Kill Ten Rats

I avoid mentioning some games because I am scared that people will try them. Can we just forget that Horizons exists, or that lawyer from Florida who shall not be named? If the game is irredeemable dreck, there is no point in discussing its problems.

At my book blog, I note that I give some of the longest, harshest reviews to books that get the next-to-best rating. When you really enjoy something, it is infuriating that there are just a few problems that keep joy from being perfected. Just fix these few things, and I can abandon all else to exult in your creation. The sheer excellence of the surrounding material is what makes the problems stand out so much.

Our complaints about games are usually signs that we like those games. Bugs, queues, and crashes are upsetting because they stand between us and the fun that we know to lie just beyond them. The details bug us because they distort what is otherwise a great design. The pettiness of the problem even makes it worse, since you can see how little it would take to fix it; you must be patient with big projects, but can someone take the five minutes to clear up this one annoying thing that is driving me insane?

: Zubon

Don’t you hate it when you write several posts and then the file on your flashdrive gets spontaneously corrupted? Some higher power has saved you all from verbosity. Don’t worry, I can make more.

: Zubon

In honor of Milton Friedman Day, I toss an economic question: What in-game differences would there be between someone who sold gold for RL money and someone who gave gold away to people s/he had never met before? Follow-up: whatever effects you believe RMT has on your game, are you causing the same effects on a smaller scale when you give a friend ten gold to get started (or any other form of help/twinkery)?

I have seen people give away millions of influence in City of Heroes just because they could, although that has presumably gone down with prestige and the impending auction house as cash sinks. I would expect charitable goldfarmers to farm less gold, since they have less incentive, although they get whatever joy altruists get. Their effects are randomly distributed, rather than going to folks with more money than time.

Would there be different effects if Blizzard awarded 100 gold to a random character once per hour (besides people trying to stay logged on for free gold)?

: Zubon