Criticism of World of Warcraft

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Since World of Warcraft's release, there have been a number of controversies and criticisms associated with it.

1 Technical
2 Sale of virtual property
3 Exploits
- 3.1 Known types
- 3.2 Legality
4 Real-world Criticism
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Technical

The following lists some of the varied criticism of World of Warcraft.

[edit] Game Structure

Quests lack originality -- there are only 6 basic types of quests: Kill, Random Drop, Boss, Gopher, Escort, and Defend:
- "Kill" -- Kill 'X' out of 'Y' mobs Quest: Call to Arms
- "Random Drop" -- Kill 'X' mobs until item 'Z' drops Quest: Worth Its Weight in Gold
- "Boss" -- Kill 'X' mob (usually a boss) and get their 'Y' body part Quest: Wanted! Otto and Falconcrest (Group)
- "Gopher" -- Semi-Common. Go fetch item 'Z' Quest: Malin's Request
- "Escort" -- Rare. Escort NPC from 'A' to 'B' Quest: Sunken Treasure
- "Defend" -- Vey rare. Defend/protect an npc against incoming waves of mobs. Quest: Death From Below

Inconsistent/Limited Object-World interaction compared to older MMORPGs such as Ultima Online. There are too many to list , but a few examples include:
- Smiths can make armor, but can't repair their own armor? Petition to add cloth, leather, and smithing repair kits
- Alchemists require vials to make potions, but when the potions are consumed the vials magically disappear?
- Bows can only be found, or bought off a vendor; there is no bow crafting skill at this time.

[edit] Server instability

As with other online games, server and network stability is critical. Due to failures in these, there have been times when the game has been unplayable by a large number of players. For example, in September 2005, Blizzard gave all European players two free days of play as compensation for repeated network failures. During the early days of World of Warcrafts U.S. release Blizzard also gave out free days to compensate players for days lost due to problem on their end; a policy which was, and still is, common in the industry. The issues were suspected to be Blizzard's upstream Internet service provider.^[1]

[edit] Server Populations

It is a sign on many realms that one side (Alliance or Horde) frequently out-numbers that of the other resulting in an imbalanced and unrealistic faction split that can cause problems with PvP battlegrounds and also in the game world itself, which on a PvP server could render the game bordering on unplayable by a character choosing to quest alone in dangerous areas.

It is believed by some that this server imbalance was a key factor in deciding what the new factional races would be in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Blood Elves were added to the Horde side as they lacked what could be described as a "pretty" race (such as the Night Elves), whereas the Draenei were given to the Alliance as they lacked a "big" race (such as the Tauren) - it remains to be seen if this, along with adding the Paladin and Shaman classes to the factions that previously lacked the option to do this will have any effect on balancing the populations out.

[edit] Sale of virtual property

See also: Farmer (gaming)

This controversy is faced by many online games. This includes the sale of virtual objects (such as gold, items, or characters) for real life assets. Blizzard claims this is against the terms of their End User License Agreement (EULA) and to date they have banned more than 200,000 user accounts for engaging in this type of activity.^[2] This is often practiced by new players which have trouble acquiring certain items. There are several sites dedicated to the buying and selling of MMORPG items, with World of Warcraft being the most common.

[edit] Exploits

As with all massively multiplayer online games, World of Warcraft has had an amount of players who exploit the world of Azeroth. Such abuse ranges from gold farming to selling accounts online (on sites such as eBay). One common exploit was the use of leet to communicate between the Horde and the Alliance, since symbols and numbers were left unmodified in otherwise scrambled communications. Blizzard has since stopped this by modifying the linguistics engine to remove punctuation and numbers from the text.^[3]

[edit] Known types

Speed Hacking/Teleporting/subterrain travel – Since character position in World of Warcraft is determined by the client side, it is possible for players to send out artificial positional data and be instantly transported to any part of the world (even underground) or used to speed up traveling speed by increasing positional deltas.
Botting – A player who runs a third party program to control their character. The bot will kill monsters, loot gold, mine ore, collect herbs or gain levels automatically without the player having to be in front of the computer. Ever since Blizzard opened free trial accounts, bots have also been used as means to spam and advertise virtual gold services.^[4]
Game Mechanics Exploits – There are also other exploits involving the physics of the game, sometimes in conjunction with items. This includes using wall-walking (removed in patch 1.9) to get into unfinished areas or abilities like the Sentry Totem to make one's character unattackable by other players. These exploits are usually not discovered right away and continued use is at the players own risk, as Blizzard in the past has both allowed exploits to be legal until fixed, as well as banning players who use it before it is fixed on other occasions.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Legality

The World of Warcraft End User License Agreement specifically forbids these kinds of activities. Blizzard can temporarily or permanently suspend the account of anyone who exploits the game by "speed hacking" or making the other game alterations listed above. So far, Blizzard has banned well over 50,000 accounts.

