Why do so few games have interesting loot in them?

[Frindis]

I always go back to Morrowind as an example of the opposite because in that game you could both be surprised by a sudden item literarily dropping from the sky or finding some insanely good or fun item hidden in what looked to be a normal cave. It is a game that invites you to go look in every nook and cranny. Even Skyrim had tons of interesting loot scattered around the world for you to explore and hopefully find.

These days I just see more and more games doing the same: You'll get a + dmg to your weapon or you'll get the same boring weapon in a different item rarity/version. Or you'll get a short and sucky reward but with a focus on triggering that dopamine rush through using every color of the rainbow and sounds possible. Most games focus on scaling rewards or rewards with ingredients/crafting material so you can upgrade your weapons to a better version.

Some of that can be done more interesting and I believe New World had a pretty good crafting system in that regard, but for the most part, the loot is boring, which also makes exploring a game with these types of loot systems less exciting. I understand that loot will differ depending on genre/game, but I often come back to the feeling of loot just being something you pick up and do not care that much for anymore. I do play some looter shooters and even in these types of games with more focus on gradually increasing skills/power, I feel the loot isn't that interesting. I do want to applaud Vampire Survivors though, because in that game a lot of the weapons were fun to use and their upgrade made sense as they would do different things as you upgraded them. They felt more powerful and in that sense making the loot was more exciting!

Perhaps the focus isn't on the good loot anymore, but more in favor of other core aesthetics that this post talks a little more about: https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/favourite-core-aesthetics.3316/page-2#post-31909. @Brian Boru brings up scaling loot rewards to effort in acquiring in this post - https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/scaling-loot-rewards-to-effort-in-acquiring.138098/#post-348332, which tells me that you guys are not necessarily happy with how things are today.

There are of course some games that try, like with BG3, but even in that game, I didn't feel that rewarded when I found some secret chest. I'm not saying I want the holy grail each time I open one, but I feel a lot of developers could have done much more with their loot than what is done these days. Make it fun to find, make it worth the hunt or grind for that sake!

In the end, I did start to think about the more aesthetic type of loot, the ones you'll take back and place in your house or that you put on your character or other items/vehicles. These types of rewards I do see more and more in different genres and that is one aspect that does make loot more interesting as you can use the loot to express your style within the game.

Maybe I am just a tad black/white here and it is not necessarily that loot has become less interesting, but that loot has evolved into different new areas that were not done that much before. So, maybe I am just stuck in the belief that Morrowind was THE game that showed me how amazing loot could be and that I feel a lot of games have missed that mark.

I dunno, maybe you have some thoughts about the whole shebang?

 

[Colif]

how about a talking sword - sorry about resolution, its an old game

items in Torchlight weren't serious. Torchlight 2 was a little more serious
only silliness there is a talking horse at beginning, and a lot of the Easter eggs
TIL there was a hidden horse level in T1... I wonder if I own that on steam. I don't have time right now to look.

Horse

The Horse is an NPC found in Torchlight. He appears in the northeast corner of town, and will give a variety of enigmatic messages if clicked on repeatedly. The mysterious horse returns in Torchlight II, and can be found in the Vanquisher camp at the very start of the game in Echo Pass. If you...

torchlight.fandom.com

the horse level is like the cow level in Diablo games, since makers of TL also made Diablo 2

• Sacred 1 had Easter egg weapons like the machete from Friday 13th, Sacred 2 just had more memorable ones... though after 14 years that memory is fading. How about guitars and drum sticks? thats one quest... they were weapons though.. I normally just did quest to sell them.
• Some of the Fallout games have had some good ones too. But the Bethesda versions turn into collectathons... how much crap can you drag back to base? NV was better...
• Wow used to... I can't answer for whats happened in that game for last 15 years though.
• Diablo 4 has no interesting loot... they broke that aspect.

these are all old games so I guess point is valid. I don't play enough new ones to comment. None of them have places you can decorate with loot... in most it serves 2 purposes, gold or new equipment. In Diablo 4 it got to stage I just ignored it all... including legendaries. I obviously don't play the right games.

