Ravenwood - 03/26/07 06:00 AM
I haven't played World of Warcraft, or for that matter any other Blizzard game since Diablo II. Aside from not really having time to play games anymore, I don't like the way Blizzard manages their online universe.
In WoW, it seems, Blizzard has been locking players out for "power leveling". That is the practice of using hacks and cheats to advance in the game very quickly. The practice would let you start at level 10 or 20, instead of painstakingly working your way up there through hours of game play.
Blizzard has long been known for cracking down on online cheats. Years ago when I played Diablo and Diablo II, the same cheats were available. Through hacks and cheats you could give yourself the best armor, the best spells, and level yourself up to where you don't get killed and have to repeatedly start over. Yeah it's cheating, but without any weapons or spells your hamstrung with a club and a robe trying to beat skeletons to death for a few hours.
I figured as long as you weren't killing or tormenting other players, or ruining anyone elses gaming experience why should Blizzard care? But they do care. Blizzard wants you to play the game their way. And if you don't, they don't want you to play at all.
Imagine if Parker Brothers banned you from playing Monopoly because you put $500 on Free Parking. Altering or coming up with "house rules" is common for board games. But for some reason when you play online, gaming companies don't want you to amend their rules. They want you to spend a month working your way through the game instead of solving it in an afternoon.
Well I don't have a month, and I don't have time for Blizzard. Bottom line is that it's just a game. And as long as someone isn't ruining someone elses gaming experience, they need to let them play. So what if they start at level 20 instead of level 1?
It's not like playing at your house in an MMORPG. It is more like playing at a casino. This isn't a deal like $500 on Free Parking, this is like saying that for you the dealer has to hit to 18.
Posted by: Phelps at March 26, 2007 10:14 PMPhelps,
That's not it at all. Levelling up doesn't change the rules of the game or affect other's game play. It's more like changing $100 and getting $1000 worth of chips. And since you're playing the house, it still shouldn't matter to other players. As far as they know you bought $1000 worth of chips.
And even if they know you didn't, it doesn't affect them at all. Their complaints are just based on envy.
When it comes to this kind of hacking/cheating you are only cheating yourself. So what's the problem?
Posted by: Ravenwood at March 27, 2007 7:32 AMYou pay another person to do the shitty WORK of that awful game for you. Blizzard should just sell high level characters.
Posted by: DaveJ at March 27, 2007 10:52 AMThe characters are owned by Blizzard, as are the servers, databases, and data involved in them. As a result, the practice of selling characters is a pretty plain and obvious violation of law : you can't sell something you don't own.
As to why Blizzard does, as opposed to why Blizzard can? Because players at level 20 with only 1 level of actual experience is an effective hazard -- with any team-based game a player with no real game experience can get an entire team killed multiple times.
It's much closer to someone else selling fake Monopoly money and cards; not only is it a violation of copyright law, it can easily make things significantly less fun for other people playing the game.
Posted by: gattsuru at March 27, 2007 6:47 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1.99K - 2K7
