Do you consider this hobby an addiction?

Umortal377

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I was thinking about this the other day. Do you consider youself to be addicted to this hobby. The constant searching, the haggling on prices, long drives. I do this all the time, yet most of my games end up sitting in my basement not getting played. About the only thing I play currently is my Twilight Zone. I noticed the other day most of my games were covered in dust from lack of play.

I keep telling myself I need to unplug, but cant seem to do it.
 
I don't consider it an addiction... but then I only have 4 games.
 
That's probably true of most hobbies/obsessions.

My brother has been collecting those little paintable metal figurines for over 30 years. He's got thousands of them neatly stacked in boxes. What is the point of that?
 
There was a time when it was an addiction. Now it's just a hobby that I pick up and put down based on how I'm feeling. I have a pretty sizable collection but it's not uncommon for me to not play or work on games for weeks at a time.
 
I have 2 games right now and I'm set for a while. I also have a short list of wants, which all are limited by a tight budget. I don't have a spectacular job right now, so I can't afford much.

Also my Multi-board takes care of a lot of games that I would otherwise want to own. I'm trying to take a very practical approach to an impractical hobby.

So no, I don't think it's an addiction.
 
I was thinking about this the other day. Do you consider youself to be addicted to this hobby. The constant searching, the haggling on prices, long drives. I do this all the time, yet most of my games end up sitting in my basement not getting played. About the only thing I play currently is my Twilight Zone. I noticed the other day most of my games were covered in dust from lack of play.

I keep telling myself I need to unplug, but cant seem to do it.

That is my exact feelings as well. For me its the ultimate scavenger hunt. That I get to show off a very few times a year.
 
Bingo! Collections/Hobbies are addictions.

Kevin

That's probably true of most hobbies/obsessions.

My brother has been collecting those little paintable metal figurines for over 30 years. He's got thousands of them neatly stacked in boxes. What is the point of that?
 
I think it is an addiction for people with addictive personalities or people who are obsessive-compulsive. KLOV seems to have a multitude of both. If you have a level head, know where to draw the line and when to say no, it's just a hobby that can elicit floods of great memories even if it can seem a bit overwhelming at times. My frustrations mainly stem from lack of time to be able to restore the machines that I have already sunk money into, bought parts for, drove 3 hours to pick up and are now taking up valuable space in my shop, just being. It's been said before, but having a supportive but realistic spouse really helps. You don't want an enabler that makes your OCD/ hoarding situation worse, you want someone who gives you some slack, understands what makes you happy but still keeps the leash firmly in hand, ready to give it a small yank when you are about to step off the curb into a bottomless pothole.
 
I think most of us started out buying everything that landed on CL or ePay that was cheap. Most of us probably over paid for our first game because we wanted it so badly. Eventually most of us figured out it was pointless to buy every good deal because you didn't enjoy the game you bought and you had a hell of time trying to sell.

Then most of us gained enough knowledge to look at a project and know that by the time you figure in the cost to restore it - your good deal went south real quick. So most of us became very picky and possibly cheap.

I think this is a pretty realistic road map in the life of many of us.

Obsession/addiction to acquire parts to complete a game happens with everyone.

Hobby - restoring games wether it be a full on resto or simply getting a game to work again keeps us busy and it's something we enjoy doing.
 
I think it is an addiction for people with addictive personalities or people who are obsessive-compulsive. KLOV seems to have a multitude of both. If you have a level head, know where to draw the line and when to say no, it's just a hobby that can elicit floods of great memories even if it can seem a bit overwhelming at times. My frustrations mainly stem from lack of time to be able to restore the machines that I have already sunk money into, bought parts for, drove 3 hours to pick up and are now taking up valuable space in my shop, just being. It's been said before, but having a supportive but realistic spouse really helps. You don't want an enabler that makes your OCD/ hoarding situation worse, you want someone who gives you some slack, understands what makes you happy but still keeps the leash firmly in hand, ready to give it a small yank when you are about to step off the curb into a bottomless pothole.

Nail on the head.

I also look at my wife as an asset to my hobby rather than a hindrance. I'm lucky in that I guess.

I started off like everyone does - like a rabid dog who smelled fresh meat. I was obsessed to learn everything I could, and buy every game in my area regardless of how crappy or broken it was. Actually, the more broken the better - that way I can learn more hands-on skills.

At this point in the hobby, I'm more interested in just random BS'ing with the people I've met online and locally in person. I play my games when they don't have crap piled in front of them, and enjoy working on them still. I don't let it keep me up at night much anymore though. I'd much more prefer just to have fully working machines only at this point. I've done too many projects (long term ones at that) and it has soured me a bit. If I can't have a game to 100% functional in a single repair sitting now, I lose interest and wish I never got it. If I do get it done in one sitting though, the fire starts burning a bit brighter again. :D

This weekend I fixed some games for my bro-in-law. Initially I planned on charging him for each game. I had so much damn fun and my 'accomplishment gauge' was topped off so fully, that I didn't even want payment once it was done! (leave it to my bro-in-law to not go out of his way to offer anything in lieu of not being asked. :rolleyes: He did buy our dinner 2 nights though) I could do no wrong, and my years of research and practice made the work perfectly linear. It justified why I love this hobby, and why I don't see myself leaving it fully for a long, long time if at all.