 

[Frindis]

how about a talking sword - sorry about resolution, its an old game

I love silliness like that! Borderland 2 is another example. You'll get a gun that screams when you shoot it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWpex9mbspA


Borderlands 2 had a hell of a lot of cool weapons, like the infinite pistol that *drumroll* shot with unlimited ammo. You had to grind for it, but at least the grind was worthwhile because you could get it in different elements, meaning some elements would be much better than others. The corrosive one I remember being particularly good because you could use it against the robots in later acts.

If I am not mistaken WoW had more more focus on having deployable that could do cool/funny stuff and some with a focus on utility use. I remember spending countless hours grinding for the sea turtle, but man was it worth it. It is still one of the cutest mounts in the game, especially because you could make it hide its head inside the shell!

 

[D10S]

it's the same psychology as clicking facebook notifications.

 

[neogunhero]

Cyberpunk 2077 had this same issue. While I love the game and I like the revamped loot system, it’s just too generic in a game that does other things exceptionally well. You have the colored tiers, going from Grey, Green, Blue, Purple then Orange. I understand the decision to why this system was implemented, but it has been done far too many times, I would have liked CDPR take a different approach to it.

As with every game with this system, as you level up you start to get better tiered loot. It works fine but these different tiers really are just incremental increases in stats. One way they make up for this is by having lots of different models of weapons as well as different ammo types/styles (idk what to call them) such as Tech guns that need to be charged and Smart weapons that automatically hit your target. This all cool and well but it’s still a bit too generic.

Then there are unique weapons. I have saved every unique named weapon I’ve found into my stash and I have a good amount of them. They aren’t too hard to find, others harder than some, but even these are a bit uninspired. The stat bonuses and abilities of these unique weapons only make them very slightly better than a regular weapon. Funnily enough, the free katana I got for connecting my GOG account to the game has proven way better than any other katana I found in the game. The Black Unicorn negates all stamina loss from attacking, meaning I can keep swinging my katana for however long I want. This has proven to be more effective than a katana with +25% headshot damage or -50% stamina penalty.

I like when games make you work for that special piece of loot that gives you a substantial boost. In CP2077 it feels more like general progression. As you move along in the game you get better stuff. The most amount of “grinding” I had to do for a unique weapon was climbing on top of the Black Sapphire in Dog Town to find a unique melee weapon. It was tough climbing up that pyramid, I kept sliding off!

 

[Pifanjr]

The last two games I played that had chests had absolutely terrible rewards. Palworld gives you some money and some cheap consumables like Pal spheres or arrows. LEGO Fortnite was even worse, to the point I didn't even open chests any more, though I saw they supposedly made chests more rewarding since I last played.

 

[D10S]

Cyberpunk 2077 had this same issue. While I love the game and I like the revamped loot system, it’s just too generic in a game that does other things exceptionally well. You have the colored tiers, going from Grey, Green, Blue, Purple then Orange. I understand the decision to why this system was implemented, but it has been done far too many times, I would have liked CDPR take a different approach to it.

As with every game with this system, as you level up you start to get better tiered loot. It works fine but these different tiers really are just incremental increases in stats. One way they make up for this is by having lots of different models of weapons as well as different ammo types/styles (idk what to call them) such as Tech guns that need to be charged and Smart weapons that automatically hit your target. This all cool and well but it’s still a bit too generic.

Then there are unique weapons. I have saved every unique named weapon I’ve found into my stash and I have a good amount of them. They aren’t too hard to find, others harder than some, but even these are a bit uninspired. The stat bonuses and abilities of these unique weapons only make them very slightly better than a regular weapon. Funnily enough, the free katana I got for connecting my GOG account to the game has proven way better than any other katana I found in the game. The Black Unicorn negates all stamina loss from attacking, meaning I can keep swinging my katana for however long I want. This has proven to be more effective than a katana with +25% headshot damage or -50% stamina penalty.

