Compelled to Collect

Human beings love to collect things and that’s no great secret. Our enthusiasm for collecting has even become a form of entertainment itself in the form of the TV show “Hoarders”. It would really be awesome if they found someone who was hoarding DVD copies of that show. That would be sublime. In videogames, the theme of collecting is pervasive. We want to collect all the coins in Mario, we want to collect physical copies of all his games and we then want to collect all the merchandise we survey. This desire to collect has shaped games themselves and the industry as a whole. As Nintendo struggles with their hardware and software sales this generation, they decided to boost their bottom line with figurine collectibles. The Amiibo line has given the company a much needed boost and takes advantage of that intrinsic human desire to collect. So the first question that comes to my mind is why? Why do we love collecting things so much? First, we start where the phenomena of collecting began.

Once upon a time there were no videogames or anything else to collect. These were dark times. I mean that literally because there wasn’t any electricity either. Up until about 10,000 years ago, man was all mobile (not to be confused with present-day gaming in Japan). This is the phase we like to call the “hunter/gatherer” phase. Here, earlier humans had to move about to find food according to seasonal changes in weather and migration patterns of prey. What you could “collect” was limited to what you could carry on your back, which was not much at all. There wasn’t any space for collecting – I don’t care how big your back and shoulders were Mr Johnny Bravo. Obviously though, something came along that changed all that – Agriculture.

Agriculture changed a lot of things in the development of human society and was very much a turning point. It allowed job specialization and thus, technological advancement. I think we can all appreciate this. But it also allowed humans to build larger and more permanent homes. It allowed us to settle in one place and hence, accumulate items like never before. But that’s only part of the story. The opportunity to collect does not fully explain our obsession with collecting. The explanation for that has a similar perhaps even concurrent origin though.

As humans settled, their size of settlements became larger and larger. From small tribes, we moved to small cities. From knowing everyone around us, we soon moved to living with and next to strangers. As societies became more complex, the need to rise to the top also became more important. Your wealth determines how you are treated and valued in society. It determines the worth that society places on you. It was true then and it’s still true today. Collecting things was not simply a pastime or something to do with disposable income. No, the things you collected determined your place in society and by extension the quality of your life. The things you are able to collect reflect your wealth and hence, by extension, it determines your standing in society.

I once looked at a show about mansions for sale. One of the homes was owned by a movie producer who planned on selling his monstrosity and moving into a house smaller than my own. Throughout the tour of the house, he kept pointing out how ridiculously large the home was for him and his only son. Of course, eventually, the obvious question was asked. Why did you buy it in the first place? He smiled and responded that when new clients and partners saw his home, they stopped asking questions about his competence and stayed out of his way. His home spoke for him. It spoke to his success and competence. It saved him from constant protracted auditions for work. There are those who will always buy the physical copy of a game and keep it for display for similar reasons. You don’t look at my extensive collection of games going back to the days of Atari and then start a conversation about how great Flappy Bird is. No, that nonsense will get you kicked out without any accompanying explanation. That collection also says things about you. It says that for you, gaming has moved past being a distraction of a hobby. It’s a personal identifier. It’s part of your very home. It’s your passion, or even your obsession.

There’s a lot of discussion about nature vs nurture when it comes to human traits and behavior. While I cannot speak to a genetic basis for our tendencies to collect, I think I’ve put forth a concise argument for environment and society being key contributors in our emphasis on collecting. The more you accumulate, the better you are valued and treated by society as a whole. You learn this very early on. How society treats you can go a long way in determining your success in life. Your wealth determines where you live, where you go to school, who you socialize with and a host of other things that contribute to success. The lesson is simple – reap or regret

Collecting has become an integral part of almost every single genre. In some cases, it has become a simple way to signpost progression in a game. To make collecting a more integral part of the game, many developers tie rewards to their accumulation. One hundred coins in Mario games will gain you an extra life. Collecting all the large coins can sometimes grant you an extra stage. Game creators know you like to collect, that you are easily distracted by those bright shiny objects and that you tie that accumulation to enjoyment and fulfillment. Incentivized collecting is a major part of game design. It drives you forward and forms part of that continuous effort-reward dynamic that makes gaming so addictive.

