For a handful of achievements
At school I collected turbo candy wrappers. This set of multi-colored pictures, bought, won and exchanged, was of significant value to me, so much so that it was kept in a tin box under lock and key. To complete the set, two or three pieces out of 180 were missing, I think. There were two more people at school with an almost complete set, and we knew for sure, each other's decks, the missing forfeits for the opponents always remained in the box, so as not to be lost in the “barrel”. If someone had offered me to exchange them for the same stack of evergreens – no way. Now I prefer to collect banknotes…
At that time, the meaning of collecting did not bother me much, and I did not really think about whether this hobby was actually collecting – it was just interesting to collect the whole set, arrange the pictures by year, model, engine power and look at the models of cars. Collections are as old as the world, and the mechanics of collecting items have appeared in games since the games themselves came into being. Any collecting is gathering, and collecting has been an integral feature of man, starting from the time when he had the opportunity to collect something. And if at first people collected some utilitarian things, like ritually important objects for ceremonies, then moving higher up Maslow's pyramid, collecting homogeneous objects united by some features became something like leisure. The psychological side of collecting is so strong that psychologists compare it to gambling and passion, so deeply can this hobby hook.
Where are the legs from?
The appearance of collectibles in games is due to platformers, where collecting coins, rings and bananas lies in the core gameplay and is the basis for progression through the plot and character development. Over time, collection mechanics have become more diverse and have reached many other genres, from role-playing games to a separate genre (CCG), and have become core mechanics in which traces of collecting cannot be seen at first.
Collectibles have become so ingrained in games that players can no longer imagine games without this mechanic, and if players like something, developers will definitely add it, even if it has a negative impact on other aspects of the game. But, in most cases, this is a good way to add optional activities to the game or let players test their skills, and at the same time get an achievement. Collectibles also increase replayability quite well, due to the “next move” effect, when each new item received increases the desire to collect the entire collection, for which you need to carefully complete the level. Particularly keen collectors will not be too lazy to complete the second level, or even the entire game, to knock out the platinum.
The mechanics of collected items work especially well when there is a division of characters by class or ability. Some games, such as Fallout 76 or TESO, can abuse the fact that certain achievements can only be obtained by characters with certain perks, or stat levels. I’m not a WoW expert (correct me if I’m wrong in the comments), but a friend told me that you can get some achievements only on one type of ship with certain modules, and getting it is very, very difficult.
But there are also rough examples – when in order to pass to the next level, you need to collect a certain number of collectible items, as was done, for example, in the games of the Super Mario or Odyssey series, where you had to collect stars and moons. Players really don’t like being forced to do something, especially clear levels to the last brick. Nintendo was seriously burned by this mechanic at one time, so usually there are obviously more of these items than are needed to complete the game.
Everything is according to Freud
People collect things to distract themselves from the problems of the world around them, because as grandfather Freud claimed, collecting and sorting through objects is a simple and understandable action that leads to a visible result. Psychology explains collecting as a set of dependencies, for example, you can read here (Z. Freud. Introduction to Psychoanalysis), as a protective reaction of the body to release excess energy, transforming it into actions, be it drawing, music, or sorting objects, that is, collecting. I am a programmer, not a psychologist, but the basics of collection mechanics are superficially given to novice designers, prescribing a couple more books on psychology as a burden, like the one mentioned above, and AI programmers also have to delve into all this in order to speak the same language. Yeah, every GD (Gage Designer) is a little psychologist, and every AI programmer is a little GD.
This is explained by the fact that people who like games, not necessarily computer ones, have a stronger desire to collect. Psychology also claims that people who need a demonstration of strength and a desire to win or dominate are more likely to collect.
In the psychology of computer games, it turns out there is such a direction in psychology, there are four main directions:
dominance
the need for socialization
fear of incompleteness (the effect of unfinished business)
envy
Dominance
Dominance is expressed in the desire to possess objects of collections: the player “conditionally” possesses, sees and knows the objects of his collection and this fact creates a feeling of control and power, even over “virtual” objects. Dominance usually intersects with the need for socialization, if there is an opportunity to compare collections and boast about rare or unique objects that are pleasing to the eye, the absence of a neighbor's deskmate in the set. In games, such a mechanism flourished when players had the opportunity to display their collections for all to see, and the achievement “knocked out the platinum” shines brightly in the profile.
The basic hook of any collection mechanic is a very simple model:
Action → Item → Collection → Reward
The basic rule for obtaining a collectible item is that the time spent increases with the number of items, and the in-game actions performed should have little effect on the chance of obtaining. The main property of an item in a collection is its value (rarity), and it is determined, as a rule, by the amount of time spent required to obtain it. In almost any collection you can see a ranking of items by rarity. This is not always clearly highlighted through the rank of the item, but can be expressed through the percentage of presence in other collections. You could argue that collections should contain items of equal rarity, but in most cases this is not the case (with the possible exception of set items). This is explained by the fact that to collect a set of high-level items you need to spend a large amount of time, which the majority of players cannot afford, but if collecting a set begins with a shareware low-level item, then collecting such a collection does not seem to be an impossible task for players. You just need to remember that the difficulty of collecting in both cases will be the same, it’s just that in the case of a “cheap” set, most of the time will be spent on the last items of the set.
