The Soapbox: MMO slot machines

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, Opinion, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

We are beginning to drown in a sea of MMOs that are shedding variety to mimic simplified slot machines. The danger in this is that MMO gameplay is becoming akin to gambling. Enjoyment of minute-to-minute gameplay is being replaced by hours of frustration unless we manage to match three-of-a-kind to get our loot drops. The success of the games isn't resting on the shoulders of enjoyable content but on the prizes to be won by schlepping through that content. We're letting developers know this not just by playing these games but by literally asking for more of the same.

The result is that money flies into developers' hands while they skirt the boundaries of ethics by supplying "gameplay" soaked in habitual greed, delivering to players only the barest skeleton of an MMO.

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The Soapbox: MMO slot machines originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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