A question of ethics in MMORPGs

[gekko]

--Rights of the gamer vs. rights of the company. (?I paid good money for this game, so I should be able to do this? vs. ?You bought our game, you agreed to our rules, you play in our universe, or else.?)

I suppose the fact that a gamer has purchased a game proves that they, in buying that game, accept the rules and regulations that come with it. However, the gamer does have a certain right as to what he or she wants from the game, and if the game fails to deliver, then the buyer has the upper hand.

I'm back again :) No seriously, I meant to touch on this and I forgot. There's a shared responsability here, and neither side seems to keep their promise (a little like politics). Consider Diablo 2. Thousands and thousands of players promise not to use third party programs, promise not to use hacks/dupes etc, then shamelessly go ahead and break all the rules. Once that happens, Blizzard really gets "the upper hand."

But consider what blizz has done with Diablo 2. They have consistently promised great things and then not followed through. And it's really unfortunate, and it's the main reason why I am critical of blizzard, despite the fact that they have done far more than was required of them in terms of the size, frequency of patches, not to mention how long after the initial release they're still working on it. Quite simply, blizzard needs to keep their mouths shut. I'm a firm believer that people should be held to their promises; I'm very critical of the broken promises the public takes for granted these days. Some people say blizzard has no responsability to people who are, after all, using bnet for free years after they paid money to blizzard. I say that when blizzard makes a promise, they MUST accept responsability for their promises.

And that, I think, is the main point of ethics in MMORPG's, just as in life: when you make a promise or put something on the market, you must take responsability for it.

gekko