Sell-Only Drops Are Dumb

I collect VHS tapes

I collect VHS tapes

Gold Member
I know I'm probably in the minority, but what's the point of items in games that exist only to be sold? It's one of my pet peeves. Either give them some actual other use or just drop currency instead. Otherwise it's just currency with extra steps.

Edit: I'm talking about items that drop from mobs that you kill or that you find exploring the world that have no purpose other than selling to NPCs

This is all made much worse if the game doesn't make it clear whether or not the item has any use other than selling

I'll give it a pass if it's heavily tied to lore or has some other type of mechanic or gameplay designed around it. But more often than not it feels lazy and often annoying
 
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What are sell-only drops? Is this like a loot box thing? Genuinely asking.
 
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I guess it adds a little lore to the game.

And where else are you going to get that slight discomfort from the back of your mind telling you it MIGHT have another purpose??
 
Rran said:
I guess it adds a little lore to the game.

And where else are you going to get that slight discomfort from the back of your mind telling you it MIGHT have another purpose??
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This is another reason it bothers me. I'm paranoid that there's going to be some esoteric use that I'm not aware of when in reality they were just too lazy to design some other purpose for it.
 
My theory is that 3rd person games are the root of all gaming woes.
By being in 3rd person you can see your character. Now you get to buy stuff for your character to wear.
No 3rd person. No microtransactions.
I've solved the problem.
 
I collect VHS tapes said:
I'm sorry if I'm doing a bad job explaining this

Sometimes in video games items will drop after killing mobs that have no purpose other than selling to NPC's
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Oh I see, lol. I think it really depends on the RPG's economy system.

For instance in Witcher 3 I went out to salvage all grey "sell-only" items just in order to get enough gold to upgrade new witcher school armors. Fit's the game's overworld setting. Didn't feel like a chore in this case.
 
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Dacvak said:
What are sell-only drops? Is this like a loot box thing? Genuinely asking.
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Others have already said something similar but the most obvious is in games that have a tab for "trash" and it even describes it at "only use is to trade for gold". Vendors will also tend to have a "sell all trash" option.

The problem is when a game has items like this but it's not obvious and people might hold onto them "just in case". It clutters the inventory and can make the currency grind longer than needed.
 
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I collect VHS tapes said:
I'm sorry if I'm doing a bad job explaining this

Sometimes in video games items will drop after killing mobs that have no purpose other than selling to NPC's
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Hookshot said:
Things like nuggets in Pokémon. You sell them for the in game currency but they think that is pointless and you should just find the cash instead.
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Ahh gotcha.

It makes me think of all of the random garbage you can pick up in games like Fallout, that are only used to sell. I don't personally mind that, unless it bloats up your inventory or is needlessly difficult or annoying to sell.

But I kinda like the secondary currencies, depending on the game. When you finally sell them and get a big lump sum, it feels like free "extra" money. It's like that time I discovered I had some bitcoin in a random wallet from like 2013, then cashed it in and was like "well this was just free money, I'm buying a new TV."
 
Dacvak said:
Ahh gotcha.

It makes me think of all of the random garbage you can pick up in games like Fallout, that are only used to sell. I don't personally mind that, unless it bloats up your inventory or is needlessly difficult or annoying to sell.

But I kinda like the secondary currencies, depending on the game. When you finally sell them and get a big lump sum, it feels like free "extra" money. It's like that time I discovered I had some bitcoin in a random wallet from like 2013, then cashed it in and was like "well this was just free money, I'm buying a new TV."
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The Fallout games are a great example. Although I think there's a skill at least in one of the games that allows you to convert even junk to something useful for upgrades?

