If the objects are not represented anywhere, they might as well not exist. Why pickup a McGruffin that goes into mallet space? It might as well be a switch or a password at that point. Every time an object comes from nowhere the game becomes a little more abstracted, and a little less immersive.
This is not to say abstracted games can be fun. Look at Pong and Tetris. But if you are trying to build a world where things make sense like reality, and not playing things for comedy like the N64 rpgs, then abstracting items away is not a good solution. The better solution is to make the items unnecessary and provide a different justification for the path, or just accept that there will be McGruffins in the players inventory.
Abstraction vs. Simulation
Game Play vs Verisimilitude.
If the objects are not represented anywhere, they might as well not exist. Why pickup a McGruffin that goes into mallet space? It might as well be a switch or a password at that point. Every time an object comes from nowhere the game becomes a little more abstracted, and a little less immersive.
This is not to say abstracted games can be fun. Look at Pong and Tetris. But if you are trying to build a world where things make sense like reality, and not playing things for comedy like the N64 rpgs, then abstracting items away is not a good solution. The better solution is to make the items unnecessary and provide a different justification for the path, or just accept that there will be McGruffins in the players inventory.