I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy a big box Collector’s Edition of Gothic 3. There are a lot of different versions of Gothic 3 available, most of them being small box variants.

Although I loved both Gothic and Gothic II, I never got around to part 3. Gothic 1 was released slightly before Morrowind and that’s probably the reason I played it at all. And I’m glad I did, because otherwise I might never have played it. I’ve spent countless hours in Morrowind and at the time I moved on, I don’t think that I would have got around to playing Gothic. My love for Gothic 1 was so great, that I even postponed starting with Morrowind in order to play Gothic II first. At the time, I was convinced that Gothic was better than Morrowind, mainly because of its characters and story. After playing Morrowind, I was not so sure about that anymore, and while I prefer Morrowind, I still have a soft spot for Gothic.

My experience with Gothic 3 is very limited. It came out half a year after Oblivion and at that time I was in a weird place gaming-wise. Oblivion is one of the few games that I have ever waited in line for to get my hands on it. And when I played it for the first time, I was absolutely smitten with it. But I quickly lost interest. I was disappointed with the simplified gameplay mechanics and the levelling system. This disappointment with a AAA-game, ignited my first serious retro-revival. I’d already bought a Commodore 64 again and shifted my focus to replaying classic games for it and buying Amiga stuff.

After a year or so messing around with those old systems, I once again started with modern games, and turned my attention to Gothic 3. It still was a buggy mess though and I quickly abandoned it and returned to Oblivion, which I totally lost myself in. I think I stopped comparing it to Morrowind and started to enjoy it for the excellent game it is. That and mods.

I still have my original copies of Morrowind and Oblivion, but I only ever played the first two Gothic games through not so legal means. Eventually I would buy big box copies of bought games, and those copies are some of my earliest big box games from when I started out with collecting, somewhere in the late 00’s. Before that I’d bought big box games, but purely to play them for the first time. Not to collect them. The very first being Dune II and Putty for the Amiga around 1993, and after that Ultima Underworld I and II, followed by Might and Magic VI and VII.

I remember searching for a copy of Gothic and being unable to find it at first. I eventually found an Asian release on Ebay for cheap and that’s the one I still have today. It was one of my first purchases through Ebay from far away. Very exiting at that time! Would it arrive?

So I don’t feel very nostalgic to Gothic 3 and that’s probably the reason that I didn’t buy a copy sooner. That and the fact that I haven’t found an English big box version. Only German and Italian or Spanish or French versions. Or very expensive ultimate collector’s editions Polish editions. I’ve now settled for a French version for a very modest price. And although the manual and the back of the box are in French, the booklet with The Art of Gothic 3 is in English (if there’s any text inside. I haven’t looked yet.) My French is too limited to enjoy reading the manual, so I’m on the lookout for an English or Dutch version (German will also do, but preferably not.) Sadly, my Dutch jewel case release is missing the manual. It’s also missing the amulet, which is too bad. But not something I’m very sad about. I’m not to big into feelies that don’t interact with the game, and I have plenty of trinkets in other games.

Another reason is that I don’t have space for it! Currently Gothic, Gothic II and Risen are sitting on the shelf with all my Elder Scrolls games, and that shelf is full. I might find a solution by finding another spot for the massive Skyrim Library boxset. If I move that to the top of the shelf, that would solve the problem. But then I need to find a new spot for my Discworld books… Or I could move the Might and Magic games in between the Ultima and Gothic/Elder Scrolls games. That would more accurately depict my journey from Ultima VII and Underworld I and II to Might and Magic VI, VII and VIII to Gothic I and II and eventually Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. But then I must do some re-arranging with the LucasArts adventures. Space is definitely becoming a problem. But re-arranging your collection is part of the fun of collecting. Ah, those first-world problems; I’m positively embarrassed thinking about it.