Collecting is not fun.

"Evil will always triumph because good is dumb."

Those are the timeless words of wisdom spoken by Darth Helmet. They ring true in some cases more than others, and this is one of those times.

We've let the evil of ingame collecting taint our good gaming experience. Why do game developers think we are in love with hunting down items in games to unlock cheap cheats/costumes/weapons or achievements? Seriously. When I buy a game, it is generally to kill things, not play "Where's Waldo" with orbs/canisters/comic book art/etc.

The best that I can come up with is that somewhere there is an executive who feels that according to his research that we gamers love hunting for the mundane and that it is more fun than playing the game. That's the only reason I can think of why a great game like Assassin's Creed would force you to spend more time hunting flags than it takes to beat the game... twice.

Nobody that I know bought Ninja Gaiden II saying "Dude, you have to find 30 skulls! Isn't that sweet?" I know not every feature in a game is a selling point, but this is lame. In most games, it's nothing more than an afterthought.

That's not to say that some games don't get it right, so here are my rules on how to do it the right way:

1. Keep the collecting to things relevant to the story (see BioShock). The audio diaries were a pain, but at least you got to hear more of the story and felt rewarded for finding them.

2. Keep the number down (I'm looking at you Hulk and Assassin's Creed). Nobody wants to have to collect over 200 items (over 500 in AC's case) when they really don't benefit or change the gameplay at all.

The above map is only 1 section of flags. Sheesh.

3. Have the collecting benefit your character (Crackdown's agility orbs). I don't mind collecting if it will make my character better and if it's not necessary for me to find every last one. Those agility orbs were plentiful enough that I got my character maxed out without finding them all. Works for me.

There are my 3 simple rules to take back gaming for the good of the gamer and not the ease of simpler programing. "All it takes for the evil of collecting to win is for good gamers to do nothing." I think that was from Churchill after trying to find that last "flying rat" in GTA 4.