In general, it's only seen in games with Randomly Generated Loot, since this ups the possible combinations immensely it also means you can't control an item's sockets, style (IE sword vs spear vs etc) or pre-existing enchantments, and instead have to spend a lot of time adventuring (or Save Scumming) in the hopes of finding that perfect piece of gear. In technical terms, this trope is a modular customization scheme in which you can create gear with any combination of pre-determined qualities you desire. It also meant you lived in fear of socketing a gem and then, on the very next dungeon crawl, uncovering an even better piece of gear that you would've rather saved the gem for. When combined with Randomly Generated Loot (which Diablo also featured), this meant that every piece of EQ you encountered was completely unique, even before you socketed it out.

In the original concept of the trope as presented by Diablo, once a gem was in a socket, the match was permanent and that was the end of the story. Green Rocks) to add more qualities to said piece of equipment: a ruby might add Fire damage (or resistance to fire) a black diamond might add life-drain so on and so forth.

A piece of Socketed Equipment comes with a number of empty 'sockets,' into which can be placed various 'gems' (ie.

Torchlight 2 combine gems