In my previous article about game design, I discussed issue about choosing subjects that actually appeal to people. This time around I want to cover another aspect of game design, the loot.
Looting and items have been in games since almost forever. They are so ubiquitous it's easy to overlook them as just another meaningless attribute of the medium. That would be a grave mistake, however. Looting and items is one of the most important aspects of game design. Getting it right will make people return to your game over and over again. Fail it however and an otherwise perfect game will somehow be disliked by fans.
When it comes to looting and items one will think of RPG genre first. It by far has the most of item management and such. However, if you think about it, every other genre has their own equivalents too. Even astute FPSs with their no-frills design have new weapons and ammo for existing ones. When you find any, you always dash to pick some. Weapons themselves are by far the biggest prise of them all. There are other items, like heals, armour and various power-ups. However, the biggest thing are of course guns. It lifts your mood high and you certainly want to try it out on some monsters as soon as possible. It's almost as if the real goal of the game is collecting guns and monsters are there just so you have something to try these guns on.
If you think about it, that last sentence a lot closer to truth than anything else. Game designers and gamers themselves pay a lot attention to complexity, challenge, lever design, intelligent AI and what not. However, all of them overlook the most important thing that drives the game, the items and collecting them. It's as invisible as air we breathe and as vital for success of the game as oxygen is for our survival.
If you think about it, all the good and popular games always have plenty of likable items. Take Heroes of Might and Magic III for example, that somehow manages to stay more popular than its countless sequels. Load any map and behold countless items all around you, all shining, glowing and laying around completely defenceless for you to pick them up. You do not need many of them, but you still pick them up, just because. Multiplayer pro players do ignore them and only pick really valuable ones to save time. Looking at them doing so just chokes on something inside, it feels wrong to leave a pile of gold unpicked. Items are the real reason people love it. They want plenty of juicy cool items to pick and play with. Sequels do not have the same appeal just because items there are not as plentiful of shiny.
It works even on a completely barebone browser game, like Vivid Army. You hardly do anything there but open various boxes with items in them and yet it feels satisfying. It's like opening Christmas presents or birthday presents.
Meanwhile when it comes to RPGs then items there are back, front, center, on sides and in between. Loot tables for raid bosses are more important than monsters themselves, parties, guilds and friendships form and break up over items and their distribution. Some items are so valuable they are sold for real life money. In fact, a website hosting a database of all the items in WoW is larger and more visited that an encyclopedia, explaining every other aspect of the game. One of the most important types of items in the game is a bag that allows you to carry even more items than before.
On the other hand, games with lackluster items just quietly die without anyone remembering them. A Bard's Tale once satirised this fact, but it too did not last too long due to the fact that it's not too generous with items
Yet it asks the question: why? Why do we love picking items so much. The answer is as simple and common sense as one can get. In real life we value items just as much as in games. Games merely reflect this simple human quality. People work and do other things to afford items. If you think about it, everything we do in our lives can fundamentally be reduced to but a simple process of acquiring items.
In fact, we did so ever since prehistoric times of hunter gatherers who wandered woods to find valuable items such as food, wood or stones. We even killed animals for no other reasons that to acquire items such as meat and hides. Thousands of years have passed since then, but this process of hunting and gathering still resonates with us and we still find joy in doing this in video games. In most famous MMORPG, World of Warcraft you kill monsters to collect items they have, just like our hunter gatherer ancestors.
This process is not even unique to humans alone. Fundamentally animals too but wonder the wilderness and look for items can eat or places they can use as a shelter from elements. It will not be stretch to say that search for items is a universal trait of life itself. Even plants grow their roots to reach and absorb more and more minerals from earth.
Because of the above, items are of paramount importance for any game. The game will be a success if it has satisfying items to play with. On the other hand, if the game does not, it will be a quiet failure where people would just not be into it without any particular reason they could identify. Desire for items is so fundamental we do not think about it consciously on a daily basis, yet it's the fundamental driving force that stands behind nearly everything we do. Thus, mastering it is mastering the game development and more.
