WoW Torture, new Harry Potter concepts
Posted on 09. Dec, 2008 by Demonalecks in Gaming News
so it seems that last week, Richard Bartle, who after an extensive researching (wikipedia) I found out, is one of the pioneers of the Massive Multiplayer Online games. He was co-author of the MUD, which stands for Multi-User Dungeons, in which more than one player could participate in text quests and actions; Had a little rant about the new Wrath of the Lich King. He was down right distrubed about the whole torture quest in the Borean Tundra( and if you haven’t experienced it yet, it’s on Amber Ledge :p ) And he had no idea that he’d receive so many comments from gaming blogs all around the netsphere! well he posted a response today, and so that I won’t ruin a thing, I’ll just quote them on here fer ya 
I know WoW is not real life. I know the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply there. No real-life laws apply there. Blizzard could put a quest to rape characters in there: real life anti-rape laws wouldn’t apply. Nevertheless, a lot of people would be very disturbed by such a quest. Likewise, not everyone is OK with torture. This is the case in real life, too: yes, killing is worse than torture, but that doesn’t mean that if you kill people then torture is fine. Evidence: the aforesaid Geneva Convention.
When I signed up to play WoW I knew it had fireballs, so I expected killing. I knew it had rogues, so I expected thieving. I had to wait until the second expansion to find out it had gratuitous torture. This does not fall within the parameters of what I was expecting. It’s as if you were reading the new book 8 of the Harry Potter series and Harry turns to drugs and uses his magic powers for sport to blind people. JKR can put that kind of stuff in her books if she likes, freedom of speech being what it is and all, but it’s shattered your expectations. I wasn’t expecting consequence-free torture quests in WoW. Getting one was a shock.
Yes, I do realise this is only a computer game.
There’s a contradiction between “you have to torture this guy because if you don’t then the Blue Dragonflight will destroy the world!” and “if you don’t like it, don’t do the quest”. If I don’t do it and the world isn’t destroyed, that means it wasn’t necessary in the first place, right? So why do the guys want me to torture him?
Strangely, I had noticed WoW was “just a game”. For the many players who seem to think that this means anything goes, I guess you’re really hoping Blizzard will be putting in some child sex quests in the next expansion. After all, no children are being hurt, it’s just pixels on a screen, and if you get XP then why not?
Well there ya go, but seriously, I’d read the next Harry Potter if that was actually the direction it took.
Source: http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2008/QBlog101208C.html
Loading ...