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The Daily Grind: Are you into stealthing mechanics?
Apart from the Imperial Agent in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I haven't played a lot of stealth-able characters in MMOs. For me, I just don't see the appeal of sucker-punching bad guys instead of facing off in a fair fight; it kind of makes me feel as though I'm bullying them. Plus, having to walk slower in stealth, constantly worry about positioning, and ignoring the illogic of disappearing in broad daylight all wave me off of such characters. But that's me and those are my hang-ups. I know that stealthing is pretty popular in certain quarters, and I can concede that when done right (as in the Thief series) it can be a compelling mechanic. So I'd like to hear whether you're into being all stealthy in MMOs and what you think about how these systems have been handled over the years. Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Shifting Perspectives: How not to be seen
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we go to pet our kitties and discover that they are not there. I am going to take a short break from stomping Moore's music selections flatter than a Kansas prairie in order to include a Monty Python video, which I think we can all agree is a necessary sacrifice this week given both our subject material and the title that was guaranteed to result. I had the pleasure of meeting a completely new player on my server not all that long ago. He'd rolled a rogue and was slowly making his way through both levels and the avalanche of bewilderment common to new players. I haven't forgotten what it was like to be tossed into a world of frequent acronyms and gamer parlance, and I spent some time giving him tips. Between making helpful suggestions like, "Wow, I guess you can't jump off the Thunder Bluff elevator at that point" and "Did you ever consider rolling a druid?", I discovered that he was in the habit of dying a lot. For new players, that's not unusual, but it was how he was dying that really got my attention. Starting most fights from Stealth, he'd sneak up to a mob, most typically from the front, and then attempt to circle to the side or rear for a Backstab opener. A good 90% of the time, the mob would attack him midway through the process, which -- as you can imagine -- is a disconsolate state of affairs for someone who aspires to be an invisible ninja. As soon as I saw this, I said, "Well, that's your problem right there." "What is?" "You are not an invisible ninja."
Me, you and Chesty Larue
Cach, a player on the Spanish-speaking Zul'jin realm wrote in to tell us a little story about him, a GM, and the chests in the Mechanar. So the story goes that Cach was going through his usual sneaky-stealthy chest farming run in the instance, when he was messaged by a GM. It appears that such a run is about to be considered an exploit, and that Cach was getting a note on his Permanent Record and would soon be sent to the Principal's Office if he didn't stop. Didn't stop? If he stops playing a rogue, they mean. Okay, I may be wrong on this, but I honestly thought being sneaky and inventive was what the rogue class was all about. Turns out that using their skills to achieve monetary gain is a no-no. Oh wait, what about Pick Pocket you say? Yeah, my point exactly. I fail to see how using the skills programmed into the class is exploiting the game. Yes, he is able to stealth through the instance and collect items from chests. Yes, this enables to rogues to make cash in an inventive way. So does AoE farming fire elementals on the Elemental Plateau. Will this too be considered an exploit soon?There is a fine line between using the skills your characters have in an inventive way and exploiting weaknesses in the game. A rogue's ability to stealth by enemies? I really hope they don't consider that an exploit. Otherwise why not just roll a warrior and have done with?[thanks Cach!]
