Hidden Packages, Blast Shards, Orbs, Treasures, call them what you will. There curse has spread its way over gaming in ways that I never thought would happen.

My first experience with this was during Grand Theft Auto 3, it was the first truly open world game that I had ever played and collecting the hidden packages was actually kind of fun. The reward of being able to pick up free weapons and power ups from outside of your house was greatly appealing and really helped to make the end of the game pretty easy.

I’m not sure if this was the first game to include such an idea, but as with most things in Grand Theft Auto 3 it was certainly one of the things that caught on in a big way, not just in future Grand Theft Auto games, but also in other sand box games and eventually it even spread into more traditional games.

As the generational shift of games consoles happened this became more apparent than ever, and now with trophies and achievements it’s gone from being something optional for in game benefits to something that is usually required to complete if you want to truly finish a game to 1000 gamer points, or to unlock that platinum trophy. This in turn has made it incredibly frustrating, why does every single sandbox game need these? Why do they have to be so obscure? And why do I always have to always have one missing by the end?

This problem has come into effect for me in a massive way recently, and when I say recently I mean within the last 24 hours. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had a problem with these damn things since Crackdown but within the last 24 hours I have collected all 179 treasures on Tomb Raider Underworld (twice, as one of them glitched towards the end of my first play through) all 350 Blast Shards in Infamous and all of the 1001 light seeds from the Prince of Persia.

Other than for purely extending the play time of their games, I can’t understand why developers continue to include them in their products. I personally believe they can actually ruin the game by making you very aware you are playing a game. That first moment when you find number 1 of however many is a moment I dread as I then have to make the decision. Do I collect them all as I see them, and hope they are in an easy enough place that I can collect them all by the end of the game, without missing any? Or do I avoid them like all holy hell so that when I do finish the game I can use the only method I find to be truly effective and to systematically check every single location using some kind of map, checking off each location as I find it.

In my experience I haven’t found a single person who doesn’t dread the “hidden package experience” as I call it, so why do they keep this stuff in games? As games shift and change into the modern versions we see today, how is it that this incredibly archaic way of doing things has managed to survive so long?

I have full respect for which ever open world game takes the plunge, and is the first to omit this dark side of gaming forever.

Thanks for reading.

Hidden Packages, Blast Shards, Orbs, Treasures, call them what you will. There curse has spread its way over gaming in ways that I never thought would happen.

My first experience with this was during Grand Theft Auto 3, it was the first truly open world game that I had ever played and collecting the hidden packages was actually kind of fun. The reward of being able to pick up free weapons and power ups from outside of your house was greatly appealing and really helped to make the end of the game pretty easy.

I’m not sure if this was the first game to include such an idea, but as with most things in Grand Theft Auto 3 it was certainly one of the things that caught on in a big way, not just in future Grand Theft Auto games, but also in other sand box games and eventually it even spread into more traditional games.

As the generational shift of games consoles happened this became more apparent than ever, and now with trophies and achievements it’s gone from being something optional for in game benefits to something that is usually required to complete if you want to truly finish a game to 1000 gamer points, or to unlock that platinum trophy. This in turn has made it incredibly frustrating, why does every single sandbox game need these? Why do they have to be so obscure? And why do I always have to always have one missing by the end?

This problem has come into effect for me in a massive way recently, and when I say recently I mean within the last 24 hours. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had a problem with these damn things since Crackdown but within the last 24 hours I have collected all 179 treasures on Tomb Raider Underworld (twice, as one of them glitched towards the end of my first play through) all 350 Blast Shards in Infamous and all of the 1001 light seeds from the Prince of Persia.

Other than for purely extending the play time of their games, I can’t understand why developers continue to include them in their products. I personally believe they can actually ruin the game by making you very aware you are playing a game. That first moment when you find number 1 of however many is a moment I dread as I then have to make the decision. Do I collect them all as I see them, and hope they are in an easy enough place that I can collect them all by the end of the game, without missing any? Or do I avoid them like all holy hell so that when I do finish the game I can use the only method I find to be truly effective and to systematically check every single location using some kind of map, checking off each location as I find it.

In my experience I haven’t found a single person who doesn’t dread the “hidden package experience” as I call it, so why do they keep this stuff in games? As games shift and change into the modern versions we see today, how is it that this incredibly archaic way of doing things has managed to survive so long?

I have full respect for which ever open world game takes the plunge, and is the first to omit this dark side of gaming forever.

Thanks for reading.

They are a cheap way of extending the length of the game and giving the player something else to do.

Guess what: Don't try to collect em and you won't have any problem.

Without some point to exploration, you're looking at a bunch of non-interactive buildings or landscapes.  I liked finding hidden packages in GTA III, and I continued to like collecting them elsewhere because it gave me an excuse to really explore every little spot on the map.  If they didn't have that, a lot of the map might not have as much of a reason for being there (you can only look at so many alleyways before it all looks the same).  Hidden trophies give you a sense that around every corner could be something new.  It comes down to how much you like to explore, and how much of a reward you need for exploring.  
 
As long as you make this optional it's OK, or as long as your game concentrates on exploration and lets these hidden packages be a way of gauging how much you've explored.  It does ruin immersion when they're not really connected to the world; hell, even hidden packages float above the ground and glow in GTA III, which makes things feel less-than-immersive.
 
If they're not necessary to complete the game, it's best to give one's complete-itis a rest and not get obsessed with collecting them.  I think they're fun, but obviously others don't.  That's OK, but don't blame the game for having an extra feature you don't like to complete, unless it's required.  The latest Prince of Persia could be considered guilty of that, but games like GTA never required you to find anything.' 
 
