Am I "griefing" players with an "exploit hole"? And maybe an evil faction...

lonnehart · July 2013

Early on in my the quest I'm currenty working on (current title Dungeon Trouble) the player will find an "exploit hole". For now the only thing you get if you attempt to use it is text telling you what it is, and that as an honest, bonafide adventurers the player would never EVER use it to get ahead in a dungeon.

An idea occurred to me though... why not have it lead somewhere? Let's say.... down a deep hole that will kill anyone who thinks it's okay to use it. And put up an invisible wall around it warning the player that "this passage is unpredictable and may lead to your death" and another one saying "WARNING!!! DEATH IS GUARANTEED IF YOU USE THIS PASSAGE!!!". Could I be accused of "griefing" the Foundry quest participant if he goes ahead and uses it anyway?

And maybe players could add the "Dungeon Exploiters" as a faction in their quests. They could be any human mob who looks extremely out of place in anyones quest.

Why are they called the Dungeon Exploiter faction? Well... if anyone has read the General Forums in the past there were posters who advocated and approved of underhanded methods of completing a dungeon without confronting its challenges (glitching, using unintended shortcuts, etc...). Luckily those are being fixed.

Another reason is because Dungeons and Dragons was a game founded on exploring dungeons, but upon coming onto the video game scene "enterprising" players have always looked for shortcuts or out of the way methods to get through easily with little hassle.

Then there's this game... I have it for the PSP and is still one of my favorite dungeon crawling games (the other being the Etrian Oddyssey series). Its title?
Dungeon Explorers: Warriors of the Ancient Arts.

rogu3ish · July 2013

I think if you warn someone it's fair game. Putting in a random hole where someone will fall and die, or spawning 5 stacked hard encounters on them simultaneously for no reason might be griefing. If you put up a sign, or an indicator in dialog, whatever...even if they choose not to read it, it's their fault for charging ahead blindly. At most you'll probably risk a bad rating.

I just had an idea for an anti-exploit map actually. It would involve a map/mob setup that would look like you could exploit it, but as soon as you start it reverses and traps you in with the encounters (should you actually try to exploit of course). Unfortunately I doubt it would ever become popular enough to fool exploiters into running it.

beckylunatic · July 2013

It's very fourth-wall-breaky, but the idea entertains me. I like meta.

mokah · July 2013

Quite frankly I don't think the "joke" needs to go further than the text on the hole you currently have. Easter eggs are best done subtly.

lonnehart · July 2013

mokah wrote: »

Quite frankly I don't think the "joke" needs to go further than the text on the hole you currently have. Easter eggs are best done subtly.

You're probably right. That exploit hole is part of a scene I put in an earlier post about an ironic scene the player runs into later, and the killer exploit hole might be overdoing it. It would be my ultimate "take that!" statement to those who would rather find an easy boss/enemy free way to get to the end of a dungeon.

Am I "griefing" players with an "exploit hole"? And maybe an evil faction...

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