Gaming Collection: Of Value and Access

If you ever wondered when a gaming collection would be considered "expansive" or perhaps even "complete", the answer to that is probably "never". I suppose I can use my own Game Library as a case in point. I have a lot of games. Perhaps too many games? Perhaps not enough because I have seen others with a lot more than me, either exclusively on Steam or across platforms. Sometimes I look around the room and thought that I had a nice little Game Room with plenty of physical gaming punch, but it would take mere seconds looking on YouTube to find others who have an ungodly collection that make mine look like a baby's playpen compared to a sprawling university compound. Video gaming is still an active industry and there are plenty of games, indies or otherwise, coming out left and right and if you are that deep into the hobby as I am, sometimes it feels like there's hardly any room to breathe. So, it takes some level of self-control to manage my library growth at a steady rate.

Culdcept The First that just came out today is a rare day 1 purchase for me.

It is easy to lose track of the size of one's Game Library when one has embraced the digital age of gaming. So instead of my room getting smaller and smaller, the digital storage space takes on that burden. I often get asked about the "value" of my library. Not the emotional value of it, but the monetary estimation. Video gaming is one of those hobbies with diminishing returns. Imagine it as say a restaurant where you spend money to eat there: you can't get that money back outside of valid refunds and the only thing you may keep forever from that transaction is some fat you accumulated in your body. So, I have never looked at my collection as something that can easily be exchanged with cash. I do understand that a lot of the physical stuff can be sold - I even recognized that a bunch fetch some premium price - but my game collection to me hold more emotional value than anything else, so although a price can be slapped on it, it's actually something no amount of money can replace.

Strangely, it's easier to discern the monetary value of digital games vs. physical games.

My Game Library is still growing these days but at a much slower rate. Its current size is one of two factors that determined this, and competition in the gaming space, namely Epic Games, is the other. In case you are unfamiliar with the latter, Epic is offering free games every week so if a game is available on both platforms, it's just a waiting game until that game may potentially be available for free. In regard to this growth, I am often asked why I keep adding games to my library when I am losing time as I am getting older, and the answer is always the same: access. I am a mood-based gamer. I may crave to play a game of a certain genre, and I used my excel sheet database to easily find the game that I want to satisfy that craving with. So, adding more games means adding more options for me. All this to say that I do understand, as a gamer, the allure of looking to have more access to get one's gaming on.

To be able to display all of these took years upon years of gaming.

Recently, I received another friend invite on Steam and the first message that I received from this person after I accepted the invitation was a request for me to join a Steam Family Sharing collective. The long-winded message includes this:

I decided to message you because your library has relatively little overlap with the current group, and your collection seems genuinely built around games you're interested in playing rather than simply increasing the number. I thought you could be a really good fit for what we're building.

Look, if someone decided to share their Steam games with total strangers and risk a VAC ban, that's on them. Steam doesn't prohibit this kind of sharing and leaves it all to the gamers themselves. The funny thing I find when it comes to this is that these gamers are looking for a way to become your extended family without having any kind of relationship with you. I don't get that part. This futile attempt at stroking my ego in regard to the collection I genuinely built pretty much cheapens the things I pointed out earlier about value and access. If you want to build a relationship with me, why not work on that? This person didn't even bother introducing who he (she?) is and just went straight for the Family Sharing. If anything, this is surely not a good indicator of the way that this relationship is going to develop. It's all about the access, never about the value and that combination is what defines this hobby for me.

You would think this person would show up on my livestream or post comments on my videos but nope.

The funny thing about this whole Family Sharing attempt is that this feature is not beyond my consideration. I have actually asked someone to be a part of my Steam "Family", but he declined. Ouch, I know. Here's the deal: I got to know you and, most importantly, I got to like you for me to let you in. I do the same when allowing someone to enter my home. And think about this - perhaps there is a reason why there is little overlap between people's game collections that is not quantitative but of qualitative in nature. We all don't enjoy the same games and having access to those games will not make you enjoy them more.

Only those who are trustworthy may enter.

My gaming collection will never be complete, and it has never been my intent for it to be. There will be a gaming archive that will accomplish that in the future past my time I would hope. I am not looking for others to supplement my gaming access, and I already found value in what I am able to get my hands on. I am still, however, actively looking for a gaming family but after all these years, I am getting used to the idea that in the end, we are all alone in our video gaming experiences.