The....COLLECTION!

Almost every time I go into a gamestop or electronics boutique, I look around me at the many titles I have yet to own. Some I look at and say to myself "nah...I'll pick it up later." And then sometimes I will say "Ooo...need to add this to the collection."

Whether you're a hardcore gamer or more or a recreational one, you probably have a collection. Whether its just a specific genre or not is different for every gamer. But what makes you look at a title and say "I want that in my collection." ?

My collection consists of titles going as far back as the Atari 2600. Does that make me a hardcore collector? No...because I only own 4 2600 titles right now. And 3 of them are Star Wars games.

But why was every game chosen to be a part of my elite collection? What makes those games special? Well each one for different reasons. Some just simply because they are sequals of games I really liked initially, some because the premise is new and more original. Some just for simple cool-ness factor.

I don't collect all RPGs, or all FPS, or all fighting....I try to maintain a wide-range of games in my collection. The more to choose from the better. Do I lean more into some genres than others? Sure. But thats just me.

I like RPGs, but I dont have alot of them in my collection because Im not a huge RPG fan. RPG was a somewhat small genre I thought until a close friend cleared it up for me what RPG really means. And its alot more than Final Fantasy.

On My NES I own mostly side-scrolling platform games: Metroid, Mario 1-3, Megaman, Castlevania. But I also have a couple of RPGs (Zelda 1-2 & FF1). On and on upward through my collection the variety gets a little wider for each console. The only console I dont think this happens with is my Dreamcast, which had some of the BEST fighter titles on it. Including my favorites (Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and Power Stone).

My PSOne & PS2 the collection goes even more broad, from the FF Series to Silent Hill to Gitaroo Man to Katamari; the genre range just gets wider.

For a game to be worthy of entering my collection and ganing permanent space on my shelf it must meet a certain criteria. My system may be considered madness, but there is a method to it.

With some genres I go by company alone. Usually if its Capcom I'll trust them...unless its Devil May Cry. If its Square-Enix I may pass it up unless the engine and story are interesting enough.

RPGs are an odd genre for me. Mainly because its hard for me to decipher where the line is drawn that makes the title an RPG or not. And alot of the time it depends on my mood as to whether or not I play a particular RPG title. Fable I blew through several times and I might just go back and do it again. But Oblivion I can't really seem to get into. I guess because the amount of things can be done with a character are so overwhelming to me...I dont know where to begin. So I don't play. Which means I may be losing out...but oh well. Theres other stuff to play thats not so.....deep.

I like being able to give a character particular stats, upgrade them, give em weapons, upgrade/augment those weapons...but I dont wanna go so deep as to there are 50 classes...all of which seem to be spinoffs of the core 4 or 5 main classes.  I like Phantasy Star on the Dreamcast...but for some reason I cant get into the PS Universe on 360. I guess the $12 a month price-tag. Which brings me to an interesting point...and please dont be offended if you play MMORPGS...but...

WHEN DID GAMERS GET STUPID ENOUGH TO PAY $200.00 FOR A ONLINE RPG? I just don't get that.

I mean come on....you pay $49.99 for the game initially.....and then another $12 a month for a year or so. WoW, Evercrack...you name it.....they are all pretty much the same in the end. An experience that sounds like a cool idea...but in the end the cost of the experience is more than your empty wallet.

But anyway...

My first real rpg experience sadly was Final Fantasy VII for the PSone. I never even really paid attention to genre differences back then either. A game was a game. It was...hey lets play megaman...not hey lets play this new action/platformer. Didnt know Zelda was considered an RPG....didnt know FF was an RPG....or that there were sub-genre's of RPG. Turn-based, dungeon crawler......the list gets long and complicated.

And I think really genre titles can create a sort of stigma with players. "Oh thats a fighter.....nah I'll pass."

The only type of game that I wont play are sports games. These things are a waste of money in my opinion. If you wanna play football...go the hell back inside and play football. I dont care about the new sweat engine in Madden 3,000,000...and how the roster got updated from 2 months ago. The only good sports games I played back in the day were Super Punch Out, NBA Jam TE, and Blades of Steel.

I also like Music simulation games. Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero are my 2 secret banes. I have over 3,000 songs on my Stepmania program on my PC and I will so own Guitar Hero 2 when it drops on the 360.

But when it all boils down to it...I like games. And I'm a gamer. Am I as hardcore as others? No. Do I own every game ever made? No. Do I even own all of a particular companies titles or all of a specific genre on a particular console? No.

An old friend of mine has every RPG that has come out on the PSOne, PS2 , Dreamcast and Saturn. Thats cool and everything. But just those consoles alone will give him more games than he can play in his lifetime. And whats the point of owning if you will never play it. Its a waste....

My collection may not have over 500 games. But I do know that every one of my titles is a good game and one that I was happy that I spent my money on.

I'm a gamer. We are many, we are different. But we all play.

Gatsu OUT!