Are you sick and tired of seeing this quote: "Games are meant to be played"?
Have you ever been brushed off as an idiot for thinking that a game can be purchased with the intent of building a collection, and not to be played?
Have you ever felt small and unwanted by the comments "people who have a collection and don't play their games are morons"?

Well here's your chance to do all those comebacks and reasonings/excuses to back your actions. Let's put all the counterarguments in this one thread!

Of course, games are meant to be played. Once a year I play baseball with Superman 64.

That's why I liked collecting signs so much. They are meant to just be looked at!!!!!! Boom.

Games ARE meant to be played. It doesn't mean we can't have fun collecting them though.

Personally, I think games can be either played or not. Who am I to judge the way someone else spends their money or the motives behind it. Personally, I try to play a good chunk of the games that I get, but that is not always the case. So I guess my counterstatement (not arguement) is "get off your damn high horse ya condescending jerk!"

Sick of it I am not, but I am sick of both sides of it. One side or the other should not be telling let alone demanding what the other side is or not is allowed to do. Yes it's a game, but to some it's also a trophy, a collectible, or some locked away memory, and in cases it is straight up money and when money gets involved it can get even more personal than sentiment. Those who see them as just play things as they likely were intended in the 80s and forward before games as collectibles are not wrong in thinking so, but to harass those who want them as more than just a toy is just wrong too. Those who don't see them as mere games are just as wrong to attack over them being whatever else they are as well when things go beyond words into extremes of manipulating or limiting other people for personal or financial reasons and gain. I'm basically tired of both arguments. Do whatever the hell you want on your own time as will everyone else will too.

I do agree with scroogy though, a good game of baseball with superman 64 sounds like a plan, or at least batting cage practice with many shoved into a pitching machine.

I'll do what I want with my money.

People who buy games and not play them are morons.

This is how I see it:

Yes, video games were originally designed to be played, but they can be collected as well. No one seems to be upset about coin collecting, when coins were meant to be exchanged for goods and services, or stamps being collected, when stamps were meant for postage, so why on earth are people upset about video games being adopted as a collectible too? It doesn't make any sense to me.

I personally collect to play, but if someone wants to collect simply because they think it's fun and looks cool, who am I to judge?

What the product was intended for is irrelevant. It's the private property of the owner. One could reasonably say the argument is unpatriotic or at least anti-capitalist  

Agreed, What someone decides to do / not do with their collection is there choice, has no effect on me. Personally I try to play all my games but lets be honest, after putting action 52 in for about 3 seconds, I havent put it back into the NES lol
 

Heh  

Honestly, I find statements such as "Games are meant to be played" as meaningful as "Art is meant to be shared" or "Books are meant to be read."
To each their own. For example, there are many book collectors. What do they do with their books? Mostly, keep them on the shelf, and it gives them pleasure that they can peruse them. Also note that books are often equisitely illustrated, so clearly they are not only meant to be read. So I wouldn't let statements about game collecting bother me, so long as you don't harm anyone or anything, just do what you enjoy!

 

actually, they were designed to be consumed. You think Acclaim gave a shit what you did with your copy of Bart vs the Space Mutants once they had your money?

That's a fair perspective, but another is that the developers wanted their games to be played, too. Usually the corporate overlords don't care if the game is played, but those who put their soul into making them certainly do. Besides, they were still created with play in mind, to make the potential buyer want to consume the game because it's a game.

I forgot to add: At the end of the day, it's pretty much a combination of both. 

If anyone who says "games are meant to be played" owns a single game on the shelf they're not actively playing, they're just a hypocrite, which is almost always the case. They might just have 20 games they're not playing instead of the person with 1000 they're complaining about. They're always going to "get around to them one day". They should also sell the ones they've beaten to free them back up into the market for true gamers!

They're GAMES. I'm doing a thing that I enjoy, using these games. I'm not destroying them or anything. If the argument is that there's no functional reason to collect a game that I'm not going to play, then I'd argue that all the functionality you're seeking can be found in an emulator. Anyone can get an emulator and play their games just as they are meant to be. If you're not satisfied with that, then why am I supposed to be satisfied with it?

Historical preservation is a good enough reason to collect games and related materials and take care of them.

I buy games to play them and I feel that games are meant to be played. However, on multiple occasions including now, I have made it a point to say that people should be able to collect in their own way. There is nothing in this hobby that angers me more than someone who believes that their own way of collecting is the right way and everyone else should follow their method. If someone wants to buy a game to keep it on their shelf to look at it, that is their business. The most common argument that I hear against collectors who don't play their games is that they are taking away from someone else's ability to play those games since there are now fewer copies available. I find this argument weak since there are so many other methods of playing games now. I love physical copies of games as much as the next person, but if you truly must play something that you can't find, there is almost always another way of doing so. For example, if you can't get a copy of a Limited Run Game because they only had 2,000 copies and they sold out in under 1 minute, buy the digital version. Yeah it sucks having the digital version, but at least you will be able to play the game. I see way too many people complaining that once the copies of LRGs are gone, they will never be able to play it.

I think that's different.  If you buy the game with the intent to play it even at some point, you're still having it to play.  There are people that buy games with the intent not to play a game, mainly sealed games.

I've got sealed games so I'm not arguing against it... but I don't think it means you have to actually currently be playing a game. Or that a game is always on in the system.

And I do tend to get rid of the games I have played and have no intention of ever playing again.   

Care to elaborate?

If God didn't want games to be collected then why did he make them so collectible?

Why is this even a problem? If you like collecting games and not playing them, why should you care what someone else thinks?

Yes. Us morons would like to know more. :-)
 

I'm over 600 NES carts now and have seriously played (more than 5-10 mins) only about 75 or 100 of them. When I clean a cart and put into a protector I feel like I'm saving it from abuse. That's where I get my collecting gratification.

I enjoy this thread. I play AND collect and COULD NOT CARE LESS about what someone else thinks I should or shouldn't do with my collection.... Except maybe my wife