Let’s just clear the air, because I know what everyone’s thinking. It’s been a while since I posted a Friday Fire. Yes, I am also aware that it’s Monday. I’ve been gaming as long as I can remember, and I’ve been trading in games equally as long. It’s a viable way to accrue new games without having to section of part of the weekly paycheck. In my adolescence, I would gather up all of my trades and march to my local game store(babbages, game trader, etc.), and proceed to trade them in. I never had much of an issue with the process, since I went home with a new game in the end. Being broke throughout high school meant, I traded in most of my games. Some of my most notables are; Original Final Fantasy VII, Goldeneye 007, Resident Evil(PS1), Zelda:Ocarina of time, Metal Gear Solid. Just to name a few. Luckily, I’ve been able to find some of these games in their original form at local collector’s shops. I didn’t realize that I was a collector until we started GamerHusbands. Recording the weekly shows and reminiscing about “Old School” games brought out my desire for all of my old games that I traded in.

I was talking to, GHR community member, BabyGurlz, and we we’re talking about some of the great XBox 360 games that we’re released earlier in the life cycle. A lot of the games that we mentioned, I had traded in, and just thinking about those games(Forza2, Bioshock,CoD4, etc) made me think. I don’t have that many games. The most I ever had on the 360 was 11. And, that included three Guitar Hero Games. Like most people on Xbox Live, I move with the flow of the industry. When Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 released, I called my Blockbuster 6 times to see if they had it available to rent. Our whole community played that for a while and then moved on to the next game. This has become the norm for devout gamers due to the frequency of new games being released. Babygurlz was explaining to me how she never trade in games, because she might want to play them again. Our conversation caused me to have an epiphany, because each game contained a value that cannot be represented by a dollar sign.

I don’t want people to think that I’m against trading in games. Nowadays, gaming is more important to people than ever. I think game stores provide a valuable service to it’s customers, and GamerHusbands wouldn’t have near the coverage without the availability of this service. The games that I owned over the years are like time pieces that hold great memories. Halo 2 is the first on-line multiplayer game I experienced. Me, Allen, Scott, and Sam would spend many friday nights playing Halo 2, talking trash, Kicking Arse, and taking names. We were becoming close friends and didn’t even know it. Zelda:Ocarina of time showed me how important Art direction and Storytelling produces an amazing game, even on an underpowered system. My brother hardly plays games anymore, but he Will talk to you all night about our times with Call of Duty 4. I’m not saying to keep every game you buy, but beware of trading in some of your greatest memories money can’t buy.