Do you know of any games out there either purely based on collecting stuff or which had a fairly detailed amount of collecting gameplay? I'm trying to figure out what makes them work well. A time limit may make this kind of gameplay work well, but I'm not sure about that. Sometimes collecting stuff in a game is a leisurely activity based around the thrill of discovery, and a time limit may remove that. Ditto for competitive collection, such as a game based around a scavenger hunt. I do get that a wide variety of items to encounter is key, but I'm not sure exactly else prevents collecting from being a drag. One aspect may be able to use, rather than just sell, everything you find, even if in some small way. Any other thoughts on this? What makes collecting stuff enjoyable to you?

When you get to roll over things and become huge.

Some reasons to make collecting interesting:

o The item can be bought, or be acquire free when they are infrequently discarded (so it is fun to collect them while they are free)

o I know the moment when I will use them, so if I stay away and collect enough before that moment, I don't need to buy them at the last minute.

o Collecting them gives me a wider variety, than getting them at last minute from a single source.

o The way I use them involves destroying them, so it would be a waste if I bought them new, as I don't care if they were broken.

Let's see...

Pokemon... the theme is gotta catch em all. There is a bonus if you do the first time but with every new version it becomes boring, but what ultimately makes Pokemon so addicting is the fact that you can brag about having every pokemon and raising them all to your liking...every person also has their favorites so it's more about choice than collecting...

Rogue Galaxy... While no really a collecting game...you hunt monsters to complete a hunt list and there are a huge number of weapons. More or less it's about the reward and bragging rights...or simply wanting to see it all...or maybe just the challenge of doing it.

Phantasy Star Online... There are roughly 900 objects in the game. There is no reason to collect them all and you can hack them all into your account, but having such an assortment of gear allows a player to think that they are improving themselves or that they have more customization options, when they really don't.


More or less...collecting games are lazy and cause addictive game play. If used properly it can easily earn a company profit, but if not it can also cause player addiction...and that's bad and often a lot of the object to collect are not really worthwhile, but the adventure to get them is what makes getting them bragworthy...I mean do you know how hard it is to get every item in PSO? Like 50 items are banned, and the rest you can get on one character...you have to play several characters or trade items...and then some are just impossible to get even though they aren't banned because they locked in the game. Then there are also items that are so worthless that people throw them away which makes them rare and hard to get...If you can say you've got all of them some people feel it earns them a little respect and it's great for telling tales.

I always liked a good collecting component to a game. There is something fun about completing a collection and filling all the little empty slots on your list. The collecting aspect is part of the reason I played a number of collectable card games when I was younger.

The Castlevania games on GBA had you collecting souls to gain new abilities, or equip as item. An enemy’s Soul was released by chance whenever you killed an enemy. There was also an aspect of collecting valuable items to fill your treasure room with.

While it’s nice to have a benefit of some king for completing a collection I wouldn’t say it was required, also having lots of different sets to collect makes things interesting as well. For instance in a space game I might spend a couple of hours of the course of the game tracking down clues and completing a scavenger hunt for droid parts, and at the end of the all that I get is dancing robot for my head quarters. I would think that that was worth the effort.

They're not based on collecting but...

Bobbleheads in Fallout3. I had every intention of, and was looking forward to, trying to find as many of them as I could by myself but I diverged from the main quest so much that I just happened to avoid the majority of places where they could be found. As a result I figured they were too stupidly hidden and I checked their locations online which kinda spoiled things.

Also, it wasn't collecting but it involved searching, I enjoyed hunting the gargoyles in Fable2. The reward for finding them all sucked but the journey was enjoyable and it was satisfying everytime you shot one of them. I didn't need to check online for locations because I had a general idea when I was in the right location due to their voices.

I think the big thing is feeling as though it is possible to find everything without that calssic problem of having to think like the programmer who thinks he's being sneaky or clever. Like any game, you want to feel as though you're making progress but you do want it to be a challenging task to complete.

Collecting done badly is a terrible game mechanic - take as an example the flags in Assassin's Creed. Even early on when the gameplay felt fresh, you could tell that collecting flags/viewpoints, etc. was a complete waste of time.

Even if collection is not the main focus of the game, I feel that collection should have a noticeable effect on gameplay - don't make me collect 50 mushrooms unless they will grant me a special gameplay ability. Completion in big letters on the credits screen doesn't cut it.