Under The Hood: Colored Segregation

by James Murff on May 24th 2008 1:30PM

There are a lot of different game mechanics, ranging from the downright simple to the ethereal and hard-to-explain. I've talked a lot about the more subjective stuff, such as lore and paradigms and this and that, but only a few times have I hit the nitty gritty. So this week, I'm taking things to a controversial (not really) place. Judging items based on their color and how fantasy MMOs follow the same color patterns for identification, at least to a certain point.

If there is one delightful constant in the stream of endless hack'n'slash clones, fantasy MMOs, and the like, it's the "magic color". Any player of World of Warcraft will know at least the two basic colors of magic quality, and those who play both MMO and non-MMO hack'n'slashes, from Titan Quest to Mythos, will know this progression of coloring:

White/Gray/Black: The no-color items. These are your non-magical items, which often provide the base for the magical items in terms of durability, base damage, and the like.
Green: The slightly magical. Usually green items have between 1-3 modifiers on the item, and only 1-2 name modifiers. These are the gateway into magical items, but are not to be discounted. At high levels, the average green drop is more powerful than a low-level legendary.
Blue: The very magical. These items either have a few very powerful effects or 5-6 slightly less-powerful effects.
Any Color: Magical to the point of absurdity. These items have a multitude of extremely powerful effects, but are often very hard to acquire. They are usually quest rewards or rare drops.
Any Color: Unique. These items are named, have a history, and are usually extremely powerful for their level. They go for a lot in in-game economies most of the time. Extremely hard to obtain.

The thing that's wrong with this list is everything that comes after blue. For having 3 extremely recognizable colors as the most common (White, green, and blue), MMOs lack in the consistency department beyond that. Why is it that so many games take the later colors and fiddle with them, forcing a player to learn what late-level colors mean what again?

Part of this is an attempt to feel different from the horde of its peers. Everyone knows that green and blue are magic items because of World of Warcraft and Diablo, and developers would be foolish to change these colors.. But in three separate games, you can have gold, orange, brown, and purple for uniquely named items. It's an altogether frustrating practice that can render higher levels confusing, especially if you are playing, say, Dungeon Runners, World of Warcraft, and Mythos all around the same time.

The other big part of it is that it is assumed that a lot of gamers never see these end items. And, indeed, a lot of gamers don't. The legendary items can afford to be different colors in different games because, it is assumed, only a fraction of everyone who buys the game will be patient and perseverant enough to obtain theme. And while this is quite true, it doesn't excuse the changing of colors.

So please, developers, set up a revised, consistent standard. Even just purple for legendary and gold for unique would be lovely and cut down on the confusion a great deal. Because in the end, the greater ease of transition between MMO interfaces will bring in tons of new and veteran players alike to enjoy a good game of whack-the-baddie.

Each week James Murff writes Under The Hood, a deeper look at MMO game mechanics and how they affect players, games, and the industry

Tags: dr, dungeon-runners, featured, features, mythos, under-the-hood, uth, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (3)

Why would they set up a content standard?

Most MMO gamers I know and play with only play 1 MMO at a time and part of the fun of playing is getting to know the different ins and outs of the game. Those, who play multiple MMOs know there will be differences between games.

Your post is like asking that the developers of FPS games to standardize the powerfulness of weapons so that they line up the same place on the 0-9 keys on a keyboard. These are different companies offering different products and there is no reason for cross-game consistency other than convenience.

Let me explain what would happen if there was a forced content standard: it would not stop with MMOs. If there was to be a standard, other non-MMOs with similarities to MMOs (think Oblivion, etc) would eventually also be streamlined to 'make things easier'. There would be a decline in diversity.

And, can we not agree that there needs to be an increase in MMO diversity? Let them color items however they want as long as there is a logical progression.

PS: Your post kind of comes off as whiny. Just switch MMOs?

The problem is that most FPS games do have that. I personally call it the "power progression" and you can bet that it'll go from a melee weapon at 1 to a sniper rifle (or variant thereof) at 0. Some shooters (for example, Half-life and company) change this up slightly, but the progression is still mostly the same. They (Valve) just realized that using 1-5 with multiple weapons on each number is easier on the fingers than 1-0 with one weapon on each number.

This isn't a cry for a content standard in all MMOs, as that would be silly. It's more of a cry for MMOs that use the first two quality colors (Green and Blue) to standardize their coloration for the more powerful items. A half-standardization doesn't make much sense.

Reply

I'm not sure that inconsistent colours are the problem. What WoW gets right, basically, are intuitive, clear, iconic tooltips for items that are informative but easy to read.

EQ2's, by contrast, are a bit of a jumbled mess. LotRO's are a bit better but still lack that overt clarity.

I think an informal standardising of how tooltips are displayed would be a bit of a better idea. Large coloured text for the name, white text for the prime stat boosts, smaller coloured text for boosts to things like regen or attack power.

It works, and I think the colours themselves are easily adapted to without much confusion. Just put a tutorial tooltip at the beginning of the game. "You have discovered your first rare item! Colour indicates how rare it is in the following order..."