Getting a reward, yes, but it is the drama of tit/tat risk/reward that is an MMO staple. There is no standard for such in gaming in general to the level that MMOs antagonize over.
It is a common aspect of MMOs, a design focus and goal and a much lamented aspect of their design. You can argue some games and people attended to such, but it wasn't a standard, a staple of design as it is today. Loot-centric gaming is specific to that timeline of games.
The thing is, the loot system as it is *is* set up quite a lot like the MMORPGs I've played. Last time I played Champions there were quests that didn't give rewards, long raids that gave you nothing, and long stretches where you were using underleveled items. That's sort of how D:OS is working right now. In fact, I'd argue that the randomness and frequency and importance of loot drops in D:OS makes it loot-centric by its very nature, in the same vein as Diablo, albeit without the grind.
Look at the arguments. They want loot to be tailored to their character, always useful to their makeup. They think because they showed up, they deserve a prize. Yes, expecting to be rewarded for every encounter, for every step of play, as you think you deserve is... that mentality. The reward for applying effort to beat an encounter is not a reward, they want something shiny, because shiny is their focus, they have to have their trophy for just being or it isn't worth the effort to them. It is that mentality, that focus, that goal which has resulted in games that are all flashy gimmicks with lots of rewards, little challenge, little effort required.
As I said, the concept of "A hard days work is its own reward." is an alien concept. The reward is the game play, the effort, the failure and eventual success. It is the "all about loot" focus of this generation which has led to the decline of games as they sacrifice game play for cheap shiny trinkets. Loot focused play and design is a staple of MMO games, one of the most popular genres in the past decade. It isn't a surprise its design goals are favored by mainstream.
Edit:
Note I am not arguing that loot should not exist. I am making the point that loot is not the main focus, that the arguments here that loot should be balanced for everyone in the party and for every event of an equal proportion, etc...
That misses the entire point of RPG gaming.
There's a lot of middle ground here, and this thread is a lot of people coming at the issue with varying degrees of extremism. I agree that a loot system that caters exactly to the player's every need is ultimately unrewarding. I also think that the loot system as it is is very flawed. There's an ideological middle ground somewhere here that I think we could find that would be satisfying to most players.
There's a difference between "kill dragon, get his hoard" and "kill dragon, get an item drop that's specifically tailered to suit your character cause we can't have a drop that might be more suitable for other types of builds" though.
Yep, also the "dragon hoard" was a list of numerous items to which the GM rolled a dice to see what items were present. Though these are the little things people forget about gaming systems.
Can you imagine how the loot tables would be in the back of the module if the games were all about this proclaimed "tailored" focus? Instead of a D-100 roll out of a table of items, it would be a decision tree of: Is party member a warrior (yes/no), is the warrior a single handed or dual wielding (yes/no), is the warriors alignment (good/evil/etc....), is the warriors... etc.. etc...
/facepalm
Actually, in my experience GMs either don't use the loot systems present in the manuals, made up classless item, or make sure that there's an item or two the character can actually use available for purchase. I've never had a GM who neglected players on the principle of chance.
