The Real Problem With A Massive Backlog

I have an absolutely staggering backlog of unplayed games, easily in the quadruple digits.  This is not a flex since I don't care about game collecting per se, it's just a problem that's been festing in the background of my life since I've been old enough to have some kind of disposable income.  Even when I moved to Japan and a big chunk of my physical collection got nicked in transit, thanks to the likes of Steam, Good old Games and now Epic giving me free shit that event barely put a dent in my never ending to-play list.

The most obvious problem with a big backlog is time, a real too many games with too little time situation but I don't feel like that's too huge a problem for me personally.  Sure, I'd love more time to game but I get through a decent number of games every year, usually within the triple digits no problem so it's a pretty minor factor.  Another slightly less obvious problem is decision paralysis that one gets from having so many games to choose from.  There have been instances where I'm trying to decide what to play next and have just sat looking at my steam list or flicking through my discs for hours without being able to land on a single thing.  It usually ends up with me picking nothing and doing something else for a bit before I can decide something.

But no, the real problem comes with me being a massive idiot and not remembering what games I have bought already.  The other day on my travels through Nagoya I came across a small used goods store which I decided to have a quick peek inside because sometimes these places have cheap games to buy.  I was right, and there was a tiny shelf of about 6 PS3 games and a couple of PSP games, all for 200 yen each.  Most of it was crap, multiple copies of some Gundam game I don't care about but I did come across a copy of Front Mission Evolved.  I have heard its not that good and I know its not your usual SRPG that Front Mission usually is but for 200 yen, less than a can of Red Bull or a pack of fried chicken at Lawson? Hell yeah I'll give it a go.  When I get home though, I'm going through my Steam library and there it is, Front Mission Evolved on PC sat right there in the list, I already owned the fuckin' thing and because I have so many games and I have long since forgotten what I've bought already I now own two copies of this potentially shit game.

This isn't a recent problem either, back in my high school days I bought Diablo 2 THREE fuckin times.  GAME, the UK version of Gamestop or whatever, would stock copies of it for 5 pounds and I would see it on the shelf and go "oooh! Diablo 2 for a fiver? I'll take that!" only to get home and find it on the shelf by the computer.  What I probably need to do is make a list on my phone of all the games I own so that next time I'm looking through a used game shop I can quickly scroll through it and confirm I don't own it already before checking out.  Although with the staggering number of games I own and a complete lack of motivation this will never happen 

So that it's.  The biggest problem of having a massive backlog of games is that it turns you into an idiot.  Front Mission Evolved isn't the first duplicate game I've bought and I can PROMISE you, it won't be the last

Day 1 Purchasing

When a new game gets released it can be an exciting thing.  Granted, I'm the kind of person who has become so jaded by disappointing releases over the years that I personally don't get too hyped any more, but I do remember a time when a new release would have me jumping for joy.  

But is it really worth running to the store and grabbing that new game? Or is it better to just wait? 

Well the answer to that question depends on what kind of game it is.  If it's a game with an online focus then maybe it is in your best interest to drop the first day money on it.  This may be doubly true if it's a game that isn't AAA developed or particularly mainstream.  Waiting on the title may mean by the time you get there the title will be dead and that's no fun at all.  

However for everything else?  I'd say it's almost always better to wait it out.  Let's take a sort of old example to illustrate my point.  

Dead Space was a game that I bought day 1 back in my University days for about £35.  It was a good game and I don't regret the purchase as such but looking at the page on Amazon for it it now costs £13 new or used for like £2 

Granted you may be a bit behind the times with this approach and you risk running into spoilers but you'll end up saving so much more money to buy even more games or other things.  Hell, Dead Space is an old example but a lot of titles see a drop in price even after a week or so.  If it's a single player game especially I'm sure it won't kill you to wait a week or 2.  Maybe then you can buy a whole bunch at once and go on a nice binge.

If you're blogging or streaming and you want to build a following then maybe playing the latest games is the best idea but your average joe should probably just wait it out.  Of course, if there's a company you really love then absolutely buy it new to show support but most of the time a little patience could save you a pretty penny.  

Akihabara Aint All That

I am now home from Tokyo but before I put that horrible memory behind me I want to tell you a little about a place called Akihabara and how it isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Just in case there are people who aren't clued in on their Japan shit, Akihabara is a bit like nerd Mecca.  If you're into manga, video games or weird shit like maid cafes then people will tell you that Akihabara is THE place to visit if you go to Japan.  This might be the case if you're a hardcore anime fan, but for a gamer Akihabara is a bit of a disappointment.

