What Do You Think Of RPG's And Item Durability In Like Oblivion?

I personaly do find it a pain in the ass, repair is way too hard to do yourself or takes all your money up from an NPC. It stops me in Fallout from using something like the T-51b armour or the Tesla Cannon. Although it does add slight realism 

It makes sense.

Item degredation rarely, if ever, adds to a game in my opinion. Sure, it makes sense, and adds realism, but its unwanted realism. If all I wanted was realism, why am I playing a video game?

I honestly don't mind it.  Gives me an excuse to get back out there and explore new areas for items and the like in order to keep my equipment up and going.  If it was in a game where I detested exploration, I'd probably get irritated by it.

Hate it, especially in oblivion where I found my weapons seemed to degrade in quality rather quickly and as they degraded in quality so did the level of damage they dealt and with the NPC enemy leveling in that game it was annoying as hell.

I have yet to see a series of gameplay mechanics that has done item durability, in a manner that hasn't been a pain in the ass.
It's one of those things that's supposed to add realism, but by contrast, simply adds more headaches than genuine moments of fun. To be quite honest, I was blown away that Fallout 3 had item degeneration. I'm pretty sure the fist two games sure as hell didn't have it, of all the things that were left over by Oblivion, weapon and item health were two things I had thought would have been scrapped. Not expanded on.

It's not surprising that such a mechanic actually broke the incentive to finish a main side quest and get the supposed best armor in the game, aka the T-51b power armor. In what was probably a way of apologizing for not playtesting their game, the T-51b Winterized power armor from Operation Anchorage is still bugged last time I checked, and doesn't degrade at all.

I think it's an archaic mechanic. I never felt like I was scavenging while playing Fallout 3, and I never felt...whatever I was supposed to feel playing Oblivion...

Hate it.

It makes the game feel more real, but I hate it with a passion.

I dislike having to keep my weapon "maintenanced".  It really sucks when you've been fixing a weapon, only to find a better one sooner or later.

Item durability is a fucking pain in the ass, especially in games as ass-backwardly designed as Oblivion where it's stupid hard just to navigate the goddamn menus to repair the thing.

Overall I dislike it intensely, but tolerated it in Fallout 3 because it was done in a slightly less invasive fashion, it was less difficult to repair stuff and a lot more intuitive. However, I wouldn't even fathom playing that game without upping your repair skill, I would probably want to kill myself as repairing weapons and armor costs so much money it's a wonder you'd even survive without the ability to self repair.

In oblivion I always had 100 repair hammers with me so i didint have problems with stuff breaking.

It really annoyed me in the original STALKER (didn't play Clear Sky). In the vanilla version, stuff couldn't be repaired at all. Who thought this was a good idea?

For me it depends on how it's done.  Sometimes all it is is a distraction. But like in Diablo it actually adds character to the weapon or item.  It gives it depth and makes me not focus on a single item so much, but instead maybe a few weapons with some standbys if the primary weapon gets worn down too much.  In Daggerfall it doesn't seem to have a whole lot to do with the game, but it's kind of fun to think I'm doing the RPG equivalent of washing laundry; it triggers something in my brain that tells me that this world is a bit more alive, even though it's an illusion.

I don't mind wear-and-tear at all, as long as it adds depth.  I'm sorta wondering if Borderlands will have something similar, although my guess is probably not.

Agree with what was said above. It doesn't add any entertainment value and should die.

It depends on the game.
System Shock needs it.
STALKER needs it.
Fallout does not need it.
Arcanum does not need it.

I don't feel that it adds anything positive to the game, so I'd like to see games skip it.

I really don't have a problem with it as long as it makes sense.  I can see a cheap weapon needing maintenance more often than a more expensive weapon, but if within the game, they require the same level of upkeep then I am against that.  And, über magical weapons shouldn't have any maintenance requirements.  

Guns need bullets, bows need arrows, so banging on some dude in armor will probably require you to sharpen the blade from time to time.

I don't really have a problem with it in any game I've played except Fallout 3.  Not being able to repair without a similar weapon is an interesting concept, but pretty annoying in practice.  Of course, you can pay the merchants to repair it, but the maximum they can repair to is like 90%(?) I believe.

I really enjoyed it in Morrowind. Always carried a single hammer or such in order to repair a shield or sword.
Other than that, if I can't fix it myself I don't want it in my game.

I don't mind it but only so long as it's not done to the extent where I am always repairing my weapons every few dungeons. While I think it makes a small, interesting addition to some games I found that even Oblivion took the idea of item durability over the edge for me.

It really doesn't bother me much at all.

most games with item Durability can be gamed so much that it doesnt matter

In oblivion I barely noticed it but then again I always carried 20+ swords with me for various reasons and 4 sets of clothes (casual town ware, dark brotherhood listener, dark cowl of nocturne (is that right? Been so long since I used it but the theives guild dude) and my proper heavywieght armour (slash my mule armour).

Even if I stuck to one set of armour and one sword I never noticed it, every now and then when I was looking at my inventory id see it say 80 and either go back to town or repair it myself from my couple hundred spair repair hammers.

In Fallout 3 is was a lot more noticable but I tended to use the gun of the enemies I fought so ammo and state rarely became an issue since I always combine weapons in my inventory to save space anyways.

Or to put it in better words: The moment Item durability keeps you from enjoying the use of powerful equipment, or even keeps you from using it at all, it should be removed from the game.

" Hate it, especially in oblivion where I found my weapons seemed to degrade in quality rather quickly and as they degraded in quality so did the level of damage they dealt and with the NPC enemy leveling in that game it was annoying as hell. "

Yes, it is usually a pain in the ass, but never a game-breaker.

I think its unnecessary. It adds an added layer of frustration that just bugs me. It just detracts from the fun of the game.