How legitimate is it to “game the system”? If you exploit flaws in the AI, is that cheating or just making the best of the situation? Two instances from last night:
- I was attacked by two enemies, and they kicked my ass. When I came back, I discovered that if I shot one with a distance weapon where there was a fence between me and the other guy, the one I hit ran up and attacked me but the other stayed behind the fence. This enabled me to kill them one at a time which was way easier.
- A “boss character” of a minor quest came up and attacked me while I was busy attacking his lackey. He kicked my ass. When I came back, his AI was acting weird – I’d shoot an arrow at him, and he’d run half the distance between us and then run back to where he was. I’d shoot another arrow, and he did the same thing. I got 3 or 4 good hits in that way before finally closing with him and defeating him in hand-to-hand.
In some MMORPGs, exploiting flaws in the AI can get you banned, particularly after the flaw becomes “well known”.
If you’re in a beta, you’re probably supposed to tell them about this sort of time anyways, right? 😉
It’s not cheating if the game lets you do it. It’s cheating if you use an external agent to achieve an advantage.
If a MMORPG bans people who exploit flaws in the AI, that’s bad business.