Video game completion. Whether collecting every coin or capturing every creature, there’s often an inexplicable need to fully complete video games. Why is that?
What does it mean to complete a game? While some may define it as playing a game from opening cutscene to the last, others have a more exact definition of how to properly complete a game.
This may go anywhere from collecting every item in a game, to defeating every enemy or puzzle that crosses a gamer’s path.
But why put ourselves through the torture of finding every single Yoshi coin in Super Mario World, or all of the orbs in Jak and Daxter?
This article explores why video game players often feel the drive to collect everything that can be collected.
The innate human need to do so
Whether its evolutionary or psychological, there is something deeply embedded in the human mind that makes completing a game all the more rewarding.
It’s in our human nature
It’s only natural that creatures who strive to get A’s on their homework and clean kitchens until they’re spotless would reflect this completion nature in their gameplay.
Games like Brain Age and Chibi Robo tap directly into these established human drives. At that, it’s highly unlikely that we’d get the same enjoyment out of scrubbing floors spotless with a toothbrush in the real world.
The feeling of missing out if we don’t
No one likes to be left out of the crowd. If something’s said to be fun, we like to see it through to the end.
Also, why start a story if we have no intention on finishing it to the upteenth degree? If we’re going to dedicate time to a game, we might as well put our best effort into it.
There’s a driving story
Story elements can often be unlocked only when all of a certain item is collected. For example, this is the driving force behind the Pokémon catchphrase “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!”
What happens when you catch them all? Why, that’s the exact thing Game Freak wants you to wonder! When there are concrete promises that something happens if you do go the extra mile to collect all that there is in a game, video games draw players deeper into their world.
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