History Main / LootDrama

* The Korean server of {{Elsword}} had a very interesting version of this. When the Dragon Knight avatar set came out, it was considered worthless since Avatars are mainly used for aesthetic value and not straight up power. Almost nobody got it even though it was a limited edition avatar set. The producers, in turn, decided to split the avatar in two versions: Darkside (The Original, Red one) and Abaddon (The Recolored, Blue one). The demand for the set increased, but not by much, until the producers said, one day before the release of the Abaddon version, that they'd make a new version of the hair part of the set as well, without a helmet. Suddenly, the demand for both versions of the set (Abaddon especially) skyrocketed. The helmetless abaddon version's price went beyond the in-game cap for market prices, forcing players to sell it by trade. By [[CrackIsCheaper 1.2 Billion ED, no less]]. It got so ridiculous that the producers had to make both versions available again in the cash shop for triple the original time to stabilize the price. [[CrackIsCheaper Crack is still cheaper, though.]]

* In DotHackSign, the minor character A-20 is trying to get an item known as "The Golden Grunty". Her character is very low level, and completely incapable of obtaining it on her own; she manages to rope [[{{Tsundere}} Mimiru]] into going with her, in spite of the fact that there are very serious and real things going on. Mimiru eventually gets fed up dealing with A-20 and leaves her in the dungeon alone, but goes back at the end and finally helps her reach the dungeon's treasure room. They acquire the Golden Grunty, and Mimiru is excited, because it will raise a character's stats by a huge amount. In an inversion, though, both A-20 and Mimiru insist the other to take it. Eventually, Mimiru convinces A-20 to keep it, and try the game for a little longer.

* In SwordArtOnline, there were several instances of PlayerKilling over rare drops and one episode revolved around a crooked guild trying to extort a rare item from a lower-level player.

Compare ArtifactOfDoom and McGuffin, fictional plot devices that share many similar properties.

* In ''VideoGame/RuneScape'', the Lootshare and Coinshare systems are made to mitigate this. Lootshare distributes the dropped items to all players fairly evenly, and Coinshare converts most valuable drops into gold and distribute it exactly equally, but with a 5% gold deduction. If you don't have either on, the loot will go to the one who dealt the most damage. Since some untradeable or unique drops such as charms will be lost if either systems are active, there is still potential for LootDrama.
** Played straight for the wand of treachery - after all, it is [[ShoutOut based on]] the [[Literature/HarryPotter Elder Wand]].

* OlderThanTelevision: [[TheLordOfTheRings The War of the Ring]].

** The original [[LordOfTheRings One Ring]] movie prop which the four main characters greedily fight for, replaying the corruption of Smeagol.

** Let's take this moment to put some rough numbers to the trope. According to SquareEnix, as of 2009 the game hosted over 2 million characters in 20 [[ClassAndLevelSystem jobs]], of which 6 can use Ridill. According to [[http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Jobs/Job_Distribution_Statistics the game's wiki]] ([[TheWikiRule of course it has one]]), as of 2008 those six jobs were played by 30% of characters, resulting in 600,000 characters trying to get one. Meanwhile, Fafnir has been fightable since April 2003. Assuming it drops Ridill [[LiesToChildren precisely once a month]] and that all 16 current servers were available from launch, there are ''at most'' 1648 Ridills available to the 600,000 characters that want one[[hottip: (as of Mar '12):Add +16 to this number for every month that has passed since then]]. See the ConflictBall now?

* ''RagnarokOnline'' is probably the king of this trope. Almost every monster/boss/etc. in the game has a chance to drop a card, which can be compounded into compatible equipment types to give special benefits to their users. Some cards are vital in the creation of some classes, while others can be flat-out gamebreaking. The bottom line, however, is that the base drop rate for most cards is 1/10000. Ten-flipping-thousand. But hey, at least combat is quicker in RO than other [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMORPGs]], right? Right?

*** And with the recent introduction of the Juju mask, Vivala masks sank significantly in price. Hooray for power inflation.

* Completely and utterly crushed in GuildWars2, since all loot tables are personal. NinjaLooting is absolutely impossible : if you don't get the stuff you want, the only one to blame is the RNG.

* One of the possible Haunts in ''BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'' is "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Treasure Hunt]]". Rather than having a Traitor face off against the other players, everyone fights each other inside the now-booby-trapped mansion to be the first to claim said treasure.

* One of the possible Haunts in ''BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'' is "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Treasure Hunt]]". Rather than having a Traitor face off against the other players, it is a deliberately invoked Loot Drama taking place inside an old, booby-trapped mansion as everyone fights each other to be the first to claim said treasure.

* One of the possible Haunts in ''BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill' is "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Treasure Hunt]]". Rather than having a Traitor face off against the other players, it is a deliberately invoked Loot Drama taking place inside an old, booby-trapped mansion as everyone fights each other to be the first to claim said treasure.

** The "Sword of Azeroth" rare drop in their WorldOfWarcraft game, which one of the players [[NinjaLooting steals only so he can sell on eBay.]]

**** Back in vanilla, multiple guilds fell apart due to infighting over who would get the incredibly rare drop of Baron Rivendare's Charger. Using it in public was also a known cause of the owner getting hounded and harassed by less lucky players. Yes, you could feel loot drama from players ''who didn't even play with you.''

* In TheGuild, a web series about people who play an MMORPG together, the group finds a rare item. Both Tink and Clara want it, and are engaged in bartering for it, [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom when Clara's children distract her]], causing the guild leader to give the item to Tink. Clara gets upset, and sets up a secondary account to PK the guild leader's character out of revenge in secret. When it's eventually revealed that she was the one who kept killing him, it caused a temporary rift among the guildmembers.

* ''FinalFantasyXI'': Ridill, the former trope namer, is a sword usable by six jobs that has a frequently occurring chance of additional attacks in a given attack round. It is dropped by Fafnir, a "notorious monster" on a 21-to-24-hour spawn timer (except every 4-10 days, when something else spawns in his place). The drop rate on Ridill is hard to quantify with a percentage, but exceptionally low; The "average" estimate is about 5%. And it is the source of a vast majority of the drama in the game. There are also several other items that actually have lower proliferation rates, but due to their specialized and not-so-glorious benefits, don't really cause as much drama.