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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."
Gotta catch em all, POKEMON!
They always attribute this behavior to some kind of compulsive outlier, but the the behavior is common to all humans. And is at the root of a lot of the fruitless consumerism. Comes from before there was culture or communication. Comes from the lizard brain. And probably never failed the early hunter-gatherer who didn't get penalized for keeping too may cats or a garbage-ridden apartment.
Okay, so basically this article is saying that people collect and horde in-game items because they like it and it makes them happy ("positive emotions").
Sort of like the way psychopaths kill because it makes them happy, lazy people are sedentary because it makes them happy, and fat people eat too much because it makes them happy.
That's saying about as much as barking dogs.
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.
Game designers are just out to reel in suckers. Skinner boxes, treadmills, and obsessive compulsive triggers - anything to land them a pigeon. Yup. That's it. It wouldn't ever be because someone wants to build something they think might be fun.
This is not some new thought or idea. Its survivalism and hasn't changed since... ever. Horde it up 'cause you may not have it tomorrow, and you still gotta eat. This trend in games is now obvious probably because of the popularity of WoW et. al. and how our "selves" are so easily transferred to an abstract, digital realm where we can horde and collect as long as there's stuff to horde and collect. For fuck's sake, people have been collecting and playing card games for decades. This is incredibly un-newsworthy.
Idle easier! http://www.sourceop.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1611
Oh, wait.
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.
I don't think I play games like Mario64 to 'collect' all the stars, I play until I think I have finished the content, the stars track that progress. Once the game is finished, the stars don't really have any meaning or other significance.
This is very similar to filling in all the answers to a crossword, not so similar to making sure my T.V. Guide collection is complete.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
...not the game.
The box.
I was offered $20.
For the box.
And would not part with it. ...help?
I am a science fantasy fan
I've never had much of a desire to own stuff. But I've never owned a broadcast TV in my whole life. I have a DVD player and a large flat-screen display, but no antenna or cable connection. Watching 20 minutes of commercials per hour is bad for you. Hours a day of "consume, consume, consume" has to have an effect.
The "hoarding" mentality may come from overdosing on advertising.
At least my pack rat nature has been channelled in digital things that can be stored on hard drives. Sure I spend 250 dollars last month upgrading because I'd filled every drive I owned, but I'm lucky.
My dad accumulates books. Online used book stores like abebooks are the worst thing to ever happen to my mother. Now five or six books arrive in the mail most weeks from all over the country. Last time I was home pretty much every open wall in the house had vanished behind bookshelves.
Hording in the digital age may still be expensive, but at least it takes up a lot less total volume in meatspace
And I've collected all their newsletters.
Rule 284: Deep down, everyone's a Ferengi.
If you're prone to obsessive behaviours then you're going to be prone to them in games as well as in real life. I can't see how game designers are somehow bad for catering to this. As long as the game is playable without the need to collect all the widgets then they're actually just creating extra features.
Speaking as someone who is prone to obsessive behaviours I can tell you that the most idiotic flash game can 'trap' me if I'm not on my guard. For me it isn't the need to collect widgets, it's the "One More Game" syndrome. Win or lose, it's the need to play just One More Game.
And that, dear readers, is why I won't play online games any more. Rather than battle the temptation I'll just avoid those things that could cause me problems. Bravo to the designers for giving people the option but I'll pass, thanks.
One last thought for all of you folks who have a ton of $ITEM in your house. After having to clear out the households of several deceased relatives I recommend that you GET RID OF YOUR CRAP! We're doing that ourselves since we discovered first-hand just how much stuff accumulates and how much space is being filled by completely useless $ITEM. Books have gotten cleared out to just the ones we really like, unused small appliances are gone, saved 'just in case' are gone. We're not only doing this as a favor to whoever has to clean out our house but to actually make it more livable. We've even got ~gasp~ empty space on the bookshelves.
How is this flamebait? He brings up a good point, like seriously, the only people who can spend their time doing such a thing after beating a game are:
Likely inexperienced with games to the point they haven't realized time/reward of doing such a thing is virtually nill
Have a lot of free time on their hands where they really don't have better things to do or other obligations where they really need a game that is to the point
Do not have that much or any money to spend on a new game or other entertainment
Do not have a social partner who would scream murder if they had to watch them try to collect all those things
Have not discovered online competition or do not understand what is good about it
And that pretty much describes children. Sure adults also fit that criteria but no one can say he is wrong when he says "mostly" children. That certainly doesn't make him flamebait and I think it really shows how pathetic the mod is who got offended by the parent post.
For the Horde!
That was supposed to be "Thoughts from England"
it's better than collecting STD's