This is not just about Midgets, though. Finding so many Midgets infesting my Garage merely pulled me up short for a moment.
This is about the idiosyncracies of
obsessive virtual car collecting. In
GT5.
I collect cars in NFS, and TDU2, too. A little bit in Forza (but I've no wheel for my 360, and tend to fight with the controller - so haven't played a lot of it.) I have collected vehicles obsessively in Ford Off-Road, Ferrari Challenge, NASCAR, and even Alfa Romeo Racing Italiano, to name a few . . . but GT5 is different.
No other game satisfies my lust for collecting virtual cars. It's the best game for collecting cars - that I've actually played anyway. It's a virtual catalog that has specs, descriptions, and the ability to take an item from one's collection and simulate whatever. From painting the car, to tuning it, modding it, photographing it, driving it, racing it.. . .
It's the ability to turn any car from your collection into a screen saver - or in action as a replay.
It's car collector play-heaven.
In GT4, I was obsessed with the Skyline GT-S (little sister to the GT-R) and would snap up every one that came up. I would also buy duplicates of other cars - the usual reason being
'one for stock, one for tuning'. As soon as I learned from the GT4 Forum that I used to visit, that the Stealths came around every 700 days - bam - ran around the game racing till I had picked up 3 of each; one for stock, one for tuning . . . and one for . . . well this is where it gets a bit fuzzy, eh? One, just in case, anyway.
My Savegame of almost all the cars, a fanatic B-Spec Bob well over 9000, and 50+ M, was quite popular with the buddies and nephews who had GT4, wanted to race, and
couldn't be bothered collecting - so they'd just ask me for a copy on a memory card - and away they'd go. That particular Savegame is near the 100 M mark now and crammed with cars. And all manner of races that could be entered.
Enter GT5. Suddenly it was harder to acquire the cars. Money was harder to extract than getting feathers out of a tortoise. To make it worse, the cars - even the standard cars, looked twice as beautiful. The Premiums were so shockingly beautiful that I heard wailing over the Interwebz for more, more, more.. . .
I was happy enough; to me all the Premiums on the disc
were mine as soon as I bought the game. As I mentioned in another thread, why clutter up my garage, when the Dealer garages were so much better, they had all these nice 's
witching-of-the-light-source' displays (more simulation) demos, descriptions - a
dynamic car catalog. If I wanted to actually use a Premium all I had to do was buy one.
For me, it was collect first, play and race later. And so began the journey of licences, and events, and the level progression (all sources of free cars!!!
Yesh.) Plus some handsome prize money so I could go buy some cars, too.
Which brings us to the UCD. Yeah, that thing. But will discuss that relative to obsessive virtual car collecting later.. . .
First a few clarifications:
OCD, in traditional parlance means
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - something one can't help doing over and over.
Because in GT5,
OCD also means
Online Car Dealer, I made sure that the title describing this topic actually said 'Obsessive Compulsive' - If I had titiled it "OCD Car Collecting in GT5" - no doubt that would have caused some confusion.
However I'm sure there are Virtual Car Collectors out there who might
only collect cars from the OCD . . . in which case they are surely 2X OCD!
Since 'Collect first, play later.' was my motto, I started my usual collection spree in GT5, and about a year later of almost daily playing for a few hours at night, had well over a thousand cars - at which point the game really took off for me - now I could 'play' - pick and choose the races I wanted to race, or courses and cars I wanted to experience, photoshoots, fake car chases replayed as movies, repaint and mod jobs . . . car heaven. Of course, I still kept an eye out for any 'special' car I wanted to have lots of.
I was always in and out of the 'rare car' threads, and learned to quickly pick up two or three of these 'rare cars' - Vertigo, Storm, Escudo, Takata NSX, etc, etc . . . they quickly filled my Garage. My 'list' seemed to match no one elses. My UCD was run by aliens who could read my mind and played the most monstrously mischievous games with me. Sometimes I had to sell cars frantically, my hard-earned duplicates sold for peanuts so that I could make enough to get a car I hadn't which was suddenly 'Just In.' Premiums went first - I could always buy them back; there were plenty. And they never run out. You may buy a dozen one-of-a-kind cars. And simulate what you want.
