BACKWARDS_COWBOY'S PROFILE

One thing I absolutely despise about some achievements is when you're looking at the list of possible achievements/trophies and it says "Hidden Trophy". What the hell does that even mean? There are some games that do it in a tiered process; earning one trophy for "Killing 500 Enemies" reveals the hidden trophy for "Killing 5000 Enemies". While pointless, at least you can justify it. If a player saw it before first killing those 500 enemies (10% of the 5000), they might feel intimidated. But now that they already have 10% of those kills, they will be more likely to go for it. The same goes for trophies revealed upon beating the game; they prevent possible spoilers, so they can be justified.

On the other side of the Hidden Trophy spectrum, there are some games in which I've earned the trophy without knowing it existed. That's the worst thing they could do with the hidden process. It's a pretty evil way to pad the length of the game. If a player has OCD or is a completionist, they will go out and play the game for possibly hundreds of hours to get the trophy. Or google it.

Another is forced playthroughs, like in the Fallout series. "Reach Level 30 as Good", "Reach Level 30 as Evil", "Reach Level 30 as Neutral" (Impossible unless you just want to kill unaligned scorpions for a few hours, or steal ten thousand items to offset your "Good" quest completion) are pretty cheap ways to make the player go through your 15-20 hour base game again (excluding optional quests and locations). Now, you could always save before setting off certain karma-shifting events and make it easy, but there's an achievement every few levels for each of the three karma paths, starting at some point between level 5 or 8. Now stick the "Earn All other Trophies/Achievements" in there, and you have yourself a few hundred hours of gameplay.

author=RyaReisender
Well in Ragnarok Online for example those really rare items are usually very overpowered. Like one boss 0.01% drop makes you immune to magic. Now PVP in Ragnarok Online if mostly guild vs guild. If only one player of one guild has the item, they have an advantage, but other guilds will know it if they face that guild and can prepare for it and position physical attackers to hunt down the person with the item.
If that item existed more than 2-3 times, magic will become useless and the whole concept would break and make PVP boring.

Not saying it's a good concept, some server even opted to remove that item completely. But in the end it's a concept that sells well.

That seems like an example of very, very bad RNG. That's essentially a game-breaking drop, primarily if done in single-player PVP. The existence of that item alone would be enough for me to avoid (I'm assuming it's a late-game item) high-level PVP, depending on how magically-oriented I was. I understand that game developers of multiplayer games don't take emotions into account, but imagine how many magic users quit the game once the existence of that item became common knowledge; not because they had personally been robbed of victory by it, but because they might one day have to face somebody who is using it. It's an example of how one item alone can influence the class or weapon choices of thousands of people. I mean, it's so rare that you won't see it often and won't matter too much, but the fact that there could be one guy who keeps doing PVP against magic users and has that item just seems wrong to me.

When it comes to RNG-based rare drops in competitive MMOs, I feel like premium items or customization items (hair dye, premium clothing, etc.) is a better reward, because you can still brag about it or show off, but you aren't breaking the game for the poor guy who can't even hit you with the ultimate spell.

author=Link_2112
PSO is awesome xD

        Ultimate 	10* 	Agito (AUW 199Sinow Zoa 	1/1051

	Ultimate 	10* 	Guilty Light	Dolmdarl 	1/183

	Ultimate 	10* 	Maser Beam	Recon  	        1/5120

	Ultimate 	10* 	Silence Claw	Dolmolm 	1/214

	Ultimate 	10* 	Yamigarasu	Deldepth 	1/788

	Ultimate 	10* 	Yasminkov 2000H	Sinow Zele 	1/901

	Ultimate 	12* 	Psycho Wand	Delbiter 	1/131072

I can see 1/183 or 1/214 working if you're using those rates in an MMORPG with thousands of players. You don't want everybody having the weapon, but if you have 10,000 players, then you're looking at a few dozen people who will have it prior to manipulating the RNG. And then if you include items that improve the chances of getting a rarer weapon, you're looking at a couple hundred out of that 10,000 having the weapon. In a single-player or co-op RPG, those rates are ridiculous. Especially 1/131072. With that rate, you should be able to send in a screenshot of you getting that weapon and receive some kind of prize and televised interview.

That dragon couldn't have gotten a better face. Those eyes with that hair is just too perfect.

author=Liberty
Perhaps allowing a finite amount of 'free' saves (perhaps tied to items?) that they can use that won't count towards their total.
A checkpoint at the start (and perhaps middle depending on length of mission) of every mission.
And all the others in the previous posts.

That brings to mind the Disgaea series and the Item World function. The Item World was only mandatory for a short demonstration, but could be used afterwards to power up weapons and items. In order to leave, you had to finish at least a certain number of floors, but if you had a certain item, you could create a checkpoint that allowed you to leave the world and go back to that spot later. It only worked once, and upon re-entering, the checkpoint was erased.