Audience
The first thing you will want to decide is where you are going to house you collection. Once you have decided that, it will help guide your choices. Video games are rated much like movies are. There is a rating board, called the ESRB, who rate games. That information can be found on the ESRB's website. If you house your games in the youth collection, you will want to stick with games rated appropriately for that collection, likely this will be games rated E or below. If you are going to house your video game collection in the teen area, you can include more games, such as those rated T and below. If you decide to keep you games in the adult area of your collection, you could include M rated games. M rated games are considered by most outside the gaming industry (gaming laymen) to be the equivalent of R rated films. In reality, these games are closer to the equivalent to PG-13, but the ratings board is stricter with video games than with film. Since most parents believe these items to be equivalent to R rated films, it may be best not to include them if your video game collection is in your teen area. Based on this decision, you will develop part of your policy. For example, your policy may state you will buy games with ratings up to T if you are keeping your collection in the teen area.

Teens are interested in all age ranges of games. Just because a game is rated E, doesn't mean it isn't something a teen would like. Many heavy teen gamers will try any game that looks fun, even if it's main character is a fuzzy little lamb that goes "Baaa" when it hops, it may be a quirky title that teens would really enjoy.

If you are including a collection for younger children, you need to be more discriminating. This isn't just because of content. The above example if the sheep hoping game may not be suitable for small children if for instance, you must hit A+B RT, LT, X+Y in order to get the sheep to jump. This is simply too complicated for small children, and they will get frustrated. There are games made for very small children, where any button pressed will produce results.

Adults are a more difficult crowd to please. Often, by the time they are in their twenties, adult gamers will have developed favorite genres. These aren't necessarily M rated games; they could be sports games, or RPG's(Role Playing Games). They do also tend to enjoy the more adult themed games as well. Little sheep that go "baaa!" every time they hop might not be enough excitement for an adult gamer. Though some still might enjoy these games.

Be aware, that no matter where you put the games, all ages will flock to them. Our games are in the teen area, and ages 3-53 seem to browse that collection. If you put the games in your youth collection, you may have teens and adults in there. If you put your games in the adult collection, you will have teens in there.

We chose to place our collection in the Teen area. We wanted something special for teens, and this seemed to fit the bill. Since we put our collection in the teen area, we decided to make out collection policy to purchase games up through the rating T. Unfortunately, a number of very good games are rated M, and cannot be included in this collection because of our policy. Again, many of the things found in most M rated games could be seen in your typical PG-13 film. Swearing, partial nudity (nothing full frontal - those are rated AO), violence, and sexual situations are all included in both the MPAA PG-13 rating, and the ESRB M rating. I have only seen a few M rated games I would say would warrant an R rating as a film. Games such as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Jade Empire, Fable, Several Tom Clancy games and 24 are very good games, with an M rating. All are games that have content that would be in a PG-13 film.

Despite all of this, our collection is quite large, and very well loved. Every now and then, we have a request for a game we cannot get, but a majority of our requests can be filled. In a perfect world, as video games become more and more mainstream, the ESRB may rethink its rating system much the way the MPAA did when they decided to update in the early 80's.

System support
Now that you have decided what age group you are going to buy for, it's a good idea to decide what systems to support. If you are putting you collection in the youth area, you more than likely want to buy Gamecube games. Gamecube has the most kid friendly controller, and has a plethora of kid friendly games. This is really the only instance where I would not recommend getting multiple systems. As a game player, I have all three systems. I know a majority of homes do not have all three, but that is why it is a good idea to buy for all systems. You will get complaints from customers who have one system, but not the other. We decided to purchase games for all three systems because we felt the demand would be more than enough for games to circulate well for all three systems. If you are on a tight budget, you may want to stick with just the Playstation, as it has the most systems sold. Our decision process is outlined below.

We initially decided to buy a majority of Playstation games. Playstation has the largest market and the largest game library. Our second choice was Xbox, because it had the second largest base. Then we would put the smallest percentage of our game budget into Gamecube, as it has the smallest market, and we originally thought the least appeal to teens who are our primary audience. We were going to purchase with this percentage breakdown: 50% PS2, 30% Xbox, and 20% Gamecube. We very quickly found out assumption that Gamecube was the least favorite of teens to be faulty. This is also evidenced by the favorite games at our video game programming events.

Xbox seems to be the least circulating of the bunch. This isn't from any number crunching, but from what always seems to be on the shelf when nothing else is. Oddly, Gamecube is neck and neck with Playstation. The top circulating games seem to be a mix of the two systems. However, Xbox does circulate well, as do all our games. So we continue to buy for all 3 systems.