It's not a shitty place by any stretch and there are a lot of things to like about the place.  For example it doesn't matter if you're into new games or retro games, chances are that if you want something you WILL be able to find it in Akihabara.  The selection on display in some of the stores in this area is nuts, it's the only place I've seen a fully stocked shelf of MSX games and that's just one thing of many.

However, as good as all this may seem, Akihabara is massively overpriced ESPECIALLY if you're into your retro shit.  I found games for 1000, 2000+ that I bought in Nagoya for 100s of yen.  The arcades are overpriced too but not the kind you might think.  Modern games are the same price as they are everywhere else but Akihabara has a pretty extensive collection of cabinets running older games.  In Nagoya, cabs running older games are 50 yen a pop but here they were your usual 100 yen, which is a little bit BS to be honest.

In it's defence, I didn't have a lot of time to truly bury my fangs in and really explore the place so I'm sure that there are places that are actually really good.  That said, there's no way you're going to find these places without a full day to explore and some command of Japanese to help get you round.  So if you're a resident of Akihabara or a nearby area, feel free to comment and call me an idiot but if you're a tourist making a pilgrimage to what is essentially nerd capital, then you may feel a bit let down.

The PS2 Adventure

Oh my fucking god, this shouldn't have been this hard to get my hands on a god damn PS2.

A long long LOOONG time ago when this blog was still nice and young, I made a post about how all my shit had been stolen by a mailing company during my move from England to Sweden.  Ever since then, and since moving to Japan, I've been trying to get my hands on a PS2 so I can start putting my collection back together.

However, finding a PS2 in Nagoya was the hardest shit in the universe.

Near my house, there is a place called Book Off.  Book Off is a used manga store but because my branch happens to be slap bang in the middle of a big city, it does basically everything.  Books, games, clothes, you name it, Book Off probably has it.  What they didn't have in stock for some reason was PS2s.  They have plenty of 3s, a few 4s and a bunch of Vita's and PSPs but no PS2s, which was a real pain in the ass because it's usually Book Off that give the best deals.

Now, on the other side of my house there is a street filled with retro stuff.  These retro stores are for collectors and the owners go out of their way to make sure everything is in as close to perfect condition as humanly possible.  The one store that I usually go to was selling PS2 Slims for about 20,000 yen which is equal to about £116!  

For that same goddamn price I can buy a Wii fucking U and THAT'S a current gen system.

But that isn't the only retro store that sells systems on that street, but the other one is run by a total ass clown who ramps up the prices of his shit so high that it's never EVER worth it to buy hardware from this guys store.

He had an absolute crap ton of PS2s but here is what he wanted for them

7000 for the system
1500 for the video cables
1500 for the AC cables
2100 for a controller (x2 because I need to be able to accommodate people)
and 500 for a memory card

That's 12,600 Yen, which is less than the asking price for a slim but considering that this is the price for a big fat old model PS2 it's still a total fucking ripoff.  So when it comes to buying systems these specialist stores can suck my ass.

But then I waltz into Book Off yesterday and they are selling SLIMS for 6000.  That's still a little higher than the prices that I've heard about in some other stores where a few of my friends live, but for Nagoya it's a fucking bargain.

Moral of the story, if you live in Japan and want a PS2, don't come to Nagoya.  Japan may be one of the best places to be for a retro collector (even though PS2 isn't really retro yet) but good lord is it total bullshit sometimes.

Convenience stores and game merch

It doesn't matter if you come to Japan for a holiday or for an extended stay, it's pretty much guaranteed that at some point during your stay here you'll end up in a convenience store to buy something.

I've noticed during my time here an abundance of video game stuff being sold in these convenience stores and while its usually quite pricey stuff and I never buy it, it's interesting to see this stuff being sold as its something that would absolutely NEVER happen back home.

The above example is a bottle of drink called Dodecamin, which usually has this sort of brown label, but in order to promote the new Monster Hunter game on the horizon they've changed the label to this funky design.

Monster Hunter isn't the only thing that I've seen kicking about the convenience stores either.  A few weeks ago, I think to promote Persona 4 Golden on the Vita, these stores were selling all sorts of Persona 4 merchandise, such as posters and blindfolds with character designs on it, although it was all needlessly expensive.

Even Japan's greatest fake pop star Hatsune Miku has been in on the whole convenience store marketing thing with a merch campaign that ended a couple of months ago.  This thing was so big that it even had its own ad on TV, check it out!

So if your in Japan, checking your local corner shop is a surprisingly good way of getting your fix of nerd shit, and you can get some fried chicken with it all too.