The true collectibles

I picked up a few games tonight for next to nothing -- aren't thrift stores and dollar shops wonderful? When I see those one or two dollar games sitting on the shelf, it no longer becomes a matter of 'if' I will buy them, just a matter of 'how' I will convince my wife that they were necessary.

So on the drive home, I'm going over the list of new acquisitions in my mind, and I start thinking, "How will I explain Pearl Harbor: Defend the Fleet?" If you haven't heard about it, this is arguably one of the worst games to grace the hard drives of gamers in the last few years. How could I actually justify spending a hard-earned dollar on it?

Then it hit me -- these types of games are the true collectibles. Consider the most popular games out there: The Sims, Neverwinter Nights, the Battlefield series, the Half-Life series, the Baldur's Gate series, and so many others I could name. These games have had expansion, on top of sequel, on top of mod, on top of collector's editions, etc. These games spawn so many offshoots that they will never die, and any true gamer feels almost obligated to have a copy at some point.

But what about the other end of the spectrum? What about the Pearl Harbors, the Extreme Bullriders, the Daikatanas, and the Extreme Paintbrawls? These are games which (hopefully) will never see an expansion or a sequel. These are games which most players in their right mind would never buy in the first place, and those who did would use them for target practice. These are the games that in 3 or 5 or 7 years' time will be found nowhere, except enshrined in my collection, the sole survivors of their kind.

They will become the Holy Grail of gaming, and only I will have them.



Or it could just be that I wasted a dollar.