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Game Cultures of Collecting

  • Article
  • Feb 26, 2017
  • #Gaming
Yussef Cole
@youmeyou
(Author)
ontologicalgeek.com
Read on ontologicalgeek.com
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* The cost of modernization has driven people into cities where we earn increasingly isolated livings. A person feels as alone in their car crawling along in gridlocked traffic as t... Show More

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The cost of modernization has driven people into cities where we earn increasingly isolated livings. A person feels as alone in their car crawling along in gridlocked traffic as they do on a crowded subway, headphones serving as a seal against the noise and the crowds. These and other daily necessities of city living result in our living distinct and disconnected lives, in which personal relationships suffer and are replaced with the alluring simplicity of surrounding ourselves with objects ‑both physical and virtual. Videogames fit this behavior neatly. Like Narcissus — who stared at his reflection for an eternity until he became a flower — gamers practice a form of self-obsession by proxy. We spend hours focusing on improving our virtual avatars and accumulating in-game possessions. This is reflected in all stages of play, from character creation, to armor upgrades, to in-game collectibles. As we build our avatars, we in turn build ourselves. If, as members of consumerist societies, we are urged to define ourselves by our possessions, it only follows that we interpret the possessions of our in-game avatars as extensions of our own identities.

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Blake Robbins @blakeir · Jun, 2022
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