I like when games make you work for that special piece of loot that gives you a substantial boost. In CP2077 it feels more like general progression. As you move along in the game you get better stuff. The most amount of “grinding” I had to do for a unique weapon was climbing on top of the Black Sapphire in Dog Town to find a unique melee weapon. It was tough climbing up that pyramid, I kept sliding off!

charged tech weapons shoot thorugh walls, btw. it's mad fun.

 

[Brian Boru]

Yeah, one of my pet peeves, as per that thread you linked.

In Civ, there's good loot in the early game which makes exploration extra worthwhile—you can get units or techs or gold, depending on difficulty level. But that disappears after the initial exploration phase, thereafter nothing much.

In Far Cry 6 there are special weapons you can get via quests—but none I used are better than a tricked-out normal weapon, so that's a wash. FC5 and New Dawn have buddies as reward for 6-9 quests, which is good payback, but otherwise it's mainly 'nothing' stuff. It's better for vehicle users as you can get cool cars, jeeps, choppers, planes and boats via quests.

The regular drip-drip of loot tho—from enemies, buildings etc—is almost all dismal reward. Ammo would be good, and maybe is good for spray & pray players, but I'm always in single-shot mode and even the best ammo like armor-piercing and 50 cal is very cheap to buy.

I'm currently doing a FC5 play and have $250K in my piggy bank—I wish there was something, anything, I could use it for. Franchises should probably tie huge amounts of loot to a discount on the next installment—an incentive for the player, and a good marketing hook for the devs.

 

[Colif]

You have the colored tiers, going from Grey, Green, Blue, Purple then Orange. I understand the decision to why this system was implemented, but it has been done far too many times, I would have liked CDPR take a different approach to it.

standardized game mechanics... every game with loot has to have all oranges... blame WOW as legendaries there were orange. 18 years ago they were so rare... now I assume everyone has them. Power creep... purples used to be special. Now they just one more step.

legendaries in Diablo 4 broke the system. The item wasn't unique, it was the special power on it that mattered... so you would break legendaries apart to get the power. How to make them meaningless. Only unique items had set stats but not values. So all the famous legendary items from Diablo 2 are uniques now.

The upside I guess is you can put that power onto any item you find. So it just expands the search... you need the power and then you need an item to match it to... shame they also broke the inventory system so good luck saving that perfect item for the power.

Nothing is allowed to be different, every feature designed to remind people of that other game. If all games are the same, no wonder its boring.

 

[Zloth]

Cyberpunk 2077 had this same issue.

I really disagree! There's a pistol that talks. A blade that sets fire to things. A pistol that does different status effects every time you reload it. A couple of revolvers that shoot exploding bullets (which has a fun side effect {Note: likely NSFW video, Night City is full of naughty advertising and graffiti}).

 

[Frindis]

The upside I guess is you can put that power onto any item you find. So it just expands the search... you need the power and then you need an item to match it to... shame they also broke the inventory system so good luck saving that perfect item for the power.

Nothing is allowed to be different, every feature designed to remind people of that other game. If all games are the same, no wonder its boring.

I like how they did the loot/crafting system in Last Epoch. In that game, you find legendary weapons with legendary forging potential. That means you can put for example a legendary weapon with a forging potential of 2 in a forge and combine it with a unique weapon of the same type. It will roll on the four affixes of the unique weapons, which means that if you have four affixes it will transfer two of them. This can be a gamble and it is therefore very rare to find a legendary weapon with a forging potential of 4.

The cool thing about it is that you can also use glyphs to roll some of the stats on the weapon which add another level to the uniqueness. This means that if you for example find a legendary weapon with a forging potential of 4, you'll be able to craft a weapon that is so unique that there is a high probability that you are the ONLY one in the whole game who has that particular weapon with the stats you crafted/rolled into it.

 

[Colif]

Last Epoch: i should play that again, its been a while... I can't right now... need to remember to do it.

