The latest expansion for World of Warcraft hasn’t had a whole lot of official announcements made recently, but there’s still a steady flow of news about it. Why? Because the datamining teams are going to work picking apart files and trying to figure out what new stuff is in there. Of course, datamining isn’t the same as finding it live in the game, and that can give lots of ideas about what’s coming next that may not line up with reality.
Similarly, I know there are parts of the Guild Wars 2 community less than happy with the datamining side of things that basically revealed details of its second expansion early. It’s a reveal, sure, but it’s a reveal without any of the sparkle or style that you’d expect from a big reveal.
Of course, these are the negative sides; the plus side to datamining is that it gives a peek at the game from the inside out, and it can also be seen as a source of excitement between big announcements. So what do you think, readers? Do you enjoy MMO datamining? Do you tend to seek it out (or datamine things yourself), or do you prefer being surprised?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
