Blizzard on WoW loots’ “consistent randomness”

Loots in MMO video games, or any other RPG title for that matter, has been problematic ever since the system was introduced and that’s way back God knows when. Currently now, there’s a smoking hot thread over at the official community site for World of Warcraft where players are debating the matter.

Blizzard‘s Thundgot stepped into the picture and told everyone that loots are randomly generated. Despite that, he maintained that there are of course some rules governing the matter. Thundgot explained,

Edwin VanCleef drops stuff no other mob drops – not even randomly from level 70 mobs outdoors. Some mobs can drop cloth, others not. Etc, etc. It might be a factor in a computer generated “random” seed, but as long as it’s not the only factor for the seed it’s completely irrelevant what the factors are – it’s as random as it get.

The Blizzard poster went on and even gave Illidan Stormrage as an example. According to him, there’s no way a level 10 random mob will drop a loot similar to that of Illidan. In the end, Thundgot argued that loots are all about finding balance. It’s about that “I might get lucky this time” feeling.

If you ask us, we believe that the system is consistently random among mobs in similar levels. Thundgot was right in saying that loots of higher level mobs is definitely different from those of regular mobs. If all loots are totally random or exactly the same all the time, adventuring in WoW will not be the same.

Via WoW Europe

Loots in MMO video games, or any other RPG title for that matter, has been problematic ever since the system was introduced and that’s way back God knows when. Currently now, there’s a smoking hot thread over at the official community site for World of Warcraft where players are debating the matter.

Blizzard‘s Thundgot stepped into the picture and told everyone that loots are randomly generated. Despite that, he maintained that there are of course some rules governing the matter. Thundgot explained,

Edwin VanCleef drops stuff no other mob drops – not even randomly from level 70 mobs outdoors. Some mobs can drop cloth, others not. Etc, etc. It might be a factor in a computer generated “random” seed, but as long as it’s not the only factor for the seed it’s completely irrelevant what the factors are – it’s as random as it get.

The Blizzard poster went on and even gave Illidan Stormrage as an example. According to him, there’s no way a level 10 random mob will drop a loot similar to that of Illidan. In the end, Thundgot argued that loots are all about finding balance. It’s about that “I might get lucky this time” feeling.

If you ask us, we believe that the system is consistently random among mobs in similar levels. Thundgot was right in saying that loots of higher level mobs is definitely different from those of regular mobs. If all loots are totally random or exactly the same all the time, adventuring in WoW will not be the same.

Via WoW Europe