I can assure you, there would way more people in the store if they were giving REAL Suicunes.
The virtual suicune is the closest you'll get to it. I wouldn't go if they were giving a little pokemon toy, but neither I would if they were giving a little virtual pokemon toy.

prob. the achievements like to compare them to my freinds sorta like a contest the shiny pokemon was just to have all 3 sucks you were sick and walked to get it would trade you mine but dont have wifi

I know it's mostly frowned upon but for me it achievements. Seeing that score and list of full scored games slowly rise is therapeutic. Having said that the last game I full scored was crazy taxi and I had forgotten what an utter mother f*^#ing, cu*^#ing, ball bagging bugger the challenges were.

Shiny pokemon are up there for me on the in-game collectibles must have category. Ever since I got that damn red Gyrados in my old copy of Gold, I have been hooked on getting those guys. Additionally, I had a collection of the Unknowns, comprising the whole alphabet. I never used them and they just sat and took up space in my computer system, but I had them.

There is something about the drugs in Fallout 3 also, I just pick them up, buy them even, and never sell them. I have probably over 200 inhalers of Jet just sitting in my inventory right now. Oddly enough, the achievement (Trophies technically since I only have a PS3) thing never really caught on with me. Not sure why.

The gamer score is a strange beast. Much like sprinkles on ice cream, unlocking an achievement is pleasant and welcome but nothing I go out of my way for. Collect 200 orbs/50 scrolls/all the peanut butter...I get the appeal. I have friends who welcome the challenge and love hunting the items down but for me, it just gets in the way of the game I want to play. As for collecting all the Pokemon, I have no experience with that but I do know that once you add a face to something people tend to care a lot more about it, whatever it is.

trophies are the only virtual item i really care about. it's pretty rewarding to get that little "blip" during a game. don't know why.

My in-game art gallery in blazblue: calamity trigger would be numero one and my gamerscore would be number dos.

I used to be really paranoid about my memory cards. The thought of losing all of that progress and time terrified me...Then I looked at my PS2 card and asked myself what was so damn important about it? I realized then that I didn't really need it or the save files it contained that told me how much time I've spent in other worlds. I KNOW I was there and did all of those things. I remember what my life was like when I beat Kingdom Hearts, the friends that helped me do it, and the story of Sora. THAT is what's important: the memories.

So, now, as long as I can get to the end of the game and have my fun with it, the save file isn't important. If my memory cards ever die I'll just do it all over again, and relish the memories.

I tends to be powerful comsumables in RPGs, pokemon included. Despite having 12 ethers (or full heals, revives, etc.), I would still go back to the pokemon center instead of using them, in order to "save them for a better time/place". Not sure why. Also, I don't think this relates entirely to the point of the blog, but it's my 2c. Or should I say 2p?

I don't know about collectables, but I keep my completed game saves religiously.

I think it's the same as any real-world collection of items; what does somebody get out of collecting stamps? Achievements give me a sense of (you guessed it) achievement - Bakewell's right, it really is soothing to watch those numbers and picture move up year upon year - so they're probably my most valued in-game collectible. I must say though, I would walk over broken glass to get to event Pokemon.

Honestly, I give my friends shit about getting the Mile High Club in Modern Warfare whilst drunk. It's nothing special, but they can't believe a drunk person could concentrate enough to get it so I ham it up.

As far as stupid in-game crap goes I'm really stoked to have a flaming helmet in Reach and a gold lancer in Gears of War 2. I know other people have them but these are mine. I really like my Halo emblem too. It's the gas mask completely in coral on a green background. It's been my emblem since Halo 2 and I never use anything else.

I play World of Warcraft. What do you think?

Still stumped? I paid $100 for the StarCraft 2 Collectors Edition.

I haven't played/liked StarCraft since the first one came out back in 1998.

StarCraft: Wings of Liberty Collector's Edition came with an in-game WoW pet.

That is all I will say on this matter.

@matt Climate change. not global warming. Its real. Texas getting snow, record temps on east coast. Its happening lol

@Extra Crispy

I would totally hoof it back to a pokemon center back in the day. What if I needed to trash my little brother and ran out of potions?

