Of spambots and non-players in MMOs

[ZedOmega]

I was just musing about something the other day.

I'm a regular player of a couple of games on Aeria Games's website (Shaiya, Caesary, and I'll be playing DWO once it's out of beta), and the last time I logged into Shaiya, someone was begging for someone to... well... do the grinding for them.

Instead of actually doing their own grinding, there's a few people in the game who'll do nothing but spam chat with 'WTB plvl x-y pm pls' (Want to buy power-level from Level x to Level y, please PM me with offer). They do this for such long periods of time that between their starting to beg and their logging out, they could've gained at least one or two levels. The only ones worse than these guys are the ones who keep begging for someone to do it for no charge.

Seriously, you're going to download, install and create a character for a game and you want someone else to do the work for you? Fuck you. The whole point of any game is to play it yourself and reap the rewards for your own efforts. If someone were to buy a console game, hand me the controller and say 'here, play this for me, I'll be back in a few hours', I'd throttle them with the cord.

The spambots for gold-farming sites are even worse. Their only purpose is to repeatedly send messages through chat or in the current room doing nothing but telling us how a simple payment of $20 and our login details can get us 10 billion gold in in-game currency. Right, we're just gonna throw our accounts away for the sake of quick virtual money. The game's staff have a funny way of taking care of this, though: every once in a while, the player's market will be filled with golden pigs. These pigs can't attack, run all over the room, and everyone has so much fun just beating up on them. Gotta love the staff's sense of humor...

That's enough outta me, though.

[Hobbs]

I just don't have enough patience for those games. Even though I like FF and Shin Megami games, I don't play them a lot. FPS are better for my usually-cramped schedule, where I don't have to sit around and manage puzzles or level up for hours on end.

[Akasa]

Golden pigs? Do these pigs then drop a lot of money? Seems those who would miss out on the pigs would be screwed.

[ZedOmega]

Golden pigs? Do these pigs then drop a lot of money? Seems those who would miss out on the pigs would be screwed.

I dunno. The only time I saw this, I was too busy laughing my ass off to see what kind of drops they give.

[draggar]

What, no casinos like EQ was (still is?) innundated with?

Yea, I've bought in game cash with real money before but the places that sell it will hand you the cahs in game (they'll have a level 1 player appear in the bazaar - where weight doesn't bog you down) and hand you the platinum.

But - the places I bought from never spammed, never asked for account information (other than the character's name they're going to hand the cash to and the server they're on).

But the spammers usually got added to my /ignore list pretty quickly.

[Red Panda]

I can kind of see the point of people who want somebody else to grind for them, although I never saw the point of playing any game that requires work instead of fun.

[AdminAssistant]

I actually rather like the questing/grinding aspect of WoW...nothing like wiping out 50 boars to make you feel a little bit better.

[Ginger Tea]

nothing like wiping out 50 boars to make you feel a little bit better.

I worked with a guy who used to work in an abbetoir (spelling) and he said he did that once or twice when he was really p***ed ith the world, you could argue its animal curelty, but its still going to be slaughtered anyway

I don't know if that was the reason he no longer worked there or not

And I myself woke from a dream where I murdered some old guys round a board room table, one with steel knitting needles or something like that, woke up very content which I found a bit disturbing at the time, can't remember if they were meant to be yakuza or not.

[ZedOmega]

What, no casinos like EQ was (still is?) innundated with?

They're working on one. I played it through a couple of the test runs they did and it worked out pretty well. Eight-line slot machine game where the double-or-nothing game also worked as a sort of (lack of better way to put it) striptease for each round of the 2x-or-0 you won. The payout schedule suuuuuuucked, though.

I can kind of see the point of people who want somebody else to grind for them, although I never saw the point of playing any game that requires work instead of fun.

I just play it for the stress relief. Grinding = superimposement of most of the people I mention in my threads on SC.

I worked with a guy who used to work in an abbetoir (spelling) and he said he did that once or twice when he was really p***ed ith the world, you could argue its animal curelty, but its still going to be slaughtered anyway

Yeah, but doing it in a game is a lot more socially acceptable. Nowhere near as messy, too. (Of course, this could turn into an argument centering around PETA real quick, so let the record show that I'm not giving up my tasty, tasty bacon anytime soon.)

[Kimmik]

I actually rather like the questing/grinding aspect of WoW...nothing like wiping out 50 boars to make you feel a little bit better.

