[MUD-Dev] SOC: Will company sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity?

[Jaycen Rigger]

Matt Mihaly <matt at ironrealms.com> wrote:

> The opposite is true. Players that will buy things TEND to be less
> customer service intensive. They tend to whine less. Unlike you, I
> can back this up with actual experience. When given the choice
> between a teenager with no job and a bazillion hours a week of
> free time on his hands, or a professional with just a little free
> time but more money, I'm going for the latter every time. How do I
> know?  I'm not just speculating, like you are.

That's very nice.  I appreciate your cheerful attitude and
disposition.

I do indeed have a great deal of experience with customer service
and these games.  I've been a Game Master/Admin on 3 different
servers over the last 7 years.  My experience might not be as vast
as yours (you didn't give a number or time), and I didn't get paid
for it (which no doubt makes you special), but I do have experience.
I suppose since I am doing it out of the love of the game, and not
for cash, then my attitude is different than yours is.  Go figure.

> Cheating is playing against the rules. Once a practice isn't
> against the rules, it's not cheating. Guess what? You don't set
> the rules. The developer/publisher does.

That's where you are so very wrong.  If you're getting paid for what
you do, then you have made a collosal mis-judgement.  Your CUSTOMERS
decide what is cheating.  Oh sure, YOU could decide, but then you'd
go out of business, eventually.

> Huh, you mean like, "It's stupid because if everyone can level up
> by just hitting the kill monster button over and over, and all
> it's doing is canceling the effect of a slower skill gain, then
> why have it at all?" Your logic leads to requiring no time to be
> put into the game either.

Yes!  You got my point.  If you, as a developer, spend your time
cancelling out your own game systems, then you should just spend
less time on developing your game.  I thought I said that, anyway...

> *panic* THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!

I'm not exactly sure why you feel like I was attacking you.  I
didn't say the end is near, I'm just trying to get everyone to think
about the big picture.

> A fascist state. Well, if we were talking about states, that might
> make sense. But since we're talking about games, let's drop the
> hyperbole and stop pretending SOE announced they're going to steal
> your children and sell them to gypsies shall we?

In fact, Matt, we are talking about states.  The virtual world is a
community, a state.  If you don't get that, and if you don't get
that political ideals apply to those communities, you might be in
the wrong business.

> It does? How interesting. I played WoW and started with 5 gold,
> courtesy of a rl resource (friend) who twinked me out. Did
> everyone start out with this out-of-game resource (higher level
> friends). I guess you must be one of these people who advocates
> banning people from interacting with rl friends, since such
> interaction creates unequal footings between players?

Yes, it does, Matt.  No, if you did something in-game, then you
don't fall under my category for cheating.  Maybe I'm just not
communicating myself clearly.

> You spent time to acquire power/wealth/stuff. Others will spend
> money. And again, your hubris is misplaced. You don't define
> cheating.

Well, hubris is pride or arrogance.  I think that all of us define
cheating.  I don't hold the franchise on defining cheating, but I do
get a say in it.

Thanks,

Jaycen
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