Comments on: Absolute Virtue is Absolutely Unscrupulous

By: Horder

Horder — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:15:30 +0000

Strictly from an industry point of view, the whole thing will give mmo’s a black eye. It’s exactly what we don’t need. It allows people to compare mmo companies to tobacco companies by saying “they know they’ve got a bunch of addicted customers and in order to keep them hooked they tweak the product to make it more addictive.”

And from the human side, it sounds like a few commentors look at addicts and think it’s their own damn fault because everyone has a choice to play or not to play, and maybe they’re right. But many of us look at addicts and think we should do what we can to help them because they have gone beyond the realm of free choice. That’s what addiction is. This 18 hour raid may not be aimed solely at mmo addicts, but these devs know with absolute certainty that what they are doing will materially increase health risks for a segment of their players. If someone dies at the keyboard and the company is sued, it would be impossible for them to pretend they didn’t know their actions were putting people at risk. There have already been well documented cases of mmo-related deaths, caused primarily by complications arising from dehydration, blood circulation issues, and high stress levels from sleep depravation. Unlike ultra-endurance athletic events, there is no way to “train” for those conditions, no way to gradually acclimate the body to endure them. To the contrary, with marathon mmo raids, the more you “train” the more you are risk.

By: Jute

Jute — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:18:11 +0000

There is a condition called Deep Vein Thrombosis you get from sitting for long periods of time. It’s absolutely life threatening if you get it…. so yeah, 18 hour stretches are possibly very bad for your health.

http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2004/hmdvt.htm

By: loyaltrekie

loyaltrekie — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:03:16 +0000

Just a correction, It isn’t ‘Zeta Notorious Monster’ Its Zeni, which is a form of points that allow you to purchase items that allow you to pop said monster. The actual flow is this:

>Talk to NPC to learn how/what to do / >Go to another NPC get items / >Go to a place in the middle of nowhere, repeat monotonous action multiple times / >Return to first NPC />Trade Item for Zeni Points /> Trade said points for item to pop tier 1 monster /> Go to monster zone, kill monster, get item /> Return to first NPC trade Tier 1 item for Tier 2 /> Repeat last few steps till you have killed 20~ monsters /> Hope you get loot from tier 4 monster(15% drop rate) /> If loot received from all top tier then go back to first NPC get Pand. Warden pop, If not repeat till you have all said items.

Then, and only then can you actually get the ‘opportunity’ to fight, that.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Zeni_Notorious_Monsters

Is the in-depth description of it, the entire idea behind it is ludicrous and should never ever be duplicated.

By: Frawd

Frawd — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:31:24 +0000

I did my first Ironman triathlon in a little under 16 hours. This required six months of serious training and a support staff of hundreds at the race to ensure things flowed smoothly with the participants.

Like an 18 hour raider, I mastered the skills of eating with one hand, staying awake during relatively uninteresting portions of the event, and urinating in my clothing as necessary.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:15:28 +0000

“I did not have time to write you a short letter so I wrote you a long one instead.”

Mark Twain

By: Travis

Travis — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:08:58 +0000

Come on Ryan, having party members pass out is a classic MMO experience. All of a sudden your healer just starts to run through the fight, aggros half the zone, and hits a wall all because he passed out on his keyboard….CLASSIC.

By: Thermoses

Thermoses — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:34:57 +0000

18 hours to kill a mob? How is that even interesting after the first hour? Do you get any visual feedback on your progress?

By: Teljair

Teljair — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:17:47 +0000

Call me crazy but I would be game for giving a mob like that a shot!

By: Thallian

Thallian — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:14:59 +0000

So glad I quit FF 11… after the first month I wonder how the people who came up with that are keeping their jobs tho…

By: Ryan Shwayder

Ryan Shwayder — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:53:21 +0000

Yeah, this is a mob that you actually have to intentionally spawn. It’s a Zeta Notorious Mob or something like that, which is basically a mob that players have to get specific items for and turn in to spawn. It’s not an instanced mob, it’s a mob that spawns in the regular game world.

Travis:
I’ve been on marathon gaming sessions that have lasted for more than 18 hours. But I have never been on an 18 hour marathon gaming session without going to the bathroom, eating, drinking, or taking a break to let my heart rate go down for a few minutes. I’m no doctor, but I’m guessing 18 hours without a break while intensely focusing on something is unhealthy. That guess is based in part on the fact that people were passing out and throwing up from doing it — two things that do not occur unless something is awry.