I wonder when they will release it... 21 February according to Steam. I might wait until then. Need to remember how to play again. I remember getting so far with one character and not being able to repeat again.

 

[Frindis]

There is a 1.0 update with the release you mentioned that will improve on a lot of aspects, so should be a good time to jump in. I have to start a new character again because I also got far with my main but now that I have not played for a few months it is kind of pointless trying to figure out what I was doing. I'll start a new char when it releases and save up on some of the weapons for faster leveling and some crafting. I also believe they will include a new class with the release, so I might jump on that one.

 

[Colif]

i can't remember when I last played. I think it was before Diablo 4 came out..,. so a few versions ago.

Grim Dawn expansion could be this month as well. Nothing for ages and then two in a month... at least POE 2 isn't until June. I might even try to learn that game then.

 

[neogunhero]

I really disagree! There's a pistol that talks. A blade that sets fire to things. A pistol that does different status effects every time you reload it. A couple of revolvers that shoot exploding bullets (which has a fun side effect {Note: likely NSFW video, Night City is full of naughty advertising and graffiti}).

I have the talk gun, and apparently it’s part of a side mission that I can’t figure out what to do next in. And I think I just use boring weapons, I’m still rocking with the Black Unicorn I got at the very beginning of the game, just upgraded to the max haha.

I need to find that fire blade…

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Loot games kind of suck. I much prefer the Baldurs Gate or From/Elden Ring approach of having bespoke loot to play with rather than multi colored rng stuff. Sure it can be annoying if you get a reward that isnt useful to your party but the same happens in loot based ARPGs too.

Dont remember much about Cyberpunks loot, and it may have changed since I played it a few months after original release but didnt have any complaints.

Fell off of Nioh after a few hours because poring over % of weapon damage in a game like that wasnt what I was there for.

So yea, loots fine, havent noticed any difference myself just depends on the game.

 

[ZedClampet]

I always go back to Morrowind as an example of the opposite because in that game you could both be surprised by a sudden item literarily dropping from the sky or finding some insanely good or fun item hidden in what looked to be a normal cave. It is a game that invites you to go look in every nook and cranny. Even Skyrim had tons of interesting loot scattered around the world for you to explore and hopefully find.

These days I just see more and more games doing the same: You'll get a + dmg to your weapon or you'll get the same boring weapon in a different item rarity/version. Or you'll get a short and sucky reward but with a focus on triggering that dopamine rush through using every color of the rainbow and sounds possible. Most games focus on scaling rewards or rewards with ingredients/crafting material so you can upgrade your weapons to a better version.

Some of that can be done more interesting and I believe New World had a pretty good crafting system in that regard, but for the most part, the loot is boring, which also makes exploring a game with these types of loot systems less exciting. I understand that loot will differ depending on genre/game, but I often come back to the feeling of loot just being something you pick up and do not care that much for anymore. I do play some looter shooters and even in these types of games with more focus on gradually increasing skills/power, I feel the loot isn't that interesting. I do want to applaud Vampire Survivors though, because in that game a lot of the weapons were fun to use and their upgrade made sense as they would do different things as you upgraded them. They felt more powerful and in that sense making the loot was more exciting!

Perhaps the focus isn't on the good loot anymore, but more in favor of other core aesthetics that this post talks a little more about: https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/favourite-core-aesthetics.3316/page-2#post-31909. @Brian Boru brings up scaling loot rewards to effort in acquiring in this post - https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/scaling-loot-rewards-to-effort-in-acquiring.138098/#post-348332, which tells me that you guys are not necessarily happy with how things are today.

There are of course some games that try, like with BG3, but even in that game, I didn't feel that rewarded when I found some secret chest. I'm not saying I want the holy grail each time I open one, but I feel a lot of developers could have done much more with their loot than what is done these days. Make it fun to find, make it worth the hunt or grind for that sake!

In the end, I did start to think about the more aesthetic type of loot, the ones you'll take back and place in your house or that you put on your character or other items/vehicles. These types of rewards I do see more and more in different genres and that is one aspect that does make loot more interesting as you can use the loot to express your style within the game.

