It's been a long while, but I recall owning a large amount of eShop titles on my 3DS - Virtual Console releases and full games alike. Unfortunately, with the shop closed, and my having no real means of checking my Redownload list (long story, but I believe that NNID is attached to a 3DS I no longer have, and Nintendo's always ever given me the runaround with unlinking it) I have had to sort of eyeball whether or not I... maybe had a game?

Some games I DEFINITELY had. But at the same time, since the shop is gone... do I really?

I feel a little torn about marking these games are previously owned, largely because I also feel like it'd start a slippery slope to me logging games I've emulated as well, and that feels like it defeats the purpose of this website. Maybe I'm being silly?

It just feels like cheating, and I want to have an honest collection. But at the same time, being able to have ratings/difficulty rating/completion info for a game I don't explicitly HAVE at that point in time... has an appeal to me.

What are your thoughts? Is it okay to add a game under those circumstances, so long as you mark that you no longer own it and don't let it artificially inflate your overall Games count, or is it best to maintain 100% honesty that you immediately own every game in your collection, digitally or otherwise?

Like, if I'm being entirely honest? I feel less compelled to actually play those games if I don't have them listed.

As with a lot of things on this site, it all comes down to your own personal preference.

No one's going to judge you on your position regarding how you label your entries or whether you're playing legit or emulated/pirated games, etc... because frankly, they don't know or need to know those details. It's all about you and your collection.

That said, you can still log playthroughs/completions of games even if you don't have them in your collection. You can even give them ratings and all that jazz too. I do it all the time for games provided via things like gamepass/ps+ that are temporarily available to me but not necessarily part of my owned collection.

Yeah, I was reading some similar threads to see what the general consensus was. I realize ultimately that it's up to me, and I may change my mind or I may not. I've elected to keep them logged but as previously owned, since I did spend money on them and ideally want the closure of having actually played through them, even if it wasn't in the manner I originally planned.