm 28 and I'm starting to realize that games are not as fun to me as they used to be. I'm no longer a hardcore gamer. I'm also far more critical of games, and with sites like Metacritic where I can easily find reviews for every game, I feel like I don't want to waste my time with anything except the best games. I think this is part of the process of growing out of games and slowly trying to accept that it will never be the same as when I was younger.

The Good News
The good news is that there is still hope for people like us. There are still those few special games that get us excited and keep us playing until the end. Like Neo Draven, I also played and enjoyed the new Zelda game until the end. Recently, after 7 years of on and off play I finally beat Okami on PS2. I need to hold on to these moments and realize that they are exceedingly rare and also accept that the majority of games I hoard will not hold my attention for very long. Realizing and accepting that my tastes are changing and that I am addicted to hoarding games more than actually playing them is an important step to not feeling so shitty and frustrated about it, as I often used to. Lately I have also enjoyed reading gaming-related industry news, watching online shows, and other media as a way of participating in gaming without actually playing games.

Hopefully some of this will lend some insight to the discussion. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one with this problem.

P.S. Neo Draven, you shouldn't dismiss all indie games as being bad. A lot of the best experiences I've had this generation were from indie titles. Just like AAA games, it's about finding the right games that appeal to you. I feel like our taste in games might be similar, so PM me if you want to discuss this further.
 

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Sanoblue

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NAILED it. I actually favor my PS3 and Vita games over my 3DS and Android games, because I HAD to pay for each and every one of them, even if I don't like them as much as I like other games that I acquired by other means. The money I spent necessitates that I get as much "value" out of them, or I feel as if I cheated myself.

Well said.
Ditto, here lately its been my music collection, and it kills me. So much music, and to sort and tag them finding a decent manager and one that works with my pod.... So it sits there abandoned most of the time.

And ill say it im a digi packrat..... >.> Stares at my 4TB of data
 

ForteGospel

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Well, I went from a dirty bastard cunt pirate to someone who buys 3DS games twice (retail for the shelf and download version because it's fucking convenient). You can change, too!
and its all thanks to steam, humblebundle and high prices in game stores that i prefer importing and digital games...

also i hate almost every single retail game i have for the 3ds because for the most part i dont get all the games i have outside and when i want to play them i cant while i can always play the digital ones
 

Punkonjunk

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I have 217 GBA games on my PSP, all of which I've beaten at some point and enjoy replaying once in a while, often before bed or on the shitter, long drives, etc.

I have at least a hundred on my SCDS2, and many, maaaaany more I've completed. Same with the PSP libary; well less rich, there are many dozens of titles I have, have played, and will continue to replay until my hands rot off.

Rom/retro piracy never really put me in an overwhelmed state. Once in a while I read about some game I haven't played (drill dozer for GBA just recently!) and fire up something new... and I'm sure there re a few gems in the libraries I haven't touched.
Currently working back through MMZ series. I like replaying games I like, and I love handhelds.
 

BORTZ

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This is a well-known phenomenon - once you get something for absolutely free, you begin judging it by its actual merits instead of finding excuses for mediocrity to validate your purchase while the price you paid for the product looms in your subconscious.

In addition, you also care less because you're not trying to milk the product for whatever entertainment value it's worth because you literally didn't pay for it, so the expectations bar is much lower. You're not nearly as extatic when the game meets expectations and not nearly as disappointed when it doesn't because you can just move on to something better with no additional expense - the only thing that suffers is fan pride when a product from a franchise you particularly like is terrible. :)

I think you really hit the nail on the head. If you cant get though games you didnt pay for because they suck, and you have no motivation because you didnt spend actual money on them... yeah then you arent going to enjoy them.

But, this goes by a game by game basis. There are games I have pirated and played this shiz out of. There are lots more that have been on my SD card for years.
 
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Skelletonike

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That happened to me with the DS, which is why I abhor piracy nowadays, since getting a 3DS on release day, I've bought tons of games, currently I have around 40 3DS games and I've played all of them. Maybe it's my subconscious that makes me enjoy more something that I actually own.
Also, since getting a 3DS I've been purchasing most of the DS games that I enjoyed and replaying them. I still have a DS flashcart but it's only used for translation and undubs of certain games these days.
 

garbanzox

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I recently bought EverDrive carts for my NES and SNES, and sold all my cartridges. I regret it and want to go back.

Where can I sell gently used flash carts?
 

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