Survival Modes and their Loot

Nothing in your list excludes the possibility of an applicable variant.

The variant maintains the uniqueness of the original item but doesn't lock away the concept.

Let's take a demon worm as an example, original demon worm remains intact, smaller or different coloured item can be introduced.

Some of your examples though are a little bit more specific and at least in my view not equal comparisons.

An anniversary gift is obviously an anniversary gift but my suggestion here would be to put anniversary base items old and current on the anniversary event vendor, swtor is actually an example of a game that does this

Btw the question mark comes back every April

True if they were variant styles I can't complain at all, but then we're asking the devs to make variant base items for like 30 base items or so? that unless they put it on the marketplace they aren't going to make any $$ to cover the time investment in creation. Unless it was some treat box rewards for the future.

The question mark is just vault only isn't it? which is like hella rare its not the open world drop where you can get 20+ of them etc easily is it?

The devs definitely need to make an anniversary vendor and add it to the Anti monitor event. I would be ok with past membership gifts being in an anniversary vendor as well.

Basically yes. Exclusive/unobtainable items are a repulsive factor when it comes to acquiring new players that increases with the time a game exists. I do however totally get the point of players being mad about formerly "exclusive" items being brought back. Some impact ingame money (the tradable ones), some are just a matter of ePride, no matter how the "I did this!"-crowd puts it.

For companies, "exclusive" is a double edged sword - there is good money to make when releasing them since certain players will spend insane amounts to acquire "exclusive" items. After some time it is money lost when new players stay away due to "so much stuff they can't obtain or do anymore". ATM, many companies back of from doing "exclusive".

Freshest example: pre-order of RDR 2. All the horses etc. are also available in the respective regular game editions, reducing the effective pre-order bonus to 2 days or something of early access and some millions ingame cash for GTA (totally different game, just by the same company). Pretty sure once RDR 2 hits the first "50% sale" some people will get mad spending so much more for stuff that will not "distinguish" them ingame in any way.

Well, the need/want to "distinguish" oneself makes oneself elitist, it's blatantly the definition of elitism. Doesn't matter though, giving the "right" relations many/most people on this world do elitism (intelligent vs stupid, rich vs poor, even vegans seeing themselves as better humans since they spare animals etc.). It's primal instinct to distinguish oneself in the pack/tribe/horde/whatever, goes along with/originates in mating habits for most species of this world.

However, the misconception is the "handout" thing. That question mark item from April fools? Why would it need to be a handout if the devs could just re-enable the event every April 1st. Besides, they were/are allowed to be traded, so there's still the ingame money way to get one. Both ways would not be handouts. EDIT: I just found out this was a bad example by both of us. Still, the point remains the same - bringing stuff back does not equal handout.

Similar ways have been suggested for other items to be "brought back" or re-used. Can be done, may not be done - in the end it is about how new players perceive their changes to get to the "distinguished" state in this game. Same mating habits/instincts at work: if a specimen cannot become "distinguished" enough to have mating chances in one territory, it moves to the next.

It's tricky for game companies to step back from "exclusivity" once they need to without making their "exclusive" customers feel mad about. But on the other hand: How "distinguished" do those "exclusive" customers remain after this game is shut down due to lack of players?

Thx for clarification, was just wondering about the market value since I still have plenty of them around LOL

I don't know, i mean I'm thinking it shouldn't be too resource intensive to open demon worm file and go "plaster blue" lol but then again im not a dev.

Also it wasn't too rare and yea vault only but i picked up about 10 of them this year.

I agree, exclusive items are the wrong way to go for any games longevity & sales.

I used to play a game that everything that they did was a almost or totally exclusive and if they tried to bring something back the old timers ( me included) threw a fit just like some do here.

On top of everything being almost or totally exclusive, this game had a vip room.
In order to have access to the VIP room as a player you had to spend $1000.00. Within that VIP room they had their own sales for in-game items. These items were stronger than the ones you could buy off of the regular market place. Then on top of that. When the regular MP had sales on new items. The VIP room had the same sale for the same items with better stats and cheaper.

Eventually this game went down the tubes because of the model that they used was not good for attracting new players. If new players wanted to catch up they had to spend thousands.

You do not attract new players buy making the finish line impossible or nearly impossible ( unless you spend thousands ) to cross.

I learned then ( about 10 yrs ago ) that demanding exclusivity was bad for any games population in the long run.

The biggest issue with everything is having the right tools to do the job.
Once it's created and you're just modding its usually really easy and changing colors is super easy. It would take 5 minutes with the right tools in hand.

If DCUO created a map editor where players could build their own maps from the ground up. You would see how easy it is to build maps and change things around. The tricky stuff is getting the AI, scripts and triggers working together. And,......even then, There are some guys out there that make getting those things working well without any hiccups look like a walk in the park.

This is unreal 4 but if you check this out you will get the gist of it.

the sound really stinks.....LOL

The base items hold no prestige as you could sell and trade them. Quark vendor or even Marketplace for a bundle of them.

People hold onto past accomplishments too much.

It's part of gaming in this day and age. Companies use limited time prizes to get people to log in and play or pay. Companies don't go back on these limited time/availability offers because it will hurt their reputation with the gaming population over time as word will get around that they don't honor their limited time/availability promotions.

It's the same reason we'll never see the actual OG Plasmic, Nimbus, Smoke, Auras, etc... come back. Variations? Sure, but not the actual original items. This also includes trinkets like the Penguin's Umbrella, Batarang, Joker's Blimp, and more along with promotions such as Lifetime Membership because they were promised for a limited time only at the launch of the game.