But in general Bethesda does this crap a lot

It's not nearly as bad when there's a tab that allows you to easily confirm the item has no other use so you can just go ahead and auto sell it in bulk, but even then I don't really see the point and prefer if the items have some sort of other use as well

When the game doesn't tell you at all whether the item has any other use and you're just guessing whether you need to hold onto it or sell it, that's super annoying
 
I collect VHS tapes said:
When the game doesn't tell you at all whether the item has any other use and you're just guessing whether you need to hold onto it or sell it, that's super annoying
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The latest Story of Seasons game had a more egregious example where it told you something was good to sell, but then it does actually end up having a quest use later on.
 
I collect VHS tapes said:
The Fallout games are a great example. Although I think there's a skill at least in one of the games that allows you to convert even junk to something useful for upgrades?

But in general Bethesda does this crap a lot

It's not nearly as bad when there's a tab that allows you to easily confirm the item has no other use so you can just go ahead and auto sell it in bulk, but even then I don't really see the point and prefer if the items have some sort of other use as well

When the game doesn't tell you at all whether the item has any other use and you're just guessing whether you need to hold onto it or sell it, that's super annoying
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Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting it. Like you and ssringo ssringo said, if it's unclear if there's an additional use, that's annoying and unacceptable. But if you're collecting random shit that obviously is only used to sell for money (especially if the game has a "sell all trash" function), I don't see any problem with that. Sometimes it's even fun and adds a bit of flavor to the game.
 
Magic Carpet said:
My theory is that 3rd person games are the root of all gaming woes.
By being in 3rd person you can see your character. Now you get to buy stuff for your character to wear.
No 3rd person. No microtransactions.
I've solved the problem.
Click to expand...
Right... Because Call of Duty and Battlefield are 3rd person. /s
modern_warfare_2_sp_00.jpg
 
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I collect VHS tapes said:
Sometimes in video games items will drop after killing mobs that have no purpose other than selling to NPC's
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In games like RE8 you find treasure you can sell and sometimes you only get one piece of the treasure, if you find other pieces and combine them you get more money for it.

I personally dont mind it and if you playing game like RE8 in hardcore difficulty you need as much as money as you can get.


In Elden Ring you have something similar like this......
numens_rune.png

In Elden Ring this very useful because there are times you lose all your runes and you need some to upgrade your weapons, so you can use this without needing to grind for runes.
 
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Sometimes it can be a slog (Diablo 4...just let me fucking break that shit down on the fly please)...other times (like ARC RAIDERS) its a matter of life and death. "Do I take gun, shield recharger, and bandages or do I drop it all to pick up this cat food, pissed on mattress pad, and snow globe?!?!?!"
 
I see it like this, the high value item protects you from losing half your money on death. You can hoard those and sell as needed in case you die type thing.
 
In Ghosts of Yotei there is no need at all for any vendor but they are all over the place and sell nothing.

They sell skins, but not many, and they let you refill your reagents and other arbitrary shit.

The things the merchants do could have easily been baked into normal activities. The merchant shit is so minimal I'm not sure why they added them execpt to say we have merchants in our game.

In Yotei the exploration is actually MUCH better than Tsushima and very good but it is hurt badly by the reward structure. There just aren't many rewards so they had to create like arbitrary things to make you need them. Like you lose a consumable during combat to press one of your ordinary attacks(the blind) and you can use it a lot but you need gunpowder to refill it. You get this from combat and if you ever run out(i never did) merchants. It's arbitrary and they could have just made the spell free, no merchants needed. The merchants are very much tacked on in Ghosts of Yotei and it's because they did not create a good reward structure. Rather a bunch of skins for a game where your MC is not one you want to be dressing up....

It is bad game design, the reward structure is poorly done in Yotei and it belies the quality of the excellent exploration. If the game would have had worthy rewards to buy and to find, the game would have been a goty contender. The merchants in Yotei are nothing. The few fun things there are to find in the game are all baked behind quest rewards. Compared to like, Elden Ring, you really feel the lack of in game reward for exploration in Yotei. You might get a 4x bar stock or 10x young bamboo from a chest that you had to take down an army to get to. There are items later on that allow better upgrades that I have not found yet, I'm not sure if this is alleviated towards the end game but I've gotten multiple pieces of armor maxed out already(all long quest rewards). I'm hoping in the endgame they give the merchants some major pieces of gear that make you look forward to them more but the reward structure itself could have been done better. It's probably worse than many would expect in a game like this. I have several things against the game but it is still fun and I give it a solid 8.5 so far which tells you how fun it actually is despite all the other negatives.
 
