Console Gaming Reviews

Think of Your Video Game Library as a Portfolio

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Category: Console Gaming Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 24 January 2012 11:03

Written by Michael

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dsci0126There was a time, long before any of us were born, when an
intellectual could read every book worth reading, but as more books
were written that task became impossible.

The same is now true for movies, television shows and video games.
With this concept in mind, video game enthusiasts should consider
budgeting their video game purchases.

Budgeting isn't just about money; there's also limited amounts of time and other resource limitations like hard drive space and equipment requirements. With that in mind, realize your portfolio can't include every game you'd enjoy playing. You will have to make cuts, and that will lead to cutting out good games.

Don't make the mistake of choosing which games to buy on their
individual merits. Instead, look at what you can afford with your
resource limitations and don't exceed it.

All video games, from console games to PC games, depreciate in value.
It's fairly quick, like how Mass Effect 2 dropped 66 percent in less
than a year after release. This means you will save money if you wait
a year or two after a game is released. Since the game may have ended
up on your shelf unopened for six months while you play other games,
it's not much of a sacrifice. You'll save a lot waiting for sales or
for prices to fall.

There are some setbacks to this strategy. Some of the minor games see
their multiplayer audience dry up after six month. You'll also miss
out on pre-order bonuses, but that's debatable. Most of them are
aesthetic, minor or later released as DLC. Imagine if you waited a
year and the game fell from $60 to $20. Would you have been willing to
pay $40 for the difference to have that bonus as DLC? If not, it's
probably not for you.

Now that you know when to buy your games for your portfolio, it's time
to consider what to put in it. The key to any portfolio is diversity.
Different games fill different roles, and you want to make sure all
those roles are covered without too much redundancy.

Take MMOs. No one should ever try to maintain two of them at the same
time. They're too time intensive.

The same wisdom goes for multiplayer shooters. I'm going to use Xbox
360 examples because that's what I use. Gotham City Impostors looks
pretty good, but I don't plan to pick it up when I have Gears of War
3, Grand Theft Auto 4 and Team Fortress 2 that I still play with my
friends.

But sometimes your friends aren't around and you just want a long
single player game to slog through. Skyrim, LA Noire, Mass Effect and
Fallout: New Vegas all fill that role, but you probably won't have all
four of them going on at once. You should ladder these games, not bulk
up on them all at once.

There are also lighter single player games to have on hand, such as
puzzles or platformers. Light games like Castle Crashers and Ms.
'Splosion Man work well for solo play and get better with local
multiplayer for up to four people when friends come over.

Another niche to have on hand is games for guests who don't like
traditional video games. Rock Band 3 and Dance Central 2 fill this
role well, but those require expensive equipment. If you don't have
access to that, there's cheap games like Globeclicker that fill the
same roles for $3.

Whatever you put in your portfolio, don't forget that you can't try to
play every game on the market without turning your hobby into a chore.

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