Also, I never spend in-game currency either. I like to just horde and horde that shit. I.E. Money Mass Effect 1? I had about 250 grand saved up for Mass Effect 2 and I'm barely starting to use it on my second play through.

I'd like to see more soundtracks bundled with games. I like that EA have been doing digital MP3 soundtracks with their releases on Steam, which is good. There's plenty of games that I'd love a standalone CD soundtrack foor them.

"The whole thing was quite an adventure, too detailed and bizarre to fully recant here, but I will tell you that along the way I met a man with a mohawk ponytail, a seven year old kid who's already obsessed with quoting the upcoming shooter Bulletstorm, and a beautiful 6-foot-tall woman dressed from head to toe in denim, who only collects shiny Pokemon -- because "regular Pokemon are for plebeians.""

Sounds like the Canterbury Tales.

Anyway, virtual collectibles?

I'm a whore for the costumes in LittleBigPlanet/2, but I'm also a packrat IRL. The bonus costumes bit of LBP2CE-purchasing was only half of the matter. To be fair, those bookends do look really nice holding up a part of my game collection, though.

Also, gotta catch 'em all, collectible or not.

@Ali D
Also some high-res art, would be awesome....

I live in the north east of Canada and its brutal, but I walked to my friends house across campus just to pick up my copy of RDR. that kind of counts, right?

Surprisingly I'd much rather have a nice physical whatever than a digital whatever, and I'm not saying I'd rather have a real suicune than a digital one, I'm saying I'd rather have a game soundtrack on CD than an ingame unlockable etc. I just like being able to look up and see my physical paraphernalia on my stand.

for me, if it's an achievement or trophy, i'm willing to do nada. for a special pokemon, i would hoof it through sub-freezing temps, without thought. i once drove through northern minnesota's worst storm of the year to get my hands on mariokart ds, just so i could experience nintendo's first official online game on the day of release. i defied death, and it was worth it.

I think it's more about completing a game in every way possible, which achievements help a lot. Usually (of course, not in every case) if you have a maximum amount of gamerscore, it simply means you're not able to squeeze any more juice from the game.
As for collectibles themselves, if i'd really had to choose, i'd go with health potions in any RPG game. After I finish the main plot, I just travel to the farthest mountain in the game, stand right at the peak of it and drink all of these 300x +10hp potions. Delicious view, I tell you.

I feel like achievements are a double edged sword, and personally, I am hooked on them. On one hand they give you much more replay value in a game, yet on the bad side developers occasionally put in achievements that are just frustrating and seemingly impossible.

Personally I'm not gonna go out and by Dora's Pony Adventure or something like that for the extra gamerscore, but for the games I DO buy I like to 100% them and legitimately. I mean for real, getting 100% on a hard game feels good as hell. Honestly: go try and 100% PROTOTYPE or The Orange Box (I did both over the summer and they both have a couple of HUGE b*tches of achievements therein.)

I really think there is some sort of 'value' to virtual items and other stuff. (after all, virtual objects can be 'stolen' and you can face prosecution for it)
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there's some sort of time and effort involved in getting them.

Personally, I like to think that during our 'gaming lives' (as opposed to the 'IRL life', so to speak) these objects are no less real than others. It's ours, we earned it, we can do with it whatever we want. We own it, and that makes it worth something.
These object have value because we perceive them to do so. We find them important and valuable, therefore they are.

As to the 'why' behind this, 'why do we find it important?', the closest I get is that because there's just something about them. I could also have to do with the time/effort I mentioned earlier.

My own most important 'possessions' are very simple, yet complicated to explain. Save games. A completed save file is worth so much to me, that should my console or pc be stolen, my earliest reaction will be: 'Crap, those saves are now lost forever!'
Again, I'm not even sure why, there's just something about them. They are my own personal proof that I completed the game, and overcame all the challenges the game tossed at me.

They're kind of like a bite sized ego boost :D

"Still, that didn't stop me from making the two hour round tip walk through inches (and sometimes feet) of snow to my local Gamestop so that I may download a shiny Suicine. The whole thing was quite an adventure, too detailed and bizarre to fully recant here, but I will tell you that along the way I met a man with a mohawk ponytail, a seven year old kid who's already obsessed with quoting the upcoming shooter Bulletstorm, and a beautiful 6-foot-tall woman dressed from head to toe in denim, who only collects shiny Pokemon -- because "regular Pokemon are for plebeians.""