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Dead Money. Fallout New Vegas DLC. At the end of the DLC, you're in a vault with a shit load of gold bars. You can only carry 2 or 3 without being over encumbered, but the temptation is real because they're the most valuable thing in the game. So many players decide to shlep back to base at a crawl. Couldn't do that in your world OP. Shame.
 
I think it's an attempt at immersion. What's more likely? You kill a random 100 year old undead mob and they have some random junk on them? Or that they have cash in the latest currency?
 
Danjin44 said:
In Elden Ring you have something similar like this......
numens_rune.png

In Elden Ring this very useful because there times you lose all your runes and you need some to upgrade your weapons, so use this without needing grinds for runes.
Click to expand...
I don't know what it is but I like that fuzzy circle thing.

Yeah some RPGs are similar. Like I don't sell all my gear in Dragon Quest games at once since you lose half your gold (but none of your items) upon dying. So they can kind of function like a sort of bank.
 
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Rran said:
I don't know what it is but I like that fuzzy circle thing.

Yeah some RPGs are similar. Like I don't sell all my gear in Dragon Quest games at once since you lose half your gold (but none of your items) upon dying. So they can kind of function like a sort of bank.
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Funny thing is DQ has actual bank so you can put your money in.
 
In Hollow Knight, they have a purpose in that you don't drop them on defeat. So they're a safer store for your currency than holding the currency directly.

Other than that, it's tidbits of lore
 
Magic Carpet said:
My theory is that 3rd person games are the root of all gaming woes.
By being in 3rd person you can see your character. Now you get to buy stuff for your character to wear.
No 3rd person. No microtransactions.
I've solved the problem.
Click to expand...
But but horse armor.... :messenger_grinning_sweat:
(sorry if already pointed out)
 
I've been replaying a JRPG called Evolution for Dreamcast and it has these. The thing is, the game has a finite amout of inventory space. So, you need to decide if you want to pass on health items, etc to keep these items worth money to sell once you're back from a dungeon.
 
I don't really mind. It's basically like finding money but with a bit of added context, and sometimes it can have a practical use too, like loosing money on death, but not unsold items, or something like that.
I like it when the game straight up tells you the items are only usable for selling though, instead of making it vague and having you hold on to them in case they are used for crafting later on.

I'd rather find shit that I can sell than useless loot and crafting materials (assuming the game has a decent economy system).
 
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I collect VHS tapes said:
This is another reason it bothers me. I'm paranoid that there's going to be some esoteric use that I'm not aware of when in reality they were just too lazy to design some other purpose for it.
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I still don't know if I'm supposed to sell the treasures in Pokémon Legends Z-A lol

I also can't stand that. I've been burned in other games before where I sold these types of items and missed out on better stuff later in the game.
 
In some circumstances yeah I get what you're saying.

But done well these junk items should add flavour to the world, as could the process of selling them. It hardly makes sense for wild fantasy monsters to be carrying piles of gold on them. So instead body parts you can sell instead makes more sense.

if you were to rob someone in a game, and every character in it was carrying gold and nothing else, would be a bit boring rather than them possibly carrying different valuables like jewellery, even if that jewellery has zero use for the player.

It can add to the role-playing experience.
 
I think getting an object is much better, even if you're only going to sell it later. Otherwise, it's just a number, it's sterile.

Plus, it's satisfying when you collect a shitload of junk and find out how much it's worth when you take it to a merchant. And it adds the opportunity for better exchange rates in different parts of the game world, or getting perks that make you better at selling.
 
