The Psychology of Collection and Hoarding In Games 183
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."
Re:TF2 Hats... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:GOTTA CATCH EM ALL (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How would this fail the hunter-gatherer? (Score:1, Informative)
Check out the old Maxis game "SimLife", it has the exact ecology mechanism you describe (along with a lot more!)
Re:Stating the Obvious (Score:3, Informative)
Okay, how about somewhat less of a moral extreme (and what I expected TFA to discuss before I read it) - Collecting copyright violations (or any other illegal materials with the condition that the illegality itself not give rise to the motivation to collect)?
Most relevant to the topic at hand, how about game ROMs? No one can defend their collection of 6000 SNES ROMs as even remotely legal or within the bounds of "fair use", yet I know a good number of reasonably law-abiding people who completely ignore the "rightness" of it for the sake of having a "complete" collection (at least, until the next unreleased beta gets dumped).
So would you consider that a lesser extreme of "can't tell right from wrong", or a willful disregard for it, or a side-effect of the underlying compulsion to collect?
Re:GOTTA CATCH EM ALL (Score:2, Informative)
You can replace the cartridge's battery without losing your data if you solder another battery in parallel during the whole procedure (thus keeping the SRAM chip energized at all times).
Re:Children (Score:3, Informative)
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.
hmm (Score:2, Informative)