Ever get collectoritis? The symptoms include: spending more time shopping for games than you spend playing them, owning more games than you can possibly play, having games still in the shrinkwrap, or do you own games for a system you don’t own. If this sounds familiar you may have collectoritis. I contracted it years ago when I worked at a videogames store. I began buying lots of great games but I didn’t have much time to play them. I soon started a collection I would never play. I few years later when I worked at another videogame store I began buying a few games every month and maybe playing them for an hour and then moving on to something else. Recently I thought I was getting better. I had actually seen the ending to a few of the games I owned. I had sold off some of my collection that I figured I would never get around to. Then Christmas season came around and I was out shopping. I bought sixteen games in two months. (Gears of War, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrows, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Stella Deus, Rainbow 6 Vegas, Ridge Racer 5, Condemned, Sneak King, Pocketbike Racer, Big Bumpin, Samurai Showdown 5, Aerowings 2, Scurge Hive, Capcom Classics Mini Mix Shaman King: Master of Spirits 2 and Valkyrie Profile 2.) Mind you I got them at great prices, but it’s money wasted on games I will never get around too. I don’t even own a DS and I now own four games for one. Guess how many of these games sit unplayed? 7. On the plus side I beat two out of three games on Mini Mix and finished Big Bumpin, Sneak King sucks and Pocketbike Racer is not fun without other people, I found out I like Aerowings 1 better than 2, Samurai Showdown V needs and arcade stick, I played Stella Deus for a half and hour, I also rented Phantasy Star Universe and put 2.5 hours into it. And I started Shaman King: Master of Spirits 1. But now I need to recover. I am trying a twelve-step plan… that is 12 games a year. One a month. I should actually be buying less than this but at my current rate this is cutting down a lot. Here is my list. Titles may change but this should help me keep focused on a few titles rather than ALL titles. Here is my list so far. 1 Half Life Collection 360 2 Virtual Fighter 5 360 3 Bioshock 4 DDR 360 5 Shadowrun 360 6 Shadow of Colossus 7 Lumines Plus PS2 8 Lost Planet CE 9 River City Ransom EX 10 Propeller Arena 11 Predator Xbox 12 Beatmania (Somehow I need to still fit Halo 3 and SNK VS Capcom DS on that list. Maybe I will drop Beatmania and DDR.) My eyes were so wide this week I started looking for Sin and Punishment, considered buying Namco X Capcom, and I almost bought Splatterhouse for the NES. (I can’t even play import PS2 games so Namco X Capcom would be worthless to me.) I just keep looking for games when I should be playing them instead. Anyways if you or someone you know has collectoritis help them by putting a controller in their hand and a great game (they already own) on the TV and remind them there was a reason they started buying games in the first place.