Games where you can dispose of useless items - an IFDB Poll

Mike Spivey's A Beauty Cold and Austere had a gray lady guarding a storage bin, where you could ask her if something had served its purpose. If it did, in the bin it went. If it didn't, you may've gotten a vague hint what to do with it.

So this got me thinking, what other games had such a mechanism? It could be an NPC, an item, or (as in BCaA) a combination of both.

This seems particularly useful for games with lots of items. I know a lot of games manage to destroy items once they're no longer useful, which seems like good player-time-saving design for less ambitious games e.g. in a comedy, the stuff you're done with blows up or something, so you aren't confused about a wacky item.

BCaA had several really good reasons not to destroy everything once it was used, since it had some alternate-solution items and also some that could reset a puzzle, so the player knew they weren't missing anything. And I suspect other games have different items/mechanics & I'd love to know of them.

View Comments (3) - Add a comment

	To Hell in a Hamper, by J. J. Guest 2 votes "The entire aim of..." [+]"The entire aim of the game is to dispose of useless items by throwing them out of a balloon. Any items you still need are mysteriously returned to you. (Note: my own game.)" --J. J. Guest... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Vulturous... Vote for this game

	To Sea in a Sieve, by J. J. Guest 2 votes "Same mechanic as the author's To Hell in a Hamper" [+]"Same mechanic as the author's To Hell in a Hamper" ( - Full review) --Tabitha... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Denk... Vote for this game

	And Then You Come to a House Not Unlike the Previous One, by B.J. Best 1 vote "Whenever you..." [+]"Whenever you visit the witch, she will remove any items you don't need from your inventory." () --EJ... Vote for this game

	The Legend of Horse Girl, by Bitter Karella 1 vote "Most items are..." [+]"Most items are destroyed or removed once they've served their purpose." ( - Full review) --EJ... Vote for this game

	How Prince Quisborne the Feckless Shook His Title, by John Ziegler 1 vote "Many ways to burn or dispose of items" [+]"Many ways to burn or dispose of items: You can cast things in the sea, into a privy, into fires, etc. Many objects will deter you if you still need them, but if you pitch something necessary, within a certain # of turns the game will rewind to before that point so the player isn't stuck." --Johnnywz00... Vote for this game

Is there another game that you think should be on this list? Just fill in the title of a game you'd like to vote for.

Poll created on January 2, 2023