Maybe I am just a tad black/white here and it is not necessarily that loot has become less interesting, but that loot has evolved into different new areas that were not done that much before. So, maybe I am just stuck in the belief that Morrowind was THE game that showed me how amazing loot could be and that I feel a lot of games have missed that mark.

I dunno, maybe you have some thoughts about the whole shebang?

I wonder if the prevalence of crafting in nearly every game has caused loot to be worse? If you want people to craft weapons, for instance, you can't just hand them better ones.

I never played Morrowind, so I'm having a hard time picturing what would be better loot in this case, but Palworld has some crappy loot. Every chest has about the same thing in it, although I still get them because I need those Pal souls, but they definitely aren't exciting to open. I rarely even look to see what I got.

On the other hand, I like how Palworld handles random loot with the skill trees and the Pals you can release in the enemy camps, and, of course, the random eggs you can find. I still haven't found a "Massive" egg yet. Even the breeding can be considered loot since you don't know what you are going to get if you breed two different species together.

I guess the traditional CRPG is the place I think of when I think of good loot, where you might find a legendary weapon or something.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Uninteresting loot has been a problem for a LONG time industry wide. I blame it on players that are suckers for skins. One of the standout MOST boring things about Jedi Survivor is literally everything you can do at a workbench has only to do with skins. They even have a prompt that comes onscreen telling you nothing you do at a bench affects gameplay.

 

[Colif]

I wonder if the prevalence of crafting in nearly every game has caused loot to be worse? If you want people to craft weapons, for instance, you can't just hand them better ones.

Any games yet where you can buy crafting materials on an ingame shop with real money? As that is how you get to stage where crafted items are the best you can have, as there is an incentive to make people buy the materials, and not have any alternatives.
Not including scam games like DIablo Immortal where everything was off a store of some kind. Once a big game can convince users to only buy mats, we won't ever get interesting loot again.

One of the standout MOST boring things about Jedi Survivor is literally everything you can do at a workbench has only to do with skins. They even have a prompt that comes onscreen telling you nothing you do at a bench affects gameplay.

pointless. Also lazy. Couldn't be bothered adding an actual system that helps... instead, have a pretty weapon... look, all my Armour same color... yawn

 

[ZedClampet]

Any games yet where you can buy crafting materials on an ingame shop with real money? As that is how you get to stage where crafted items are the best you can have, as there is an incentive to make people buy the materials, and not have any alternatives.
Not including scam games like DIablo Immortal where everything was off a store of some kind. Once a big game can convince users to only buy mats, we won't ever get interesting loot again.


pointless. Also lazy. Couldn't be bothered adding an actual system that helps... instead, have a pretty weapon... look, all my Armour same color... yawn

You can buy materials in Warframe, but you can buy everything in Warframe. You can also get everything by playing, and usually the grind isn't too bad. I have a ton of hours in it and never bought any materials.

I was trying to think of big, AAA games where you can buy materials, but I can't think of any I played where crafting was actually that big of a deal except for a few like the Remnant games, and they don't have any type of shop. Vermintide and Darktide have shops, but they are just (overpriced) cosmetics that you can't get any other way.

(Edit after more thought) I'm pretty sure you can buy materials in the last few Assassin's Creed games, but I'm not 100 percent sure about it, as I never pay attention to the Ubisoft shops, partly because you can't access them from inside the game. Ubisoft sells a lot of other questionable items like XP boosts. But I think they sell material packs where you get 10 of each item, or something like that. I didn't play any of them long enough to find out if the crafted gear is better than the loot gear. Honestly, I kind of think they were the same. The stuff you could find was the same stuff you could craft. Again, I'm not completely sure about that.

 

[Zloth]

Dont remember much about Cyberpunks loot, and it may have changed since I played it a few months after original release but didnt have any complaints.

