I’m Well Aware That This is Completely Insane: In-Game Vendor Loyalty

I buy all of my fruit and vegetables from a local family owned fruit and veg shop. There’s a huge Tesco right next to it that sells the same fruit and the same vegetables a lot cheaper and there’s also the bonus of Tesco selling everything else I need to sustain myself (videogames, crisps and beer, what else?).

Sure, it costs me more money to buy from the little fruit shop, but I’ve been going there for years, and so have my family, and I’ve no intention of stopping.

Store loyalty is a good thing, especially if you’re helping local business.

Trouble is, I do the exact same thing in computer games, and I have no idea why. I didn’t even realise that I did it until, earlier in the week I was playing a bit of Forza Horizon and found myself driving past several of the game hubs, just to get back to the central hub to visit Daks Garage.

The hubs that I drove past offered the exact same services at the exact same price, but still, I drove past them just so I could feel like I was helping out Dak by giving him work and therefore my hard-won credits.

Anyway, once I’d pulled into Daks Garage, I realised what I’d done and it got me to thinking…

How many other times have I done that in other games?

When I really thought about it, I was quite worried. It turns out that I do it in a lot of games, and quite often at a massive inconvenience to myself.

For example if I need my gear repaired while out questing in Azeroth, I always hearthstone back to the Dwarven District in Stormwind City and speak to the Gnome just outside the inn. He’s been repairing my gear for years now, and going to someone else would just feel wrong.

Then I have to travel back to the area I was questing in and resume.

Now, I feel I should point out that since WoW is an MMO, I wouldn’t do something like this if I was in a raid, unless it was a guild raid and we where taking a quick break, giving me time to hearthstone back and repair and get back to the raid in time. If I needed a quick repair before a boss, I’d run outside with a fellow guildy to use their repair mount.

But I always feel a slight twang of guilt, as if I’m denying ol’ Billibub Cogspinner his work, thus also denying his poor little gnome-kids food for this week, or money saved for an education for them.

(Sorry kids, but it looks like you’re destined to follow in poor Topper McNabbs footsteps… Too bad.)

World of Warcraft and Forza Horizon aren’t the only games where I practice fierce vendor loyalty. I remember always trying to go to the same shops in Hyrule in The Ocarina of Time, and trying my very best to only buy stuff in The Wind Waker if it was being sold by Beedle in his travelling boat (and I have vague memories of him actually giving a loyalty discount for my troubles).

Sure, there are other pictures of Beedle I could have used, but I felt that this one was just WAY too awesome to not include. Enjoy it.

Of course, I’m well aware that this is completely insane and if I can’t stop myself from doing it, I fully intend to seek professional help (read: I’ll just ask my partner if she’ll hit me every time she catches me doing it).

So I’m just wondering, does anyone else do this or have you caught yourself unaware, travelling past shops just to get to your favourite shop even if the others sell the same item? Or is it just me being crazy? Let me know in the comments below.