The Ring of Feathers, when worn, causes you character to fall slowly, allowing you to steer better in midair and take no damage upon landing, regardless of the height you fell from. The advantages of this are obvious to a player, since there are a large number of places that require accurate jumping to get to and also one could then just leap down a wall at no risk instead of climbing. This ring is the only item in the game to grant this effect permanently while worn at level 1. Other rings with this effect exist, but the require very high levels and are randomly generated, meaning you have an equal chance to pull that as any other item from any given chest in the game. This is the only ring with no level requirement, and to have a set chest. Ergo, the ring is highly sought after, not just to use, but to sell.
The usual cost of one of these rings when buying from the player based market, is a staggering 1,200,000 gold pieces. In the many hours I have spent playing this character, I have only saved up 8,000 gold pieces.
So, you either have the choice to farm up 1,200,000 gold, or rerun this quest series over and over until you get the ring. That's about two hours worth of questing for a CHANCE to find this ring (in of course the very last chest). I can't even fathom how long it would take to get a hold of 1,200,000 gold.
And then, the player has a final choice, don't get the stupid ring.
There are many rings with much more useful effects for many characters. There are plenty of easily obtainable items that provide the effect temporarily with limited uses, which would leave you a free ring slot. There is only one place where the ring is frequently considered required, a dungeon properly named The Pit.
Yet, despite this, when the ring goes up on the market, it is usually sold in a matter of hours, if not minutes.
I have seen full groups of level 20's (the quest is level 4-7) blast through the quest line over and over until they get one.
I have heard people cry (literally) over the voice chat when the ring doesn't drop for them.
I have run this series about 8 times over multiple characters, I have never seen this ring drop for anyone.
The last group I was in for this spent most of the time discussing addiction to games, how you could spend that time raising a family, how people in Everquest 1 died from playing instead of eating, and yet: this was their third run that day.
Speaking of addiction, this is where it comes from. Highly sought after rewards that never appear in that chest. Without rare drops, there would be no prestige to owning a piece of gear. There would be no one better than anyone else. So we have to have rare rewards to give players something to strive for, otherwise there's no sense of achieving anything. But, there still needs to be ways to reward the player with a sense of accomplishment that doesn't drag on for hours. You might think at first that this is exactly what keeps people playing MMOs, and you'd be right. But I've also seen so many people leave because they realize that these games are nothing but a massive time sink.
We need to improve the Rewards VS Time ratio. It'll let people move on through you game, and stop them from losing interest. A possible solution to my particular example? Give the ring a descent chance to drop (say 30%) but change it so that it cannot be traded. You want your ring? Go get it yourself.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a ring to hunt.
My... Precioussssss....
Mmmmmm.... Massive time-sink, yes, my pretty. More involving than tv, it is, though less creative than some things other. Of balance such a life is lacking, but mayhap it be less emptifying than a normal life of sitcoms and sports-watching.
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