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11 years ago
jcunning_1974 wrote:
Good Post.
I think one other aspect to add onto this would be the desire people have to collect everything in a set. Sometimes we have a compulsion to own everything that's part of a set, to complete it. I often read about people calling themselves "completionists" on here.
I know when I play video games I want to get 100% completion even if that means collecting every feather in Assassin's Creed III, collecting every hidden package in a Grand Theft Auto game, or learning every recipe in a profession in World of Warcraft. I want to see that 100% completion, own everything, and am willing to spend hours to do it. I'm not willing to spend extra money though.
I get the same compulsion in TSTO but have stamped it out because I see how the game makers have rigged the game and am not willing to spend real life money on games of chance. It annoys and frustrates me that I won't get everything from the Easter event, even after hours of tapping bunnies (my bunny electrifier didn't work), keeping all characters that could give eggs on those tasks, visiting all 100 friends everyday and trading eggs. I miss the old events like Halloween where spending that much time in the game would result in getting every item, all that time spent would result in completing the set. All the time spent on this event only resulted in drudgery and a slim chance at winning everything.
Not being able to "complete" this event, to collect everything, to be left with tons of fences, gates, egg piles, ponds, trees, and blankets/umbrellas I don't want is just annoying, when the things I need to complete are right there, spinning past every time I open a box.
I think EA knows many of us want to get everything and will spend money even if it only gives a slim chance of "completing" the event, and take advantage of that.
Great points. So many players are as much about the collecting aspect as town building, or money accumulation. And the pathology of the collector can be just as compulsive as the dopamine-fueled Skinner player.
In recent years, so-called Buffalo nickels, minted for 25 years starting in 1913, have fetched prices a thousand-fold their face value, with rare 1916 coins selling for as much as $50,000. Likewise, comic book fanatics buy first edition issues of The Amazing Spider-Man for $40,000, and fine art collectors pay millions to own a Van Gogh or Jackson Pollock painting. But Bakkom believes that these prices are as much about how scarce an item is as they are shorthand for the value that collectors place on their community and hobby.
"These aren't worth anything unless someone confirms their value," he notes.
Collecting is ultimately about "the excitement of discovery and the satisfaction of living life looking for things. It's a way of looking at the world."
Source: http://nationalpsychologist.com/2007/01/the-psychology-of-collecting/10904.html
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