[Drakan]

Very good question. Bit of both really. Gamer for me comes foremost than collecting.

Normally If I'm in the mood I'll buy two, exceptionally three copies if I really, really like it. One I open and play with. The others remain sealed & stashed away for personal display. Same goes with the CE Strategy Guides. The CESG remain sealed and I use the regular cheapo' ones.

Exceptions being seriously rare items of which I normally only have one sealed copy, such as DSULE, SMACX, ELSIII:MW, ACBCE, ACBBE. These will remain sealed for obvious reasons.

At other times, such as the upcoming Deus Ex Collector's Edition, I'll buy multi-platform. X360 Augmented Edition/GOTY for playing and the PC CE version for display purposes. I'll probably do likewise for Skyrim.

The thing is I don't collect everything that comes out just because, only very rare editions and games I enjoy, whether console (PS3 & X360 and older) or PC.

If I don't like it and play it, chances are I won't be collecting it.