“There’s honestly a billion little considerations.”
Legendary-tier monster cards on the table time: I do not like video game loot.
I distrust how the randomisation element of much video game looting flirts with actual gambling mechanics.
It has to be at once desirable and disposable.
It has to feel worth having if you’re to feel incentivised to hunt for loot in general.
But for the same reason, it can’t ever feel like a keeper.
That’s my armchair-pretentious analysis of loot-driven RPGs based on my abiding dislike of them.
It turns out he had a few.
One that I think is really important for satisfaction is the ability to trade.
A lot of games have given up on the idea of player-to-player trade in a serious way.
So that’s like one big component.
A good item is still a good item, no matter how much time passes.
So that’s another really important one.
You kind of need the number to be like, +20% damage before you actually feel it.
That’s really important as well.
So making sure the numbers are big enough on the mods that they actually have some kind of satisfaction.
Another one is ‘mod dilution’.
It’s a big area, but those are a few random details!
How do you track and visualise all those considerations around the value of loot during development?
JR: We use a few different tools.
We do have models that we make in Excel.
We can effectively use that to determine ‘Does this seem right?’
And you do that, like, 20 times and say, ‘Does that feel satisfying every time?
Did I sometimes get good stuff?’
There’s that kind of empirical testing.
You kind of have to do a lot of different things, a lot of different ways.
That’s another thing we definitely need to do before we deploy.
Have you learned anything from other productions like that in the ten years since POE released?
I feel like a lot of people are following us, not the other way round.
We kind of pioneered the three months season model before I think a lot of other companies did.
I would say a lot of that stuff sort of comes from us!
Loot is obviously very important.
But I don’t really think our model has actually changed a huge amount in this regard.
One of the things that I think is really important is the full reset every season.
But I actually think it’s one of the most important things for retention in the long term.
But over time, I think it’s the only sustainable way to go.
I think that’s one of those things that ultimately leads to real longevity for a game like this.
We still broke our [current players] record this year, which is kind of crazy.
RPS: Do attitudes towards the loot in Path of Exile vary much between players in different regions?
Minecraft players in China and North America have very different expectations for the game, for example.
Have you noticed anything similar in your community?
I honestly don’t know that I’ve observed a subtle difference myself.
But either way, I tend to just sort of see players as players in that regard.
