Pros and cons of degrading items

« On Pirate Servers | Main | Beta testing goodness »

By Ravenhawk | November 26, 2006

Degrading items are an interesting issue to look at. On the one hand we have the example of puzzle pirates: The economy flourishes as people actually need to continually buy things. The normal inflation which plagues mmorpgs is staved off. In this example, the things which gamers don’t really need; fancy clothes, super weapons, etc. Wear away. The things that are more imperative adn difficult to get such as ships and homes, don’t. That, along with the vague terms used to describe age, prevent a sense of temporance from settling over the items.
To use a different example, look to the game Gunbound. Gunbound for a long time had certain items that could only be purchased through a cash shop and other items which you would purchase using your ingame money to buy. Nothing wore out, but things were expensive. At one point, they decided it would be a good idea to make it all the items cheaper, however, you no longer purchased them to own them. Instead you were “renting” them. Basically, they wear away after a short time. You could rent weekly or monthly.
At that point, I quit playing the game. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun game, I loved playing. But if I no longer had the ability to own my items, if all my work getting enough to buy them would be thwarted after a week or a month, I didn’t want to bother. Of course, also on my mind was no doubt the fact that I had nearly gained enough to buy an item I wanted when suddenly I could no longer own things. And they didn’t drop the prices enough.
It wasn’t like you were going to be paying for that item on a weekly basis proportionate to what it would have cost you before. They dropped prices, but in the end you were paying more.
I recently started playing two games which implement a very similar system. Golf King and Gunster. Both allow you to buy items with your money, but they wear out after a month. I’m yet to be playing enough to see the end result in these games. I think in Golf King it won’t have much of an effect as I believe that the only items which actually change the way you play is your gold clubs. I’ve only played Gunster for a night, so I shall not even attempt to critique its system.
On another note, those two games are great fun. I’ll likely write a review for one, if not both of them soon. Relatively soon anyway. My laptop, which is my gaming machine, keeps being swagged by my parental unit who is staying for a couple weeks.

Until next time, comrades.