Guild Wars 2

Inspired by the Halloween item thread — bunches of questions.

I was just sitting here wondering, what’s the purpose of extremely rare items in an MMO? I know it’s a time honored tradition and all that, predating MMOs, but in what way does this sort of thing enhance an MMO, or an MMO player’s MMO gaming experience? Further, is rarity better served by grind/time/price or random chance?

On a more personal note, do you, O forumite, like/dislike having extremely rare items in the MMOs you play? If you do like them, do you prefer extremely rare items to be earned, won, obtained by chance — or something else?

Is GW2 good, bad, or average in regard to extremely rare items and the ways in which they may be obtained?

What is the most extremely rare (but still obtainable) item in GW2?

Which is better — a common easily-obtained item that looks great or an extremely rare item that looks awful (and can’t be sold)?

Bonus Round:

The most rare (and profitable) items I’ve received so far were the jetpack thing and a second Celestial dye. I’m guessing that puts me on the low end of the ‘luck’ scale.

How about YOU? What are your most hard-earned treasures and/or lucky acquisitions? If the items were hard-earned, did you have fun earning them? If they were lucky drops, did you do the Snoopy dance (or something similarly jubilant) when they dropped for you?

Giants Eye remains the rarest item for me. I have never once seen one drop since launch, for me or anyone in my guild.

Which is better? By your choices, by far the better looking/common one. Prestige doesn’t mean much to me, especially here. I prefer seeing the vast array of wondeful combinations I see everyday sported by so many people.

Well, there are two factors at play here:

1) “Hardcore” players like the idea of exclusiveness, of having something few others do. They have delusions that other players look up to them in amazement as they sit in whatever capital city they choose with an air of, “You will never be as good as me, because I have this and you don’t.”

Exclusive items make them feel like a special little snowflake, admired by all, when in most cases it’s really just a matter of having more time invested (either through practice that allows them to overcome tougher challenges or more opportunities to get a rare drop).

In truth, no one else cares that some “hardcore” player has [x]… perhaps a moment’s interest of “Where did you get that? Oh. Yeah, I’ll never do that. Cool. See ya.” before said “hardcore” player is forgotten within thirty seconds. But the cries for exclusiveness are loud and they are plentiful, so the concept is (sadly) here to stay.

2) RNG is the most evil of necessary evils for MMO developers. There’s simply no way to maintain content faster than players can consume it, so you have to entice them to repeat already existing content. Thus, the odds are created that you won’t get that shiny exclusive thing you desire on your first (or even thirtieth) try.

Developers know the moment you get what you covet, if there isn’t something else ready that will get you salivating… you’ll quit playing. RNG is the simplest and most development efficient way to keep you in game.

I’m rather doubtful on the concept about rare for the sake of rare in a game. I don’t have a problem with rare items that take a while to craft, gather enough mats, do a certain amount of quests, etc. Those can be worked towards. The ones that are rare because there is only a handful in the game, I don’t particularly see the point in.

As for holiday items, I really don’t see the point in extreme rarity. As far as I’m concerned holidays are to have fun and get loot/gifts. If a nice item comes out and there is only a few available, imo it detracts from the ingame holiday. I get enough of that in life. I don’t particularly want it for the ingame holiday.

I like rarity in all forms, I think it makes the game more interesting, you can have mythological weapons like say Excalibur if only a very low number exist the players who have them feel like heros.
I don’t like the idea that items are just a checklist of stuff to acquire I prefare if they all mean something. from the simple like “I was there at that event” to “I am one of the top 100 players in the game and this unique weapon was awarded to me”.
While Chemiclord has a very low opinion of people liking that sort of thing I genuinely think its fun even if I don’t have the items.
Otherwise what would be the point if anyone can have any item why would I bother getting any of them? technically I’d already have all of them.
The term dress up game comes to mind and it is what I don’t ever want an MMO to be, if the skin at the end of some ultra hard dungeon or from a holiday event 3 years ago would suit your outfit perfectly, I don’t give a kitten the item has meaning outside of its skin.

