Does an inventory limit in an MMORPG make sense?

Posted by Philipp on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Philipp
Published on 2012-10-15T15:44:09Z Indexed on 2012/10/15 15:54 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 189

Filed under:

game-design

|

mmo

I am currently developing a simple 2d MMORPG. My current focus is the inventory system.

I am currently wondering if I should implement a limit on what a player character can carry. Either in form of a maximum weight, a limited number of inventory slots, or a combination of both. Almost every MMORPG I ever played limits inventory space. But plausibility aside, is this really necessary from a gameplay point of view? Maybe it would in fact improve the game experience when I just let the players carry as much stuff as they want.

tl;dr: What is the game development rationale behind limiting carrying capacity of player characters?

© Game Development or respective owner

Related posts about game-design

Game Design Dilemma

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
I'm working on a 2d tilemapped RPG. I've actually made quite a fair amount of progress, but I'm at a point where I need to make a UI decision. I have the overland world completely mapped out, and I have several towns and special areas. I'm on the fence about how to integrate the two. Scenario 1: I… >>> More
Day 2 - Game Design Documentation

as seen on Geeks with Blogs - Search for 'Geeks with Blogs'
So yesterday I didn't cut any code for my game but I was able to do a tiny bit of research on the XNA Game Development Technology and the communities out there and do you know what? I feel I'm a bit closer to my goal. The bad news is today I didn't cut code either. However, not all is lost because… >>> More
Suggestions on switching from lamp based web design-development to game design-development

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have around 2.5 years of experience as a web developer cum designer working mainly on the LAMP platform. Now, I want to try out game development (of the likes of First Person Shooter games like Call of Duty (COD)). It is one of my dreams to some day succeed in making a profitable, popular, commercial… >>> More
Game Design Schools in Canada

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I am a High School student in Ontario and i am trying looking for college/university programs the are specifically about game design. There are quite a few at most colleges near me, but they are all BA's and I am looking for a BSc. The only one i have been able to find is at digipen but that is across… >>> More
I want to make video games, but I hate coding

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I know this sounds eally crazy. However, I just want to ask. Now, I am studying C++ code in my school (My major is computer programming). Honestly, my grade is not so good, and assignments are really hard. Sometimes, I feel sad that I will spend 8~10 hours per day for coding (which is stressful)… >>> More

Related posts about mmo

Resources such as libraries, engines and frameworks to make Javacript-based MMORTS? [closed]

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I am looking for resources outlined to make a MMORTS with Javascript as the client-side, probably just a simple canvas for the frontend. The guy in the video here mentions that JavaScript is one of the most misunderstood language -- and I do believe that. I think one can make quite cool games with… >>> More
Feedback on "market manipulation", a peripheral game mechanic for a satirical MMO

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
This question asks for feedback on a specific game-mechanic. Since there is not one right feedback on a game mechanic, I tried to provide enough context and guidelines to still make it possible for users to rate answers and to accept an answer as the best answer (following these criteria from Writer… >>> More
Polygon count target range for MMO being released in 2 years

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
What would a realistic poly count target range be for NPC and player models in a 3D MMO that will be released in 2 years? What about poly count target range for the entire camera view (environment, NPC and player meshes)? I read in some places that one should not aim too low if the game will come… >>> More
Node.js MMO - process and/or map division

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I am in the phase of designing a mmo browser based game (certainly not massive, but all connected players are in the same universe), and I am struggling with finding a good solution to the problem of distributing players across processes. I'm using node.js with socket.io. I have read this helpful… >>> More
MMO Data Persistence Question

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I wanted to ask a question regarding data persistence strategies for an MMO. I have some experience in the games industry with social synchronous games. At Zynga, we stored static proto data in XML on both the client and the server and stored instance/runtime data in membase. For clarity sake,… >>> More