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I hate loot.

S

Sizzel

Member
hmm...good observation. I guess loot can function like gambling for sure. Anyone who has played say..Destiny.. can attest to this. I was running 3 characters at a time and I was sometimes cracking and releveling them up to raid again for another shot at XYZ item. Essentially I spent a large amount of time for another pull on a digital slot machine. We have all probably done this in certain games, farming or grinding.

It feels awesome when you get that "thing", but really it is just the hunt, gambling and subjectively it is time wasting. I am trending towards more linear things. Give me an insane quest that is uber challenging where I get the xyz, but don;t make run grind loops for days to try to get something. I appreciate when the "best" stuff comes from a certain spot always.

Loot extends the game time and hooks players in, but it is lazy and gross to me now. It totally fits the design of games like CS: Go, etc.. but dear god the time I spent running grind loops in Borderlands, Diablo, Destiny.. is embarrassing. A time vortex.

I am psyched that they exist for people that love loot and I really do too, but my time is more valuable(to me) now than to Skinner box for hours a day. I am not spending real time for fictional rewards.I realized If I traded in the time I spent on the grind for the gym, reading or learning/doing any real world productive things... it would actually better my IRL in a meaningful way. It would level up and kit out my real life character with better gear and skills;)
 
E

EGM1966

Member
Loot isn't for me. I consider it a negative when selecting games currently. I don't mind upgrades and gear variety that is well integrated and works in the mechanics but loot bores me.

Others love it though so fair enough games contain it for them.
 
G

george_us

Member
Yeah loot sucks. Only game I actually like it in is Diablo 3 since it feels like you find something useful every five minutes.
 
V

venom473

Member
Yeah loot is the worst. It can be done right of course, but I especially hate loot that is required to craft items I'll likely never use.
 
C

Clad

Neo Member
I love random loot like Diablo. That system is so cool. When you see an legendary item and you went to know what is your loot, what's his feature.
 
Infinite_Daremo

Infinite_Daremo

Member
Dr_Boris_Goltz said:
I'm borrowing my brother's copy of Fallout 4 and there's an enormous amount of garbage to deal with
Click to expand...

Thats because you're playing Fallout 4 :)

Ive grown bored of a lot of them. The only loot system that has engaged me recently is Diablo 3's. The chance of something dropping that will buff you massively and give you stats made searching for loot worthwhile. It stacked well with ultimates giving you a great edge. Contrast this with most other games where you get items you will most likely sell because the best gear is either crafted or found in high level dungeons and it makes you wonder what the point of a loot system is at all.

Witcher 3 had the most pointless loot system. Loot drops, its 2 levels above you. Gain 2 levels, you find something scaled to your level which is better than it.... Craft a few items, all drops become obsolete for a while because the gear you have is too good.

Make me want to seek out loot. Remove level restrictions, if I kill some late game monster at level 1, give me the Sword of 1000 Truths. I earned it.
Don't gate me behind some shitty levelling system because your combat systems difficulty was balanced for levels 1-4.
Randomise stats on loot, give me some unique properties. Make it a difficult choice for me to drop those shitty cloth gloves of strength +10 at level 60 because the RNG gods were kind.
Don't just stick a loot system in there for me to be a pack mule to make money!
 
E

Epcott

Member
I hate managing inventory to make room for more loot in games where inventory affects your speed and there is a limit. Aside from that, I don't pay it that much attention.
 
T

Theslammer

Member
I've liked loot ever since playing Diablo. It's fun. I'm sure there are better ways of doing it depending on the game.

It definitely could feel overwhelming in Skyrim, for example.
 
F

Fancy Clown

Member
Agreed. I hate how a lot of games are just filled with utterly useless filler. Loot, map icons for terrible side quests, xp bars for weak upgrade systems, 6 different tiers of meaningless bonus collectibles....I just don't give a shit about any of that stuff. It's all a waste.
 
L

LegitMcfalls

Member
Horizons ZD loot system is next level. The job creating system to find required crafting components is fantastic, and the little description on the side of what items are used for (crafting, upgrades, trading) is a godsend. Nothing is worse then selling something rare only to need it later on.
 
K

Killzig

Member
I like loot that's immediately useful, getting encumbered because you're carrying 5000 crafting components ranks right up there with a root canal though.
 
E

emalord

Member
Luut is the ancient mesopotamian God of greed. Which in the greek mithology translated to Apollo. Apollo Greed.
I am monotheist so I must say I don't acknowledge the existence of Loot myself, OP.
 
