The internet age with all the social networking that entails has changed the hobby of collecting. Before it might have been just a few people who knew about someones collection but now with YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and blogging you can share your  collection online for all to see. But why do people collect? There are typically two types of collectors, the ones who collect to display and those that collect to play. Often the people who display are after sealed (mint) games or perhaps after a complete series or collection. Those who collect to play choose the games for the nostalgia and curiosity factor.

I collect games for the same reason other people might collect art- I appreciate and admire the craft and I want them. There is also a mix of nostalgia and the promise I made to my younger self that when I got older I would buy loads of games and all that I missed out on. I occasionally play the games I have in my collection, for the last 15 or so years the games I've really enjoyed I've kept. For me it's the idea of some halcyon future where I have free time to revisit these games, even though I don't have some of the systems to play them anymore.

I also collect games for completion, for example I have Final Fantasy 6 to 9 on the PS1 and would like to acquire the rest of the collection. Not because I'm a big Final Fantasy fan, although I do like the series, but because I just think it looks neater. It sounds strange but I am also a comic collector and so having an unfinished series seems wrong to me. I have already explained the pains I went through to finish the Battle Angel Alita collection even though the series had lost its appeal years ago for me. It may be difficult to understand but unless you are a collector it is hard to explain. So why do you collect and what do you collect?