Breakfast Topic: Are you a collector?
by Anne Stickney 
Dec 20th 2011 at 8:00AM
As of the time of this writing, I am sitting on 136 mounts, 176 pets, nearly 12,000 achievement points, and countless armor sets. I'm not sure where it all began. One minute, I was simply playing the game and happily emptying out my bags at every opportunity. The next, I was gathering and hanging onto just about everything I found in my travels. One thing is for certain: I have a heck of a lot of stuff, and void storage sort of helped with the problem, for now.
I think part of it has to do with the ease of obtaining gold over the years. Back in vanilla, it was an incredibly long time before you saw that first gold piece. Saving up for an epic mount at level 60 was almost a rite of passage. Hardly anyone I knew had enough gold to get one when they actually hit level 60; they had to work at grinding enough to afford the mount. And racial mounts were racial mounts. You couldn't get a horse if you weren't human, and you couldn't get a raptor if you weren't a troll. When that changed, it opened up opportunities to actually start collecting -- and when gold started getting easier to obtain, especially through the addition of daily quests, the means to collect got substantially easier.
I think part of it has to do with the ease of obtaining gold over the years. Back in vanilla, it was an incredibly long time before you saw that first gold piece. Saving up for an epic mount at level 60 was almost a rite of passage. Hardly anyone I knew had enough gold to get one when they actually hit level 60; they had to work at grinding enough to afford the mount. And racial mounts were racial mounts. You couldn't get a horse if you weren't human, and you couldn't get a raptor if you weren't a troll. When that changed, it opened up opportunities to actually start collecting -- and when gold started getting easier to obtain, especially through the addition of daily quests, the means to collect got substantially easier.
As for pets, trying to collect pets was an exercise in how well you could manage your bank before that remarkably handy pet tab existed. In fact, I think that's when I started collecting both in earnest -- once I didn't have to worry about bank space, it was easy enough to nab every pet I ever wanted. With the introduction of achievements, I began nabbing even those pets I wasn't particularly thrilled about. As for armor sets -- well, they're a badge of honor, right? Plus, they're pretty.
But that's not all I collect. I have a full collection of Steamy Romance Novels, just for giggles, and a bunch of gray items that have no real purpose. Heck, my rogue still has her Thieves' Tools, even though they aren't needed anymore. I guess it's either nostalgia or some latent urge to squirrel things away. It carried over into Skyrim, where I obsessively store every book I come across -- not for any real reason but just because I like the thought of having a library, you know?
Are you a collector? Do you like squirreling things away for a rainy day? Do you gather mounts and pets obsessively? Has transmogrification turned into an excuse to grab all that gear you never thought about keeping before?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Nina Katarina Dec 20th 2011 8:20AM
I love the Steamy Romance Novels - wish they'd put more of those in. I kinda dread what we might find in a panda-themed expansion, though...
zinckiwi Dec 20th 2011 8:30AM
I'm not a collector at all -- of pets, mounts, armor or even achievements. Unfortunately it *bugs* me that I'm not.
I have zero desire to do all the little things in every holiday that make the achievement figure advance by ten. I have less than zero desire to go through old zones one-shotting my way through trivial quests, which I find immeasurably less entertaining than doing it "for real" with a level-appropriate alt.
Yet, as with any achievement system, its mere existence makes me feel like I should be paying attention to it. It sits there, taunting me on occasion when I happen to notice my point total (~4000 by virtue of simply playing a casual game), as if to say, "there's a part of the game you're missing even though it is, *by design*, completely purposeless beyond its own arbitrariness."
Bah! Humbug.
Tender Burntfuse Dec 20th 2011 8:42AM
"to squirrel things away."
always had a problem with that phrase. I mean we all get what youre saying, but Squirells only hoard things like food and nesting materials, practical things. Even in Game terms, old armor sets and Vanity grey items arent useful.
ya know who collects Useless things? Ferrets. Like really, what is a Ferret gonna do with one anklesock, a artist's nib set and my carkeys? they truly are Natures WoW Collector.
Sinthar Dec 20th 2011 10:34AM
I also tend to get ...intrigued by sayings. I always have an urge to find out where they are from and why. In this case its easy to see what it is saying, but harder to understand fully why it is.
Squirrels (as everyone knows) eat nuts. They store them in various ways to get them through the winter. Most people only know them as storing nuts in a 'larder' which they eat in winter. What is less known is that squirrels also bury nuts, and mark the location for later unearthing and eating. However, and industrious squirrel stores many more nuts than most people think, burrying a lot of them. Squirrels have only small brains, and so it is inevitably true that a lot of the burried nuts do not get eaten for various reasons (cant remember where to dig, ground frozen, etc etc). So the phrase to 'squirrel' things away, means to put the item(s) in various places, NOT all of which will be remembered or retrieved. Its meaning changed over time to mean to put something away (usually in a hidden/secure area).
