History Main / EnoughToGoAround

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', when you pick up a single firearm lying around, you suddenly have enough copies for all current and future squadmates who are proficient with a given weapon class.

However, as logically absurd as this is, it's definitely an [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality Acceptable Break From Reality]]. If you have hundreds of thousands or even millions of players, allowing only one person in the entire game world to complete a quest vital for advancement would be seen grossly unfair. Just check out this trope's opposite, LootDrama, for proof that TropesAreNotBad.

* The first ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' avoided this, mostly. Unless you exploited a few of the GoodBadBugs, items like the Cassus Fett armor or the Circlet of Saresh were one of a kind. In the sequel, Obsidian took over and randomized the loot, which could lead to some accidental [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Crowning Moments Of Funny]] as you'd end up with a few dozen copies of something like Jolee's robes.

* Particularly odd in ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'', in which the player character suffered from this. The introduction/tutorial for the Defiant faction has the player in the far future at [[ApocalypseHow the end of the world]]. As the last survivor, they are gifted great power and sent back in time... where they immediately encounter hundreds of other "last survivors". To make matters worse, the first couple of NPCs you talk to actually comment on what an amazingly unique character you are, but after that no-one ever comments on how almost the entire faction consists of people all in exactly the same unique and unreproducible situation.

** Possibly subverted in the same. For the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj event, only one player could actually complete the quest to open the gates. This player was thusly awarded a unique mount, the only one on the server.

** Is it an initiation ceremony where you have re-enact the founding of the order?

[[folder:MMORPGs]]

* The first ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' avoided this, mostly. Unless you exploited a few of the GoodBadBugs, items like the Cassus Fett armor or the Circlet of Saresh were one of a kind. In the sequel, Obsidian took over and randomized the loot, which could lead to some accidental [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Crowning Moments Of Funny]] as you'd end up with a few dozen copies of something like Jolee's robes.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', this is par for the course except for the "multiple heads" variation; fortunately, a lot of the "unique" objects are key items and thus invisible to other players. However, the quest to unlock the Dragoon job is an {{egregious}} example, as every single player is treated as though they are the first to revive the dead tradition of the Dragoon. Even several years after the job's addition to the game, with hundreds of level 75 Dragoons on each server. ''Huh?!''

* ''VideoGame/{{Realmz}}'', an old {{Macintosh}} {{shareware}} RPG, had an especially evil version of this. While the game was single-player, it still had some exceptionally powerful items tagged as "Unique." Multiple copies of these items were present across [[MissionPackSequel various scenarios]], but if you tried to pick another up when you were already carrying one, the game would note that you already have it, causing the item to retroactively vanish.

** but, you know, taking the loot of a guy with a giant sword who either just helped, or completely, took down that giant monster, or didn't and is probably less tired than you are isn't a good idea. So it might be a bit of fridge brilliance. Still wouldn't explain single player.

* There were exactly five of the ring thingies that protected one from the radiation of the big bad in ''PhantasyStarIV''. Thus conveniently explaining why only one of your previous party members could rejoin the main group for the final battle.

* Happens with a few quests in ''[[GaiaOnline zOMG!]]'', such as rescuing Farmer Bill's prize cow. Personal experience includes seeing a half-dozen cows labeled "Stoocie" gathered around Bill after a crew had just turned in the quest. Other supposedly unique items exist only in text, such as Mark's ring and Klaus's "clocken".

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* Very common in ''WorldOfWarcraft'', where one can imagine some unique enemies are not only "really" thousands of people, but that each of those people has ''lots'' of heads.

[[folder: Role-Playing Games ]]

And of course there are also enough Baron Evilpants's to go around so all the following groups can also each kill one.

-->-Margaret Mead (attributed)

** Yet some raid bosses whose bodyparts can be turned in at the correct NPC only ever have one such bodypart. Kael'thas can carry up to 25 vial remnants (which are unique, story-wise), yet the player can only loot 1 verdant sphere (of which he has 3 visible in-game).

* The first ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' novel has this happen with a QuestGiver. A quest consists in part of following a NonPlayerCharacter to a certain location, but everyone is doing it a the same time. As a consequence, each PlayerParty quite visibly has its own copy of the same guy (and if someone who has been so far working alone joins a group, the two copies fuse into one).

* In the Pirate Outfit quest in ''{{Tibia}}'', every player is set the task of assassinating a rival pirate captain [[spoiler:and frame the results by retrieving his favourite pillow and presenting it as evidence]]. You'd think the contractor of the assassination would catch on around the time he'd knee deep in pillows.

* In ''CityOfHeroes'', a [[PlayerCharacter character]] can go through a whole story arc based around retrieving a {{MacGuffin}}, bring it to the mystic Azuria at the end, and be ''immediately'' followed by another [[PlayerCharacter character]] bringing the ''exact'' same unique {{MacGuffin}}.

* In ''Uru: Ages Beyond {{Myst}}'' each age has a different instance for each player due to the difficulty of turning a ''{{Myst}}''-type puzzle game into an MMORPG. An attempt was made to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] this with the [[AWizardDidIt Bahro]]. You can, however, invite other players into your own instance of the age, if you need some help or just to have some company while wandering around.

In multi-player video games, particularly [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMO[=RPGs=]]], it's common for there to be as many copies of a "[[MacGuffin quest item]]" as there are people taking the quest. This trope describes when these [[MacGuffin quest items]] should logically be unique within the world. The most extreme case is probably when this is a specific named individual's ''head'' (heart, liver, pancreas, whatever); it's also common with bits of a unique magical beast or just items that should be impossible to reproduce, such as a specific lost piece of jewelry or an ArtifactOfDoom that canonically can't be made anymore.

** On a more meta level, IVs were created to give each Pokemon a unique "personality", then Abilities and Natures were added for even more diversity. However, once players figured out how to pass on these traits through breeding, most competitive Pokemon of the same species will have the same IVs, moves, Nature, and Ability. So any two of a given Pokemon in the competitive scene will be practically identical.

This can get downright ''silly'' when everyone in your party needs a MacGuffin to complete the quest, so in one "instance" there turn out to be enough copies for each and every one of you. If Sir Bob and his [[{{Five Man Band}} four]] cohorts are on a mission to retrieve the head of [[BigBad Baron Evilpants]], well, you're in luck! Turns out that, while he looks like a normal human being during battle, Evilpants has ''five'' heads! There's EnoughToGoAround! (Actually, most of the time looting someone's head won't actually change their model. One can only assume that Evilpants had five severed heads in his pockets, each of them identical to his own. So, six in total.)

This can be partially [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by portraying each player as functioning with his or her "own" timeline in the larger world (don't even expect a HandWave regarding how these people interact when they're ''outside'' of their quests), but it still doesn't explain how a single instance can yield as many copies of a necessary unique item as there are players going in together. [[BellisariosMaxim Probably best not to ask]]. [[MST3KMantra Seriously, forget I even brought it up]].