The Daily Grind: Are you an in-game pack rat?
by Krystalle Voecks 
Feb 8th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Humor
Hi everyone. My name is Krystalle Voecks, and I am an in-game pack rat. My bank in World of Warcraft holds tons of random things like tabards, trinkets, and a bunch of holiday clothing that I picked up along the way. In City of Heroes, my vault is maxed out with higher-end salvage which I'm stockpiling for the day when I settle down and start grinding IO Enhancements for the various badges. I'm also generally only one or two spots away from being full on Wentworths' as well. The same holds true in pretty much every MMO I play, from EverQuest to EVE Online. If I have a room, chances are I'm going to hold on to something just in case I can use it later. That said, it seems to be a pretty common problem from what I hear from talking to other players, so I know I'm not alone in holding on to things for sentimental or 'potentially useful someday' reasons. This morning we thought we'd ask just how prevalent this is among MMO players - and Massively readers. Are you also something of an in-game packrat? Do you have lots of things stocked up in case you might use them? Or do you unload anything you can't immediately use via in-game markets or private sales, preferring to keep your storage nice and clean?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lethality said on 8:27AM 2-08-2009
Factually, WoW does not have enough storage to hold even meger collections.
For example, I have collected each tier raid armor set since launch.... I am also a collector of swords (not even every sword I get, but epic and specially named ones).
These 2 alone cause the bank to be extremely unmanageable.
Sometimes items are the only way that signify what you have accomplished in the past, and I think they are worth keeping because of that.
Also, I am positive that at some point Blizzard will put in player housing with a way to display armor and weapons, and I do not want to get rid of them for that reason as well.
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ttvp said on 7:36AM 2-09-2009
I know what you mean. I also can't bear to get rid of things not easily replaced. Unfortunately I probably have the worst pack-rat tendencies of any player in the game.
To give an example, I am level 73, am a quest completionist, and I have yet to throw away/sell a single trinket I've ever received. Ruminate on that.
Another example, I still have http://thottbot.com/i2562 in my bank.
UltimateQ said on 9:04AM 2-08-2009
Definitely not. I can't stand having cluttered bags and bank slots.
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NekoAli said on 9:07AM 2-08-2009
I am such a pack rat, both in real life and in games... And sadly yes, WoW simply doesn't have enough storage space available. Getting tokens, pets and mounts out of the bank/backpack space is a huge boon, but most of my characters by the time they hit 70 are working on 2-3 sets of armor at least. Plus all the items that can't be replaced easily or at all like past rewards. I may never use Benediction again, but I'll never get rid of it.
Then there's crafting materials and consumables. Some characters stockpile things for other characters that are levelling, others stockpile materials or consumables so I never have to worry about running out when I need something. Even going though my bags to aggressively prune out unneeded things and send stuff to bank alts, my main characters are always fighting the battle of the backpack bulge.
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Vulturion said on 11:11AM 2-08-2009
I used to be a pack rat, but it's been so long since an MMO really gripped me that I have become flippant for the last year or two.
Of course I'll sometimes regret chucking stuff out further down the line, but generally I like having nice empty inventories so I can ammass epic hauls of vendor junk - pays for the few things I really wnat.
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Nadril said on 1:46PM 2-08-2009
The only person's who bank is even close to full was my old rogue, just because I didn't want to get rid of the weapons I had enchanted. My mages bank is empty though.
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Box said on 2:20PM 2-08-2009
All my 8 characters in Guild Wars got all their bags close to full and my storage is full too... Lots of booze and sweets should I want to get drunkard or sweet tooth titles...
Same went for WoW when I played that: always too much stuff and insufficient space to hold it all.
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Pingles said on 3:19PM 2-08-2009
In WoW I constantly struggled with Vault space.
When I went to CoH I decided to never keep anything! I have 1 slot used: Merits. I feel so FREE!!!!
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Cray said on 7:55PM 2-08-2009
A dumb question, I don't see how anyone who plays a MMO is not a ratpacker.
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UltimateQ said on 7:27AM 2-09-2009
Well that wasn't really much of a question.
But I'm not. I take up about 10 bag slots with regeants, food, water etc etc. I save offspec gear in my bank in their own bags. That is just about it.
If I get an upgrade I vendor the old item.
kmaurer289 said on 4:47PM 2-09-2009
I do this too, regardless of the MMO. In Tabula Rasa I have to shuffle things around between clones and the shared storage locker. With the crafting system there I'm always getting items and extracting the enhancers and saving them, and keeping the best of the various base items at different level grades. Never know when I am going to want to slot something new!
In City of Heroes I end up using one of the storage racks in my supergroup's base, my personal vault and my market slots all because I want to have what I need to build that next IO, or that next add-on for the base without having to buy it for thousands (maybe millions) of INF from the market.
And our supergroup tends to do the same.
But I DO play a couple of alts where I have decided to packrat INF rather than items. Let someone else buy it off of me. I won't be needing IOs until I reach my 40's anyways... if then. It isn't until level 47+ that I start really coveting the sets and IOs... that's when there is no other way of getting things slotted higher... :)
But yes, I am a packrat... luckily I am a alt-a-holic, too... so I can spread it out until I clog all those character slots up. ;)
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