A Knockdown and Rebuild of My Game Collection

Michael Barnes wrote: Man, the visual noise bugs me. I love my games, but I don’t love my living space looking like a free for all bachelor pad or hoarder nest and piles of games have that look. I am 100 percent a kid at heart but I like for my living spaces to look stylish and adult.

I can see where you come from, but I don't think games look poor on shelves. Of course, I'm also like ten years younger than you and my room looks like a NASA launch site with all the screens I have lying around.

Erik Twice wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: Man, the visual noise bugs me. I love my games, but I don’t love my living space looking like a free for all bachelor pad or hoarder nest and piles of games have that look. I am 100 percent a kid at heart but I like for my living spaces to look stylish and adult.

I can see where you come from, but I don't think games look poor on shelves. Of course, I'm also like ten years younger than you and my room looks like a NASA launch site with all the screens I have lying around.

Game boxes are garish on purpose, in order to catch your attention in a store. They're the shape they are for a reason as well, because when they're a thick square instead of a flat rectangle they get displayed standing up on a wall or aisle unit of some sort. There's a whole science to this. Packages are made to sell, the fact that you need to store them afterwards isn't part of the equation because the publisher really doesn't care what you do with them once the check clears.

I would always store vertically end-on because it eliminates most of the package. But some still remains and with each game presenting a different color palette and generally screaming for you to look at it it can become overwhelming. Granted, I'm 54 and I'm looking for a more pastoral existence at this stage of life. This enclosed solution really looks erudite and calming.

I've always joked that if I ever get to be on one of those boardgaming videos where you stand in front of your shelves and talk that I was going to remove every single game except Nexus Ops. While everyone else is trying to impress you with who they are by how many games they can have in the shot (and damn, nearly every frikkin' video has that wall of games behind it) I'd rather just have an empty background with one game that I think really makes a statement. Someone might actually spend the time listening to me instead of scanning the screen for titles the whole time.

You could always display them with the blending ombre color effect, like people do with bookcases



www.theforestfeast.com/blog/2018/5/11/co...avorite-spring-dress

We are lucky enough to have a closet in the library where the games are stored away from view. My old AH bookcase games are the only ones I would consider putting on the library shelves.

If we ever move, and I am forced to have games not in a pseudo-storage area, there will be a massive reduction. Growing up, we always stored our games under the bed, in a trunk, and in the back of the closet (I had a closet under the stairs, so that was where the big MB games were). I probably had 20 or 30 games under my bed (Clue, etc.) -- would have to shimmy under there and dig everything out to get to what I was looking for (and where the hell else were you supposed to store Battle Masters?). My bookshelves had some D&D modules, Feudal, and Wizard's Quest on it -- the rest were books.

If I had them in a living area, then I would either go with Sag's solution, which is nice or I would go with cabinets with doors on them (excepting some bookcase like games -- like the old AH or 3M titles).

I actually keep ours in the master bedroom, which my wife is very understanding about. They are there mostly because we run an air conditioner in there every night and it keeps the tropical humidity from molding everything.

I cut my collection down a lot before moving to the Philippines, and it felt good. You do, however, hit the point where you just don't want to cut anymore. I thought about this the other day, about selling off stuff like Merchants and Marauders (its been well over 2 years since I've played). But games like that represent a connection to a time before culture shock, and I don't want to let that go.

WadeMonnig wrote: Thurn and taxis AND an expansion? *whispered* Do the other members know?
I totally want shadows over Camelot though why does no one in my area ever sell that for a decent price?

If you seriously want it, Wade. I'll send you my copy. PM me your address.

Space Ghost wrote: You could always display them with the blending ombre color effect, like people do with bookcases

Ha. A friend of mine made that comment when he and his wife moved into their house, as it had been built with embedded bookcases all around the living room. She, of course, took up his pseudo-dare and did sort their considerable library by color. He still has trouble finding things.

Jackwraith wrote:

Space Ghost wrote: You could always display them with the blending ombre color effect, like people do with bookcases

Ha. A friend of mine made that comment when he and his wife moved into their house, as it had been built with embedded bookcases all around the living room. She, of course, took up his pseudo-dare and did sort their considerable library by color. He still has trouble finding things.

That would drive me nuts. Our bookcases are divided by topic and then alphabetized — searching by color would be exhausting

My gaming area is the basement. Dark wood paneling and carpeting in the finished section. Long Ikea table selected for the ability to hold Arkham Horror plus all expansions for eight players. I paid an electrician to upgrade the light fixture above the table and use daylight-type flourescent tubes. Even there, the games on display are in shelving units over in the corner of the L-shaped finished area. Then I have probably three large storage totes of games that I should probably sell off some day.

The one time I played Thurn & Taxis, a friend’s girlfriend was teaching it to everyone and she was super excited because she’d just discovered nerd games. She mentioned that this line of cards was called the Route Row, and I immediately (and thoughtlessly/reflexively) said “rooh row!” like Scooby Doo. Everyone laughed and she was deflated but continued teaching it. I felt like an ass and I still came in second.

Space Ghost wrote:

Jackwraith wrote:

Space Ghost wrote: You could always display them with the blending ombre color effect, like people do with bookcases

Ha. A friend of mine made that comment when he and his wife moved into their house, as it had been built with embedded bookcases all around the living room. She, of course, took up his pseudo-dare and did sort their considerable library by color. He still has trouble finding things.

That would drive me nuts. Our bookcases are divided by topic and then alphabetized — searching by color would be exhausting

You would want to put a book scanning app on your phone, scan each book and tag it with a color and approximate location.

CranBerries wrote:

Space Ghost wrote:

Jackwraith wrote:

Space Ghost wrote: You could always display them with the blending ombre color effect, like people do with bookcases

Ha. A friend of mine made that comment when he and his wife moved into their house, as it had been built with embedded bookcases all around the living room. She, of course, took up his pseudo-dare and did sort their considerable library by color. He still has trouble finding things.

That would drive me nuts. Our bookcases are divided by topic and then alphabetized — searching by color would be exhausting

You would want to put a book scanning app on your phone, scan each book and tag it with a color and approximate location.

We have now officially identified the limits to my OCD regarding books.

I'm down to maybe 30 plus miniature games. Started selling on Facebook and they flew at good prices. If I can't have a game behind a cupboard door I don't need it. It's amazing every week we realize we're never going to play the games we have and yet more are bought. I've given up on that. Sell sell sell and seriously limit new stuff. Money is better spent elsewhere than on a shrink wrapped door stopper.