In closing, all hobbies are an addiction at least for some amount of time. The sane ones level off back to hobby status. The OCD/crazy ones keep going full tilt until it consumes them. Sorry if I offend anyone here, but anyone who lets arcade machines take over their entire house and life has major issues. A hobby is only supposed to take up a single facet of your life. Life is short and there are a ton of other awesome hobbies out there. I want to experience many of them.
 
The only other time I make trips that are 3 hours away, each way, from my house is to go visit in-laws, so you tell me.. :D
 
I think with any hobby involving the collecting of something, the main rule to stick with is to only collect what you ACTUALLY like. This may sound redundant but it's so easy for collecting to turn into hoarding. And I don't mean having a house filled with piles a shit and and only an 8" walk path. I mean limit your collecting to what you truly like and not just what you can get.
I've been a toy collector since probably the late 70's. Even as a 4 or 5 year old I remember feeling I had a toy "collection" and not just a room full of toys. I played with them but I didn't beat the shit out of them either. The bo-bo drugstore $1 action figures were the ones that took the firecrackers and BB gun abuse. As I got older and started working, I had the funds to really build my collection especially with local antique toy shows popping up. And even tho I'd branch out a little with Japanese robot wind-ups or various other toylines, I'd always stick with the backbone of my collection, 3.75" action figure lines (GI Joe, Star Wars, Battlestar, Buck Rogers etc.)
Around 1995, Star Wars toys made a come back to stores and a few years later Star Wars shit was available everywhere. Underwear, paper plates, curtains, 12" dolls, Jello molds etc. I met and heard of so many new collectors that went fucking apeshit buying everything they saw with R2-D2 or Yoda on it and within a few months they were burnt out. I only bought or hunted for what I liked. If Hasbro made figures that looked like ass, I didn't buy them regardless of how rare they supposedly were. Other folks would do toy runs at 3 am to every Walmart in the area and come back with 2 monkey faced Leias and they felt like they found the Holy fucking grail. They didn't really like what they bought, they would just buy for the sake of having.
This same collecting frenzy happens with any type franchise, Nascar, Beanie Babies, Kiss, Barbie, HotWheels, Twilight, Harry Potter, The Beatles etc. So many folks will just buy it because that roll of toilet paper is printed with Dale Earnhardt's face on it and they'll put it on a shelf right beside their 47 boxes of misprinted Mr. T cereal.

As with arcade collecting, I say stick with the same rule. Only buy the games YOU really, really want. Not what's rare or what everyone else wants but what makes you honestly happy to own and not mind staring at everyday. If games can be bought cheap and flipped for a profit to go toward your dream game then great but it has to be carried thru. Hoarding up games in shit condition with no future of ever looking decent or being playable again will surely throw a wet blanket on the fun and thrill of collecting.
 
at first it was real addicting and then it turned more into a hobby for me. when i first started out i tried to get every game i saw that i could afford, and ended up with quite a few games i didn't like. at this point i'm trying to collect only stuff i want to keep for a long time, but i'm not in that constant craigslist searching rush anymore. the addiction still pops up now and then, like when i've gotten a new game and i'm cleaning it up and fixing it, but that's it.
 
Around 1995, Star Wars toys made a come back to stores and a few years later Star Wars shit was available everywhere. Underwear, paper plates, curtains, 12" dolls, Jello molds etc. I met and heard of so many new collectors that went fucking apeshit buying everything they saw with R2-D2 or Yoda on it and within a few months they were burnt out.

This is so true! Count me as one of those that went nuts with the new star Wars figures. I have all of them up until the Episode 1 figures started coming out and I stopped buying them. I have 120 or so figures MOC in Star Cases collecting dust.

Excellent insight there Empire, you definitely show that you have had a lot of experience with collecting toys. I used to collect toys but stopped recently. You have to focus on one hobby at a time IMHO. I now focus on my pinball/arcade hobby and I am super happy I did.

I agree with the others you need to buy what you want instead of everything. What I am now trying to do is to stop buying so many projects and focus on games that are close to 100%, that is after I finish my next 8 projects :)
 
I agree with most of the posts. It can be an addiction, if you let it. Just like drinking, when you first started, you would drink anything that came in a bottle. I mean, how else can you explain something like Boone's Farm? Then as your taste became more refined (and you started to no longer appreciate hangovers) you got more selective about what you drank. Some people though just can't seem to learn that selectivity lesson and will buy anything dangled out in front of them, as long as they think it is a bargain.

Like most of us, I went through that phase and I have been starting to slowly work my way through the inventory and slough off the stuff that doesn't fit with the direction I am going with collecting. I'm not cured. I am still obsessing about a 8 cabinet deal that I would love to pick up, but I don't have the room and the cabs are all going to need some attention before they can be sold off. So that means more money and more storage for a longer period and ultimately, lower profit. Even though there are a couple of games I would love to have in that stash, I am trying very hard to not pull the trigger.

ken
 
I go through binges myself. I'll buy stuff and then not spend money for a long time as I work on the stuff I've aquired. I only have 3 machines right now, a Tron, a MAME cab and a pinball.

I do think it is an addiction in the sense that I think about it every day and look on CL daily.
 
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