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General: Making the Case for Item Decay
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In today's Player Perspectives, MMORPG.com columnist Isabelle Parsley takes on one of the most hotly debated topics in the MMO space: Item decay. Check out why Iz thinks that item decay isn't that bad an idea. Then let us know what you think in the comments.
A long, long time ago in an MMO far, far, away, long before the NGE and other changes, there was a sandbox MMO that boasted an entirely player-based economy. When SWG launched and during the first couple of years of its life, there was practically no such thing as loot – and what there was, was usually either entirely useless or purely decorative (bantha dolls!). Weapons, armor, harvesters, houses, and everything else: if you needed it, someone had to make it. Crafting was big business, involving careful resource location and good experimentation skills, and the better you were at it, the better and therefore the more desirable your product would be. Items decayed over time, in some cases falling apart or becoming useless after a lot of use or neglect.
Read more of Isabelle Parsley's Player Perspectives: Making the Case for Item Decay.
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Comments
Well I totally agree with everything written, sure its all a matter of opinion, but sandbox and a more meaningful and useful crafting system is imo much more fun and interesting than the mindless gear grinds most recent MMOs seem to be designed around
Games just seem to be to focused on items, what with raiding to get better kit. I remember my first days of online gaming in a MUD I played back in 96. Every time you logged off you lost all your kit (it was a game design and item decay at its extreme). Which ment that each time you logged in to play you were naked and needed to spend a bit of time getting some equipment. Whilst this sounds strange it actually work and help develop the community. As players who were already kitted up would go and farm some items for the person who just logged in. It was frankly a much friendly gaming experience than what we have to put up with these days.
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Item decay and a player-driven economy would help keep me glued to a game. The varying levels of itemization in SWG was great for the game and added to the excitement and "fun" factor as it meant crafting was not a static, sitting-in-the-AH-to-get -materials crafting. EVE does a great job of creating a player-driven economy with a sophisticated crafting system.
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I like to play several styles of games. Regarding item decay, it depends on the overall game design as to whether or not it "'fits". In the right type of game, I really enjoy the style of play and economy it can support. Mortal Online uses item decay, which fits with the type of game it is, and the type of gameworld they are trying to create. Something like soulbinding just wouldn't fit.
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A few select human beings had made the argument of a free economy after they had "Contrrolled" or found ways to take advantage of the system to the point in all forms of government, the government had regulated its economy in order for the majority to be able to survive.
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Its kind of amazing how much of a frontier these MMOs are...and how players can shape a server, but all share the same theme where anyone with difference or a poor majority always grovels at the feet of the few influencials who control and dominate a server.
1. Is that a freakin' screenshot from Dark Cloud?
2. Item Decay, as much as it sucked, was what made old SWG such an amazing game for crafters. You had a *thriving* economy, with a huge support system. You could just get 100k units of the best Steel, and be done with it. Because eventually, those 100k were gonna run out, and your customers were gonna be back, wanting yet another set of perfect Composite with just the right layers. It meant that new players had access to factory seconds for a good price - you could get 98% perfect armor for a pretty good price, because the crafter didn't need them. It meant that when 98 OQ hide spawned, I could damn well know that I could spend 3 days gathering it, and then send emails to my crafter friends and start a bidding war that was *fierce* - or just drop it off for my favorite crafter, and know I'd get paid.
It meant that you could have entire enterprises - who (from the relevant servers) didn't know Wookieluv, or Eerif? Crafters were server famous, because it wasn't just a one time purchase. You had to make friends, and keep the lines open, because your Power Hammer was gonna wear out, and you needed to know who the badass with the best Crafting Stations were to get back in the game.
Also, it meant that a poor noob could get 5-25m for his ADK when he didn't really care about it, and then later on, buy one to make things infinite, but that was less awesome.
I know I'm one of the few that loved the decay system, but I think it was integral to making SWG the amazing game it was.
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I kind of agree. Odd.
I would take it a step further.
Crafting and economy done right (unmolested) means gold farmers cant compete with crafters and turn a real world profit agianst 1000's who arent. If gold farmers cant compete, item shops wont be necessary to combat them. Nor could item shops compete with crafters.
