Where did the colors for item rarity originate?

Question

I've played a few different RPG type games where item rarity was denoted by the same colors: white, green, blue, purple, and orange. Where did this system originate?

EDIT Maybe it's just World of Warcraft and Borderlands that use this exact scheme. I figured it must be older than WoW though.

Asked by Craig P. Motlin

Answer

The color scheme you refer to is probably most famous due to it being what's used for World of Warcraft, where, in order of increasing rarity:

grey < white < green < blue < purple < orange < red/beige (developer items only).

I'm not sure that that schema is that common though -- Blizzard's own diablo II used grey < white < blue < yellow < purple (I think), and games like Torchlight (grey < white < green < blue < orange < purple) vary slightly.

Actually, both of those are slightly flawed comparisons, because in diablo II, green items were used as "set" items, beige were "unique" (only a single copy could drop per game). Bottom line -- I think the trend is more varied than you think.

Answered by Raven Dreamer

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