This is one reason I love emulation. I have a nice collection of retro games at my fingertips that I could NEVER afford physically. A curated collection of "only" about 1600 games with a nice front end and box art to look through and game music for select games.
Of course, nothing beats having that physical media in hand. But the cost-to-reward ratio just isn't there for me.
I was my own weird uncle and was actually thrwarted by my father. Commodore games had cool boxes but I was made to throw them out along with the big boxes for my GI Joe vehicles and stuff. Ah well.
People started becoming obsessed with collecting every game for a system to show off and not even bother playing, which goes against everything that gaming should stand for.
I have to say, I am guilty of this. I've got a pretty small collection, all things considered when compared to the... others... and I take to purging it every year or half year. Asking myself "Was this an impulse buy? Would I install this and play it right now?" If the answer is no, it goes in the go-away box, usually for GameStop trade-in bonuses, or trades with friends.
Here in Mexico, sometimes I can see retro games being sold in "flea markets (Called tianguis here)" for very afordable prices. Like 2 to 3 dollars. I don't have any retro console except my DSi, but I really want to start a collection. Mostly looking for old SHUMPS like darius burst or the original Ikaruga
Seemed like people having more free time in 2020 lend to a bunch of people rediscovering games they grew up with, and that led to a spike in prices and emulation interest. Speculative investors took notice and artificially inflated the market prices as well.
How does this explain the rise in prices from 2010 to 2020? It wasn't free time and speculative investors were already an established thing in other hobbies and the concept of buying a bunch of game to raise the eBay price was already possible. Maaaaybe the ease internet purchasing off eBay, Amazon, etc. helped but if anything it should have increased the volume of available games to sell too.
I wish I could find the video, but I watched it 6+ years ago I think that was trying to map out games covered by retro video game youtubers like MetalJesus, AVGN, etc. and it didn't show much effect on the prices of games. Despite people claiming they do because it 'feels' right.
People will talk around the actual economy of game sales and just blame names of people they recognize because it's easier to mentally process than trying to understand what's actually happening.
Like, I see the result of dudes who used to call themselves "collectors" becoming scalpers as part of that and then they started calling themselves "preservationists" and still act as scalpers. And the way they think about video games changed from a personal hobby to a economic activity. Why do you think people are increasingly commodifying their hobbies. What's driving the ideology that buying up shit from an online store and selling it at 100% markup on eBay et al. is a worthwhile and acceptable thing to do?
In the 90's, stories about collectors becoming fabulously wealthy from raiding Gran-Gran's attic fueled a mania for everything from trading cards to Beanie Babies.
Seems similar to today, albeit with a *lot* more scams.
I feel like having the internet in your pocket 24/7 kind of makes household connectivity irrelevant? I don't have some graph handy, but I'm gonna go ahead and guess that phones vastly outnumber PCs in the world, and a PC at home doesn't let me browse ebay or whatever while I'm literally anywhere. ?
I just don't really have an interest in modern games. Its not that I don't like them, but for me there's something about the past the pulls me in. especially old games, one of the reasons is strictly for sentimental purposes.
I've just decided, that's just my thing. If I still have fun playing it, and it relaxes me in the process I'd call that a win for me, that's probably the other reason I still play older stuff. if anything I play most retro stuff over my PS4 most of the time.
I just don't really have an interest in modern games. Its not that I don't like them, but for me there's something about the past the pulls me in. especially old games, one of the reasons is strictly for sentimental purposes.
I've just decided, that's just my thing. If I still have fun playing it, and it relaxes me in the process I'd call that a win for me, that's probably the other reason I still play older stuff. if anything I play most retro stuff over my PS4 most of the time.
Sorry for the reply wall, but this sentiment is very accurate for me.
I do believe there are some new games that can capture that feeling of genuine wholeness but it truly is very few and far between. I'd say as far as modern stuff goes, I stick to the worst/best of the worst/best and play a lot of Fortnite. My collection gets smaller and smaller per console you're digging through, and it isn't a pricing thing - most retro stuff is stable at a price higher than most modern goes on sale for - but there are just so few games I want to play.
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