Why do people not take care of their games?

Actually, PS2 DVD style cases had lots of revisions. The later ones don't have the memory card holder.

More info here:
http://www.playstationcollecting.com/general/pal-all-about-standard-playstation-2-cases

It talks about PAL region, but that happened on NTSC|U/C region as well.

 

I'm the same way with my games. I keep every thing together like the box manuals, and the games in great shape.

I've been burned couple times on ebay because the description stated box, manual and, game. Then when I get it, it's just the game, or the box is all tore apart.

I just got a Game Cube game (Zelda: Twilight Princess), it said it comes with box and manual. The only thing the showed up was the game and it looks like it went though hell. It has some sticky residue all over the top of the disc and it was all scratched up. There was no way was I going to put that in my Game Cube. Lucked I was able to get my money back (and he didn't want the game back, so now I'm stuck with it). Then I just picked up another one with book box and game.

Call me picky, but I want games in good condition. :/

=Hugh

 

Yeah that is why I tend not to buy off of eBay. G2K is really good about their return policy and taking back systems that don't work.

I'm beginning to collect but nothing rare if that makes sense. I just want my consoles, accessories and games to be in great condition.

I guess it's a preference. I know when I was young and had my n64, we didn't keep the boxes or manuals and I regret that. The weird thing is I had a playstation as well and I always kept those games in case with manual. Maybe it was because you can store cartridges outside of the case and it doesn't really matter where for a disc based system you damage the game if it's not stored properly.

-Disjaukifa

 

I don't think it's too hard to keep the box and cart together in great shape. I have no idea if it's worth any thing. But I have a gold Zelda:OoT and, matching box with it

The only cart game I have box that got squashed. It was a return (when I worked at Software ETC) tested it and it didn't work. This was done before I hired for that store. DM came by to destroy all the defective stuff that was collecting. I had ask I could have the game since you going to destroy it anyways, why not let me take it see if I can get it working. (other words it was going to be dumped in the trash.) Anyways I got some free stuff and one of them was a Micky Mouse Tetris for the n64 and it worked. But the box was beat to hell and no manual. It's a nice little game, but I couldn't couldn't find any thing wrong with it though. So I got a free game (and yes I did tell my DM about that, he said just keep it since it was marked off now.)

=Hugh

 

People that dont care of their games, 90% of them dont take of anything really. Its just a way of life

I am on the edge of insanity when it comes to collecting. Games I bought new 10 years ago , even though I played the heck out of them are still 99% like they looked when they came out of the plastic wrap. It goes like this

1) Take game carefully out of the shelf
2) Grab CD (usually its a CD/DVD) from the edges only
3) Carefully insert into console
4) Put carefully case back into the shelf

Is it that hard? Dont think so ...

 

It's simple.


1. You all value gaming a lot more than said people. It means a lot to you.

2. These people simply do not regard it the same as you do.


Put yourself in another person's shoes.

"Why can't the original owners of the car be bothered to do the proper break-in procedure? Now I'm stuck with this beat engine that's losing compression and needs a rebuild."

Same thing.

 

Agreed and the stupid thing about it is it doesn't take that much longer to do it as well.

The one that hurts me the most is when I see people jamming cartridges into a console trying to get them to work, your just asking to break something, when most of the time you just need a like rubbing alcohol and a q-tip to get the game working properly.

Discs you can wear more easily and for the excepting of the Xbox 360, if you are careful handling them, they will never get scratched or damaged!

I've had to rebuild 3 engines out of the 6 cars I've owned. Now granted one was completely my fault, but the other two were because people just didn't car about their engines.

I guess its just peoples general attitude towards their stuff. My house is never completely "organized" but I have two kids under 2 and most the reason its un-organized is because of their stuff.

Now all of our electronics are kept in great shape and away from the kids because I don't want them getting into it!

I would love to go to a used game shop in Japan, to see all those old games and systems in immaculate shape would be amazing!!!

-Disjaukifa

 

The biggest issue really is buying used games from game stores. They slap so many discounted price tags on them, they ruin the casings. Its awful..

 

The answer to the main question is simple - kids.

You may still play games and be in your 20s/30s/40s, but games are primarily for kids, that's the big market. And they treat them like they treat their toys.

I think really the problem is, not wishing to be harsh on some people, but there are an increasing amount of people who maybe shouldn't be parents - they lack the social skills. As an example, teenage pregnancies. I'm not trying to be mean to them - parenting is tough, of course. And of course little babies grab things, drool on them etc. I was taught from a young age, though, to respect my toys and everyone else's items. Is that really such a hard concept to drill into your kids?

Another thing is that, back in "our day", computers and games consoles were in their infancy, expensive and most of us were old enough to know how to respect them. Nowadays, parents seem to buy them to shut their kids up from an early age... and I'm not sure that's right. So you get 2 year olds with free access to a games console in their room (I don't think I had a TV in my room until I was in what most of you will call high school) and they don't give a shit about putting games back in their cases. Boxes / instructions probably go all over the floor, get sticky sweets on them, and frustrated parents chuck them out when blitzing the room.

