Impossible To Police

One of the many MMORPs I had played over the years is Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO). Now as any players of LOTRO will tell you, the game is strictly PVE. Sure there’s some PVP in it but it’s a tack-on affair and most players don’t take it seriously.

However it is this section of the game that had attracted some heat these few days. It seems that some players have been found to have created (free) monster creatures in the PVP section of the game whose sole and only purpose was to be killed by their guildmates. They did this to rapidly advance the characters and other players are furious at what they see is a clear exploit in the game. Turbine stated that it is not a violation of rules and therefore players can continue to do this.

Now let me be clear on this; it is an exploit. Not only is it an exploit, it is cheating. Creating a character for the purpose is to be killed by other players who happen to be your friends is cheating. It is an exploit; it is cheating; and there’s nothing Turbine can do about it.

Think about it; if Turbine proclaim this an exploit, how in the world is Turbine doing to police this? You can’t expect them to police every PVP fight in the game and rule on whether the loser lost deliberately. It’s just not possible.

So I’m not surprised by Turbine’s hands-off approach to the latest “dispute” in the game. Yes, it’s a controversial decision but it’s the only one they can make. Basically I say if some stupid players want to cheat, let them be stupid. After all, this is LOTRO. PVP is an after-thought in this game.