Once, I sold a few of my duplicates and my beautifully run in Alfa 8C, to buy a standard that I hadn't acquired yet.
A few races after that I was presented with a brand-spanking-new 0/0/0 8C via the #1000 Ticket.
Fuzzy Logic, I wondered? This game couldn't be
that advanced.
Back to the Midgets - which was actually more facetious focus towards drawing your attention to this discussion, than the phenomenon of Midgets running wild in my Garage.
Midgets in my UCD are like asteroids to Mother Earth. They never seem to stop coming. Actually they never stopped coming at one time. They seem to have slowed down now - or maybe I don't play the game as much now.
I stopped playing daily last summer and hardly play anymore - not because I don't want to, but because of recent time constraints. I still try to jump into it at least once a week, though for very short periods - an hour or so, which gives me somewhat of a car fix, on the Ring, or at Monza or Laguna Seca.
Well . . . this Midget pops up again - and hey, it's just 5 Grand, and change - no big deal. I can take my Caddy or Saleen (just for fun) over to the American Indy and grab almost a 100 Gs in under 4 mins. I basically wanted 7 Midgets, feeling a bit like Snow White, but anyway wanted to paint and mod the heck out of them and race them to death. I was just about to press 'Buy', when I thought - heck, no, better check my Garage first - see whether I had already hit my target of 7 - when - eep - 13 Midgets displayed their spares.
Yeah, 13.
I quickly sold one.
More later, soon, OCD Collectors, this is just the tip of a titanically deep iceberg.
I see that I have drawn out quite a few OCDs from their closets, cellars, and other Hobbit holes.
Edit: Added Responses;
As long as the bunch of Midgets makes you think about it, it's not all lost.
I'm beginning to now get attached to them, which of course is further cause for worry.
I love your green Stratos with the bronze wheels and wing.
Keep your eyes off my baby. I can kick myself in the head now for carelessly painting it right away - it was a 0/0/0 that came in Lancia Blue with those wheels originally on. I repainted the Blue with a more metallic 'York Green', and then realised that I should have left it as is - since I had so many others already that I had snagged from the UCD.
C) You are one well-off racer.
Thanks.
👍 A side effect of judicious collecting.
I have 57 Cappuchinos..
No. Seriously I've only had 4 cups of coffee today.
But I find your car collecting very similar to mine.
Get at least 2 of each car.. each UCD car at low mileage , keep one stock and tune the other.
Seems like a lot us collectors do that - one stock, one tuned.
On my 2nd PSN acc. / gamesave I collect Online Collector Dealership (OCD
) cars and low mileage UCD cars.
Hold on now.
Is this a sub-collection (sort of like a side OCD?)
On this acc. I have currently 39x Formula Gran Turismo (40 after a few more seasonal events)
(all bought from OCD / UCD , no tickets used)
39 FGTs - that's a lot. How many variations?
You have a pretty interesting collection . . . and what do you do with all these FGTs?
For direct comparison , I have 4x Stratos '73 , 5x Stratos Rally Car '77 and 3x Takata Dome NSX '03 .
And one Midget II D Type '98
MadMax
Gah. You have more Stratos Rallys than me. I need to work on this.
I started in gt4 aswell. All cars, then seconds, then I decided to buy ALL parts for all cars.(took months, each turbo,tire, trans etc.)
Now gt5.. 1991 cars later. 99% under 10,000 miles.
I don't collect one car, I collect them all and constantly try replacing one with another with lower miles.
I have played the other GTs, too (have them, and also TT) but it was GT4 that really spurred the virtual car collector in me. GT4 was, I would think, the easiest car collecting game ever. Once one learned how to make the money quick, it was just a case of watching the UCDs.
In GT 4, I would buy every mod for every car. My greed got the better of me. I thought it was a game. I began to realise the simulation seep in after wrecking some cars with mods.
What makes you go after cars with only low mileage?
As much as people hate the Skyline duplicates, I have to have, at the very least, 3 of each. I don't know why. It isn't as bad with the Standards since I don't own many yet but I have like 2-3 of each GT-R and everytime I open my garage, I will literally have 30 minute debates with myself on which one to drive..
