Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Column: Persistence is Futile @ MMorpg.Com

A friend got banned from World of Warcraft. In this week's column, Dave Bonnewell tells the tale and examines the response.

In life, a great many of us take for granted a great many things. Several immediately come to mind: The fresh, new fallen snow on a crisp winter's morn; living at the majestic precipice of the all-or-nothing digital age; the miraculous gift of aerial freedom gallantly granted by Red Bull; free internet porn. In the massively multiplayer online world of gaming goodness, however, there is one aspect which we take for granted far more than any other and that is the ability to return to our favorite alternate virtual lives whenever we so desire; hacking, slashing, questing, mining, crafting and generally pwning our online gaming days and sleepless nights away. This is something most gamers think of as a well paid for right, but which the MMORPG big wigs (namely City of Heroes/Villains, EverQuest II and World of Warcraft) have deemed a privilege easily and abruptly taken away without warning well, without a glaringly obvious warning at any rate.

The whole column is here.

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