M

Miniature Kaiju

Member
The hate for HZD's loot system is weird. It's fairly straight-forward: sell everything you don't need for an immediate upgrade or ammo. Need something you don't have? Create a quest and get it, it's almost always pretty trivial affair and involves combat, the best part of the game.
 
R

RulkezX

Member
I love loot, I'd be happy with a Diablo/Borderlands style system in more games.

I wish devs would allow more scope for loot that just makes you utterly badass/OP as well.

Loot systems are great when they're done right, but can be a tedious ballache when they're not.
 
E

emag

Member
Depends on how it's implemented.

I don't mind loot in Diablo or Nioh, where it's easy to pick up/compare/sell and powerful new weapons/armor show up frequently, but games like The Witcher 3, Mass Effect Andromeda, and Horizon ZD make looting into tedious busywork for minor gain, which I despise.
 
prag16

prag16

Banned
ScaryShark said:
The best loot systems are those where I never become burdened or annoyed by it as the game goes on and it seamlessly integrates in to the flow of the game.

Borderlands/Diablo nail this. Witcher 3 and HZD, not so much. Fallout/Skyrim is sort of in the middle for me and encumbrance is the major irritant in those series.
Click to expand...
This hits pretty close to the mark. Horizon was indeed a recent example of a bad loot system. Way too much bullshit RNG involved in the looting (you can kill 20 rabbits in a row and never get the damn rabbit spleen that you specifically need...) which made for way too much grinding with regard to the crafting system the loot was tied to.
 
V

valkyre

Member
I hate loot when the implementation of it sucks like MEA for example. Its horrible and feels nowhere near rewarding.

And yet I generally love well implemented loot like Dark Souls for example or countless other games.

In other words I do not agree with your generalization of the matter OP.
 
T

Theslammer

Member
LegitMcfalls said:
Horizons ZD loot system is next level. The job creating system to find required crafting components is fantastic, and the little description on the side of what items are used for (crafting, upgrades, trading) is a godsend. Nothing is worse then selling something rare only to need it later on.
Click to expand...

Bingo, it's user-friendly as hell.
 
Baleoce

Baleoce

Member
I hate loot when loot is supposed to be the main draw, and the loot itself is shit. I get bored when it becomes a vertical ilevel grind to get a little bit more of a few basic stats.

FFXI loot was great for me. You had gear that stayed relevant from lower levels because they'd have unique properties that would allow you to use them in macroable gearsets. Commonly this was done on a per skill / magic / ability basis. So the amount of gear you'd use that was relevant was dramatically larger than in most other games. Some gear was more of a long term investment and a gamble. But the upside was that the high when you finally obtained it was far greater than normal and in some cases you'd see the practical benefits straight away. Eg. Wlegs for movement speed (idle, or kiting), or a piece with passive refresh.
 
J

jahasaja

Member
I dislike it so much so I had "no loot" as a selling point in the trailer for a game l made.

Unfortunately, it did not seem to resonate with the audience. Some even called it lazy devs 😀
 
G

GamePlay Johnny

Member
I'm with OP. I feel like a lot of otherwise great games fall into this trap. I mean, does a game with amazing gameplay like Nioh needs so many items and so much menu time?

One of my favorite things about BOTW (though this game has its own menus issue) is that there are not that many wearable items. You can only wear 3 at a time and you don't have the same items repeating with different stats. So finding a new wearable item is actually exciting.
 
Berserking Guts

Berserking Guts

Member
- Let me know it's worth, do I sell it, or keep it for upgrades? Don't fuck me around.

- Have a clean UI. Nothing worse then organizing and sifting through pages of lag and clutter.

- Make your loot appealing to pick up and throw me a bone every now and again.

- I understand why incumbrance is a thing, but if the majority of your game is looting then give me more space or the ability to send my dog to sell my stuff.

- loot should always explode like rainbow colored candy. Not like pamphlet fliers.
 
A

abstract alien

Member
Seeing the word loot or rogue in a game description from the dev pretty much auto confirms my money is going nowhere near them. Different strokes maybe, but it's just not tight game design, and I love tight game design the most.

jahasaja said:
I dislike it so much so I had "no loot" as a selling point in the trailer for a game l made.

Unfortunately, it did not seem to resonate with the audience. Some even called it lazy devs 😀
Click to expand...
I'd have bought it had I seen it. "No loot" resonates like "interconnected world" for me.
 
L

lukeskymac

Member
Dr_Boris_Goltz said:
I'm slowly coming to the realization that I hate loot systems and all the junk that comes with them. I'm borrowing my brother's copy of Fallout 4 and there's an enormous amount of garbage to deal with, and I'm finding I've lost my tolerance for such systems.

