Consalvo has an interesting read on the “magic circle” and it seems as though she is trying to bridge this gap between the argument of there being a magic circle and not -while still arguing there is no magic circle? Consalvo talks about the glider in World of Warcraft and how it affected the community by players jumping ahead in the game. While I see it as something along the lines of, “it was placed in the game for a reason,” and that reason was for players that wanted to jump ahead seeing as some have alt accounts and like to play as other things, I think, why not? But how this led to a lawsuit is beyond me.
If a developer puts something in game for players to jump ahead in, how is that any different than micro-transactions that actually give advantages in game; and, how is it we are seeing companies in the court on micro-transactions being considered gambling?
I do understand her thought process on overall article by stating that there is no magic circle and to an extent I can agree with the argument she put forth. But, I think the problem lies beyond just the rules of a game. While most game developers, in my opinion, do condone the use of cheats or macros and punish (when caught), I believe it comes down to the morality of the person behind the screen and the magic circle is there but under their conditions; and by one person I mean it could be considered an individual or a community behind a game that defines what the magic circle is. So, to an extent I disagree with what Consalvo is arguing as it should be looked at on a per game basis.
If a developer puts something in game for players to jump ahead in, how is that any different than micro-transactions that actually give advantages in game? In response to that, I agree. If things were placed in a product, we as the player will never know the specific intentions of the developer, but what we can do is use the info to understand the ideas they are trying to portray. Players will interact and expand things to their maximum extent, until highest possible advantage is reached.
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Exactly, but, I do think that if Blizzard, in this scenario, came out and explicitly said what it was used for then I see no problem with them adding things like that; since were in a micro-transaction driven world. When it comes down to it (if I understand your position correctly) then players that wanted to skip ahead would have skipped ahead regardless. Right? I think in this instance, Blizzard saw that people were doing these things anyway and said “lets add this since people are doing it and maximize our profits.”
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I agree with your take on cheating and how if developers didn’t want players to cheat then why would they make it an option. I do feel that cheating breaks the magic circle though because you skip key parts of being fully submerged in the magic of the game. I
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