Loot Theory In Modern Games

HDRL is running an analysis of loot systems in modern games. They talk about how in-game rewards, formerly the domain of RPGs and adventure games with powerups, have expanded to exist in every genre, as achievements and unlockable bonuses have become standard fare.
"For the majority of gamers, once the novelty is gone, they move on. To keep players interested, rewards are required. ... The Diablo series is a perfect example of the theory in effect. Just as in the story of the donkey and the carrot, a game's rewards cannot be too frequent, nor can it be too infrequent. If rewards are too frequent, they lose value in the eyes of the player, and they lose interest. If the rewards are too infrequent, the player loses sight of the carrot, and likely loses motivation to keep playing."

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl.../09/14/1450232

phat loot wears thin even in a mmorpg, how many hours do you really spend just to get the uber razor sword just so you can go spend hours on end to get the uber golden razor sword and so on for infinity

loot sucks, no matter what you have its lame, and soon as you get the holy grail BLAM expansion making you last month lame

its tedious, and not fun all for a reason to artificially inflate the lifespan of a game thats as shallow as a dinner plate

what sucks about the loot theory is that

1)the person with the most time to waste in the game usually becomes the most powerful, not because of skill but because of the the gear they end up with which is usually elite.

2)the person(noob) with real life cash who decides to purchase gear online has the unfair advantage over you w/o skill what so ever.

this is true for the diablo series. I mean seriously there is not much gameplay you have to master since its all point click... sure strategy plays a vital role but it is useless if you can't even gtfo of town because some douche bag has mad enhanced offensive gear

I know this because I was that douche bag haha except I didn't waste my time playing the cumbersome lvling game because I learned how to write me some javascript bots lol