Nothing like giving mobs names and stabbing the hell out of them... or going back and killing the son of argul.. or that damn stealth trex in ungoro... Damn maintance tues day... *sighs*


But for the record I hate with an unholy passion gold sellers, gold buyers and bots.

[draggar]

I can kind of see the point of people who want somebody else to grind for them, although I never saw the point of playing any game that requires work instead of fun.

The most important part of levelling up your own character is to learn how to play that class. Nothing can kill off a high level party, raid, or other event than a handfull of players who have no idea how to play their class.

Case and point:
In EQ we had a druid class. They did some melee (more than clerics) and were defensive casters (some offensive which made them cool, but I digress). They're not as powerful healers as a cleric, not as powerful in melee as a fighter, and not as powerful with offensive spells as a mage but could fill a gap in the party.

I was in a planar (high level (at the time)) group and we had a druid. The part didn't have a healer so it would have been the druid's role to fill in for the buffer / healer. In other words, keep your ass back, slow monsters, heal, and buff as needed. The occasional DoT (damage over time) spell was a helper. Also to mezmerize aggressive monsters so they didn't assist.

The group's warrior - he pulled and kept agro (monsters attacked him). High (but slow) damage kept them on him so the healer had to keep an eye on him.

I was the rogue - hide, wait until the fight starts, then sneak up, backstab and deal out fast attacks from behind. Add in poison for fun. (And the occasional pick pocket).

Mage - nuke, nuke, and more nuke. Let your pet join in sometimes, too. But don't forget to nuke.

Monk - attack and attack. if they get agro, feign death. Wait, then attack some more.

So now we're at the druid. Do you see the gap? We need the buffer and healer. He only buffed himself and melee'd all the time. Sure, working on melee is nice for a druid if you're redundant but he wasn't.

Hell, the guy didn't even have his Spirit of Wolf spell (a haste spell that ALL druids get due to the overly high demand - people pay to have it cast on you). and when we complained about his lack of buffing and healing he claimed he never had to before - we were just a bad group. Of course, he got really defensive when we called him eBay (meaning he bought the high level character - most likely from eBay).

Sure enough, after two group wipes we kicked him out and got ourselves a good replacement.

They're working on one. I played it through a couple of the test runs they did and it worked out pretty well. Eight-line slot machine game where the double-or-nothing game also worked as a sort of (lack of better way to put it) striptease for each round of the 2x-or-0 you won. The payout schedule suuuuuuucked, though.

I didn't mean in-game sanctioned one. I'm talking players who want to play blackjck using the /ran 10 command (random number between 1 and 10 (1 being an ace), "guess the number", "if your number is in this range you win" etc..

The games were always stackes against the player (blackjack was the worst considering the lack of face cards). Yeah, the payout may be 5 times but the chances of winning are 100:1 (plus you could "fake" rolls).

[ZedOmega]

But for the record I hate with an unholy passion gold sellers, gold buyers and bots.

That makes two of us. Plunking down money to make fast gold can easily be done by actually buying donator currency, picking up some high-demand items, and turning around and selling it in-game for gold. Res runes and buffer items go quiiiiick. Gold-buying takes the money out of the pockets of people that deserve it for running the game and coding it.

I didn't mean in-game sanctioned one. I'm talking players who want to play blackjck using the /ran 10 command (random number between 1 and 10 (1 being an ace), "guess the number", "if your number is in this range you win" etc..

The games were always stackes against the player (blackjack was the worst considering the lack of face cards). Yeah, the payout may be 5 times but the chances of winning are 100:1 (plus you could "fake" rolls).

I don't think that's one of the programmers' main priorities right now, to be honest. We're in bad need of a gold sink of any kind as it is.

...okay, a gold sink and a few bug fixes. The invisible weapon bug I found so far is kinda fun, though. Reported almost instantly, but still, it amused everyone I partied with. Rising Crash + invisible weapon bug = SHORYUKEN!

[lordlundar]

(Of course, this could turn into an argument centering around PETA real quick, so let the record show that I'm not giving up my tasty, tasty bacon anytime soon.)

Funny you should mention PETA regarding WoW.

[Red Panda]

That article is funny because for once PETA is making a joke and people are over reacting and looking like idiots.

[ZedOmega]

I dunno. I still think of the Sea Kittens campaign when I think of PETA and struggle with the thought that they actually have a sense of humor.