Gaming Trends That Need to Stop – Collecting Things

With video games becoming more and more main-stream, is it possible that the creative output of the gaming industry will suffer? That’s a debate that requires some serious contemplation. The sort of debate held by business analysts that bore you with bar graphs showing genre trends across multiple platforms, or statistical analysis of financial successes of proven formulas. Screw that, let’s just be super critical and make fun of the developers. Off we go:

Example 2: Collecting Things
With all the fun of a virtual coin collection, video games of all genres now use collecting as a main focal point in game play. Does that mean what you are collecting is vital to the game’s story? Probably not. See that misshapen rock over there? Collect it! See that flower? I need it! Nothing is too mundane or uninteresting enough to not be a vital component in video game collection missions. I’m not sure where this unfortunate trend started, all I know is that Pokemon wields it as a sword to decimate your social life.

If this trend continues, no game will be safe. Will we be collecting dandelions in God of War? How about gathering cute bunnies in Halo 3? Please, make it stop.

Worst Offenders: Banjo Kazooie, Star Fox Adventures, Pokemon.