Originally Posted by
tomaitheous
This is how you see this? As a jealousy thing? That's fairly telling about your own perspective. You think all negative projection towards collectors is one of jealousy? So if I speak negatively about someone who collects My Little Pony memorabilia, the source of that negative infliction is one of jealousy? What about Elvis memorabilia or used crochet doilies?
I think that's just part of your own defense mechanism, against criticism because you either don't understand the source of the negative infliction, and the context surrounding it, or it directly attacks one or more of your core fundamental beliefs (deflection to avoid addressing any internal conflict). Because I thought I made it clear, from my perspective, that not all collectors are collectards. But yet from what I see in this thread, is the defensive people attempting to show that anyone using said phrase is applying it to all collectors, when that's not actually the case. But make no mistake - there is a fundamental difference, and possible disconnect, between the collector mentality and the gamer mentality. There are collectors who game, and there are gamers who collect. And there are extremes in both groups? Sure. But I think in general, the term collector implies collecting nearly everything associated with whatever category or hobby - collecting for the sake of collecting, regardless of the underlying influence for that particular theme (though nostalgia or exposure to said things during childhood development seems to be a strong factor). That's quite a bit different mentality than someone who only purchases games they like, for their collection.
I have treasure hunted for games in the wild, in the past, but I am not collector. I've actively gotten rid of almost all my games that I did have. Hell, I've shed myself of a lot of material things in the past decade. It's a very liberating feeling. I do own the real consoles, and a few games I haven't gotten around to selling off yet, but mostly flash carts for each. I'm really only interested in playing the games, which rarely even happens these days. But if it weren't for coding for these old consoles, I probably wouldn't have much of a connection to this retro scene. I have no envy towards someone whose walls are adorned with bookshelves full of games, or storage bins full of sealed games, because I don't desire that. Everything that I own or buy, has application. And if it loses application value, I get rid of it. I bought a real PCE mouse, because I wrote code for a PCE mouse. If I'm translating a game, I'll attempt to purchase the real thing specifically for bug testing reasons. A collection of games has no application for me. Once upon a time, many years ago, holding a physical copy of a game held a connection and invoked a nostalgic feeling - that no longer holds true. The here and now is more important to me. So when I look at the retro gaming community, I do so with a different set of eyes. I'm not consumed with same intense desire as many of the members in this community tend to hold.