[edit] Real-world Criticism

[edit] Warden

Blizzard makes heavy use of a system known as The Warden on the Windows version of the game in order to detect third-party programs, such as botting software. There has been some controversy as to the legality of The Warden. The Warden uses techniques similar to anti-virus software in order to analyze other running software on the players' PCs, as well as the file system. However, unlike anti-virus software, it sends a portion of this information back to Blizzard, which caused privacy advocates to accuse it of being spyware.^[5] The Warden's existence was acknowledged in the opening legal proceedings of MDY INDUSTRIES, LLC. vs. BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INC.

One example of the information Warden collects is the title of every window open on the system while WoW is running.^{[citation needed]} This is a significant risk to the user; for example, a file with the player's Social Security Number in the title would result in that SSN being read by Warden. Blizzard have not stated what information is passed by Warden over the Internet, or if that information is encrypted, so it is entirely possible this information is passed en clair over the Internet back to Blizzard.

[edit] Treatment of Players

GMs sometimes seem to be unfair in their decisions, in the opinion of some players, but there is no appeals process.

A well-known example come from Scott Kurtz, author of the well-known and popular Internet comic, PVP. After taking a break for a few months, Scott logged back in, to find that an Epic sword he owned has disappeared from his inventory. Epic items take months of work to obtain. It transpired that a game update has gone wrong and deleted items of equipment from some players. Scott asked for his Epic sword to be returned, only to be told he was too late and returns were no longer being provided.

[edit] Treatment of Gay Players

Blizzard garnered criticism for their decision in January 2006 to ban guilds from advertising sexual orientation preferences. The incident occurred after several players were cited for "harassment" after advocating a group for gay-straight alliance.^[6]^[7] Blizzard initially responded by saying their objective was to, ".. promote a positive game environment for everyone and help prevent such harassment from taking place as best we can, we prohibit mention of topics related to sensitive real-world subjects in open chat within the game, and we do our best to take action whenever we see such topics being broadcast."^[8]

Blizzard later reversed the decision to issue warnings to players promoting LGBT-friendly guilds. Included in this decision was the announcement that they intend to set up in-game channels intended specifically for guild advertisements, as well as provide "sensitivity training" for their staff after players complained of homophobic language being used openly and without punishment. ^[9]^[10]

[edit] Game Addiction

World of Warcraft has also come under criticism for stories of game addictions to the popular video game. In June of 2005 it was reported that a four month old child had suffocated due to neglect by her World of Warcraft-addicted parents who were reportedly at a nearby cafe playing World of Warcraft.^[11] In August of that year, the government of the People's Republic of China decided to enforce control over how many hours the country's 20 million gamers can play.^[12]

On the popular free video sharing site YouTube, there is also a video about a teenager being addicted to the World of Warcraft, who claims to be playing the game as much as 16 hours a day.

Dr. Maressa Orzack, a clinical psychologist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, was interviewed August 8, 2006 stating that many of the back then 6 million subscribers are addicted. She is quoted as saying "... 40 percent of the players are addicted."^[13] Note that the 40 percent figure was not derived from a scientific study overseen by Dr. Orzack, but rather came from "a forum that Nick Yee runs". She added in an August 2006 interview that "even if the percentage is 5 to 10 percent which is standard for most addictive behaviors, it is a huge number of people who are out of control."^[14] Also, according to Dr. John Grohol, a colleague of Orzack's, "Dr. Orzack is not claiming that up to 40% of World of Warcraft gamers are addicted based upon any actual evidence or surveys of players. This is just her opinion, based upon her own experience and observation of the problem."^[15]

However, there is still much speculation of gaming addiction problems caused by World of Warcraft; a November 14, 2006 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer featured individuals who admit becoming addicted to World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's.^[16]