On some level, I’m still amused by the fact that someone got held back in World of Warcraft: Legion as a direct result of really pointless actions. If you take the time to go to war with a faction and then very slowly bring your reputation down to the nadir for no reason whatsoever, you kind of deserve wherever you wind up. I can also understand Blizzard having a good laugh over the situation and then making sure that anyone so affected would be able to still advance the artifact quest…
But that’s a slightly sticky issue, isn’t it? I mean, on the one hand, that removes consequences from a set of actions. Sure, those consequences were completely invisible at the time, since no one could have predicted that you’d need to head back to the Cenarion Circle (and the new quests don’t actually tie into the reputation at all). But if you take that remarkably specific set of actions, doesn’t that mean that you should have those consequences? If you’re trying to break something to see if you can, does that mean you ought to still have something broken when you decide you want it?
I think it’s an interesting question with no real “right” answer, and thus, we’ll turn the question over to you. Should MMOs have long-term consequences for nonsensical actions? If you cause a faction to hate you for no reason, throw away a valuable item that takes up no space for no reason, or break a sequence of necessary quests through intentional actions, should that be reset? Or should those deliberate efforts to break the game carry the long-term sting of, well, breaking the game?
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!
