The Psychology of Collection and Hoarding In Games

This article at Gamasutra takes a look at how the compulsion to hoard and accumulate objects, as well as the desire to accomplish entirely abstract goals, has become part of the modern gaming mindset. "The Obsessive Compulsive Foundation explains that in compulsive hoarders: 'Acquiring is often associated with positive emotions, such as pleasure and excitement, motivating individuals who experience these emotions while acquiring to keep acquiring, despite negative consequences.' Sound familiar? The 'negative consequences' of chasing after the 120th star in Mario 64 or all 100 hidden packages in Grand Theft Auto III may be more subdued than those of filling your entire house with orange peels and old cans of refried beans. But game designers know that it's pretty damn easy to tap into this deep-rooted need to collect and accumulate. And like happy suckers we buy into it all the time, some to a greater degree than others."

Comments

GOTTA CATCH EM ALL

[Shikaku]

Gotta catch em all, POKEMON!

Re:GOTTA CATCH EM ALL

[ijakings]

Pokemon?! With the Poke and the man and the thing where the guy comes outta the thing and he makes a o abba zabba eh heh heh

Re:GOTTA CATCH EM ALL

[VulpesFoxnik]

We must destroy the evil power and bomb Perl Harbor!

Morrowind

[F34nor]

Let me tell you about houses full of crap. Multiple sets of all the armors, weapons, and huge amounts of reagents all laid out on the floor in neat grids.

My pride and joy was stealing the full set of dramora armor off of the guy who helps you with corpus disease. I made a low DPS dagger with huge magical armor damage and broke the armor off his body. Then I knocked him out bare handed and robbed him and charmed him back to friendly. Each item was enchanted with a variable stat increase. All decked out I was totally unstoppable.

The best hoard was all the moon sugar in the game, which I ate all at once. When I ran and jumped it would load four or five games tiles before I hit the ground. It never wore off before I was bored of the game.

I am replaying Ultima Underworld right now on DOSBOX and am fighting my self not to hoard because items have no effect in that game really and trade is useless. P.S. Where is the bandit's hideout behind the store room? I cannot find it at all.

Re:Morrowind

[Culture20]

I kept my in-game house cleaner and more organized than anywhere I've lived since then. Maybe if I start accumulating tons of weapons and armor I'll be motivated to clean up my place so I can display it all. =P

Doesn't help. I need to buy more mannequins.

Re:Stating the Obvious

[gringofrijolero]

Hey! Whatever makes them happy...

I could not part with my ELITE box for $20

[Xeriar]

...not the game.

The box.

I was offered $20.

For the box.

And would not part with it. ...help?

Re:How would this fail the hunter-gatherer?

[rs79]

This might explain the 25 sinks, 40 doors and 200 windows in my barn.

Doesn't exactly help though.

Anyone near Kingston ont need a Pepsi cooler? Or a clawfoot bathtub? Or a 3 sink stainless restaurant counter? Or a half ton of glass panes?

Re:Obsessive Compulsive Society

[Lemmy Caution]

And I've collected all their newsletters.

The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition

[Yvan256]

Rule 284: Deep down, everyone's a Ferengi.

I take my kid hunting and fishing.

[Anonymous Coward]

We've named all our kills after some former pokemon. Even got some named on the wall. I was thinking of building a Rolling Chest Freezer that looked like a Ultra Ball so we can fill it with pieces of fillet pokemon.

So Blizzard got it right?

[Thoughts from Englan]

For the Horde!