I smell a sitcom.

Um, yes, I much prefer real physical things. On my shelf right next to me I've got my Little King's Story Onii toy thing proudly displayed along with my Fallout 3 bobblehead and my new LBP bookends (to hold up my Bowie CD collection), etc... I can't really think of any in-game collectibles I have and really cherish - certainly not anything from Gamestop or pre-orders or anything - though I do of course cherish my save files such as my Pokemon Red file in which I've caught all 152 Pokemon (including Missingno. and Mew).

My most valued virtual item is not in-game at all, it's my xbox live pet chocobo, Squeaky! :D

Silly, I know. I'm a G.A.M! But Squeaky is the shizzle, and I do believe the chocobo pets are just as rare on the dash as they were in-game. When the pet codes were given out people on ebay were selling them for $50 or more! I can honestly say I never even considered selling my chocobo to someone else! I also do have a very cool Dead Rising 2 avatar costume I got as an amazon pre-order bonus. These bonuses are PERFECT EXAMPLES of virtual bonuses I treasure as neither has been made available to the public. TRUE exclusives. BTW Thank you Christine for the DR2 costume :)

My avatar has a lot of cool props like lightsabers, health packs, zombies and other pets but Squeaky stays by my side!

I do LOVE my achievements but I must concede that they have changed the way I play games sometimes.

Don't really care, never went to the retailers for the various treasure maps in DQ9. I actually kind of hate some of the DLC codes that make the items in games worthless before you get to them. A Pokemans... maybe if I was into the series, and only if the 'mon was something more than a palate swap.

I had a similar experience I walked about 20 something miles with my friend to and back from my local Gamespot when I was in highschool and I didn't have a car. The next day I was so sore that I barely moved. We had to navigate our way across a desert and freeway because I live out in the middle oh nowhere and there was no paved path connecting me to civilization.

I ended up buying the original Kingdom Hearts because there was this girl I liked that loved the series and when we use to talk on the phone it would be awkwardly silent cause we didn't have much in common. I figured playing the game would give us something to talk about. The stupid crap you do in highschool

@mattrodroid

Are you seriously implying that because it is cold out that global warming doesn't exist?

W
O
W

Achievements!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Physical stuff takes up space and you have to dust it every so often, and make sure it doesn't get lost/stolen. Digital content requires no matinence and can't be stolen.

Real Stuff

I would rather have a making of DVD, sound track or an art book (I love art books) than an unlockable in game gun/costume that I would never, ever use.

I don't value any in game content at all because, well, they hold no real vaule. You can touch it and you can't sell it, like a stripper or something. I've shown some friend my cool new at books/figures before as they are physical but I have not once shown them my new hat that I unlocked for preordering game "X".

I just like the sense of accomplishment. That feeling of doing something great, even though it last for 10 minutes, feels relieving and pure.

@Epic-KxDtoid
.............Are you sure your talking about video games? lol

Its not really achievements, but rares. Rares are the "shinies" of shinies. The more rares you have, the "cooler" you look.

There was an Notorious Monster called the Easter Shadow that dropped an awesome bow for Rangers. It it was a lottery spawn based on two other shadow mobs and could take anywhere from 18 to 28 hours to reappear after being killed the last time around. Th bow had a 5% drop rate.

I camped it twice, the first time for a half hour, got bored and left. A year later when I was really ready for the best of the best. I camped it again for two hours. I'd kill the placeholders, measure the time they took to respawn and once I had that. I'd play Pokemon Diamond on my DS and watch the clock.

Some jackass warrior came in and started to camp too because "he wanted to be a ranger someday" but I timed the kills all the same and he went away after noticing I was a pretty serious ranger. About 20 minutes later, the Eastern Shadow appears. I take him down and I get my bow.

I take a moment to play with my new toy and kill some poor bats with it. Not five minutes later after getting that bow, a wave of chinese gil farmers log right in to where I was. Apparently they had been pursuing this thing, making my small victory all the more sweet.

That took two hours, so I guess I was lucky given I could have pissed away a lot of time and missed sleeping for work.