I do think they could do more to improve how we know we've explored a place already.  Revealing the map doesn't help, because we may have not been looking in the proper direction.  They should be a bit more thorough with how these hidden packages get cataloged once they're found, to help make it easier on those of us who have ALMOST completed our collection and are going, yes, a bit crazy trying to find the last few...

Ignore these fools, if you went around in real life just collecting anything you feel like, you'd be eventually be placed in a jail cell. So I say do it if your feeling naughty. 
 
But I don't wish to be a hypocrite here because recently I did suggest an idea for a game which basically had you, the protaganist eating(or collecting depending on which way you look it) beer and pizza in a time based scenario. At the end of each level you would basically hang a massive stinky dump, with the mass and smell corresponding to the amount of beer and pizza which had been consumed(collected), So you gotta use your brain for moment and you will see that noble gaming ideas such as the one that I've just proposed would be hard to produce if your scheming is sucessful and all collectables have been banned. 
 
You damned heretic you. Now I have a sizzling log in my  breeches because of your damned suggestions. I hope you get prostate cancer and die. 
 
kthxbye.

I don't mind them in games where the world is fun to explore, or when I can find them by just playing the game and then it gives me some cool littles benefit 
What I hate though is...when there are thousands to collect and they make playing the main game easier by powering you up........that's just a shitload of fuck

" Guess what: Don't try to collect em and you won't have any problem. "

Okay, any game that makes you collect 1000 of something that is unevenly distributed throughout the map is a bad game. But complaining about something that is totally optional seems to be a waste of time.
 
Because what it's doing is laying bare the fact that completionism is itself a waste of time.

" Ignore these fools, if you went around in real life just collecting anything you feel like, you'd be eventually be placed in a jail cell. So I say do it if your feeling naughty.  But I don't wish to be a hypocrite here because recently I did suggest an idea for a game which basically had you, the protaganist eating(or collecting depending on which way you look it) beer and pizza in a time based scenario. At the end of each level you would basically hang a massive stinky dump, with the mass and smell corresponding to the amount of beer and pizza which had been consumed(collected), So you gotta use your brain for moment and you will see that noble gaming ideas such as the one that I've just proposed would be hard to produce if your scheming is sucessful and all collectables have been banned.  You damned heretic you. Now I have a sizzling log in my  breeches because of your damned suggestions. I hope you get prostate cancer and die.  kthxbye. "

Great blog, but you forgot LittleBigPlanet.

" @jonsnow007 said:

" Ignore these fools, if you went around in real life just collecting anything you feel like, you'd be eventually be placed in a jail cell. So I say do it if your feeling naughty.  But I don't wish to be a hypocrite here because recently I did suggest an idea for a game which basically had you, the protaganist eating(or collecting depending on which way you look it) beer and pizza in a time based scenario. At the end of each level you would basically hang a massive stinky dump, with the mass and smell corresponding to the amount of beer and pizza which had been consumed(collected), So you gotta use your brain for moment and you will see that noble gaming ideas such as the one that I've just proposed would be hard to produce if your scheming is sucessful and all collectables have been banned.  You damned heretic you. Now I have a sizzling log in my  breeches because of your damned suggestions. I hope you get prostate cancer and die.  kthxbye. "

Good lord what is wrong with you? "

Why is this on the LBP forum?

" Why is this on the LBP forum? "

As long as there is some form of in-game benefit I am fine with stupid random collectibles. However, Assassin's Creed had all those stupid flags that did nothing for you except prevent a full 1000 achievement points (So they were basically worthless on the PS3.)

" @Delta_Ass said:

" Guess what: Don't try to collect em and you won't have any problem. "

Unless you are playing Prince of Persia. Because at some point you need light seeds to progress further. "

One of the things I appreciate about Batman: Arkham Asylum is that the hidden collectibles (Riddler Trophies and Riddle answers) show up on the world map once you find the Secrets Map for each area. So at the end of the game, you can just check the map and know exactly where each of the Trophies is hidden, it's just up to you to figure out how to get it.

1) Eh, GTA was most certainly not the first game to have hidden items to collect. It's a pretty ancient concept, most prominent in pretty much any platformer out there for example.

2) Yay, bitching about optional content you don't have to do. You think it breaks the flow of the game? Then go with the flow, ignoring the extras. People like exploring, and like it even more if they're rewarded for it. Like you know, having a bunch of side quests in the middle of a world-saving main storyline in an RPG. That doesn't exactly make sense either. They're games. They don't make sense. They're just fun.

3) Old, but...

CL60 said:

"I think somebody forgot to use his other account. "

" Okay, any game that makes you collect 1000 of something that is unevenly distributed throughout the map is a bad game. But complaining about something that is totally optional seems to be a waste of time.  Because what it's doing is laying bare the fact that completionism is itself a waste of time. "

" to something that is usually required to complete if you want to truly finish a game to 1000 gamer points,"

"Do I collect them all as I see them, and hope they are in an easy enough place that I can collect them all by the end of the game, without missing any? Or do I avoid them like all holy hell so that when I do finish the game I can use the only method I find to be truly effective and to systematically check every single location using some kind of map, checking off each location as I find it."

"within the last 24 hours I have collected all 179 treasures on Tomb Raider Underworld all 350 Blast Shards in Infamous and all of the 1001 light seeds from the Prince of Persia."