The current condition of this generation of video game players is quite disheartening.
The current condition of this generation of video game players is quite disheartening.
I never tried EQ. I played WoW back in 2009 during the recession when I lost my job for three months straight, working nonstop every single day while I was chasing a paycheck.
I was around 5 or 6 when I got my Atari 2600. Generation X grew up with video games. The later part of baby boomers still plays video games. This era of gaming is unfamiliar to today's education system. People don't grasp pseudoscience or how the brain works while playing. There are hackers, but I just play through them and eventually get banned or lose interest because no one wants to play with cheaters.
I believe the issue isn't that people are getting worse, but that the audience is expanding. Back then, video games were mainly for niche audiences, now everyone seems to enjoy them. While I oppose cheats like aimbots, I’m fine with prestige hacks because many players don’t have time for lengthy sessions to master every weapon. They might just want a quick fun experience a few hours each week. If the game is well-balanced, it shouldn’t interfere with the core experience.
I mainly enjoy solo play and offline experiences. Of course, I’d love to team up, but when collaborating, it should focus on skill comparison—not transactions, bots, or equipment differences.
I found some bots in Diablo 2 interesting. They could generate games and run bosses with strong characters, then repeat the process. It was enjoyable because they rarely took loot and let players join in. Playing with many characters made leveling up simple. This method worked well for organized runs. Usually only one person created the content, but when they got tired it would stop. That’s more of a special case of botting, so it doesn’t really matter.
Really? I recall those old days of heavy hacking in games too. Punkbuster has been around for about 15 years now. Players have always tried to get the most out of games, which is natural. I believe things have improved over time; developers had to spend a lot of years figuring out how to prevent cheating before they could address it properly.