There are a number of different parts of a modern big game like Skyrim. You create and develop your character, you explore, you fight, you meet and befriend allies, collude with strangers, and bear witness to the strange behavior exhibited by the people who populate the world (see earlier posts), you enact the story and experience its unfolding events, you get lost among the myriad of side-quests, and generally just forge your own journey from humble beginnings to savior and hero.

And then there’s item management, lots and lots of item management.

Item micromanagement, even. Too much, one might argue. Except that items are fun and meaningful. Looting is delightful. Sort of. Occasionally. Actually, not as much or as often as one might assume, not when you’re well into the game. At that point much of it is more like a unnecessary chore you’re somehow still compelled to do, a fleeting reward at best. There’s just so much items and loot, and most of it isn’t particularly useful or valuable, though enough of it is to make it difficult to ignore.

To make matters worse, there are obstacles in your path of dealing with items, most notably the weight limit and the cash limit at merchants, pushing the player to perform additional dreary actions, like having to put a quest on hold just to go sell some items, or having to visiting several merchants in a row because you have more items than a single merchant can afford. I’ve seen people hoarding piles of items in their in-game home. It‘s an understandable restriction, in order to prevent the player from growing rich and powerful too easy and fast, and maybe to add some realism, but as a side effect there is even more focus and time spent on item management.

There is also the ever present option and incentive to switch back and forth between items for some minor advantage — e.g. equipping the Volsung to get a better price at merchants, and then another item to get better at archery, and another to get better at magic, and so on. Seems ridiculous to pass up on that advantage, but that‘s the problem, that they’ve probably built too much incentive into the game to focus on and micromanage items, and too few constraints. The balance is off.

It should be noted that it‘s not just a matter of amount and frequency, but what kind of tools they implement to let you manage it all — a big deal. For example, the favorites list in Skyrim does make life easier, as does the “to sell” list in Dragon Age, or the ease or difficulty by which you compare items. The better the tools, the less the friction, the more you can throw items at the player without it becoming annoying.

To combat excessive item management I have implemented a rather strict policy of only picking up the most useful or valuable loot, but even so, even leaving the vast majority of the loot, I still sometimes mysteriously end up with more loot than I care for. Heck, even just *checking* loot and not taking any, to make sure you’re not missing out on something good, is annoying. Or for that matter even feeling the *temptation* to check should you decide not to, or even having to consciously decide to create a policy of dealing with items. It disrupts the flow and directs your attention undesirably.

It’s a matter of economics with attention as the currency — you want to spend it where it matters, on the interesting elements, and so you don’t want the game to work against that by directing your attention elsewhere. trying to shove less interesting elements down your throat.

For comparison I think Mass Effect has better system for items, where it’s a meaninful and fun part of the game while being far less intrusive.

All that said, Skyrim‘s item management isn’t terrible by any means, it’s more like part fun and part aggravating, a mixed bag. But that‘s bad enough, especially since the game is pretty great in certain other areas, though truth be told it also pretty bad in others.

And how exactly does the Volsung help procure a more advantageous exchange anyway?

Somewhere in Skyrim: Son, wear this mask and go to the nearest bank and politely ask for a withdrawal.