MMO Weekly: Epic Loot

Hello there, my fellow gamebois and gamegurls, and welcome to today's edition of MMO Weekly. In this epicurean episode, we'll discuss the newest kinds of carrots found in MMOs, and the sticks these carrots are attached to. As I realised this week, I must love carrots a whole freakin' lot. I mean I found myself chasing these carrots, only to find that they are at the end of some very, very long sticks. I didn't even realise it.

Of course, in the statements above, I'm referring to the current standard MMO loot system. The system used to be based on a rather simple idea - delve a dungeon, have an adventure, kill some monsters, and find some loot. It was pretty much a crap shoot as to what that look might be, and that added to the fun of the whole thing. Many of these encounters had very deep loot tables (and some of the loot dropped very, very rarely, but the loot tables were extremely long), and there was always the chance of utterly random, high level "world drops" as well. The bigger the boss, the better the chance that good items would drop, so players were encouraged to take on tough instances, bosses, and challenges. The stick was a short one and the carrots, back then, were pretty darned random. Sometimes the carrots were mediocre, but every once in a while, they were deliciously epic.

The problem with those systems is that they're not entirely "fair". One player could run a dungeon 20 times, and not get the sword he was after. Then, on dungeon run number 21, the Epic Sword of True Uberness drops, and the new guy in the guild rolls a 98 to win it. Under those circumstances, the old veteran who ran the dungeon 20 times before gets all butt burnt, and does a lot of screaming and crying and whining and complaining. "It's not fair!" he says, stomping his foot. "No, no, no, no, no!"

When raids were introduced to MMOs, this situation got worse. Players weren't running an instance with four or five other people, they were now running it with (depending on the game) somewhere between 10 and 40 people. This means that the veteran player's odds of getting his uber drop have just been reduced (again, depending on the game) from one in five to one in 40. "It's not fair!" he says, stomping his foot. "No, no, no, no, no!"

To deal with this problem, raid guilds developed elaborate DKP systems (remember a couple years back, when DKP systems were all the rage?). You raided with your guild, and one of the officers kept track of whether you showed up on time, how long you stayed, what bosses you downed, blah blah blah. You were given "Dragon Kill Points" (who the heck came up with that cheesy name, anyway?) for these various tasks. These points accumulated over time, and when a good item dropped, you spent your accumulated points to "buy" that drop. This system, these guilds felt, was much more "fair".

DKP systems are no longer widely used, and this is largely because game developers have now adopted this idea of "fairness". The systems now are, essentially, great big game-wide DKP systems. The luck of the random drop? You can't say it's gone, but it's badly shriveled. For the most part, players run dungeons and get some uninspiring loot. That's not the important part, see. What they are really getting is a token of some kind. Get enough of these tokens, and you can actually buy an epic item. So the stick is a lot longer, but the carrot is guaranteed.

I never really paid much attention to these kinds of systems. They are a natural evolution of the genre, and were put into place slowly over time. I never really had a complaint because I never gave it any thought. But as I was running an instance the other night, this whole concept really rang my bell. I realised there wasn't a single item in this five-man dungeon crawl that I actually wanted. Of the five known drops of this or that boss, all of them were dull and uninspiring. In fact, that was true of several of the people in my group. When I realised this, however, I justified my being there with the thought of my "token" rewards.

Basically, I cleared an entire instance for some symbolic "coins", which I can later spend down the road. Of course, I have to clear a lot more instances before I can buy the epic of my choice, but it's absolutely positively guaranteed. I won't be disappointed. I will definitely get my reward, and no one will ever stamp their foot and scream "No, no, no, no, no!" with tears in their eyes ever again.

The question arises: Is this really a better system than the old one? For me, the fun of clearing out an instance was, in large part, the luck of the draw. The whole thing was a giant gamble. I hoped for a great drop, but there was a large chance I wouldn't get it. Even if I did get a great drop, I was still enticed to run that dungeon again. Why? Because I might get another awesome (if largely random) drop.

I have to say, once I realised what was happening, I found myself preferring an older iteration of the modern MMO loot system. I like the randomness combined with the much deeper loot tables, and the fact that nothing was guaranteed. It was the thrill of the gamble, like throwing the dice one more time.

Of course, opinions vary. Many players seem to prefer the modern, much more fair loot systems that contemporary MMOs are cementing into place. But really, is this "dungeon running for tokens" system fun? Are players enjoying these dungeon crawls more now, that all the risk (and all the excitement) has been strained from instances?

And with that, I have to wrap up this week's MMOish bucket o' random thoughts. Please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions below.....and until next week, ciao!