Socialization
Through collections, many find a way to socialize if replacing ordinary communication with the exchange of collection items suits them. They create communities, groups online and offline, where they exchange accumulated treasures or simply show off. In fact, my friends invited me to have coffee in the evening, and a week later I was the proud owner of the first deck.
In games, socialization mechanics also exist, albeit in a more simplified form, when you can exchange, give, buy or sell items, and share collections with your friends. Of course, the main popularizer of socialization in the West, and perhaps in the Russian Federation, is KKI Magic The Gathering, where sometimes the element of socialization overshadows the core mechanics of battles, and people often just gather to exchange cards and “walk” their deck. I had enough of these “exhibitions” for a year, fortunately there were enough clubs and shops in St. Petersburg to buy new sets, but D&D with friends and a competent DM eventually won
The effect of unfinished construction
According to friends of GD, incompleteness is one of the important factors of retention in games, especially if the progress of filling the collection is more than half. After a certain number of items become associated with a collection, each new item appears more valuable in relation to the others. Thus, with each new item, we strive to make our collection even larger. But if the collection is limited, then the desire to collect them all eventually comes to the fore! Most often, this effect occurs at the “99 out of 100” stage, forcing players to perform actions that they would not have performed at the start of the collection. Particularly malicious developers, aware of this effect, often block the receipt of the latest items behind various “walls”, paywalls, timewalls, adwalls, friendwalls, etc.
Paywall, timewall, adwall I think do not need an explanation, but friendwall has become quite often used in mobile games, when the system increases the chance of missing items from your collection from friends, this allows you to create a dependence between players if there are mechanisms for exchanging collection elements. But in fact, all this is done so that players constantly twitch each other, returning to the game, increasing retention and involvement, and this is an opportunity to sell another pack and show advertising, and brag about the size of the audience to investors. I absolutely do not like all this, there are always more organic ways of monetization, and manipulation of such things clearly speaks of the professional (in?) suitability of the GD.
Envy
Owning an item is one of the fundamental principles of collections, but when someone else owns an item, envy kicks in. No matter how people deny it, envy is the most common motivating feeling in games, especially online, especially competitive ones. We can claim as much as we want that we are not envious, but a new BMW from a neighbor, or collected platinum in BG3 forces us to perform certain actions in order to get the desired thing. MMOs have brought the indulgence of this feeling to perfection, elevating equipment items to the rank of collections; such items always stand out on characters and are usually made an order of magnitude better than the environment and ordinary things. On this feeling, accessible to any person, steam will build one of the most profitable economies of virtual items and achievements. There are also national peculiarities when show-off is more valuable than money: they say that they don’t give an achievement for owning this tank, but knowing the attitude of the Chinese towards everything gold, I wouldn’t be so sure.
Collection types by availability
Collections in games are defined by the possibility of obtaining them or the functionality of creation. There are basically five functionalities of creation and work with collections in games, and much more, but all other mechanics of extraction and work will be a combination of these five. My colleagues and I have long argued about which class to classify unique items that are created by users or can only be bought for “conditionally” coins, so let them be classified as auction items for now.
Quest – collection items can be obtained after completing some game actions: battles, quests, achievements, leveling, etc.
Drop – an item can be obtained with a certain probability after performing simple game actions, such as grinding or raiding.
Auctions are usually an additional mechanic designed to take control and centralize the exchange of items between players. They can usually agree on their own, but then the developers lose the ability to influence the economy of collectibles. In rare cases, developers put up rare items for auction that are impossible to get in any other way, this is frowned upon by players and seriously breaks the game economy.
Casino/Gacha – a collection item can only be obtained from a “black box” by first throwing a conventional coin, resource or item into it. In any case, the mechanism comes down to spending real money, no matter how it got into the game. Gacha mechanics usually dynamically control the probability of items dropping out, like in a casino, so that the client leaves in his underwear, but happy.
Crafting is probably one of the most common types of creating collections, when an item is created according to a recipe, a set of rules or actions. Crafting sets in the same TESO.
Achievements are also collections
Collections of medals/achievements/cards, united based on actions performed in games, have become one of the ways to provide an opportunity to brag, or in the case of platinum, to cause envy and bewilderment about the 300 hours spent among friends. The mechanics of achievements in games are now much more complex than they were originally supposed to be; it’s depressing that a trend has begun to seep into Steam that certain achievements can only be obtained by completing a paywall. In the case of paradoxes, new achievements are part of paid dlc, and it is impossible to get them in any other way. Somewhere before 2020, there was a clause in the Steam developer agreement that all achievements should be achievable in any of the game modes, but now it is not there.
Equipment is also a collection
Over time, equipment in games has become a separate type of collection, if you can call it that. And gaming services have turned gear into functional collections that game designers design with game engagement, quests, and playstyle features in mind. Through items they achieve changes in the experience gained, and in some games they achieve replayability after the release of updates, but that’s a completely different story…
