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How come you never seem to see PC game collectors?

jono51

jono51

Banned
So the past day or two I've had a look at some videos of these youtube game collectors -- you know, the guys with a room stacked from floor to ceiling with games across countless consoles. It kinda dawned on me though that you rarely (if ever?) see people who collect mostly pc games on youtube or on forums. There's tons of classics and hidden gems across all the years of pc gaming etc, and it is a collection that would never end either. So how come you don't see any? Am I oblivious to them/missed them all? What draws people to console collecting vs pc game collecting? I don't collect or anything, just wondering if GAF could share some light on the matter.

Oh, and I know there are some who pretty much collect steam games, but I'm referring more to physical here. :P
 
Most of the PC game sales are digital.

I have no doubt that most of the gaffers that game on PC have their digital shelf stuffed with games. It's not that interesting.
 
I doubt there would be room for all of them. In addition most PC gamers have been digital for almost 10 years.
 
PC games were distributed in much smaller quantities in cardboard boxes resulting in much fewer available and having survived all these years.

There is no set library of games to pursue because there have been endless thousands of PC games released over the years. Most consoles have less than 1,000 titles needed to complete a collection.

Used PC games are not common and with the advent of Steam pushing an increasingly large number of PC games to being distributed digital only it makes putting together a physical collection that includes a lot of modern titles much harder.

All in all quite a cumbersome task compared to putting together a console collection which is why most people don't even try to start.
 
I started this with Amiga games at one point, got bored as an ADD 14 year old does though.

The boxes were just too massive.
 
it's probably easier to find some MS-DOS games collectors. had an insane amount of games for that thing, fantastic system
 
tumblr_my759mAv6w1rmyfvko4_r2_250.gif
 
I had a decent amount of old disk/CD/DVD PC games. I was pretty excited to throw them away as the games were re-released on Steam and GOG.
 
Back around 2004-2005 I had a few friends who collected PC game boxes, but ran out of room to place them everywhere, now just shows off collectors editions or hard to find figures instead. Its the times aswell, physical PC games are inconvenient and cant really be sold/traded in the same way consoles games are so they're made all digital for the most part. Anymore its not so much collecting the physical box as it is you're paying (potentially more than digital) for inconvenience.
 
Older console games were only available in physical release form. For most of this past generation, there was no advantage buying games digitally but that has been changing over time.
 
I'd say 90% of PC gamers buy digital at this point. It's significantly cheaper (assuming not buying games at launch). I don't even have a dvd drive anymore.

The cardboard boxes for PC games also do not have a standardized size. It makes them hard to shelf together/nicely. I guess one could shelf the jewel cases for cd's and the dvd cases for dvds. Some games don't even come with those though, (DVD's/CD's in cardboard sleeves isn't that uncommon.

To top it off one would need a pretty sizable room just to store all their PC games.
 
Steam has over 3000 titles available for purchase and this is only a fraction of the tens of thousands of PC games that exist, many of which may not even be in your native language or run on modern computers.

This makes collecting PC games a bit more difficult, though I have my fair share of old boxes in my closet and storage (from old stuff like Bioforge and the X-Wing games, all the way up to Half Life 2, I think). Stopped purchasing physical PC copies at that point and switched primarily to Steam / Origin / etc.
 
Big box PC gaming is dead, unfortunately... with the exception of the odd kickstarter project that includes it as a higher tier. .
 
I have almost 500 GOG games, so on some level I find them collectible. I don't get the same joy in buying Steam games for collectible reasons due to the DRM. Of course it's not the same as physical stuff either way, but there's no way to really collect those classic PC games anyway (unless you want a bunch of huge old boxes that you can't play on modern machines anyway). And the need for online verification codes for almost every physical PC game now kind of spoils the point of the physical thing as well.
 
Matt Barton has a really impressive wall behind him at the ends of his shows. I don't think he has ever done a show a collection video though. He interviews industry figures related to varying degrees of old school PC gaming.
http://www.youtube.com/user/blacklily8

Myself the only boxes I know I still have are full throttle and Quake 3. A lot of my games came in cheaper package deals. Those huge gigantic boxes took a lot of space and once games weren't brand new they were more of a jewel case purchase or a multi box like lucas arts did with the archives.

