The Shoulders of Giants

Have you ever heard the thought that there's no such thing as an original story?  There are lots of creative people in this world, but all of them draw inspiration from other creative works.  This came up in the trial over the popular "Blurred Lines" song.  Pharrell Williams, a defendant who lost his case in court, said that creativity was stifled by this verdict, and it became more dangerous for anyone to make anything that was inspired by anyone.  Although I have not followed the case in any real detail beyond a very nice parody from Glove and Boots, it's easy to see how anyone who is creative for a living has to be very careful they don't accidentally make something too similar to someone else's work.  Although our world is vast with many ideas, there really is still a finite amount of possibilities, and with so many creators, those possibilities are being explored very rapidly.  I bring this up to ask the question: how valuable is it that we continue to make new art?

We have thousands of years of recorded art in many forms, including visual, literary, musical, performance, and even more practical creations such as with the sciences.  Hank Green made a very interesting analysis of the cost of entertainment.  The sentiment that games improve in value every time you play them is one that I have deeply shared, being a guy with a limited budget for entertainment.  I've gotten so much value out of Street Fighter 4, even as I purchased all of its editions and a bunch of equipment for it.  On the other end, I've also purchased a great amount of hobby-level tabletop board & card games.  Many of them were nice, but I didn't get anywhere near as much value.  My group of friends eventually tends to move on to other games over time as our previous favorite becomes stale.  Now, when you look at more classic games like Chess, they end up having a great deal of value due to their popularity and endurance.  Go has been played for over 1000 years, and it doesn't really take much expense to create the materials for it.
We have so many creative works, and in keeping with my blog's theme I'll even restrict that statement to games, that it is really impossible for anybody to experience all of them.  Ultimately, I think the gamer on a budget is looking for those perfect few games that hold immense replay value while keeping a good amount of variety that makes life so much more enjoyable.  In terms of video games, we are finding that companies are getting more comfortable with the idea of reintroducing old things.  The "retro" style has shown itself to be quite popular with things like Shovel Knight & Minecraft.  They go out of their way to abandon high presentation values in favor of solid gameplay.  There have also been many rereleases, either in the form of direct ports or remasters, of very popular games.  I am probably in the second generation of video gamers, my parents having both been fans of Atari & Commodore games.  The React channel does a good case of showing how newer generations can come to like the games on which I was raised, just as I came to appreciate my parents' favorite games.  We have so many great games in gaming history that it's becoming incredibly hard to make new games that eclipse the old ones.
That's not to say this is impossible.  I will go on record as saying Batman: Arkham City is the best single-player adventure game ever made for its solid gameplay, storyline, & presentation.  However, many of the AAA games tend to present themselves more like movies than games.  Outside of that, we have a big market of independant games with lower presentation quality, but solid gameplay, like the hugely successful Five Nights at Freddy's.  In fact, we are starting to see the video game market shift back away from high presentation quality as people are upset with games being too easy or movie-like.  That said, there is still a wealth of great games from many different eras, and I'm sure I haven't played all the games I could really enjoy.
Even for those linear, story-driven games, they can have replay value if the overall game was enjoyable.  Just because you beat Batman or Castlevania doesn't mean you'll need to stop playing.  Ok, you got to the end, you might have even found all the secrets, but if it's fun, isn't it worth doing again?  I've played Batman: Arkham City to completion literally over a dozen times.  I've played Super Mario Bros. 3 to completion countless times.  Then of course, there are the games that are designed to be replayed continuously, such as music, puzzle, simulation, and fighter games.  Either you'll finish it quickly, like a round of Rock Band, or there is actually no definite end, like Animal Crossing.  World of Warcraft prides itself on its social aspect, so people continue to pay subscription fees to keep playing that enormously huge game!  Like Hank Green said, games will continue to gain value as you continue to play them.  For the budget gamer, the ultimate ideal is to find those games which you will continue to play many times and keep them in your collection.
Even so, there is still value in new experiences.  I have recently incurred medical expenses that will take me years to pay off, even when devoting all of my income to it.  I have many games that I could play many times, either alone or with friends, and I will still come to a point that I'll seek out new experiences.  Even when surrounded by great games, we still have the need to find new experiences.  The budget gamer will benefit greatly from a circle of friends that will be willing to lend their games (assuming they don't rely on digital downloads), even for older systems.  In fact, there are new consoles being made to this day that will play older games.  The same can be said for all other forms of media & entertainment.  This is why we have libraries, for one thing.  If not for the fact that every video game requires a specific console to play them, I would think video games would be a great thing for libraries to have, since these games can have the same kind of value as a good storybook.

TL, DR
Don't sell off your old games just because you beat them or you stopped playing them for a while.  Their value increases each time you play them.  If they had any value playing them the first time, there will still be value in replaying them later.