We have not purchased games for the portables(Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, PSP) for the main library due to problems with security. We do not have the type of security cases that will fit anything other than a standard DVD sized disc. Gamecube, though smaller, still will fit in a standard DVD case. We do purchase the portable system games for the bookmobile, since it does not use security on the items. The bookmobile keeps all high theft items right next to the checkout desk, so has more flexibly in purchasing these different mediums. updated 11-10-06

We have currently started buying games for the portables. We researched whether or not the cartridge based portables would be hurt by our desensitizers, but since they are flash memory, all our research indicates it won't be a problem. We also figured out a nifty way to put these types of games in our security cases. You can see instructions for how we did that here. Portable games were the most requested video game type request we have gotten since we started the collection. Check below for updates on how this collection has worked out for us.

As for purchasing for the newer systems, I would recommend buying Xbox 360 games and PS3 games roughly 6 months after its release, or as demand increases. The PS3 system will retail at $700, putting it in a price range too high for many teens initially. But eventually the price will drop, or people will have saved up enough money. Waiting 6 months also allows for you to judge the market. If PS3's are selling well, and you will know this if you stay up on tech news, as many are predicting the PS3 will either make or break Sony, and then you will know that PS3 titles will circulate well. The Wii, the new Nintendo gaming console, will be immensely popular with its franchise launch titles, Zelda and Mario coming out shortly after it is released. Purchase Wii games as soon as it is released. Priced at just around $200, the Wii is likely to be under plenty of Christmas trees this year. updated 9-18-07 I would recommend buying Xbox 360 titles. These titles are circulating very well for us. We have had to purchase multiple copies to meet demand. The Xbox 360 is firmly entrenched in the gaming market right now. It has been getting a lot of bad press for the hardware failure rate of the system, but that won’t stop consumers from buying it, particularly with the huge titles coming out this year like Halo 3. The PS3 is also gaining some momentum. It has a large slate of games scheduled to be released this fall, including such stand bys as Ratchet and Clank. They will also be showcasing Home, a much more interactive version of what Xbox has (Xbox Live). It works similarly to Second Life, only with the added benefit of actually having games to play. Much of what I have read on forums and the like have me convinced gamers are pretty excited about this new feature of the PS3, so look for demand of these games to go up this fall.

We have begun purchasing Wii and PS3 titles. Initially, we purchased just a few Wii titles. However, the demand has been such that we have begun purchasing multiple copies of each game. The PS3 games are steadily checked out, but you can usually find a few on the shelf. We only have a few of these titles, and no multiples yet. Actually, my first PS3 game purchase was a mistake. I still had yet to learn the secret codes of B&T. But I put a record in once I got it, and it had a hold after just the first day. I decided to try a few of the higher rated games. It isn't something I would recommend for a beginning collection, but if you have a little extra in your budget, try a few PS3 games to see how it plays in your community. Our community is fairly affluent, so we may be an irregularity.updated 1-30-07

Update on Portables and Wii games 9-18-07

Our portable games are circulating like crazy. We now have more than 100 titles (more than 250 items)of Nintendo DS games, more than 50 Gameboy advance titles (more than 120 items) and more than 60 PSP titles (more than 80 items). Overall we currently have more than 400 portable games available for checkout. Amazingly to me, the Gameboy Advance seems to be the most popular. It is difficult to get these games as they are not produced as heavily as they have been in the past. DS games are a close second. Pokemon continues to be the front runner as far as checkouts go. If a title has Pokemon attached somewhere, it should be purchased. PSP games circulate well, and their numbers have picked up now that the price of the PSP has dropped. However, the PSP games are rather fragile. While we have yet had to replace a DS game or Advance game, we have had to replace many of the PSP games.

The biggest problem is with the outer casing. It tends to split and the official Sony website does not recommend trying to repair it. I have repaired a few on my own with super glue, and this can work, but there is a downside. Just like in CSI or, my personal favorite, Beverly Hills Cop, if you use super glue around lots of fingerprints, those fingerprints react to the fumes and become much more pronounced. Lots of little fingers touch the PSP disc so you will need to thoroughly clean it before attempting this fix. I also would not recommend it on other grounds. The glue does not hold long, and soon the game is back for repair again.

The PSP has been the most frustrating game type. We have begun resurfacing all our DVD based games with great results and I wish there were a better way to repair the PSP games. I would still recommend getting them if you are a large library and have a decent budget for games as the PSP is gaining in popularity. With the PS3 gaining in popularity, and the newly acquired ability to interface with it using your PSP, I anticipate the PSP selling well in the next year. There is something I have started doing that seems to be helping the PSP games last longer. I thought the main reason the little white casings split was due to the tight fit in the PSP case. See this page to see how we put these cases in security boxes. Now I press the little tabs that hold the PSP game in the case until they are a little looser. This has made those broken PSP games come across my desk less often.

Wii titles have been so popular we cannot keep them on the shelf. We currently have more than 200 Wii games for checkout (almost 70 titles.) We have 8 copies of some titles, and they still never grace our shelves long enough for us to see them. If you are thinking about just starting a new collection, I would highly recommend buying Wii titles.