Carrying the Equivalent of a Shop in Your Inventory
Developers generally use limited inventory spaces to force players to make conscious decisions about what to use and what to leave behind for good. Survival horror games like Resident Evil 2 do a good job of aggregating how much someone would realistically be able to carry in such a situation, but inventory systems in most RPGs blow it out of proportion to such a degree that it becomes absolutely comical. Your character in Skyrim only has a few small pouches and a horse mount to store their goods, but they can carry treasure chests worth of gold and food that’s more than enough to feed an entire family for days. And that’s all on top of all the heavy weapons, armor sets, and potions in your inventory. How it’s all possible from a logical perspective is simply beyond me.
