Here’s something that’s been nagging me for quite a while in various MMORPG. Take a look at the stuff sold by this barterer in Lord of the Rings Online (in Caras Galadhon in Lothlórien):
These items sell for quite a lot of tokens. Would you ever want to waste use anything this precious without knowing exactly what you get?
Here are two more examples from a Planar Goods vendor in Rift (in Gloamwood):
I admit that the prices for these random items are not quite as steep, but this is just to show that the idea with encased random items is something you can find in a lot of MMORPG, and often the vendor gladly lets you pay your first-born for a chance of a crap or an epic item.
I just don’t understand this. I would never buy an item from a barterer in these games for a ton of hard-earned specialized tokens without knowing exactly what it is I pay for. I’ve seen similar random item containers for daily quests, but here I think they’re quite all right. You usually get reputation and something else that you’re more interested in, and the container is just something you get on the side. But when it’s a gamble for expensive tokens, it’s a no go even if I have a chance for “winning” a really fantastic item. Guess I just don’t trust my own luck when it comes to this.
If only they put up an example of the minimum items you would get out of such a container; a worst case scenario. Then perhaps I would be slightly more eager to take a chance.