Comments on: MMO Rant #2: WYSIWYGn’T Loot

By: Kreation’s Edge » Logical Loot

Kreation’s Edge » Logical Loot — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:06:42 +0000

[...] came across a good article about WYISWYG Loot or what I prefer to call, “Logical Loot”. If you adore Sandbox games like me then also [...]

By: Some people, well one person, I agree with when it comes to MMOs « Kenneth Godwin’s Weblog

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:22:14 +0000

[...] http://www.nerfbat.com/2006/10/20/mmo-rant-2-wysiwygnt-loot/ [...]

By: Zac

Zac — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 19:28:26 +0000

To an extent, I think it’s silly to talk about realism in a Fantasy / Sci-Fi RPG. If you want realism, then let’s just have a game where all you do is find a sword and some armor and commence to pound the shit out of as many people as you can. No mages, no dragons, no monsters. Carrying around 6 boxes full of different types of gear is completely out of the question since you are having a hard enough time fighting off Conan while carrying around your bag of roots. Sure, that could be fun, but only for so long. You want realism? How about not just having to run to the vendor to sell or repair your armor, but now you have to DROP whatever extra junk you are carrying besides armor and weapon so you can fight without your Pristine Rosewood Boxes colliding with you every time you leap about trying to avoid the enemy. Come on. It’s a FANTASY! Reality has little to do with it other than to provide a BASE for us to be able to relate to it enough that it SEEMS plausible. If you tell me that my “backpack” is actually a Bag of Holding and that my 350 Strength allows me to carry 1650 gwu, then I would say, “ok, now I believe that my imaginary toon that lives in onlinetown can really carry all those boxes while he’s poopslapping some level 50 epic mob.”

I too wish WYSIWYG loot was more important to devs. It seems that they attempted this in most of the original EQ1 mobs (e.g. you knew you were getting the FBSS if the Frenzied Ghoul pwned your 50 tank), but since then it’s become unimportant. I would like to see the mobs actually wearing and using what they will most likely drop. Obviously rendering a version of every item for every mob that might drop it would be absurdly time consuming, but things like armor and weapons would be worth the time imo and would be appreciated by the gaming community as a whole.

By: Hluill

Hluill — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:55:09 +0000

Uh, what’s wrong with vendor junk? And what’s wrong with having to pick and choose what is looted? Add to this the ability to salvage it for raw materials for crafting and I don’t see how it would change much, except mobs would be carrying logical items of junk as opposed to random crap. When you loot the bunny you could take it’s skin, meat, feet, teeth… Maybe it’s damaged, sullied or even pristine (wouldn’t it be nice to have that based on how I killed it!), but bunnies would drop bunny stuff and orcs should drop orc stuff! You want bunny skins: kill bunnies! You want steel ore: you’re an idiot, steel ain’t an ore, but you can kill miners and refine the iron or even kill guys carrying steel weapons to salvage for crafting. And you could leave some or all of it for someone else to come along and loot. The bunny’s cute, little, mutilated corpse could become a harvest node for someone with more time and carrying capacity.
There’s a trend in MMOs that is anti realistic. Realism, like realistic looting, harvesting, encumberance… becomes an obstacle to becoming uber. Good forbid that we have to interrupt our l33t raid to run to a merchant to sell loot or even ~shudders~ leave it for someone else!
My memory is failing (if it ever worked at all) but I recall killing skellies in EQ1 and finding the weapon/shield they were carrying, and sometimes even those bone chips I needed for my newbie armor!
Rant on brother!

By: Looting 2.0 « Voyages in Eternity

Looting 2.0 « Voyages in Eternity — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 02:31:39 +0000

[...] The MMO-dev blog topic of the moment is WYSIWYG loot.? This one started at Nerfbat, and spread over time to Psychochild, Raph, Sara Jensen, Darniaq, and probably a dozen other places I haven’t found yet. [...]

By: Tenamdar

Tenamdar — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 23:52:23 +0000

Mutant for Hire, that is brilliant! I can definitely see clothing with varying levels of hate reduction or perhaps standard invisibility and all having the chance of one or more NPCs “recognizing” that you’re an imposter which could be quite hairy depending on the situation. Certain types of clothing impacting certain factions or certain mob-types, with some given innate ability to see through the facade, some of which could be designated randomly on spawn to generate varying levels of difficulty for an encounter or dungeon crawl, or at the very least requiring a change in tactics. I’ve got to write that one down when I get home.. Good call! =)

By: Mutant for Hire

Mutant for Hire — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 23:34:47 +0000

There are other interesting ideas you can do with WYSIWG loot. One of them is something I really loved in the original Neverwinter Nights: at one point, to get into a tavern which has been taken over by pirates, you have to go kill a pirate and get their outfit to wear into the tavern. Why don’t we have quests where one way to solve them (or the only way) is to disguise yourself as one of them? It’s one of the classic staples of fiction (“Aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper?”) and yet it so rarely happens in games.

By: Adele

Adele — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:43:34 +0000

I somewhat agree with this…. Why do dryads and other female mobs get to wear super sexy gear to fight in, and it doesn’t seem to hurt their chance at survival, and I have to wear a freaking bath robe….

By: The Critic`s Look at WYSIWYG Loot at MMO Critic

The Critic`s Look at WYSIWYG Loot at MMO Critic — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 01:13:32 +0000

[...] As those of you who follow the blogging scene have noticed, WYSIWYG Loot is the newest hot topic in our space. It all started when Ryan Shwayder wrote his ?MMO Rant #2: WYSIWYGn?t Loot?, which has gained the attention of some other developers to also post their reprisals and to show why and how come this type of thinking is not being put in to our games. Brian Green, the same developer that I will take on his challenges to provide ?new ideals? posts his ?Useless features? article. Sara Jensen then replies to the article written by Biran Green with her ?Why Mobs Shouldn?t Drop Their Equipment? and finally Raph Koster then puts in his thoughts over at his site with an article titled ?WYSIWYG loot?. [...]

By: MadLordOfMilk

MadLordOfMilk — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 07:01:37 +0000

…so you type, “get ye flask” and the game says “you can’t get ye flask” and you have to wonder why on EARTH you can’t get ye flask!