Silent Hill

I can't even imagine what improvements they could even make. It's flawless. (my ONLY gripe now that I'm thinking about it was the lack of the Groovitron)

I'm absolutely pumped for GT7 in a way that I haven't been for any game in years.

Had to go for Ratchet & Clank! In December 2021, I luckily got a PS5 at cost from someone in a locally-based FB gaming group about 1.5 hours away from me. First thing I did before picking it up was buy R&C. Graphical powerhouse, non-stop action, insanely tight gameplay, fun collectibles, solid writing (per usual), etc. Can't really think of anything I'd change about it. I also voted for Deathloop, though it was the only game I have played from that list. I don't think it's quite as good as some reviews make it out to be, but once the gameplay/premise "clicked", it was tough to put down. Very unique experience, great weapon/perk system, and the visionaries were pretty wild. Not sure if I'll really go back to it but generally enjoyed every one of the 20 or so hours I put into it.

lololol the screenshots on the back crack me up. (Look at this HAND!)

Damn, that's some high quality gaming right there. I try to squeeze in a couple hours each night after the kids go to bed!

Digging into Guardians of the Galaxy for PS5. Finished up Deathloop last week. I also finished Cloudpunk on Switch last night, so I'll be starting something new there tonight or tomorrow.

Beat Moss on OQ2 last week Currently playing through Cloudpunk on Switch. Even with the god-awful draw distance, framerate dips and a few random crashes, it's still pretty enjoyable. Some of my favorite dialogue and VO in some time. Also need to finish up Deathloop on PS5 and get back to Tormented Souls (which is a fantastic throwback to the survival horror golden era)

Solid list! Here's one of my favorites that nobody ever mentions:

Yeah, I get it. It's too much of a hassle to continue a conversation that you injected yourself into. Perhaps next time your initial comment could contain actual information to prove your point so you wouldn't have to keep spinning your wheels explaining the "obvious".

lol thought so - thanks for chiming in.

Shame you had the time and energy to call out the massive effect WATA/HA has had on retro game prices but can't muster up enough to provide some examples. (and Stadium Events/NWC are not good examples at all - they're rare as shit and have been steadily on the rise for easily 10+ years) I'm glad you mentioned games like SM64 and Contra as that's mostly been my point - from what I can tell, WATA/HA has not had an impact on items that a vast majority of people who bitch about them tend to collect. Believe it or not, I too am someone who has actively bought games before and after WATA's time and I can easily say my experience is my example. (and I've been collecting for ~15 years so maybe my opinion is that of an "OG collector"?) I'll share a few examples of the YT effect from a single MJR PS2 Hidden Gems video from May 2018 in hopes that you find the time and effort to share some similar examples directly from WATA/HA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpsn69cFCmQ The Red Star - $15 to $35 from April 2018 to August 2018 Shox - $5 to $17 from April 2018 to June 2018 Spy Fiction - $12 to $40 from April 2018 to July 2018 Lifeline - $12 to $25 from April 2018 to June 2018 Just pulled those from VGPC as an example, and not only have these never fallen back down to their April 2018 price, they've become even more expensive since. That's just a few games from one single video. When I think about all the similar videos from larger channels, I tend to make claims like my earlier one about being able to link YT videos to price hikes and YT having a larger overall impact on retro prices than WATA/HA, even if that's not necessarily their intent by making the videos. Again, never said WATA/HA hasn't had any impact at all, but their impact has primarily been on a small subset of retro collecting - sealed games, and maybe some mint CIB. Many, many other factors have impacted prices for used retro games but those normally get swept under the rug in favor of complaining about WATA/HA because it's been the thing to do recently.

Then let's look at some examples of direct correlation (bonus points for examples of "rare" carts). Should be tons of them if they've had such a massive effect.

Even if WATA/HA caused people to speculate - it's on sealed games.

I think we're just on opposite sides of thinking on this. I don't think a good volume of people in their 30s - 40s can (or would) drop a few thousand dollars on a game. I'm mid 30s and can't do that lol And even less people would hoard loose carts due to a sealed copy going for $1M WATA/HA put a huge spotlight on sealed games for sure, but they don't really deserve the heat for fuggin' things up for "normal collectors". It's just misplaced frustration or whatever you want to call it when people who don't collect sealed games chastise WATA without them having caused any real impact to how or what they personally collect. If anyone has examples of something WATA graded or something HA sold that had a direct impact on non-sealed copies skyrocketing, then please share.