There's a pretty large variety. The 'normal' weapons have a level (which is color coded). At the start of the game, you find all low level stuff. As you advance in level, so do the weapons you find. 10 hours later, the pistols that drop are better than the ones you were getting at the start. Not hugely better, but better enough to be worth switching.

The 'iconic' weapons are special, named weapons. They will have some sort of special thing about them: shoots exploding bullets, reloads faster after you kill an enemy with a headshot, higher chance of dismemberment, more likely to do a critical at long range, and so on... sometimes those special things are stuff you can use, sometimes not. Anyway, the nice thing about the iconic weapons is that you can upgrade them to raise their level. If you're willing to invest in one, it won't fall behind the level scaling curve.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

There's a pretty large variety. The 'normal' weapons have a level (which is color coded). At the start of the game, you find all low level stuff. As you advance in level, so do the weapons you find. 10 hours later, the pistols that drop are better than the ones you were getting at the start. Not hugely better, but better enough to be worth switching.

The 'iconic' weapons are special, named weapons. They will have some sort of special thing about them: shoots exploding bullets, reloads faster after you kill an enemy with a headshot, higher chance of dismemberment, more likely to do a critical at long range, and so on... sometimes those special things are stuff you can use, sometimes not. Anyway, the nice thing about the iconic weapons is that you can upgrade them to raise their level. If you're willing to invest in one, it won't fall behind the level scaling curve.

I remember there was loot and it was worth changing weapons up, but I still found it interesting. I finished the main story in about 45 hours according to GOG, had fun with it. Got the DLC already, so I'll get back there at some point.

Divinity Original Sin 2 had too much loot for me at times, so that might indicate my comfort level with it. Its one of those things I didnt used to mind as much, but as time has gone on Ive gotten bored of it at a point. It becomes a chore to deal with when it takes to long or theres too much. Or maybe its if the gameplay is interesting enough that I dont mind spending time doing it in some games. Thats why I said it depends on the game.

I dont think theres an inherent problem with games having boring loot or too much, maybe it just depends on the types of games you like to play.

 

[mjs warlord]

Hi frindis ... As you know i have been into pc gaming for over 20 years and what you are describing has been the same for the last 20 years , the games all follow the same format , take for example dragonheir that was released last year its the same as at least another 30 or more you may have played.

Get a quest , kill something , get a reward.... Unlike years ago most of these types of games are free and their is a very good reason for that..... MICRO PAYMENTS .... you eventually get to a point where you cant beat AI or real players so you have no choice but to either abandon the game or get your wallet out.

On dragonheir all my best sidekicks are at maximum skill level and their are some missions i cant do because i am not good enough so that means pay up or quit...... and i have only been using it for 116 hrs

 

[ZedClampet]

I was thinking about this last night, and it seems a bit ridiculous, but I quit playing Rocket League when I ran out of free loot.

No one but me seemed to use the car cosmetics, but I enjoyed them. At some point I think they moved all loot to loot crates, and I lost interest. Not sure how they do it now. I haven't played in years.

 

[Frindis]

I wonder if the prevalence of crafting in nearly every game has caused loot to be worse? If you want people to craft weapons, for instance, you can't just hand them better ones.

WoW did this well back in vanilla by adding random world loot, loot from rare bosses/world bosses or raids, or as quest rewards. You had craftable items that different professions could do either through soloing or in a group. For example, a Warlock could craft a cloth robe that would be best in slot for a particular raid. I'd love to see more games (not just MMOs) being able to combine this.

I never played Morrowind, so I'm having a hard time picturing what would be better loot in this case, but Palworld has some crappy loot. Every chest has about the same thing in it, although I still get them because I need those Pal souls, but they definitely aren't exciting to open. I rarely even look to see what I got.

On the other hand, I like how Palworld handles random loot with the skill trees and the Pals you can release in the enemy camps, and, of course, the random eggs you can find. I still haven't found a "Massive" egg yet. Even the breeding can be considered loot since you don't know what you are going to get if you breed two different species together.

Good point about Palworld as it makes it more fun going about finding the pets and breeding them trying to get a particular skill.

