#itonlygetsbetter

(Wowee, I discovered the ‘Keep Reading’ link. Hopefully that makes this easy to scroll past or read separately if you couldn’t be bothered with this a while ago.)

In a good variety of games, the trash has always been an oddly good place to check. Because in the fictional reality that such games create, you're smart, efficient, and everyone loves to just throw away useful items in the garbage not knowing that a...pardon my brief language...That a slam-jammin' badass MAIN PROTAGONIST (a pro) was gonna be rolling by that day, looking for items to give them that extra edge to beat the everlasting snot out of some dude that's just begging to get curb-stomped.

But naturally, every item could make the difference between life, death, and being OP, because you're the thorough-type; And in the middle of you making sure that every single soul in that fictional universe is happy and sidequest-free (spare for Mr.Boss "Curbstomp Me" McBadboi, because obviously, the only help he's getting is a hearty helping of whoop-ass), you just GOTTA check every unique interactable place! It's common knowledge! Collect every rare item. Complete every side quest. Amass good amounts of restorative items. Check every place to scrounge for aforementioned rare and restorative items. Get to the main boss with no less than probably 3 hiking backpacks full of loot and items, and then achieve that sick victory you've been hankering for.

And you couldn't have done it without that perfectly tasty and safe cheeseburger you fished out of some trashcan about halfway through the game...Well...Probably, but it helped heal you when you were anticipating that Mr. Boss was going to OHKO you if you anything less than full health.

Heck yeah. If taking stuff from the LITERAL trash to help you defeat the bad guy in a videogame isn't ironic, then I don't know what is. Except for deliberately crappy quality pictures and memes that don't have any significant immediately apparent meaning, because it's buried under 6 or 7 layers of irony. I can't count.

Anyways, I'm getting off-topic, and so far I've only explained the finer semantics of typical RPG materialistic acquisition tropes. Let's roll back a bit.

When you interact with a garbage can or some trash-related thing in general, the character only interacts with it on a basic level.

"[Insert character name] searches through the trash can...and finds a healing item!"

"[Insert character name] has found a capture module!"

But...It's always odd, since they seem to always either find one item or nothing. And not just that, but some trash cans can be BIG. And have a LOT in them. And it takes only one 3-second search to go through it all? No way. If you've ever dug through the trash to find something you accidentally put in it, you know you have to go through the process of taking some of the trash out, and being careful to avoid certain unpleasant parts of it, while you search and search for what you're looking for.

Now...while fully replicating this entire experience would be a poor idea, since it stinks in multiple senses, due respect should be given to the size and the contents of the trash. A point should be made by letting the player pick up and store whatever 'trash' they deem to be 'treasure'. And that it will take you multiple searches to really see all there is to see when it comes to what people will throw away.

So here is the meat and potatoes of the trash experience. If you really want to see the entirety of what's in the trash can, you'll have to do multiple searches. Based on the size of the trash receptacle. If we're thinking of a normal average wastebasket you probably have near your desk, that'll only be like...2 searches. I'll admit, they're small. Stuff can be crammed in there sometimes, but only so much. You search through the top 50%. You're given a screen showing what you can leave or take. The stuff you leave is now on the ground surrounding the trash can. You search through the bottom 50%. Again, take or leave what you will. But now almost ALL of the remaining trash is on the ground. Congratulations. It's a flippin' mess. You gotta take 3-5 seconds stuffing everything back in. But that's okay. Because you did a nice thing by not leaving the trash in a mess. Because do you know who DOES leave trash in a mess after they've gone through it?

Raccoons. Forest creatures of a mean and scroungy disposition. No-one likes 'em. Not anyone I'm friends with, anyways. Raccoons don't have any class. And neither will you if you decide to be a chowderhead and leave the trash all over the place. You'll be treated like a raccoon, mark my words…It will be a bad day.

...ANYWAYS, how about that trash stuff, right? What do you typically find in trash?

Those plastic bottles? Hey, there's a recycling center just down the road that'll give you a bit of money for them.

Those bottle caps and used slushie cups? Looks like if you collect like...50 of them, they mail you a radical backpack or some cheap toy you can totally sell on Ebay after you remember that you'd look like a clown if you ever went out in public. Or if you have a remarkably unique fashion sense or a low self-esteem, you can flick double birdies to the wind and rock that Slush Puppy(™) brand backpack and matching beanie, because heck the world, you don't need people to define 'swag' for you. You just reinvented it.

Well what about those broken bottles and baby diapers? They could make good throwable temporary weapons or you could craft them int-SCREW THAT NOISE. Leave those there, you weirdo! Sheesh.

What about food items? Heck YE-...Well wait, no, take a look at that food, though. If your ocular-based assessment has reported to you that "Yes, why would you look at that. An unblemished and high-quality cheeseburger happens to be in this trashcan.", then heck, I don't need to tell you what to do. But you KNOW that's not all that might be in there. The adjectives attached to certain cheeseburgers you find in the trash might be a bit deviant from 'perfect' and 'mouth-watering'. Y'know...Adjectives like 'half-eaten', 'maggot-infested', 'moldy', 'a raccoon is actively eating this one, you ding-dong'. The obvious ones. Determine what each of those adjectives might mean for you.

If there's an animal attached to a food item, and you stumble across it, there is a chance you two are going to sit down and have a nice discussion about the finer points of politics and trash-eating etiquette and make a business negotiation over splitting the remainder of the loot item. There is a chance. A very very slim chance, but more than likely, you will have to negotiate by means of fear, intimidation, and/or physical violence. You know how raccoons are.