A complete digression from anything useful I know. But what the hell!
akiva Dec 20th 2011 8:45AM
Immediately made me think of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggAPUf7QNIk
Iron Chef fans may recognize the singer as none other than Chairman Kaga
Mycroft Dec 20th 2011 8:51AM
First mount at 40, you mean?
I do a bit of collecting, but the limited bank space available has made me vendor off lots of things over the years that I would've liked to collect. Now, since they don't take up inventory space anymore, I don't actually put much thought into collecting pets and mounts it seems. Just enough to get me to the current achievements (got all the mounts, and I'm 3 away from 150 pets), then I'll stop collecting those.
I started collecting some armor sets when I heard about transmogrification. Got my druid the Dungeon Set 1 recolor from BC instances that I use mostly. I've got tier 1 from soloing molten core so many times (finally got Sulfuras, hooray!) but I don't really use it.
I used to collect interesting gray items (like rabbit's feet, anything with sparkly or shiny in the name, a few other things) but stopped half due to bank space and half due to an addon that auto-sells grays.
Mycroft Dec 20th 2011 8:52AM
derp, epic mount you said, I misread.
Back in the day I couldn't even afford my first mount at 40, had to wait til 43 before I could get the gold together for training.
darksilentthief Dec 20th 2011 8:53AM
Not only do I still have my Thieves' Tools, but I still have my Certificate of Thievery to prove I am a well trained rogue. Ironically I am terrible at playing a rogue and since then I have moved on to server other classes successfully.
eirinefrostblade Dec 20th 2011 8:55AM
I obsessively collect swords and axes on my death knight, and bows and guns on my hunter. The dk also is working on the pet and mount lists, minus the ones I have to pay real money for.
raposo02790 Dec 20th 2011 8:59AM
Fitting breakfast topic seeing as I got my higher learning achievement
raposo02790 Dec 20th 2011 8:59AM
(insert) this morning
neder Dec 20th 2011 8:59AM
All sorts of epic weapons is my passion. Now it is a bit harder, when everyone farms em for transmog, but still.
Mortenebra Dec 20th 2011 9:00AM
The achievement system turned me into a collector. Well, I take that back. I was a bit of a collector before (special lore-centric items from really long quest chains, or things I was particularly fond of) but the achievement system turned that "bit" into "full-blown."
I try my best not to keep all of the little trinkets and oddities my lowbie rogue has pick-pocketed from mobs, but it's difficult not to do so. I love the little details and I automatically want to keep the things I find special or out-of-the-blue. Some things I keep simply for flavor text. If you want a surefire way of making me giggle for hours, give me something with particularly good flavor text on it (like the Subtle Fist or whatever that says, "Not so subtle," or something like that... It still gets me).
But most of all, I think my main's proudest collection is her rep rings. There's some bit of pride in seeing her set of honors from various factions. It's like a little badge that says, "I've been there and fought the good fight."
LynMars Dec 20th 2011 9:06AM
My priest collects pets and mounts, and I always get irate when my other characters get a pet she doesn't have! Hopefully they manage that shared achievement/pet/mount thing in MoP.
She also collects pretty dresses; I have a copy of most tier robes (there are a few I dislike or don't have by dint of my raid team not doing 25mans in Wrath or heroics now) and various other nice looking dresses. It's curbed a bit with the advent of transmog and moving to my paladin as a raiding main.
TJ Dec 20th 2011 9:07AM
I collect pets & mounts. I am also an acheivement whore. :)
Jere Hunter Dec 20th 2011 9:10AM
I also have a set of Romance Novels. But my first collectable set was the HH pumpkin rings (they looked so cool) sadly I have let some of those fall away :(. But, I have also collected all the Dire Mugs, in face I have a full collection of Mugs from Direbrew (past to present) including the Terror mugs, Hurley's mug, and everyone else who dropped a mug as a mace :)
Revnah Dec 20th 2011 9:15AM
Nah, I'm not a collector. I cold-heartedly delete equipment as soon as I get an upgrade, and while I'm happy when I receive a pretty new mount or pet, I don't farm for them.
Although having said that, my characters' banks are full to overflowing with crafting materials from all expansions, just in case I'll need it at some point, so I guess you could say I'm collecting and hording after all ;-)
Noyou Dec 20th 2011 9:53AM
Yeah. I am more of a collector of materials. I have my share of non useable items as well. The one toon I got both Crafty and Old Ironjaw on has those in the bank. Another toon has a stuffed shark head. Another a cat portrait. I have a pair of "clammy pants" somewhere (inside joke between me and a friend). I also have tabards and the vast majority of holiday items (that were supposedly going to be put into void storage- but that fell through). Making our toons banks all link up would be awesome. Then I could get rid of 9 sets of holiday gear, dozens of tabards, and many other semi-useful items :)
Revnah Dec 20th 2011 9:56AM
Did you say *nine* sets of holiday gear? Lol! And here I thought I was obsessed by starting my forth character on the "long, strange trip" :-D
Noyou Dec 20th 2011 10:54AM
LOL. Rev, i just got my 2nd toon the drake. I am not even going to mention my "alt server". So yeah, I have a little problem with alts :P