I myself have a special form of obsession when it comes to collecting which can be described using Rayman Legends as an example. One of the things to collect in the stages is prisoners known as Teensies. Often, I’d get near the end of the stage and realize that I had missed one or two of them. I could just continue a few steps further, complete the stage and then replay it for the ones I had missed. But no, I restart the stage, just mere steps from the end. I don’t just want to collect them all, I want to collect them on one perfect run. All or nothing. Wanting to collect everything meant that often I would replay a stage multiple times before moving to the next. It often meant that progress would be slow and at times, frustration at a high. I’ve had to give up on this particular obsession because I simply do not have the time for it. I sometimes just have an hour a day to play. I can’t waste my time obsessed with little men tied to sticks. I need them to unlock stages, but I don’t need ALL of them. A lack of time has greatly changed how I approach games and how I experience them now. I simply don’t have time for obsessions……unless I decide to settle for playing one game a year.

Obsession is one of the dark aspects of collecting. That tunnel vision one develops that causes us to spend time and money that we don’t have to pursue things of questionable worth. From spending hundreds of dollars for old or rare games to collectors editions that cost almost as much as consoles themselves, some of us are always on the hunt for completeness or rarity. If you can afford it, then it’s fine. However, if you’re eating ramen for the entire month to buy an old NES game on Ebay, you may want to re-think a few things. Addiction or more accurately, compulsion can see a lot of gamers spend money they don’t have on things that are of questionable value. The question becomes one of whether or not you have somehow managed to tie your identity as a gamer or indeed your very own self-worth to the things you are collecting. If you think you have a problem, then get help from a professional, not from a blog on the internet.

Aside from in-game collecting and collecting of games themselves, we have collectibles that further exploit that burning desire to collect. Collectible figurines are all the rage right now and chief among that now are the Amiibo line of figurines from Nintendo. Nintendo have gone about their product line with their usual precise acumen. One of the key aspects of getting your audience obsessed with your collectibles is shortage. Manufactured shortages. Nobody is going to get obsessed over something that is readily available in stores at any time. No, you have to keep supply short of demand. It’s a strategy that has been applied to their consoles and software as well. Tight control of supply and demand is one of the ways in which Nintendo keeps the price of their software high, even years after launch. So we all wait for “Wave 4” which will not satisfy existing demand and once again, some of the figurines will still be ultra-rare. You will search high and low for them. Maybe you get so obsessed over that Kid Icarus figurine that you actually buy that game. You may even buy variants of the ones you already own while you search for the ones you want just to give your activity of collecting some sort of sense of progression. You may have tangential collecting. You may bore your friend to tears about your ongoing quest to get them all and in the process, become a walking advertisement for the bloody things. It all works out for them. For you…not so much.

There is one more collection obsession that you may not have ever thought about. When Microsoft launched the X360 so many years ago, they introduced the Gamerscore, which was soon to be copied by Sony in the form of the Trophy system. This was supposed to bragging rights of sorts. It serves as a subtle indicator of stature in the online community. If you have more trophies, you’re the more accomplished gamer right? It almost sets up a societal structure amongst the online community where, on the surface, your worth could be tied to your Gamerscore. I’m not saying that this is necessarily true or that it does happen, but I know a lot of people who will not switch between Xbox and Playstation because of all the effort they poured into attaining these trinkets. Those innocuous little digital trophies and achievement unlocks have bound them (at least in the short term) to a particular platform regardless of policy or software lineup. That’s pretty sad in my opinion.
We all love to collect and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, like most human activities, collection runs a gamut of responses from casual to obsession. It’s important to know where you are on that spectrum and ask yourself if that is where you truly want to be. It’s important to stand back and question the importance of the things you collect, when contrasted with the things you forgo in an effort to acquire them.

[Crazyglues]

I for one have always said collecting trophies is completely silly, but don't you dare tell that to the people on my friends list.

They are obsessed with collecting trophies... It's probably the most clever thing Microsoft has ever done, since it has really help make gaming 10 times more compelling then it would have been. I know people playing games, that they don't even like just to get the trophies.. LoL

Collecting is just human nature I guess, even if the item being collected has no real value. (other then bragging rights)

[rezzah]

Good read.

What of people who actively avoid collecting?

[ChronoSloth]

This post is going to lead to a lot of self-reflecting :l

[SilentNegotiator]

"I myself have a special form of obsession when it comes to collecting which can be described using Rayman Legends as an example. One of the things to collect in the stages is prisoners known as Teensies. Often, I’d get near the end of the stage and realize that I had missed one or two of them. I could just continue a few steps further, complete the stage and then replay it for the ones I had missed. But no, I restart the stage, just mere steps from the end"

You're obsessed. :P