Saturday, December 02, 2006

Disgusting Fat Lazy Game Collection

I'm disgusted. I played Thurn and Taxis today. It's an alright game, I loved the map so much that I bought it. I don't remember how much it was because I paid in some foreign currency, but let's say it should have been about $A60. I've played that copy three times, and I honestly can't see many more plays happening, what with my obsessive game-buying habit. Apart from the fact that I'm very bad at it, I've had most of the amusement it will provide for me. Sixty bucks for three plays? That's not a great return on investment. But I had to have it, because nobody else here does and I wanted to play it some more. It just seems like a lot of money...

I guessed one day that I've played 1200 games in the last two years and spent maybe $A6000 on games. I'm not complaining that the hobby is driving me to the poor house, but at $A5 per play I could be doing a whole lot of other hobbies that would be cheaper. I think I need to change my ways to spend less. However sometimes I feel that shopping for games is a significant part of the hobby. Don't you just love putting together an order from Bags and Boxes or Rebekka Spielt or some on-line site with great prices and a selection of new treasures?

Anyway, my immediate action is to cull my BGG wishlist. There are some games (e.g. Puerto Rico) which I will play enough without having my own copy. There are some games (e.g. Antike) which I woud love to have but would cost $A80 and be played twice, so I can't justify the purchase. I hope I can recognise a few of those before I spend any money on them. Maybe next year I'll even trade away some of the games I already have that don't get played. Or maybe I could just play them and stop feeling guilty.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good luck in your endeavour! Set a goal to play every game in your collection five times in 2007. If you don't want to do that for a certain game, trade it. You might find yourself so amused by the games you already own that you don't want to buy anything new.

Plus, most of the new games are crap. :)

Friendless said...

Well, every game 5 times is a bit of a tough ask... for example Pirate's Cove is a game I will play occasionally, but once every 2.4 months is too often. I'm trying to bring myself to put things on the trade pile, but how can I trade it away if I've only played it once - maybe it hasn't had a fair go? Oh, the angst!

Maybe most of the new games ARE crap, but how do I know which ones? I'm the sort of person who likes Celtica and Castle Merchants and Tongiaki...