These days, however, I'll take the shiny pokemon instead, MMMORPGs are for crazy people.

I value my last-gen memory cards with savegames, most of them of finished games. They (along with all my Pokémon cartridges full of monsters trapped or traded by me) represent what I am, what I've been doing all these years in my free time.

It's the same as hace a room full of school trophies and diplomas and show them to everyone else... Or just pass a couple of hours looking at them bringing memories back and having a nice time with my past.

Hey, I'll do anything for free t-shirts. Especially if said t-shirt has a suicune on it. Little figurines? Not so much.

i think we value the virtual collectables more because they have more use than a just for show toy. in pokemon having a shiny adds value to your collection because its rare. the goal is to be the best in the game. this adds to that sense of worth we gamers have. i had realized my dream of compleating a pokedex. i have all 493 current pokemon. shinny pokemon are simply credit boosters for me.

*shiny*

Tons of virtual things are precious to me, can't think of a good example though, haha.

For some reason Event pokemon are really sought after for people who are really into Pokemon. I collected all 3 shiny dogs just so I can trade them for a different event pokemon. Great thing about digital copies is that you can make a copy yourself and trade it. It's accepted amongst the group of traders, so essentially you can get pokemon you may have missed out on by trading a copy of the ones you got. It's a rather odd trade system.

@mrandydixon

I'm not really sure about that guy with all the post he does I can't tell if he's kidding or not. I use to always think he was joking and would have a good laugh, but I'm starting to think he's serious.

We got about a hundred feet of snow today in Montreal.

@ I don't mean to be a prick who fine tunes others work but did you mean Round Trip instead of Round Tip?

Achievements, for me. It usually shows that I put a lot of time into my games and I hope people will take that I dedicate myself to something from my score. I think 84,000 (or whatever the hell I'm at) is a good enough indicator that I can get invested in even the dumbest of things.

I like collecting things in games if it unlocks something for me in the actual game. Heart pieces increase your life. Other things increase magic or give you better weapons. The flags in the original AC on the PS3 were useless because they didn't do anything--in game or as a trophy.

I like getting trophies and achievements, but I don't lose sleep over not 100% a game. I got 95% of them in AC II and 90% in Darksiders and that was good enough for me.

I dunno, a real life Pokemon collectible wouldn't interest me at all. What am I supposed to do with it? Put it on my desk or something? At least a virtual one can be used in the games.

@mix

"(the Pokemon, not my cats)."

Are you sure J-Holmes? I don't think the community would be to harsh on you if you decided to enter your cats in a little one on one combat.

But seriously.. I don't have a clue why we do this.. I want to say, when it comes to these special pokemon, that its because you'll actually use them in game and for all intent and purpose we're told these Pokemon are legendary -which again makes them a "must have" item.. You might take a toy home and put it on a shelf but there's little value in them even in an artistic sense where as you've probably spent hundreds of hours playing through the Pokemon world and in a way have become -even if it isn't realistic to say so- close with these beasts.

Basically, you've covered wars together.. and because of that your guys are like comrads in arms even if those arms are lightning bolts and fire spin attacks.

As for gamerscore and stuff like that, that's sort of the same without as much attachment. you've put a lot of time into those things, into making them better, and you want to keep making them better because of that.. We're told all through out lives that Time=Money and in a way Gamerscore (or facebook farms) are very very useless money.. and as a people we do love money, even if it doesn't translate into real worth at all -because regardless of its material value, it still denotes the time we take for the things we love in life.

ehh im more into real life collectibles like artbook's, figurines, strategy guides, and OST's

never been a fan of virtual goods. it just makes you look better. nothing to valuable. it's like games that let's you buy golden versions of guns. it's just shiny, no added damage, same old gun with a different paint. at least the things i mentioned above can be a part of you collection until you die.

My gamerscore or any other type of achievement, screenshots or save games are my virtual photo album. I look at these and remember what was going on in real life when I got these, haircuts I had, girlfriends, fights, weather; it's all very nostalgic. Oh and I also have a big number next to my made up name, that many people don't care about.

An ingame bonus is what sells me a collectors edition, I hate one that come with action figures or physical collectibles since all they do is take up space and collect dust on my shelf.