Video gaming, especially to the hearts and minds of the enthusiastic readers of this site, is more than just a pastime but a hobby. Veteran gamers likely have a few, maybe several hundreds of titles for their favorite console of choice, such as the PlayStation 2 of the last generation. However, one PS2 connoisseur took the task of collecting the entire library of games for his favorite gaming platform.
In an interview with PlayStationCollecting.com, an online community devoted to amassing PlayStation titles and catching them all, their community member, Ahans76, told the world his path to completion of gathering every NTSC PS2 title sealed in its original shrink wrap. According to the Ash Ketchum of PS2 games:
I didn’t try to go for a full collection at first, I kind of fell into it. I started acquiring more Playstation 2 games, more then I could play, so I decided to just leave them sealed. At first I had about 300 or 400 sealed and then I decided to look up on the internet how many games there were. At the time a website said that there were 800. Being halfway there I decided, why not go for a full collection? Later I found out that I wasn’t even a quarter of the way there. By that time I had already acquired so many games from stores going out of business (like game crazy) that I continued collecting and went for the full set. Since there are still games being released for the Playstation 2 the set is not final yet, but to the best of my knowledge it’s about 1850+ different titles, not counting variants.
What’s most impressive about his PS2 game collection specifically is that each of the titles are not only sealed but also the first editions of the games; no Greatest Hits or other re-releases. Looking beyond the PS2 catalog, Ahans76 also owns several extremely rare items that some gamers can only dream of ever owning. A couple of his favorite and most coveted items include two Uncharted 2: Fortune Hunter editions and, on the hardware side, a limited edition, non-slim PlayStation 2.
With a collection of thousands of unopened games, clearly there are very few people out there that can even hold a candle to it. While most of us do not game for the sake of collecting them, where do most of us stand in terms of bragging rights? In the current generation of gaming, can we say that a gamer’s Trophy level holds just as much value as their collection? Voice your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
