OddballGreg - Hoarding (Keeping What You Don't Need)

A screenshot of the bountiful aid supplies I had "liberated" in a short 5 hour stint of Fallout: New Vegas.

Hoarding. It's a problem people suffer from when their belief of an items possible usefulness in the future overrides it's actual necessity in any likely situation. Some people are good at logically working out what they need, but others occasionally just can't let things go. Let's talk about that.

A couple days ago, a Kotaku article about a YouTube channel called ManyATrueNerd caught my attention when they mentioned that this one, enterprising individual, had taken it upon himself to play the widely acclaimed Fallout 3 and New Vegas games from Bethesda Softworks in what was perhaps the most psychotic, hilarious playthrough of a game I have ever watched. 30 episodes of listening to a British madman "Kill Everything" was quite literally the most most absurd thing I had watched in ages, and I loved every minute of it. (I am OddballGreg after all. It's all in good humor though.) I highly suggest you watch that very humorous playthrough.

In any case, watching him play these old, favorite games of mine made me want to play them again myself, and promptly installed Fallout: New Vegas, only to remember 4 hours in why I had never finished the game in the first place:

Turns out I probably missed the day at school where they explained what "Packing Lightly" meant.

 Hoarding. We've likely all done it in some capacity over the course of our lives, digitally or not. Why is this a problem? Well, in terms of Fallout: New Vegas, a character can only carry so much before they get encumbered, which removes their ability to run or jump and makes them walk slower than a crippled grandmother with a walker. The many times I previously played this game, I spent hours walking at this snails pace with my overly laden pack until frustration made me stop caring.

This time though, I was interested to find out, why exactly, did I keep doing this to myself? What was the source of all this weight in my pack? To people on the outside, the obvious answer would be all the heavy guns and armor I carry around.

While carrying 3 sets of armor and a FREAKING FLAMETHROWER is certainly heavy, they were only a small part of the issue.

For myself, I was somewhat more convinced that my issue came from my incessant need to carry anything that could be made into something else. Crafting materials and whatnot. Strangely, even this pile turned out to be somewhat underwhelming.

You would think that scrap electronics, wrenches, whet stones and scrap metal would be the problem. Apparently not.

However, the revelation was when I finally came to the "Aid" section of my inventory. Healing items, food, water, various fictional drugs that provide bonuses to the game character. Things would expect to be useful. So dropping a couple items, and then a few more, and then another hundred, I quickly realized why it was that I was so frequently overladen in this game.

Listen, I know "Waste Not, Want Not" is a thing, but this is ridiculous. This pile probably weighs more than I do.

That is over 200 units of in game weight of "Aid" items. Considering the fact that the heaviest item I was carrying was metal armor which weighed 15 units, I think it's fair to say that I think I found the problem.

An old habit of mine from many a game has always been to take anything that could be useful or save your life. Healing items are excellent, so is food when you're playing on "Hardcore mode" which requires your character to eat, drink and sleep. But at no point did it ever occur to me that I might be carrying too much food, water, medical supplies and other assorted items. "Surely I'll just naturally go through all this supply?" That would be true if I wasn't such a strategically frugal person. I saved everything I could whenever I could, and the consequence of this is that I just never stopped adding more and more to my characters pack. Perhaps in a humorous moment of disbelief, the total equipment on the floor of that room was likely several times my character's mass and weight, and would probably not have fit into the trunk of car, let alone my character's seemingly depth-less pockets.

It's interesting to consider that this is the same issue that people all over the world have to deal with in a very real capacity. That they simply cannot bear to give up something that could be so very useful, even if they don't actually have a use for it themselves. Even I need to frequently clear old and useless from my desk every so often, limiting myself to keeping only what has been useful in the past year or so, and is not readily or cheaply available. (The rest gets pushed off the edge and into a convenient green bin that I keep nearby.)

Do understand that hoarders are not stupid or silly in any capacity, and like all of us, are the result of their experiences, which makes them into the way they are. I like to keep useful things, because I've known what it is like to not have things when you need them. I've seen the more fortunate throw away perfectly good food and drink for arbitrary reasons, not because they're spoiled, but because they don't understand just how lucky they are to have what they do. Despite this, it is an occasionally unhealthy habit that is good to deal with in what ways one can. Organisation, as I am quickly learning thanks to this blog, far outweigh keeping the "possibly useful" objects I like to have.

While I don't expect this game induced revelation to change much in the world, I do hope that it has at least provided you with something entertaining to read, and interesting to consider. If it has, then please do let me know about it in the comments below or via Facebook/Twitter, as we here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. It would also be greatly appreciated if you share this post with anyone you think may find it interesting, as I am sure they will appreciate the thought as much as we appreciate your support. Of course, if you would like to read more interesting posts like this one, then do be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left, so that you can get the latest posts, as they're made. Regardless of what you do, thank you very much for having taken the time to read this post; I hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Pack lightly my friends.