Since you say you are not questioning Nexon's business model, then really, would you not play (and as a result, spend money on) Mabi again when the above are patched/fixed? Even if the dev team takes a their sweet time to fix the exploits, they will be fixed, as I highly doubt they will leave the current situation like it is until the game is deserted.
The thing about free to play games is that you are not technically paying for something that has tangible real world value, instead you are paying out of trust, in hopes that you will get something that would benefit you, or give you entertainment. You do not own anything, your entire account belongs to Nexon and is (technically) not worth anything at all. Because of that, as long as it is still profitable, they do not necessarily even need to provide a "customer support", it is only a facade that gives minimal support because they know that 1)they are legally unresponsible for any of your demands, 2) the greater majority will just get over their certain issue and continue to pay and play.
The flooding of rare items in the game truely kills alot of the incentive to keep playing, since the large aspect of the game is to acquire items that may take endless amounts of time and effort. I would say in extreme cases such as now, it would be a good decision to have a rollback once the public dupes are eliminated. Although it is true that new exploits are always going to come up, at least they are not public enough to be that significant of an issue, just like how these hacks may have existed for years and yet the game has had smooth periods of (relatively) stable economy.
If you have ever tried "hacking" a game, in other words, using illegitimate means to get things that you want, or power leveling, then you would know that something like that takes the fun out of the game completely. Why would anyone want to grind through computer generated monsters using hacks that don't need the use of a brain at all? Most players do not realize the fact that a large portion of the entertainment comes from doing the actual work itself, and enjoying the reward that comes through the effort they put in. Alot of people seem to think that getting the result in anyway possible is the only thing that matters, when in fact it is the feeling of achievement that really makes that result worthwhile. Just to give an example, when I first learned about the river glitch, back in the days of Ciar Adv grinding, (and I literally lived in that dungeon for quite a significant period of time), I immediately began to complete all my leveling on the river. It felt so gamebreaking, because it was quite easily multiple times faster and more efficient than Ciar Adv, but not even a month after that, I had lost so much interest in the game that I stopped playing for a period of time, because I felt that there was no point to it all, especially looking back at the amount of effort I put in inside Ciar Adv. All the pride that I had in my character was also completely lost because there was no way I could face anyone because I had used those illegitimate means.
One thing I would like to point out that there really is no actual "skillz" involved in playing Mabinogi if you are talking about "that" type of skill. Unless you have some sort of severe nervous system disease, anybody can learn to utilize the combat system within at the most a couple days. There is only one true skill needed in mabi, which is how long you can grind while keeping your sanity.
Aside from extreme server patriots, why would you want to have fun with the entire community? Wouldn't you be trying to have fun with close friends/guilds that you have known for a while? Even with a diminished player base, it would not be hard for someone to find a few decent players that share their views and enjoy the game with.
With regards to who's fault it is, as mentioned, it is human's greed, and since Nexon is human, devCat is human and the players are all human, therefore would it not be everyone's fault? I would think so, to a certain degree, however the one who is the most responsible for what is happening right now is still Nexon. Because they are the ones in charge, because they are the ones that have the ability and responsibility to maintain the game. They choose not to do anything about it, and shut their ears (assuming they even have any) to what is actually happening. Instead of perhaps suffering temporary loss of profits to furthur nurture the game and community, they choose to implement gamebreaking content aimed solely to milk the existing players or seduce new players with shiny gachapon gambling schemes. If you take a look closely, the only players that are taking advantage of the situation are those that do not give a damm about the game itself, and are only interested in the temporary satisfaction from being able to obtain anything they want freely. As I mentioned above, these types of players are going to be gone before you know it, because even they can percieve that obtaining something without earning it is pointless, and they will eventually leave. There is no point to stand out and tell others to buy or not to buy, nobody has enough morality to attempt to force people to sell them items for higher prices, because supply is large, and demand is nowhere near to keeping up. Without a rollback, the effects from such a major exploit as this will probably take quite a longer time to die down, but again, eventually it will.
It is absolutely correct that this is a chance to make millions in gold and items. Even if this is all traceable, there is no way we could expect such a thing to be undertaken by Nexon. The question is what do millions of gold do, in terms of value? Absolutely nothing. Pre-dupe, in-game gold was abundant enough through legitimate means that with few exceptions, none of the in-game items were an issue. Those frantically trying to store the gold will have no use for them besides trading novelty items at hilariously high prices and none of them are necessary for any player to enjoy the game.
I'm sure there are a few M's out there that exist that will blindly believing in Nexon's non-existant ethics and pay money, but in the end, some people still actually manage to find enjoyment out of the game and because of that, they will spend their money. Not because of them being M's but simply because using common sense, they are still enjoying certain aspects of the game, as well as looking forward to future contents that may not necessarily require them to hand over their wallet unless you are aiming for perfectionist.
The question is, should you be the one to learn from your mistakes or Devcat?Yoorah wrote: Looking forward to Mabinogi 2, and hoping devCat has learnt from their mistakes.
