Collecting in games, good or bad?

[Digital]

Do you feel that collecting in games that already have another purpose (say, breeding, showing, or maybe crafting) just adds extra fluff to the game, or do you feel it provides players value in terms of wanting to complete collections.

As a  @Game Owner have you added in forms of collecting in your games, and how have these been received by your players?

[Hare]

Sometimes people are bewildered by items that don't have a use. I think a lot of players want their items to function in some way other than just being a collectible. They also enjoy collecting, though. So ideally, having uses for items as well as the ability collect them will appeal to a broader audiance IMO.

[Keptsoul2]

I feel pretty much the same as Hare.  Having gone from having many collectable items, to now having items that have purpose.. Users like both. Sure, it adds fluff, but some users prefer that to say battle or other elements. It's a personal choice that each site owner makes, and any thoughtful site owner tries to balance the wants of its user base against the needs of the sites purpose.

Entirely my opinion of course.

[Elfen]

As a collector I would say it's another aspect to be able to enjoy a game with. If the items are usable as well then all the better.

[SingSong]

I personally am against most collection features in games. Yes, they can give players something to do, but I also think they're usually added as an easy go-to feature with little thought involved. What does collecting plushies or collecting cards or stamps have to do with the game? Nothing really, but now the site can state that "collections" are part of what it offers.

I've also witnessed that they can be a way to take advantage of players. Sites with these types of unnecessary collections usually sell collection items in their cash shops. Someone that's spent many hours saving up virtual currency to complete 98% of their collection will likely spend the $15 on cash shop items to complete it. And then when another gets released in the cash shop, those collectors will open up their wallets again and again. Because no one wants to see 99% complete when they're worked so hard to collect all the other items. Yes, sites need to make money in some way, but I think this is just a form of manipulation. Because these items don't offer anything to the player's experience aside from giving them a goal of some sort (and goals should already be established in other ways if the site has any point to it at all). So it's this idea of giving "value" to something meaningless and making players believe that they have some value. And I just think games should have features worth paying for or worth putting effort into.

 

I am not against all types of collection features, don't get me wrong. But I like them to be things that are more than collecting site items that are just made for the sake of collecting. The kinds of collections I like and have liked in the past:

-Pet interaction collections (such as foods eaten or toys played with). However, this has become more common in sites and is almost getting dull. So I'd like to see a site that has it so these collections have a purpose. Maybe pets that have eaten more X foods than Y foods means they gain an agility bonus in battle. The opposite means they'll have more defense. If sites are going to bother to record pet interaction activity, they could make it worthwhile.

-Avatar collections. Who doesn't like these kinds of collections? Generally, avatars are how you show some kind of individuality and personality on the forum. So you're given something to "collect" while also have a goal you need to meet and getting something you can use indefinitely later. It's a perfect combination. I would, however, like to see sites moving away from the 60px by 60px Neopets-style, pixel avatars in favor of doing something more unique.

-Trophy and achievement collections. These are the kind of collections that make you earn them by completing a task instead of simply buying them. I like these, assuming the task involved takes skill and isn't just a reward for refreshing a page 5,000 times or something (I'm talking about tedious "do this over and over" achievements and randomized ones).

[Kesstryl]

I like collections to a certain degree, and I prefer collecting things that offer functionality, unless they are avatar items, then I'll take fluff if I can decorate with it.  I think decorating is a purpose in itself though, so again there is some utility.  I'm not so much into achievements just to put a badge on my profile, but I know other players like that sort of thing.  I definitely like collecting the pets themselves, especially if they are breedable and can be used to make new alternates (new patterns, colors, attachments such as wings and horns, etc).  I like have a vanilla version, and I like making offspring with mixed features.  Aluriya had a really cool breeding mechanic like that with their base pets and the merging of the image layers, and I'm hoping to have something similar to that when @Onyx adds it back into Aethria.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Kesstryl

[Onyx]

I'm assuming you mean the mercury aethers, where an apparently static pet combined with another static pet produced an offspring with a mix of the features of both parents (this was done in an automated manner rather than requiring an artist to create an image by hand).  We will be using this on Aethria, but not for aethers and not when the site first opens.  We likely will use the mercury system for the serafel pets when that area of the site opens.

[Digital]

Do you guys think that collecting items to open up areas of the site are useful mechanics? Say like Neopets Lab Ray or the Treasure Maps?

[SingSong]

@Digital Yeah, that makes the collection useful. However, it's not a very creative approach to a collection, because it has been done on so many sites now. I'd personally prefer for there be unique (non-item fetching) quests to unlock different worlds and for each world to have a quest that is specific to it.

Maybe if someone wants to play around with the puzzle maps, they could do something like this: Like commonly seen, there are multiple puzzle pieces to collect. Let's say there are 9 pieces to a puzzle. But instead of the puzzle just requiring the 9 pieces, each puzzle place has a few variations to it. If the puzzle were an image of a barn and some surrounding land and a lake, for example, the puzzle place with the lake could have two variations, one with a duck and one without. If you complete the entire puzzle with the rooster on the fence, the duck in the lake, and the chickens outside of the coop, you get X reward. If you complete it with another combo, you get Y reward. You could even make it more complex with some pieces working for multiple combinations, so it's not just "this" or "that".

[Corleone]

Collecting has never quite been an attractive feature to me, so I second what was said by @Hare and @SingSong.

Personally, I am much more intrigued and lean more towards having sites with a battling system that permits looting, which I find much more rewarding than completing collections, especially if it is that type of collecting where you"lock" down the items by submitting them in the collection itself, thus making it impossible to remove them. I've never been much of a display type of person, so it never interested me, perhaps aside from the items which have no use and instead of cluttering my inventory I'd move them to the collection feature.

I am all for having the type of collection to unlock a certain map area, or perhaps even a certain feature, as long as there is an incremental increase in difficulty between obtaining each piece. In my experience, the jump from one to the other is a bit too large in that it makes it conditional for you to rely and adhere to, in lack of a better word, "side activities" in order to even be able to shoot for the next piece. That in itself I suppose is fine, but then the rewards I think should be proportionate which is something that I find to be lacking most times, but then again it really is an equilibrium which is difficult to balance in terms of content updates which would justify the entire bit.

[hurricaneviolet]

I think collecting in some form is addictive to people. If you look at console games like Yooka-Laylee or Ratchet and Clank or any of the Lego games, they are all giant collectathons. Even the PS4 trophy system is nothing more than a glorified collection, because it doesn't benefit you in any way.

Personally, I like collecting with a goal in mind. Like get so many of these things, unlock this. But even then, in a lot of games, the thing you're unlocking is just another thing to collect and not really do much with, and players love it.