tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236851461961039.post9021370994878543144..comments2010-03-04T05:58:35.972-08:00Comments on Jarl's Game Design Blog: Hey I see you got a shop, wanna buy all the old shit I collected?JarlFrankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08139422412722665286noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236851461961039.post-70889810079302670572010-03-04T02:28:52.488-08:002010-03-04T02:28:52.488-08:00I think the problem lies deeper then just the fact...I think the problem lies deeper then just the fact that every shopkeeper and their dog seem livid about buying every single piece of junk you offer them. In games these days most items are nothing more then money in disguise and this catters to the "grinding" playstyle in which working for your money means killing everything in sight. <br />"Damn I can't afford that armour. Well lets just kill some random people and sell their stuff." <br /><br />But what are items really? Usually they are nothing more then stuff in your inventory with a little icon, a name and most importantly a pricetag. But to be honest this is gamedesign of yesterday. <br /><br />If you look at games like Morrowind and especially the Gothic series you'll see that items have a use first and a pricetag only second. A tablecloth covers tables in the game, a lamp illuminates dungeons and kitchen tables alike and no anvil gets worked without that hammer. Remember finding a spoon in Gothic and finding out that you could cook with it? Sure it was just an animation of your character stirring a pot but from that moment on I never sold a new item I found again, just to see if it had a purpose. <br /><br />And purpose is what I think items lack in games. If items have a purpose and then given a pricetag according to their purpose in that gameworld's economy everything falls in place. Sure a merchant would buy a wooden spoon from you. But if even a million spoons would pay for a fancy armour no one would bother with exploring dangerous dungeons. The prices should reflect the use and demand that they have. Even the simplest of leather armours is a hand-crafted product that protects against the dangerous world whereas a spoon is a common household item that is easy to make and everyone needs. <br /><br />Secondly to give items more of a feel and place in a world we have to look at what they mean to a player and give them a hint of mystery. We have grown used to identifying items and seeing all their stats laid out for us and taking them for granted. This is not a bad system by any means (An adventurer could easily judge the weight, sharpness and balance of a weapon he finds. And the flames shooting out of the tip are sort of obvious.) but it reduces items to nothing but a bunch of numbers. And just like an item should have worth beyond it's pricetag, it should have worth beyond it's stats. <br /><br />That rusty sword you found in the crypt? Why was it there? Surely the person buried there was someone important to have been buried in such a structure? A warrior perhaps since he was buried with a sword. And such a warrior would have not had just any old sword. Now the item has a story. (And I don't mean a page from a history book that you get to read when you click the item.) <br /><br />Now imagine selling that rusty piece of crap to the blacksmith for a few copper (He could smelt it for some iron) and a few days later hearing a rumour in town that the blacksmith discovered an ancient heirloom weapon of a honoured warrior house. You'd never look at those rusty swords again. <br /><br />The item which was originally just a useless rusty sword has transcended into a rich item with purpose, a place in the world and a story to find. And the immersive player that story can mean infinitely more then +1 damage. <br /><br />(The original version of this reply was better worded and more elaborate but it got eaten when the page failed to load after posting...)Lithandrillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09257661592521160564noreply@blogger.com