I’ve had a genuinely unique item (only copy in existence) twice in my years as an MMO gamer and it has been an amazing feeling of glee both times.

Tachenon.5270:

On a more personal note, do you, O forumite, like/dislike having extremely rare items in the MMOs you play? If you do like them, do you prefer extremely rare items to be earned, won, obtained by chance — or something else?

Is GW2 good, bad, or average in regard to extremely rare items and the ways in which they may be obtained?

What is the most extremely rare (but still obtainable) item in GW2?

Which is better — a common easily-obtained item that looks great or an extremely rare item that looks awful (and can’t be sold)?

Bonus Round:

The most rare (and profitable) items I’ve received so far were the jetpack thing and a second Celestial dye. I’m guessing that puts me on the low end of the ‘luck’ scale.

How about YOU? What are your most hard-earned treasures and/or lucky acquisitions? If the items were hard-earned, did you have fun earning them? If they were lucky drops, did you do the Snoopy dance (or something similarly jubilant) when they dropped for you?

Imo extremely rare items should be earned or won, if by chance, then from some certain and very limited area of a game. Adds identity and incentive to explore and play different areas of a game.

GW2 is definitely bad in that regard. Everything is all over the place through rng or just generic grind, or lately more often cash . No identity, no incentive, some twisted and kittened up mix of capitalism and communism.

Prolly those first Halloween items.

The better looking item always… better in my book.

The most profitable item for me was the permanent bank contract from black lion chest, went for ~600g.

I’ve had quite a few ascended drops, but since they can’t be traded they arguably have no value…

So my best drop would be a couple of exotics that were worth about 4g each…

I would argue that they only decent drops in the game are pre-cursors. and we know how rare they are.

People who know me will know that I don’t care at all about exclusivity or rarity. I play to achieve my own personal goals, one of which is acquiring the exact look I enjoy looking at. It doesn’t matter to me whether I look unique, or whether there are hundreds of other players using the same skin. (And I guarantee you that the vast majority of players don’t care what you look like either; they’re all too busy hoping other people are paying attention to THEM.)

I have no objection to making items rare, but I always advocate having multiple ways of attaining it. At the very least, if something is locked behind skill, luck or content, the player who earned it should have the option of selling it if he/she doesn’t like it. If I got a Mini Gwenfyrdd, for example, you can bet I’d be throwing that up immediately on the TP; I’m not terribly interested in minis and I don’t collect them, so why should I be forced to keep it or use it when I know there’s someone out there who’s desperate to have it?

I think it’s more of a pyschological thing. We call an item “rare”, meaning that there are VERY few of them available, but in fact there are actually thousands of them. But our brain sees the word “rare” and thinks that it’s a super special awesome item of awesomeness and glory, because it’s (by definition) “rare”. I think thats why such “rare” items have such an appeal.

But as far as items that can be “won” vs RNG drops is concerned. I feel that having a quest, even an epic journy filled with blood, sweat, and tears, to get Excalibur “feels” right, over killing a random weak goblin who happens to have it in his possession. BUT in an MMO world, everybody and their aged grandmother can do the quest and get Excalibur, thus lessening the value of the item. (At least in my mind). However, having RNG for items like Excalibur also make for some strange situations. How did that level 2 goblin get Excalibur? Why was he not using it to defend himself? If he did have the legendary Excalibur, why is he still hiding in a cave staring at the wall? Etc.

So the challenge to any game designer is to have rewards that “feel” rewarding, yet also have such items have value in game. (i.e usefullness, appearance, monetary, etc.) I believe there should be a healthy mix of the two. Have a quest where you are given a guarantee reward, and that reward is awesome, BUT also have a CHANCE to get something even better. But also not be too specific on the reward. What I mean is, instead of battling your way through the dragons horde of minions, and killing the dragon, you get “Super awesome shield of defend against EVERYTHING” (or as it’s called at my work, “An orange reflective vest”. Funny story, remind me later) You would get say a “Cool shield with some sparkly effects” but have a chance to ALSO get the first shield.

But thats just me…