Pick your poison.
I think that would make an interesting debate for sure.
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Thats an interesting arguement. Can you please list some examples that have lead to you having this opinion. Im sure there are many, so no need to list them all. Just a few so I can understand your point better.
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I yet have to see sensibly implemented Item decay...
The problem is that you cannot stack items with different level of decay and along with the nature of the system you have to deal with large quantities of items which is just very annoying and unpleasant.
Great point. Im sure there are solutions.
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All I have to say is that I agree with the author of the "player perspective" almost completely.
I like crafting & item decay, I don't even mind the "bad implementation" aspects mentioned too much.
I have been playing mmorpgs for about 2 years and look forward to reading your columns. You help to give a better comprehension of the genre (although I'm still unclear on the pvp thing). I tend to solo so it's difficult at best to glean any insight from other players as they aren't very forthcoming with insider tips as it were. Thank you for helping to give me a better understanding of the game.
Item decay does several things:
1) It allows stronger items to be available in the game because it would be impossible to have a complete set of them because they would decay before you would have the set. In essence you can give someone great things that only last a week.
2) It allows more items to drop from a dungeon clearing because items do not accumulate -- IE if you run a dungeon and the item is forever then you can only get a tiny number of items because otherwise if you run the dungeon a few times you would never have a reason to return as you would have everything it could ever provide. With item decay a dungeon can give you many items which would then decay and you would later come back for more.
3) It keeps people looking for items. In a game where you have permanent items if you get the best the game has to offer for a slot -- you are done. Or if you get a purple item early -- you are set for that until you start raiding. Decay makes people look for secondary items for when they lose the first one and always looking for something new as nothing is forever.
4) It stops people from using the best raid items to outclass world content. If you are out soloing in the world it would be stupid to wear out your raid boss drops. Hence you would be wearing something more in line with the rest of the people -- IE your rescue or secondary set.
I completely agree.... I wish some developer out there did too.
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Nothing says joy like micro-managing your gear decay.....meh no thanks.
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Yeah pretty much I'd like a game where the stuff was made by players, and after a certain amount of use an item broke. I would like to see the ability to increase the length of time an item lasts, like repair or something, but only in limited use. What I mean is that repairs would only delay the inevitable break and eventually items would be beyond repair. That would add another element to the economy of a game, with different repair levels and such.
In my opinion the best thing about item decay is that you stop doing instances for item drops.
The thing that I like to see with item decay is salvaging of broke items.
+1 for item decay
Ultimately, item decay fails when you have to take a lot of effort to get an item or when the item decays way too quickly (say hi to FFXIV for the second for me), but it works at all other times.
Item decay is necessary for an economy to thrive. If you don't have item decay (and, preferably, some sort of cash sink if you can get cash from killing mobs), then your economy WILL die horribly and have massive inflation.
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The real trouble is that gear is so important in so many games. Forget character level, or sometimes even skill, it's mostly gear that determines the power of a character.
Still, being a casual player, I really don't want to play in a "dynamic, community-driven world". I want to log on, do some quests, kill some stuff, log out.
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Yes who cares about the scope it adds to crafters and the economy, I mean as an item user it is sooo complex making sure my items are not about to break...
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No thanks. Its one of those realistic things I dont want to see in a game. I dont need more mandatory trips to npc cities or players. The having to sell junk is already bad enough.
not really a realism thing, more a way to keep drops or crafted items worth anything, EvE would be completely worthless if it wasnt for item decay, if you die in that game items break and the ship, which mean everything you gather in game will always have a value.
also with item decay its easier to avoid making silly stats when your game gets old, like in EQ2 they came up with several new stats over time and you need to get more than 100% of some stats which really is just stupid.
crafting, item decay and a player driven economy is a huge factor when it comes to the longtivity of a game. if done right crafting can add a lot of content to a game and if i look around i see that a lot of newer games, in which crafting isn't really a big deal or less important players (and not only the hardcore ones) are shouting for more content only one month after the release.
+1 for item decay.
Every economy should be fully player based, to encourage both interaction and player immersiveness. Item decay just adds to that, and should be viewed as an integral part of the game to anyone but the hardened 'instant gratification' crowd.
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