3 ms·

working for an MMO company, I've come to the conclusion that there are a significant number of people who enjoy the current MMO model. I compare it somewhat to

working for an MMO company, I've come to the conclusion that there are a significant number of people who enjoy the current MMO model. I compare it somewhat to crack cocaine (yeah, real creative, right?); you can complain all you want about how addictive it is and how it ruins peoples' lives, but while they're smoking it, they sure do feel good. Some people do it for the high, while some people do it to numb the pain and hardship of their real life. There are a large number of people who agree with you, including me, but the bottom line is that the MMO grinding model works for the objective of keeping subscribers. Some people get frustrated, some people just hate the mechanics, but you can manage to keep the several hundred thousand subscribers you need to be profitable. You can't please everyone, so why not just please a particular niche market? The only downside is that MMO gamers are very, very, very, very, very whiny and hard to please, you could blame this on the fact that most MMOs are cookie-cutter clones of each other and thus gamers can easily get in a fit when their class is nerfed and join your competitor's game, without having to worry about actually playing a different game. Some people just really /do/ want a 'second job' doing raids three or more times a week and dumping hundreds of hours of their life into a game.

greyman 18y ago
Ok, thanks for explanation. Can I have one more question - why exactly do you disallow or don't like bots?
- nihilocrat 18y ago
  It actually depends on which game you are talking about, but it's true that the majority of MMO makers are very anti-bot. Undoubtedly, Blizzard is not having an issue with botting itself, they are having an issue with a tool which can be used for gold farming (see: Bittorrent). The various forms of fraud that gold farming shops use to get accounts (such as credit card fraud) result in non-trivial amounts of chargebacks; I can't name figures, but MMO companies lose enough money from fraudulent players, namely farmers, that combating them justifies the hiring of full-time fraud specialists. Players, and probably moreso, game designers are also interested in combating farmers in order to maintain the 'purity' of their in-game economy. I guess what I'm basically saying is that gold farming is the real enemy in this battle. Players and designers could also be bothered that bots allow players to make progress in the game without actually having to put in the time to play, but this plays second fiddle to gold farming.

greyman 18y ago

Ok, thanks for explanation. Can I have one more question - why exactly do you disallow or don't like bots?

nihilocrat 18y ago
It actually depends on which game you are talking about, but it's true that the majority of MMO makers are very anti-bot. Undoubtedly, Blizzard is not having an issue with botting itself, they are having an issue with a tool which can be used for gold farming (see: Bittorrent). The various forms of fraud that gold farming shops use to get accounts (such as credit card fraud) result in non-trivial amounts of chargebacks; I can't name figures, but MMO companies lose enough money from fraudulent players, namely farmers, that combating them justifies the hiring of full-time fraud specialists. Players, and probably moreso, game designers are also interested in combating farmers in order to maintain the 'purity' of their in-game economy. I guess what I'm basically saying is that gold farming is the real enemy in this battle. Players and designers could also be bothered that bots allow players to make progress in the game without actually having to put in the time to play, but this plays second fiddle to gold farming.