A Drawback of Player Ownership

One of the unintended consequences of player ownership in an MMO, especially in a PvP MMO, is that GMs have a hard time being unbiased. In a game like Darkfall, where control of limited territory is the name of the game, any GM who plays the game is going to be hard pressed to remain impartial. If their city is under siege and an attacker petitions because he’s stuck, how fast will the GM help this stuck player take their town?

You’d like to think that GMs would be capable of remaining neutral, but even in PvE games you see them doing some very naughty things, like providing raid tactics to their guild, summoning friends to remote locations, and spawning gear and coin (and usually getting fired pretty quickly thereafter). If it happens in a PvE game, it’s gotta be happening in a political PvP game like Darkfall where there is only one server.

There are tons of rumors flying around about GMs scouting locations for their clan, causing others to become disconnected when they’re attacking a city, and all manner of other drama. Are Aventurine employees helping their clans out using developer accounts? Most probably aren’t, but I’d bet a few are or have in the past. I’m sure there’s some truth to the rumors, even if most are just rumors, and it’s always fun to come up with conspiracy theories. More from Keen.