14 DAY TRIAL // My cousin, who is the same age as me, taught me to play Diablo and love loot. True story. We were young and I thought videogames meant strategy titles. She was young and only played one computer game: the first Diablo.
To this day, my cousin has only played light dungeon running games like the Diablo series (she's very excited about the third installment coming at one point and doesn't understand the fuss over the colors used). She told me that her interest in the game came from the huge amounts of stuff she would find and from the excitement of pairing them up to create a better fighter. After a few weeks, I also had a healthy respect for what gamers refer to as "loot."
I am currently running through the main campaign of Neverwinter Night 2 and I'm buried under loot. My character is a swashbuckler turned duelist and can carry quite a bit of stuff. I take Khlegar the dwarf almost everywhere with me, so he also carries a lot. Still, I find so many things that I can't sell them quick enough. And with most of them, it's easy enough to make a decision to unload to the nearest merchant. The problem is with the high end stuff, like unique weapons and armor, which at the same time take up a lot of carrying weight, cost a lot and grand significant yet often very different bonuses.
Should I keep using my Blade of Mercy/Neverwinter Kukri combo or should I go for that Rapier and a shield? Is the Elven Ceremonial Armor enough or should I shop around for something better? I'm not that obsessed to min max my character towards perfect stats and still the amount of equipment choices I have to make is sometimes excruciating (I swear I spend more than half an hour re-distributing equipment for my fellow part members).
On some levels, I am thoroughly enjoying this as it’s part of what makes a role playing experience good. On the other hand, I'm thinking that the hours I spent selling stuff and choosing armor could be better spent playing the PC version of Mirror's Edge or giving Saints Row 2 another quick try. Game Editor Guilt (also known as GEG) crops up whenever I'm not up to speed on the current releases. But for now, the burden of loot is as weighty as the burden of choice.