I get that point/analogy but that's assuming everything else you're looking for as a sealed collector is similarly valued/priced. Perhaps you're able to sell a duplicate/under-copy at a nice high price currently and scoop up stuff that is still under-valued or that you want in your collection more? Or in the case of quite a few games we've seen sell for crazy amounts, sell now and re-buy later once the price cools down. I know people that have done something similar in the housing market example. Sell their house due to high equity on current market and rent or downsize for X years until the market cools. You could still be up money at that point after re-buying a similar house. A lot of factors, but again, I understand your point of value is only relevant if selling.

I'm not trying to be mean, but I think the same could be said about putting the blame on the "hidden gems" videos. I do get the affect, but it's not like MJR talks about 10 new "hidden gems" every week, plus even at that rate, it'd take a long time to account for the massive spike over that past 20 years. I don't put the blame, per se, on Wata but they are a HUGE part in moving people into game collecting as a "speculative investment". Before that, we were all mostly collectors that enjoyed owning this stuff for the sake and enjoyment of sheer collecting. Maybe you collected to play, or maybe you collected for nice, shelf-candy pieces or maybe you enjoyed the hunt of digging deep, picking up every copy of every NES game you saw in a shop, just to hunt down new and odd variants. Regardless, there was a shift about 3-4 years ago and people started to think "Hey, I owned that as a kid! What, it's worth how much?! I think I'll grab a few of my old games and hold onto them. They might be worth 10x in the future!" My point being, Wata's mass-marketing brought in those willing to collect for the sake of pure-speculation in value. I don't appreciate that. I mean, I kind of saw that coming because that's how nostalgia works with enough time, but Wata escalated the speed in which that happened. I'm not bitter, but I'm not going to ignore that they had a hand in the mass FOMO around game collecting these past few years either. I didn't mean to imply that folks like MJR deserve ALL the blame, but they are partly to blame, even if well-intentioned. I understand the rise in pricing is due to many factors, including YT, FB groups, news articles, WATA, etc. Just wanted to point out how narrow-minded it is to place all the blame on one single factor, especially one that arguably hasn't had nearly the negative impact on prices as other factors. I personally don't think WATA has had much of an impact on game collecting or rising prices, outside of sealed games and to an even lesser extent, mint CIB (cartridge-based) games. I don't see the logic in something like SM64 hitting $1.5M at auction and tons of people "holding onto" their loose copy in hopes that they retire one day. Not that it would even matter unless you're upset that less people are selling their games today due to whatever financial gain they think they stand to make at some point in the future. The shift of people thinking their games are worth far more than what they realistically are happened well before WATA's time, at least with used copies. That happened more so due to other factors, like YT channels, Storage Wars (lol), people becoming older and having disposable income, retro game conventions blowing up, simple supply and demand, etc. I'd like to hear from a "collector that enjoyed owning this stuff for the sake and enjoyment of sheer collecting" that has been hindered from doing so in recent years due to WATA. Because I would place myself into that bucket and couldn't give two shits about what WATA is doing other than it's going to cost far more for me to finish my sealed Silent Hill set now than it would have a couple years ago, but that's just what happened and prices are already cooling off on the two I need in particular, though they are still well above my comfort level of spend. The upside to all of this is maybe some sealed/mint games I already had are worth more now so I can turn those into even more games or whatever else I want than I could have by selling a couple years ago. The bottom line is I don't see any reason to point fingers at WATA for impacting prices unless you're a sealed collector, and even then, I can't think of a single OG sealed collector bent out of shape about all of this as they are presumably now in a much better position financially with their current collection. If they're pissy about rising prices, it's a double-edged sword of course.

rEaL cOlLeCtOrS! Love when people blame the steady rise in retro prices over the last decade+ solely on WATA. Especially when it comes from youtubers who make "hidden gem" videos. The ones where you can draw a directly line from the video to the price hike.

While police don't necessarily stop murders mid-process (in some cases they do though), additional police presence definitely has an impact on crime. Less police and more people having no respect for them will never provide a positive outcome.

You're almost there!

PM Sent

Doom comes to mind, though there really aren't that many entries. In fact, the franchise may have even gotten better with age.

Rift Apart on PS5 is absolutely phenomenal

Box cutter is fine, but I would have cut across the top instead of the side. Just me though..

You're not wrong. But at the same time EVERY single person here would have a vastly different list from one another. There is no possible way to do a Castlevania list without everyone keying in on whatever they disagree with the most. Im. Possible. It's like Zelda lists IMO. A vast majority of people will have OoT, LTTP, or to a lesser degree, the OG as the top spot and the rest of the list is random. For Castlevania, you'll have SoTN or IV in most top spots. Personally, I'm one of those edge cases who has Link's Awakening and Rondo at top spots. (I also rank CV Chronicles really high)

lol Curse of Darkness above Rondo? No thanks.