Morrowind had your typical fetch quest loot, but they did something I don't see much of nowadays and that is hiding unique weapons in spots that opens for more treasure hunting or having you get special items from a random encounter, but that for example would have one minus side of it that you had to get rid of for the item to be good.

An example of this is a random quest reward you get in Morrowind that is called the Boots of Blinding speed. It is boots that make you run insanely fast but it has a downside which is that you need to have magic resistance or you'll be blind while using them, making them kind of useless. This is the sort of stuff I loved in the game and it made it very fun to explore everything because you never knew what you could potentially find. This is the type of charm I miss with a lot of the loot nowadays in games, it just does not have that much personality.

Uninteresting loot has been a problem for a LONG time industry wide. I blame it on players that are suckers for skins. One of the standout MOST boring things about Jedi Survivor is literally everything you can do at a workbench has only to do with skins. They even have a prompt that comes onscreen telling you nothing you do at a bench affects gameplay.

Unfortunately, I think you are right about skins having an impact on it., but I think it is possible to use it for the better through for example a quest chain that leads you to a particular cool skin. Even the skin-infested Warzone had a quest chain some time ago where you had to do different tasks over some time to get your hold on pretty cool skins. You could also take on difficult tasks where if you died you would lose everything, but which added a nice high-risk reward.

So it is possible to do something good with skins and make them more interesting, but unfortunately for the most part, a lot of these skins are locked behind paywalls through either battle pass progressions or store variation and people throw money at them like crazy.

I do like it when you can transmog your items like finding a legendary weapon and putting that skin on another weapon bringing the visual memory with you.

Divinity Original Sin 2 had too much loot for me at times, so that might indicate my comfort level with it. Its one of those things I didnt used to mind as much, but as time has gone on Ive gotten bored of it at a point. It becomes a chore to deal with when it takes to long or theres too much. Or maybe its if the gameplay is interesting enough that I dont mind spending time doing it in some games. Thats why I said it depends on the game.

I dont think theres an inherent problem with games having boring loot or too much, maybe it just depends on the types of games you like to play.

The loot in vanilla Divinity Original Sin 2 was pretty lackluster to be honest. Sure you could find an upgrade, but it didn't have much umph through unique attacks or even looks. This did change with the Definite Edition, where you not only could change up a lot of gameplay like easier respec, gardening, and more start AP, but you would also have unique gear that had a quest chain you could follow and which could change up how your character would play. Like I got a unique set bonus that made my character fly and completely change looks into a birdlike type.

Get a quest , kill something , get a reward.... Unlike years ago most of these types of games are free and their is a very good reason for that..... MICRO PAYMENTS .... you eventually get to a point where you cant beat AI or real players so you have no choice but to either abandon the game or get your wallet out.

On dragonheir all my best sidekicks are at maximum skill level and their are some missions i cant do because i am not good enough so that means pay up or quit...... and i have only been using it for 116 hrs

One of the reasons I stopped playing Lord of The Rings Online. I had a good time until around level 20 I think it was and then I got hit with the annoying problems with not enough bags for loot, not enough bank space for loot, locked quests, and so forth. The only thing I do like now with LOTRO is that you can join different types of events like spring, and autumn events, and through that get cool items or mounts for free.

I understand an old game like LOTRO or SWTOR having a store and wanting as much help as possible to still run the servers, but not when you have a new game that for example brings in an online store even in early access with a focus on not only skins but boosters and other items that brings an unfairness within the gaming community. Then it seems to me that having a store like this was already on the planning board and with a focus on destroying player experience for the benefit of profit.

Unfortunately, I also see some companies becoming more greedy with their MTX, even if it was not planned from the start. Jagex and their Runescape 3 is an example of that. The MTX (microtransaction) in that game has slowly become so abusive that it has completely changed up the game, which is also why more and more players are quitting. They could have implemented the MTX in a much fairer way for the consumer, but they have not, which tells me they want to keep on milking players until there is none left.