As for the Megadrive tabs, that's simple. People would buy flat-pack furniture and they'd fit snugly on the shelves (probably made for VHS tapes), but you'd have to fold the tabs over (or snip them off). Sometimes, that might even happen in the store!

As for the quality of games in your local store - sounds like you have a crappy store there! I used to work in an indy games store, and we would always vet games when they were traded. The customer would be penalized for having no instructions (that would cost them I think £1 to £3 for high-value titles) and we would only take copies with no instructions (or definitely with no box) if we were low on stock of that title. They would receive less for the game if the disc had scratches that could be polished out with a professional polishing machine - badly scratched games would not be accepted. Chain stores like Game and Gamestation (EB and Gamestop in the US) don't give a shit about the condition fairly often. Very sad. One of the worst offenders is Blockbuster - I've gone to buy ex-rental stuff in there and the disc has been in a shocking state!

 

Yeah, I bought a PS2 game from Gamestation a while back and didn't think to check the underside until I got home. Absolutely fucked. I don't have any idea how that disc could've got in such a state and have even less idea how Gamestation could decide it was ok to sell it. Sigh...

 

I just wish they would use stickers that were easier to get off. If you take your time you can get more of them off and then use a product like Goo Gone to get the rest off, but you might screw up the plastic on the outside of the DVD case which just sucks :banghead:.

-Disjaukifa

 

Yeah, looks like I forgot the most important in my post: "for cheap". The PS2 games you generally find new these days are ones that people actually still buy, and they're not cheap.

That doesn't entirely explain it. Games are relatively expensive, and you'd expect people to take care of something they've spent a wad of cash on instead of ruining them (and it's definitely not just kids either). It'd be more like if I had a car, drove it into streetlamps every day and didn't care about the dents because I don't care as much about cars as some people.

 

Yes, it's very hard for most parents. Most kids are dumbasses when it comes to their belongings, I've figured that out since I was 7 and started reading comic books. I never ripped a page or creased it and they all still do look like when I got them except for usual signs of usage.
When I was at a friends with about 7 years of age, and I first saw his comic book "collection", I couldn't even imagine how it was possible... wrinkled, teared, lots of pages missing, what the HELL??

When it comes down to it, most people are disrespectful to their things, I don't wonder about stuff like that anymore.

As for what game stores in the West are concerned: I don't get it! Japanese game stores put lots of price tags and stickers on their items as well, but they re-seal every cheapass prior to that so when you unwrap it, you automatically get rid off all the fucking price tags.
Why can't Western game stores do it the same way?

 

Ups the cost and lowers profit. Thats the short and simple answer. That and people would get confused if the game was "new" or not because it had the shrink-wrap around it . . .

-Disjaukifa

 

You've kind of answered your own question there. There are a lot of people who buy banged up older cars, run them until they break down, then buy another. They don't care about cars in precisely the same way most videogame consumers don't give a fuck about what happens to a game manual. There's no great mystery here, it's just a case where one group of people's priorities are radically different to another group's.

Gamestop would start doing it tomorrow if they thought that the amount it would cost them would be less than the amount they currently lose in sales revenue due to poor condition boxes. That they don't bother says more about their consumers (and wider cultural attitudes toward the distinction between form and content) than it does about the stores.

 

Other than the cost of a shrink wrapping machine, there's a space issue and the time taken to seal them. The biggest issue though is a two-tiered problem:

Here, most shops display empty boxes. Why?

1. Theft.
2. Space (put out one copy, keep duplicates in the staff area).

If you shrink-wrapped your games and put them out (even one copy of each for space reasons), a lot would get stolen. Also, savvy people do like to check the disc before they leave the shop.

We used this all the time and it gets the most stubborn labels off with no damage to DVD-style cases. Spray a bit on, leave it a couple of minutes to soak and the label will just peel off. It works on boxes, too... but you have to be very careful as it'll soak into the box and stain!

 

Dude thats AWESOME! I've never head of that stuff before, where can I get it?

-Disjaukifa

 

Electronics stores. Try Radio Shack as you're in the US, or online someone like MCM Electronics, Farnell, Rapid. Places like Radio Shack may have their own brand or an alternate.

Google Servisol label remover and you should find suppliers, too.

The Servisol stuff smells of lemon.

 

I have a Radio Shack about a mile from my place, I'll go tomorrow and see if they have anything like that. I still have some label left over on my two Metal Gear Solid games for the PS2 that I would love to get off without damaging the plastic.

-Disjaukifa

 

Yeah, I do get the problem... after all Western people are different from the Japanese. I couldn't imagine that a Japanese-like store had a chance here in the West, not with Western employees anyway.

Most Japanese stores don't use a machine to "shrinkwrap" their games, they rather tend to circumstantially wrap them by hand in plastic foil and with adhesive tape. They do this to every single game you see on the common pictures of JPN stores, even loose 50cent-Famicom cartridges are sealed like that. I don't want to know how much time that kills.... and you can always ask them to open the game for you to take a look at the insides. Well, it's another universe as for what hobby and media consumption are concerned.

And in Western countries, theft seems to be a much bigger problem. When I was a kid lurking around in the video game areas of a toy store, I was always stalked by some employee bitch. Oh how I hated that... I just wanted to look at all those shiny covers in the Nintendo shelves :love2: