disposalist said:I agree with your points about unnecessary items and buying (huge) inventory space.
I have to say, though, no insult intended, but you can perhaps appreciate that you might be unusual in what you find mundane if you have ADHD?
I have a friend that *constantly* fiddles with his inventory. Keeping it tidy and neat, but trying to bring as much along as possible. He loves it. He's unusual too, in that regard, and I wouldn't suggest inventory management be enhanced and enphasised in ways he might like!
Again, no insult or slight intended, but I'm amazed that, with ADHD, you can stand MMORPGs at all. The average neuro-typical gamer tends to find them 'boring'.
There must be a ton of thoughtful, tactical, meaningful activities that seem boring, tedious and unnecessary to someone with ADHD?
It's unfortunate, maybe, for you that VR is making Pantheon 'old school' in many ways, as, I believe, that needs a return to a generally slower pace, with activities that *are* meaningful, but *do* take time. I think that's a big part of what makes old school, well, old school.
My apologies if I'm not understanding correctly or sound uncaring, but hopefully you get my point.
My inventory example was just one of several though and I absolutely understand some people don't like inventory management, but it *does* serve a meaningful game mechanic purpose. Characters being limited in what they can carry is 'needed' for several reasons. The ways that is limited is through weight/encumbrance/space restriction. Some would have us with volume and shape management and that would actually make sense, but, you're right, there needs to be a balance somewhere between what is a useful and meaningful mechanic and what is mundane usually due to lazy coding.
Since I think it is necessary, I wonder how we could make inventory management more interesting?
Regarding inventory management, I don't typically enjoy it at all because it isn't enjoyable and is just a 'housekeeping' task. I would enjoy it if it were built into the strategy and tactics of the game (far more than just being used as a way to force us to go back to town). I've suggested previously that this could be done if well designed. For instance, a small inventory making you faster and not impairing your dexterity, combat, or climbing, but also having slow mounts in game that could be loaded up. We would then have to choose between being able to go anywhere while traveling light, or being well provisioned and able to collect max loot but stuck to traveling in areas that ground mounts could travel. Or perhaps if inventory had several tactical implications (like some items make you louder, reducing stealth, large items (like an extra lance) penalize your dexterity, while other items or their placement give you a benefit or attract / ward-off certain creatures. But an inventory system that only has two factors, encumbrence and fullness, is a chore without enough to make it interesting.
QoL suggestions for Inventory:
Regarding ADHD, our brains don't give us enough dopamine reward for most activities, especially those with a delayed reward, but videogames (in general) are highly appealing to us because the immediate response of games triggers the dopamine reward. We can actually hyperfocus on games (which can be problematic). There are only four things that really motivate the ADHD brain:
I find good MMOs to be the first three (if it allows a lot of creativity in character creation, spec, and look) or the first and third (if it doesn't). I love deep, tactical combat, exploring worlds, socializing with people in a fantastical setting, and creating creative characters. I don't like the busywork aspects (like farming or inventory managment). ADHD is something that most laypeople and even many psychiatrists don't really know much about and even the current DSM doesn't include much of what the current research has determined. It's a disorder that can be so impactful that many people, myself included, will have a "OMG that explains my entire life" moment. If you want a better explination (besides the "squirrel" stereotype), I could start a thread in the Off Topic forum about what it really is.