Random Loot

We interrupt our post-mortem once again -- which isn't really a post-mortem, since the coalition is doing fine -- for another digression into something that irks me. Bear with me, it'll be fun. This time I want to talk about why loot is random.

Once upon a time, Blizzard experimented with non-random loot. In the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, bosses always dropped specific tokens which could be turned in for armor pieces. E.g., C'thun always dropped one [Carapace of the Old God] and one [Husk of the Old God]; the former could be turned in for the Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Rogue, and Shaman chestpieces while the latter could be turned in for the Priest, Mage, Warlock, and Druid chestpieces. At the time, that meant that each guaranteed token served four of the eight possible classes in the raid. Other bosses dropped similar pairs of tokens, with different class mixes.

People loved this. You could plan loot way in advance. You could, if you wanted, gear up a new raider very quickly, guaranteed.

However, by the next raid instance, Blizzard changed to the random loot token system that's used throughout Burning Crusade raids for tier armor. The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj model didn't last.

It's easy to assume that Blizzard is stupid. A lot of people really liked non-random drops. It was nice to know what loot you'd get. Random loot is much more frustrating and causes drama. How could it be smart to use a random loot system, particularly when you'd already invented a cool non-random system?

Yeah, you guessed it. I think Blizzard's really smart.

First off, Blizzard's put in a non-random system. It's called Badges of Justice. It's a slower system, but it's non-random. (Um, somewhat slower. Not immensely slower. When a 40 man raid killed C'thun, 2 people got chest armor. When a 25 man raid kills Lady Vashj, you get 3 badges. It takes 20 C'thun kills to outfit the whole raid with chestpieces; it takes 33 Lady Vashj kills.)

So there, you've got your non-random, which is good for balancing out crappy luck streaks.

Second, random loot is more compelling from a psychological perspective. This is not news; it's one of the key principles that keeps people sitting at the tables in Vegas. When you know you're going to get a specific item, your brain doesn't get too excited at the loot box. When you're sitting around waiting for the loot box to open, and you don't know if you'll see your specific desire or not, you get a much bigger chunk of excitement when the piece actually drops.

(And, likewise, more disappointment when it doesn't. But it's the highs which drive behavior.)

Blizzard wants you to remember those highs. They keep you raiding, which keeps you playing the game. Random loot helps maintain high retention rates. Random loot isn't going away any time soon.