Cosmetic Game Items
Game Items that differ from other game items solely based on their cosmetic characteristics.
When players have the possibility to create characters in games, and the surroundings they inhabit, they often wish to beautify or distinguish these in various ways. While this may be achieved to a certain degree by choosing any game items to wear or furnish that looks different from others, Cosmetic Game Items provide an extra level of this by providing variety for the same type of functional game items, or by providing extra game items that exist only for this purpose.
Contents
Examples
The Sims series lets players personalize their sims' appearances to a high degree, including giving them clothing and jewelry. These do not provide any system benefits but provide players with a wide range of possibilities. While all furniture in the games do provide benefits or the possibilities of performing actions, tiles and wallpaper do not even if they vary in price depending on their appearance.
Entering body shops in the Grand Theft Auto series to change colors of one's car is not only done to escape the attention of the legal authorities; it can simple be because one wants a new color.
Shirts and tabards worn in World of Warcraft do not affect gameplay but only the appearance of the characters that wear them. Many of the game items in Entropia Universe likewise do not have to have any gameplay value but can still be sought after items in trading.
Players of FarmVille, Ravenwood Fair, and Zombie Lane can purchase both clothing and ornaments that have no direct gameplay effect, except possibly that the ornaments take up space. Several of the items created in Minecraft, e.g. paintings and books, have no practical value except enable players to create the appearance of various items found in the real world.
Using the pattern
Game-Induced Player Social Status
Achievements Avatars Equipable Items Equipment
Diegetic Aspects
Interface Aspects
Narrative Aspects
Consequences
Cosmetic Game Items
Relations
Can Instantiate
with ...
Can Modulate
Can Be Instantiated By
Can Be Modulated By
Possible Closure Effects
Potentially Conflicting With
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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Acknowledgements
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