D - Drops

In most MMO games the most important thing is your "gear".  Whether it is a gun or a robe or a staff, it is always like this.  You want the best, so you have to hope you get it.  Today things are evolving and drops aren't as important as they used to be.

We have seen several MMOs take the approach that drops aren't all that important.  Gathering the tokens from kills or acquiring a single type of badge for trade-in scores you a sweet piece of gear.  WoW does this very well and SWToR has adopted a system that is similar.  While these games handle the issue differently, they approach it the same way: drops are stupid.  

We all remember the old school days of EQ where you had tons of people and very little loot to spread around.  We even remember the original days of WoW where you ran MC 2973238927 times just to get that ONE FUCKING PIECE of gear that never dropped.  You hit your head on an invisible loot wall because you needed or wanted that piece of gear.  Those days are rapidly disappearing and now all you need to do is show up.  If you show up and get the kill you might get to leave with a decent piece of gear, but more importantly you leave with badges or commendations or points of some type that you can then use to purchase things that you want.  The best gear still requires a drop of some sort, but you can easily ramp up your gear at a more steady pace this way.  Gone are the days of huge upgrades and endless trips for items that won't drop.

I hope that this trend continues.  I really wish that gear was more easily attainable through alternate methods, but this system works pretty well.