You finally dropped that dragon.  The raid leader unlocks the chest to find several pieces of armor you’ve never seen before.  An auction is opened and you quickly scan the other members of the raid to figure out how much you should bid to pick up the new armor.  The winner is called out - it’s you!  A window appears asking if you want to accept the no trade loot from the raid leader.  You choose yes.  Everyone crowds around you to see the new armor - “put it on!” and “let us see it” they say.  You open your inventory and click on the new armor.  The icon suggests it’s an appropriate blood red colored breastplate.  You equip the armor.

“HAHA - It’s PINK!!!”, someone shouts in voice chat. 

…

With cutting edge graphics eating up more and more of the system costs for our MMO gaming experiences these days, why is it that some of these “next gen” games still haven’t gotten around to providing ways to better help accessorize?  Big Daddy Warcraft figured it out a while ago, while other games (such as my beloved Everquest 2) are still doddering around in the virtual dark ages of online fashion.

You just bid the points it took you weeks or even months of raiding on an item that you never saw.  Think about that for a moment.  Would you wander over to eBay and bid any real amount of money on new clothes if there was no picture?  How would you feel if the picture online didn’t match the jeans you just pulled out of the UPS box?  What if the next time you go to the store to buy a new coat, they take your measurements at the door and then ask you to pay for the coat …and only show you the coat after you hand over the cash?

It doesn’t make much sense to me, either. 

We need a way to preview items in Everquest 2 before we commit to clicking on “accept”.  Whether it be new furniture for our homes we’re thinking about buying from the broker or whether it’s a new breastplate that drops in a group, having a preview button should be standard functionality at this point. 

This is hardly a new idea.  It’s certainly not my idea.  But it still annoys me nightly.  I know I’m not the only one, either.