Making clear whether it is in fact only for selling is the important part for me. Depending on the rest of the mechanics, there may be a reason for it to not be cash.

I would for sure get rid of trash looting in general if I had my way (unless scavenging is an indispensable part of the fantasy being depicted). As a rule, if you're going to show me an interactable barrel or crate and I open it and it has one copper or something, please just save my time and have it not be interactable.
 
This doesn't bother me at all, but I did fall into the trap of thinking animal meat was one of these sell only items in Resident Evil Village. When you first start getting meat from animals, you can't eat it, but you can sell it.

You absolutely should not sell it.
Later in the game it becomes key to some permanent stat upgrades. The game doesn't give you any hints at all about this and lets you just sell off a super valuable resource. Terrible design.
 
I collect VHS tapes said:
I know I'm probably in the minority, but what's the point of items in games that exist only to be sold? It's one of my pet peeves. Either give them some actual other use or just drop currency instead. Otherwise it's just currency with extra steps.

Edit: I'm talking about items that drop from mobs that you kill or that you find exploring the world that have no purpose other than selling to NPCs

This is all made much worse if the game doesn't make it clear whether or not the item has any use other than selling

I'll give it a pass if it's heavily tied to lore or has some other type of mechanic or gameplay designed around it. But more often than not it feels lazy and often annoying
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1000%

I hate when games do this time wasting.

No benefit to anyone to include them.
 
they have a use in Souls-Likes and other games where you can lose currency but keep items on death.
also theming... it makes more sense to find random items than straight up money everywhere.

and, while rare, they could have the added dynamic of some vendors giving you a higher price or maybe a bartering skill letting you sell them for a higher price
 
ChoosableOne said:
Selling monster parts makes more sense than finding 100 bucks on a monster.
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I love how some things in games "make sense" to patch some other things that really don't.

Game logic: this thingy here makes more sense than finding cash on the randos that you kill along the way.
Also game logic: when you die, half/all your cash is gone, buuuuut you mysteriously keep everything else you had picked up, including those thingies that are there only to give you some cash that doesn't get lost when you die.

Game logic: randos don't have cash on them, why would they? They're all undead, and they may have undied so long ago that their cash wouldn't be worth a damn today anyway.
Also game logic: greedy merchants exist in a world full of undead that have no currency, old or new.

The solution is simple.
Make me keep my cash when I die.
But what do you lose when you die, then?
Time, mofos. The time of my real, out-of-game life. Screw your junk. Let me keep my money like I keep everything else and stop making me waste my time. This shit wasn't funny in 1986. Why is it still here 40 years later?
 
NeoIkaruGAF said:
I love how some things in games "make sense" to patch some other things that really don't.

Game logic: this thingy here makes more sense than finding cash on the randos that you kill along the way.
Also game logic: when you die, half/all your cash is gone, buuuuut you mysteriously keep everything else you had picked up, including those thingies that are there only to give you some cash that doesn't get lost when you die.

Game logic: randos don't have cash on them, why would they? They're all undead, and they may have undied so long ago that their cash wouldn't be worth a damn today anyway.
Also game logic: greedy merchants exist in a world full of undead that have no currency, old or new.

The solution is simple.
Make me keep my cash when I die.
But what do you lose when you die, then?
Time, mofos. The time of my real, out-of-game life. Screw your junk. Let me keep my money like I keep everything else and stop making me waste my time. This shit wasn't funny in 1986. Why is it still here 40 years later?
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You should take a break from hard games for a bit lol.
 
Salmonboy said:
Huh? Never heard of this! What kind of crappy games are you playing? :messenger_grinning_sweat:
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Crappy games like Cyberpunk 2077?

There are items that marked junk and only thing you can do with them is to sell...
There is even a "sell all junk" options in the sell machines.

But there are similar systems in many other games, like jrpgs etc.
It doesn't really bothers me but it can be annoying when they do not tag junk items and you carry them forewer looking for ways to use them or stuff like that.
 
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