The triple thick DVD cases of the early 2000s are crap and have no reason to be collected or shown off. Even when they were the cardboard version of that it just wasn't nice. Also those were years that PC gaming was "dead" and game hours were concenrated in a few old games (still playing quake, cs, sc). Wow may have come in nicer big boxes though? maybe someone has an mmo focused collection.

CD Projekt does amazing collectors editions still and kick starters are seeming to do some awesome huge box cloth map collectable coin editions in the 150-250 dollar ranges.
 
Pretty much. There's no need for physical pc titles any more.

That said I have an entire closet filled with pc boxes from the 90s-early 00s. I should have sold them off years ago when the physical cds were still relevant :D
 
Glorious PC Gamer said:
PC games were distributed in much smaller quantities in cardboard boxes resulting in much fewer available and having survived all these years.

There is no set library of games to pursue because there have been endless thousands of PC games released over the years. Most consoles have less than 1,000 titles needed to complete a collection.

Used PC games are not common and with the advent of Steam pushing an increasingly large number of PC games to being distributed digital only it makes putting together a physical collection that includes a lot of modern titles much harder.

All in all quite a cumbersome task compared to putting together a console collection which is why most people don't even try to start.
Click to expand...

I'd actually think that having fewer available would be a plus for collecting (dependent on budget), as its rarer/more exclusive. Although I guess it also would price out a lot of people, whilst you always seem to see people getting old console games in decent condition for reasonable prices.

The size of collecting would also be pretty intimidating, true. And digital i guess has really removed the need to buy physical as a good swathe of the classics are available. The only times I've bought physical on PC recently is for the handful that aren't on DD.

RibbedHero said:
This guy...

biggest-pc-games-collection-big-box-anne-bras.jpg
Click to expand...

God damn, that's crazy. I'm guessing he must have at least a thousand there. Very impressive. I guess this is the video that goes with it too.

Gigarator said:
Check out LGR on Youtube. Guy has a large collection of boxed PC games.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. Just a quick look at his vids shows he must be pretty into pc game collecting.
 
Because Steam (legal) and The Piratebay (illegal) already collect a loooooooooot (if not almost ALL in the case of torrents) of PC games and you can have them on your hard drive in a matter of seconds.

For older console games you have to hunt them down etc so it becomes a feat.
 
Dennis said:
Shit packaging.
Click to expand...

My Witcher 2 box and a lot of stuff from the 90s (like the Eidos boxes above me which unfortunately never made it to Europe) disagrees but I know what you mean, why bother these days besides some nice collector's editions.
 
Forkball said:
Bull. The old PC game packaging was great. I loved opening up the front flap and seeing art, screenshots, and info about the game.
Click to expand...

That was more a reference on how it's hard to keep cardboard boxes in good condition. Same issue with NES/SNES/N64 boxes
 
PC market has been a lot smaller for a lot longer, and more recently mostly digital.

My guess anyhow. I have some nice old games myself (Baulders Gate box is awesome, randomly enormousTeam Apache box, original HL 1 & 2)
 
The unappealing thing about collecting PC games is that it doesn't have a defining line where it started and where it ended. Also very few people keep their shitty childhood PC and their modern PC is unable to play those old game collection.
 
I don't believe a reason was ever given, but if you are old enough to remember, PC games came in absolutely mammoth boxes compared to their console counterparts. Compare a SNES box like FFVI and CT to a PC box like Arcanum and Baldur's Gate. The PC box is needlessly large. Yes Baldur's Gate comes with a 250+ page manual(actually it may not be that big) but the box could be half the size, still be bigger than the SNES boxes and still contain the manual and the discs. When PS1 came out and the boxes were little more than CD jewel cases it was no contest.

In short you can have a wall of console games and you'd be looking at hundreds, if not thousands of titles. That same wall of PC games would be a fraction of that number.
 
RibbedHero said:
This guy...

biggest-pc-games-collection-big-box-anne-bras.jpg
Click to expand...

Thats impressive. The organization is complete shit though. Its like once he filled up one bookcase and added another he didnt bother to reorganize them.

i consider myself a PC game collector. i have several hundred games cib. Most of them are stored away now (well all of them but my 100 or so rpgs i have nearby for somewhat easier access).
 
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