Ashes, Endgame, and The Neverending Story

Wandering Mist

caelron wrote: »

grisu wrote: »

...<shrug> Lootbox -surprise mechanics was a reference to the UK hearing recently. It was a joke on labeling. Which was the whole point of my post.

I actually caught that reference! Thankfully, Intrepid Studios isn't doing anything crazy like that just yet. As far as I'm concerned, bosses should have defined loot. Hopefully what Intrepid Studios said will be more akin to "If I kill a rabbit, I should expect parts of a rabbit to drop... then I can take those rabbit bits and turn them in to rabbit stew or armor (if it's the fur/skin), etc." Not a random "loot table" where there's a percentage chance an item for each class "might" drop, even though the creature is essentially naked.... maybe it ate an adventurer a long time ago (if it's big enough), or it hordes treasure in a chest somewhere else in its cave, if it's intelligent. Even then, there should be a solid structure - this boss drops this item.

Basically, I think a boss loot table system like WoW is not much different than a loot box and "surprise mechanics".

Don't forget that she also believes that there's no such thing as a gaming addiction, and the loot box system is a moral good. -hard eye roll-

The only similarity between a boss loot table and a loot box is that they both have RNG attached to them. As Karthos said, loot boxes are "rewards" for doing literally nothing, whereas boss loot is a reward for killing the boss.

I kind of get where you are coming from, but the thing about people is that a little bit of randomness is a good thing in certain circumstances. If you had a boss that always drops the same loot, or that you are guaranteed to get the same loot every single time, it will produce a lesser reaction than loot that is slightly random. The best comparison I can give is the Twin Glaives of Azzinoth vs the Dragonwrath. Both are legendary items from WoW but they have totally different ways of getting them. The Twin Glaives were a duo with legendary swords with a 5% drop rate from an end-game raid boss. The Dragonwrath is a legendary staff that is the reward from a quest chain requiring you to farm guaranteed drops from different raid bosses.

The thing is, because the Dragonwrath was a guaranteed reward to the point where guilds could plan out who got their staff and when, there was literally no real excitement to getting it. On the other hand, even to this day getting the Twin Glaives dropping is a huge deal and you can look up on youtube for various reactions to seeing that drop.

That is the power of RNG loot drops, and it does make a huge difference in a person's experience with the game.

Caelron

I get the difference and points well made.

I was more referring to the randomness (RNG) of the drops and how they don't make sense compared to a practical reason, like crafting reagents. I imagine killing a boss for the first time will be adventurous and exciting regardless of what drops - and even more exciting when it turns out you can use the thing that drop.

@karthos made the best point talking about purchasing the random (RNG) loot box vs. an in-game RNG drop.

As it turns out, I'm very against RNG loot tables. However, I'm not against a low percentage drop chance for rarity of drops.

Dygz

Ha. Especially, if the drops are fairly realistic instead of requiring suspension of disbelief that they’re the treasure of decayed prey... I’m OK with RNG loot.
Not as much of a fan when it feels like the loot tables were designed to be a farming time sink.