I totally know that feeling. It's all about anticipation.
You boot up the game, then you look for some events, or you go to your Garage, then you start scrolling, and then one car lloks good, then you think, woah, yeah,
that one, then you just check again, just to make sure there wasn't another you liked, and oh! yeah, been wanting to take
that one out, paint her up, give her some wheels . . . and then your half-hour is up. Back to work, mad as a hornet.
You are not alone.
I tend to grab old cars/classics and oddballs, it doesn't matter what they are. I have five Honda Zs, Midgets, and Subaru 360s, several Be-1, Life Step Vans, multiples of modern Kei cars, and three or four 2CVs. I've never even used a 2CV
I do tune some up, but stock many are...not that thrilling, lets say. I think part of the problem is that in the UCD or OCD you don't know how many you've got, so you just buy it. They need to put a number instead of just a tick then you can make a more informed decision
Here's something to think about. My game doesn't even have a tick. I have to use my memory.
There was a time I had to seriously cut back on collecting Zs, 2CVs, 360s, and I think I've trimmed them down to two or three each - but have to confess that I went overboard on the step van; probably have five or six.
I have to check my whole Garage now for strange collecting habits.
Your garage officially has too many Midgets.
I
did reduce by one, Blitz, gimme a break.
You only need to peek in the trading forum to see there are plenty of other OCD collectors, ie those who want every car in every colour and 0/0/0.
I bet. Here's a surprise - I have
never traded. Was never gifted a car and never Glitched, Sponged, Duped, um . . . are there other ways?
Every car I have was either won or bought or a reward directly from my own game.
I have heard that many trade to acquire a collection.
Now I don't have any judgement on this.
Collectors use the most devious ways to collect sometimes. Some beg, others borrow, and others may just buy a complete Savegame, all the cars in place.
Some like to trade, some just dupe and sell, or gift . . . so many things going on online when it comes to the shenanigans of collecting.
It's all good, I guess, because it keeps the community active, and the collection aspect of GT5 strong.
truthfully it's only bad when your friends tell you that you need a life and you start scouring the OCD for a honda life step van
Here's another surprise. I have never visited the OCD.
I love collecting cars. Pity I'm not as bad as you guys, still need 42 of 'em to finish my collection!
Good going. What's keeping those final 42 away? And is it only one vehicle of each model?
I don't think it's a problem as long as you are aware of it and it is not ruining your life or the life of anyone around you.
Thankfully, no. No money spent on it, but the initial cost of the disc. As for time, I wish I had more - I think everybody
else is the problem.
Does avoiding the $20M credit limit have anything to do with people's GT5 buying/spending habits? Hmmm...
I have never got to 20 M in GT5.
I love my 20 M cars, though.
The Jag's a blast in the Historic Cup.
All in all, i have 150 varying spec R34 skylines
Now that's something to see.
👍
R34 love.
I don't think this is a big problem either. I have basically all the standard cars. I try to get all the cars that can't be painted, ones that come in special colors so sometimes I will get duplicates. Some times I am not sure which cars will totally ---- up when you put chassis reinforcement on so I will try it out to see the effect. If it messes up, I'll use the backup instead. At this point, I have almost all the colors of the Formula GT, so thats pretty fun too, to get all the colors and variations.
I've never seen so many midgets though
Here's some fun. Take your Midget out. Make sure you give it a good wash, oil, the works, paint job is good - then take it out for some one-make races. Try the High Speed Ring WOT. Then do the Ring. You'll never see so many Midgets jump around in your life.
Modify a Midget full-bore then take it out to all the races it is eligible for starting from Beginners and working your way up - see how many events you can ace. You'll be surprised. That thing is deadly.
Ask Welsh-Fury.
My name's Ferraridude308, and I'm addicted to Honda NSX's.
"Hi Ferrari..."
I know a guy who collects Mini's like crazy. Over 100 at this point.
Interesting. Get him over here. How did he collect so many? Just kept trading for them? Duping? Why the Mini. Is he planning a virtual heist?
*cue midget joke*
For example, I think I have close to 20 LFAs, mostly for photography purposes, which I can't seem to find the time for. 
