547 The Loot Loop

Loot is a big thing in video gaming. It’s the source of the addiction many people have to games like Diablo, Borderlands, or Fallout.

Each item that drops in a game could be just the thing your character needed to be just a little bit better. And, if balanced correctly, each thing that drops that isn’t helpful to your character, causes your persistence to search for more loot to increase a little bit more. And so the loot loop begins.

In this potential gameplay system, the player has slightly more control over the outcome of the loot that drops, rather than it being completely random. For example, maybe if something drops, the player has the option to pay some currency to “re-roll” the loot (as in, have the game regenerate it as a different item). Or maybe the loot is “cycling” between various options, and the player has to complete a micro-game of sorts to land on one that is a better rarity than others options. This would have to be done carefully with balance, but could potentially lead to an interesting system that’s slightly less passive than the current loot loops of games.

[ Today I Was Playing: Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited ]

#game-mechanic-system