Poll: What's the point of loot in RPGs?

[CloggedDonkey]

I think that looting, while it adds a new dimension to game play, it seems like your just going through another window. Maybe one where you have to pick it up rather than just clicking on the body would be nice, like weapons in Fallout 3 and the elder scroll series.

 

[Jimmis]

An RPG without loot would be really boring. Borderlands has an amazing loot system. Even though most of the time the loot would be sold (I had A LOT of excess money by the end of that game), every once in a while you'd get that "frickin sweet" moment when an enemy finally drops a good item; that's what kept me going through out the game.

However, I managed to really enjoy Fallout 3, even though, for the most part, you'd only use loot for caps and to repair. The best part about Fallout was leveling up and getting new perks.

So while a loot system is important, its not the only thing that makes a RPG good.

 

[Lonely Swordsman]

Loot should not be the main motivation of the player in an RPG, it should be the story.

 

[Crossborder]

It's there to fulfill our capitalist needs. The knowledge of knowing that you character knows stuff is not enough. And yes, that last sentence does make sense.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The way how I see it, loot is just a tease. It's saying, "Oh, you got money, but you can get this sword that glows in the dark if you try again." It motivates players to keep playing, and hopefully get through the game.

The way how I see it, there are two types of loot: useless loot which you sell to buy good loot.

 

[JoonaspEST]

Well looting the same items all over and reciving appaling amounts of gold isn't very motivating to push on. Take a example the Oblivion loot system: you kill dungeon-full of monsters and all you recive is a 20g and some leather item. Or you are über-level and you get glass armor from a highwayman. That's just idiotic if you ask me.


Looting has to be balanced sensible and also a bit challenging. Get to easy you are bored, get to hardly like in Real life you are also bored(people play games to escape from real world not to replay it)


BTW: Hello Escapist Forums

 

[The Rockerfly]

To buy and sell for goods and services. It's how an Economy works

 

[Standby]

Le snip

Can i just ask which game that pic is from? For some reason my brain is saying SW:Galaxies but i ain't sure.

 

[Starke]

But I need all of those cure disease scrolls to survive Blighted Cliff Racer attacks!

Why must you invoke the pain?

Well looting the same items all over and reciving appaling amounts of gold isn't very motivating to push on. Take a example the Oblivion loot system: you kill dungeon-full of monsters and all you recive is a 20g and some leather item. Or you are über-level and you get glass armor from a highwayman. That's just idiotic if you ask me.


Looting has to be balanced sensible and also a bit challenging. Get to easy you are bored, get to hardly like in Real life you are also bored(people play games to escape from real world not to replay it)


BTW: Hello Escapist Forums

Oblivion's problem wasn't the looting system. That was actually pretty well done overall, it's the utterly botched leveling system, which is what you were kinda talking about.

"Everything and everyone will level up with you" sounds great on paper, but, in practice it really ends up making the game pretty dull, because after a little while it becomes painfully apparent how broken the system is.

Two Worlds and Fallout both implement leveling much more intelligently, and there's a lot of ways to fix it in Oblivion, such as keeping things like glass and daedric armor incredibly rare. Instead in Oblivion once you get to the next tier you'll start seeing the new armor about as frequently as the other types available.

The other thing "because everone levels with you, you can never get in over your head" is flat out false. What actually happens is if you build your character incorrectly, you'll find yourself completly underleveled with no hope of catching up, but you won't realize this until you're 10 - 15 hours into the game.

Anyway: OT: I think looting makes more sense in some cercumstances than others. STALKER and Fallout 3 it makes perfect sense, Mass Effect or Deus Ex? Less so.

EDIT: I'm still of the opinion that Mass Effect should have handled items as another RPG skill tree, where you use requisition points (gained from completing missions or whatever) to upgrade the Normandy's armory rather than actually dealing with items. With maybe the odd unlock in the armory as a reward.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Le snip

Can i just ask which game that pic is from? For some reason my brain is saying SW:Galaxies but i ain't sure.

It's from TES3: Morrowind. The featured lute is an easter egg named 'Fat Lute' as a play on 'phat loot'. Interestingly enough, loot was worthless compared to other money-making schemes in that game.

 

[Daxren]

I chose optional, but it still is VERY important. However like previously stated if done well with Story,Immersion ect it can be less required. in Fable 2 you could kit your guy out with fancy dud's ect but they didnt offer any -real- bonuses but for some reason that didnt bother me so much..

 

[spikeyjoey]

without loot, there would be no need to explore the dungeons.. if a gamer who meticulously explores every nook and cranny has the excact same gear as someone who casually breezes though the main story, the gamers gonna be pretty pissed off.

As i would be- its like that thread on gamers logic- RPGS have essentially trained us to go down the path that isnt right first, as the optional path has loot, whereas the right path may progress the story to a point where you cant return. If i go exploring a massive optional area i expect a reward

 

[Fingolfin High-King of the Noldor]

Because that's what real thieves do. They steal shit.

 

[TheSeventhLoneWolf]

Well in Fallout 3 loot is mainly for repairs and caps, so I like looting stuff.

Pretty much. In oblivion i loot because it's just fun.

 

[Wicky_42]

I think most people are thinking on too familiar a scale - people are just regurgitating what they are familiar with. With a little ingenuity we could see the whole system sorted out: someone already said that Borderlands actually equips the guys with the loot they drop, but it seems to have taken what, a decade, for guys to actually drop what they carry as opposed to something from a random item table. Why was this not standard? Killing generic random critters should not magically create a suit of magical armour - if anything, the critter should be wearing it itself, thus making the apprehension of the item actually special.

Basically I want to see item drops as being relevant to what you're killing - money and weak weapons on thugs, body bits and corroded items from the stomachs of monsters you kill etc, with magic loot taken from magic-item equipped foes. IT MAKES SENSE!

Of course, the emphasis placed on gathering loot could also be readdressed - there's no real need, as an adventurer, to grab every bit of scrap you come across. By removing continuous small item drops and focusing more on large reward drops, each major encounter becomes more significant, boss characters the focus of scrims, and engaging small, out of the way mob groups unnecessary and ill-advised.

 

[Jaranja]

It's something to work for?

 

[hazabaza1]

I love teh lootz. Seriously. If I can't beat a boss, I don't want to level up 20 times to beat it, I just wanna kill some stuff, and get the loot to make me stronger.

 

[MrPop]

But I need all of those cure disease scrolls to survive Blighted Cliff Racer attacks!

Pft. Well you should have been an Argonian like me then!