The Game Wants to Be Played!

I have been thinking about collecting lately.

In the TTRPG Collective Discord server, we have conversations all day. Some silly, some profound, and often both in the same breath. Today in the meme channel, a friendly face posted this image, and I started thinking about how I feel about collectables.

Assuming the best intentions behind this person, I think this is perfectly fine. In some ways, it mirrors my own experiences.

I collect / used to collect Calico Critters / Sylvanian Families. These guys:

What I would primarily do is buy lightly used ones off of eBay, as in ones kids played with and someone later sold. I cleaned up and repaired them. There was a lot of satisfaction in that. I even occasionally resold some of the ones I repaired, with full information about the critter's history, of course.

What I think about many collectables is that these are, primarily, toys, and people should take them out and play make believe, dress up, or whatever games they invent. Toys are meant to be played with. In a way, a toy wants to be played with. That Pokémon card wants to be in a deck. The old Mustang wants to be driven, and not just on the weekends.

I think we often, in the TTRPG world but other parts of this life as well, set things aside because they have value as collectables. Never using them because we fear we might ruin them. But these games! By goodness, these games want to be played! The journals written in, scribbled in. The fancy pen needs you to use it! Don't let your perfectionism extend to the things that love to be used.

Of course, there is balance here, as in all things. Using something responsibly is not the same as treating it poorly. And there's certainly a lot to be said for using things in ways that were not intended or even considered by the creators!

What I still haven't fully articulated is how this idea extends to collecting in games. Yes, I know, but my gamer's mind always brings it back to games and game design. Now, collecting in games is not only filling out the museum in Stardew Valley. It's also holding onto every single health potion the entire D&D campaign because there might be a better time for it.

Well, that's enough of me. What do you think? Are you a collector? Do you / your kids play with collectables that are also toys? Do you collect in games? What does that look like for you?