i am a collector

i'm doing my chapter 2 of my dissertation and i am supposed to talk about why gamers find social network games fun/ why are social network games so successful.

i was doing my readings and Caillois' 4 dimensions of play were Competition, Chance, Simulation and Vertigo. however his theory failed to describe the experience of most digital games as he considered the rules of the game to be static, given, known, numbered and limited....

and there was the emergence of 'God' games like the Sims, where players just like to control characters and strategize to complete missions....

and then i thought about the things i like to do from young.

i realised that i really love accumulating stuff. when i was young i accumulated erasers-- from the flag ones that primary school kids used to flip-battle each other to those scented cutesy kinds in shapes of milk packets or fruits. i collected barbie dolls, and was willing to do my friend's homework in exchange for her unwanted doll.

as i progressed i collected ribbons and threads when handicrafts such as cross-stitching, making friendship bands and those hanging thingmajigs became prevalent amongst the girls in school.

i collected autograph books- pretty notepads that had a different design in every single page.

i collected stamps- albeit briefly- and other foreign currency. i still have some banana notes that my grandfather left, somewhere in my room (that has since been refurbished and may have been rid of).

and today it has just come to my realization that i have not yet changed a single bit!

i collect images of outfits that i really really like from the internet-- such as those of blair waldorf or emma pilsbury. i peer through runway looks and save their pictures if i could, wishing with all my might that by studying them hard enough, they will build an unerasable memory in my head, influencing my style when i go shopping.

i collect DRESSES. it is like food to my soul...i wish i could own every single pretty dress in the world.

and now since the day i got introduced to facebook games, i find myself addicted to getting coins and buying the cutest limited edition virtual item that is just released.

so maybe i might just write on the point of accumulation syndrome. that's a very social network game thing don't you think?