It doesn't help that I'm playing Horizon at the same time, and while it's not as egregious as Fallout, it still contains an absolutely disgusting amount of worthless shit.

I just want pick ups and upgrades to be meaningful.... Less quantity and more quality. You guys know Conan the Barbarian (the Arnold version)? He falls in a pit and finds a fucking RAD sword. It's a badass moment and I feel a solid RPG could handle loot in similar ways. Why would he pick up every piss poor weapon he finds off of every bandit he kills? He wouldn't, because he earned his weapon through adventure; not to mention carrying that insane magnitude of garbage makes zero sense whatsoever.

This even crops up where you least expect it, such as Wolfenstein The New Order. After every battle (and even during them at times) you get to walk around with your view aimed at the floor looking for item pick ups. It completely disrupts the flow of an otherwise stellar game.

I feel the Souls series comes very close to my ideal, especially Bloodborne. With few exceptions the weapons feel distinctive and impactful. Though it's definitely flawed as well; mostly in terms of the upgrade system discouraging experimentation.

I understand a lot of people love loot for its addictive gambling-like nature, but I feel it turns weapons and items into a brown standardized mush. Everyone eventually lands on the same few "epic" or end game items anyway.

Anyone else feeling the same fatigue?
Click to expand...

I agree almost completely. I just don't get what you mean by BB's upgrade system discouraging experimentation, since that's one thing it does better than previous Souls games IMO.
 
Z

zoodoo

Member
velociraptor said:
The guns in Borderlands are garbage.

The only game which nails this is actually Darksiders II.

Not once I felt burdened by the loot, and you get some sweet pickups.

Generally loot sucks because the items are of very, very low quality.
Click to expand...

The only part of Darksiders 2 that annoyed me.
 
Raptomex

Raptomex

Member
I like loot when it's done right. For example, Diablo III pre-loot 2.0 was awful. Post loot 2.0 is a different story. I was actually engaged. I didn't mind it in Fallout 4 since I think most "garbage" could be used in crafting. It's the encumbrance that gets to me. If I'm going to be collecting all this shit I don't want to have to unload every five minutes.
 
M

Mman235

Member
Good loot is great but most are awful. Loot is something that suffers badly from attempts to be "balanced"; half the fun of loot is the chance to find ridiculous stuff, yet most games with it just have things based on a bunch of boring slowly-increasing modifiers with no real game-changing stuff (and overdone level scaling that ruins any attempt to get good stuff early by punching above your weight). If you're going to limit things that much you may as well not bother having random loot.

Even games with pre-placed or mostly pre-placed loot get it wrong so often. Baldurs Gate 2, and, more recently, the Souls games, have completely blown away others in that regard.
 
S

SpokkX

Member
I also hate RANDOM loot - just managing garbage. Diablo is the worst

Specific loot hidden i specific location or behind certain challenges/bosses (like souls) - love it
 
B

Bluth54

Member
I"ve never been interested in RPGs that focused on getting loot like Diablo. I'm interested in the quests and the story, getting loot should be a nice extra reward for completing quests.
 
B

Bedlam

Member
Zepp Twofist said:
Game made up for it by not having inventory limits though. Inventory limits are the worst part of any loot heavy game.
Click to expand...

I disagree. Especially with SW2, some kind of inventory limit would've maybe forced the devs to turn down the shit-loot-avalanche significantly. Without any limit, there was no incentive for restraint and maybe think twice about it and so they went completely overboard with loot. It quickly got to the point where I didn't even look at the loot anymore and just sold everything.

In general I think inventory limits are fine and strengthen the immersion for me - if done right, of course. Especially Tetris-inventories are always engaging for me and should be used more often. I think it's a mistake to "comfort-function-out" all these things out of RPGs just because some players want all the comfort and don't understand how limits of certain things are also an important part of good game design.
 
K

King Gilga

Member
I agree

I hate trash loot more specifically.

It's just a waste of time.

Sorting just burns me out.

I got a mod for dai that let me stop all non epic loot from dropping or something.
 
I

InsaneTiger

Member
I don't think of Wolfenstein as dropping loot, it is just dropping ammo and armor. When I think of loot I think of Desnortiny, Boringlands and Failout 4.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
I think loot is abominable in all cases. It combines luck-based elements with busy work and a bunch of almost identical stuff, it's like the culmination of abysmal game design. There are no redeeming qualities to loot and it should in all instances be abolished. Very close to that, though not necessarily always horrible (i.e. not horrible when busy work is disabled by limiting th number of experience points strictly) is leveling up.
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
I used to like it and still do in small, manageable quantities, but every game that has no right to have it uses it and that sucks. It's become meaningless, like rpg elements in every game.
 
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