Sometimes, people are very fond of asking the wrong questions. When I was much younger, my friends would trump me with the ultimate question: Can God create a rock so big and heavy that even He can not lift? There is no answer to that question because the premise invalidate the ability of a creator either way. The real issue is: Why would He? If He really did that, then this God is not very bright, then. There is a ancient Chinese story about an armorer who was selling spears and shields. He claimed the spears are made of superior metal that they can pierce any shield, and that his shields are so strong that no spear would pierce them. Someone soon asked him, “If you are to attack your shield with your spear, which one will prevail?” The Chinese word that translated into “dilemma, or conflict” is the Chinese word used for spear and shield (??).

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Some questions are just “wrong” because it is pointless and focuses people’s energy on a controversy that is fruitless and serve no ultimate purpose. At the end of it, we have expended a great deal of energy, and have not progress, nor increase our understanding. This kind of controversy mostly stems from “gut feeling” and strong belief system. No one is really going to give way, and there is nothing “intelligent” about the debate in the first place. They are often driven by some other hidden agenda, that is either best hidden, or too sensitive to discuss because it is going to open a can of worm. For example, the question about “Are Video Games Art?”When the film critic, Roger Ebert, said that video game is not art, he got flamed… He later wrote a second article when Clive Baker took up the debate. I like his response to Baker, “Anything can be art. Even a can of Campbell’s soup.” – See R. Ebert’s Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker (July 21, 2007) Are you surprised that many gamers do not like what they hear? So they criticized him as a non-gamer, a movie buff who know nothing about video games. Mind you, I said many gamers, not all gamers.So what do you think gamers will say, when video game guru, Hideo Kojima (creator of Metal Gear), said “video games is not art”? (In the February 2006 issue of the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Kojima explained why games aren’t art, even though it incorporate arts.)

Metal Gear Solid on PSP, by Hideo Kojima

It is almost hilarious to read the comments. “Kojima should stop talking,” they said. How strange it is that people refuse to listen when what was said is not what they want to hear. So Kojima became an ammunition for the other camp, and this is such a shame to the gamers’ community… hence, he should keep quiet. Doesn’t it even make everyone reconsider their stand? That may be, video games are not art? Why even question, if video games are art? The real motivator behind it is to hide behind that statement and then claim first amendment rights, so that the 14 to 16+ year old can say we are merely appreciate an art form when we play certain video games, and that companies like RockStar can say they are an Art dealer, contributing to the society’s good by making thrash. If I am an artist, and I used manure, maggots, and bloody remains of roadkills to create a sculpture, is it art? Well, it depends on why you ask. To everyone else, it is something to be avoid by all means, and should be hauled off to the junkyard immediately. But if you are going to pay me; then sure, it is art!

Bots (short for robots) were intended to be macro-like small program that are created for repetitive tasks without human supervision. In MMOGs, because many objectives are reusable and thus mundane, they can become tedious. Many MMOG addicts may spend more than 15 hours a day on the game, and hence could progress at much faster speed than another person who can only spare one hour a day to play. The necessary evil of spending time to “kill monsters” (or other objectives, such as mining gems, or fishing, or collecting items) in order to earn enough experience points (xp) to level up is often referred to as “grinding.” Some MMOG requires users to “level grind” up to level 20 before allowing them to participate in more interesting quest (e.g. Guild Wars). (The term, “grinding,” came from the real world usage, where a tool is repetitively subjected to a grinding stone to be sharpened, as well as the idiom, putting your nose to the grind.) Grinding can be so tedious and repetitive it is often not fun to play. Hence, bots were invented to relieve human of the mundane undertaking.

Players who employ bots would installed the program and let the bot control the avatar to perform the mundane tasks to level grind up to higher levels before taking over. In many cases, bots were employed to mine gems or gold, as in World of Warcraft, and the human players then turn around and see the in-game gold for real world cash. These kind of players (they are not playing at all, but only participate in the game world to perform a task) are known as gold-farmers. Transactions of gold to cash often take place at black market exchange. Second Life is the only game where the trading of its Linden dollar with real world monies, is officially sanctioned. Most other MMOGs do not approve of such transaction because it upsets their game economics.

Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia on “botting” and it’s effect on Lineage II:

Like many MMORPGs, Lineage II has been the target of botting, in which an external program is used to simulate the actions of a player. Such activity is prohibited and is a bannable offense, though seemingly rarely enforced. Nevertheless, players continue this practice, since the player is able to leave his/her computer and the bot will continue doing what it has been programmed to do. Some of the most well-known bots are L2Walker and Superman (formerly known as L2Wind). There is a conspiracy theory, based on fine coding, numerous features and versatility of those programs (surpassing the official game client by far), that developers of Wind and Walker were/are in league with NC Soft itself. Sometimes proven botted characters are subject to disrespect and rejection by the certain part of the community. But this tendency got terribly weakened lately, legit players having definitely become a minority. Apart from easing some of the more mundane aspects of gameplay, botting can also be used as a way to generate Adena (Lineage II currency) which is then sold for real world cash.

This phenomenon, Economy Interaction, is quite controversial and is common in most of today’s large MMORPGs.