World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

We’ve all seen or been a part of debates about fairness in MMORPGs and those debates have been known to get quite heated. This week Gamasutra’s Simon Ludgate pulled in several developer all-stars that include Trion Worlds Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, En Masse Entertainment Senior Producer Brian Knox, Turbine Creative Director Cardell Kerr, Cryptic Studios CEO Jack Emmert, Aion Executive VP Lance Stites and Ultima creator and Portalarium founder Richard Garriott to talk about the F word in MMOGs – Fairness.

The first part of the three-part feature article examines the concept of fairness and MMOGs, weighing the perception that advancement is made with time advancement, then equating that time invested as money, then explores why paying a third-party to bypass a game’s content could be considered unfair to avoid the grind while at the same time noting that anyone paying to bypass content are in so many words calling the game that they are playing bad.

The article delves into the topic of microtransactions, free-to-play and how some developers have damaged their own games by trying to ensure fairness. The article certainly draws some interesting conclusions. Check out the full feature at Gamasutra.

Source: Gamasutra