Downward Spiral

I suppose there are many reasons why I ended up in this predicament.

There was once a time when I was too poor to buy too many games. I was so poor in 1996 that I couldn't afford the N64 I wanted so badly when it came out. It wasn't until 1997 that I could buy my N64. (I was heavily affected by the crash of the Mexican economy in 1994). In the two years preceding the launch of the N64, I bought my first NES and I'd go to the flea market  and buy used NES games when I could save up enough money. Those were games that I would play over and over until I practically ran them into the ground. The same thing happened with my N64 games. Because I couldn't afford to buy games left and right, I would normally play games over and over, often beating them multiple times before moving on to a new game. Even when I was buying games used, it was still pricey for me.

I think things started changing when I got a Playstation. On this system I was able to mod it, and then it was much easier to get my hands on pirated games. Suddenly, I was able to buy more games than I had time to play, and I was no longer playing things multiple times around. Some games were special enough to buy an original. I bought Metal Gear Solid and I still have that game.

I couldn't tell you at what point having more cheap games turned into just having more games. In the early to mid 2000's I bought a gamecube, and I also had a PS2. My job became steadily better paid and more secure, so I could keep spending. After I got married I got a Wii, sold the gamecube, and traded the PS2 up for a PS3. It was at this point that I started buying the most new-generation games, although I was still buying some games from older generations since my PS3 and my Wii could play PS2-PSOne and Gamecube games respectively. I was still concentrating on trying to get the best deals, and I almost never paid full retail price, but the tendency was toward me finding something I liked, and me fulfilling my wishes. The days of me getting every drop of gameplay out of every game were clearly over.

Since I began this undertaking, I have bought two games: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (because I wanted the gold Wii remote), and Street Fighter 10th Anniversary (because I felt like duking it out with friends). This is in keeping with one of my rules, because I am allowed to buy a game if I've beaten an old one, and I have beaten more than two games, so that's okay.

Have I changed? Yes. Have I changed for good? Hard to tell, but possibly. Have I pulled a 180 and gone back to the days of squeezing every secret, every easter egg, every unlockable in all games? Unlikely. I'm not even doing that with these games on this quest I have now; I'm just attempting to see the credits before I move on to the next game. I don't know that I will ever go back to getting everything out of a game, but any game that I consider worthy of being in my collection has a fighting chance of me going back to it and playing it again.

This is as much as I can promise myself for now: I am way more careful about the money I spend on my entertainment.