Sometimes there is more than one way to play a game. For example, I spent a few weeks playing Farmville. I had a spreadsheet with production options, so I could easily choose the best ones. I wrote an AutoIt script that clicked my fields, so instead of clicking 100 times to harvest my fields, I only clicked a button to start the script and left it running for a minute or two. I focused on those types of production that I could automate using the script. So I believe I enjoyed the game on a higher level than usual.
But it still took a lot of time to run the script regularly. And at some moment I ran out of options: the requirements to reach the next level were increasing exponentially, my production capacities linearly. Somewhere around level 100, even using the best available options, it would take a few days of doing exactly the same thing over and over again to reach level 101, and then even more days of the same thing to reach level 102, and it would only keep getting worse. The game was designed so that it was impossible to get more than 2 XP per 1 mouse click; and even with my script it meant at most 200 XP per running the script. My strategy brought me lots of gold and other in-game currency, but it was impossible to trade any of them for XP in a way that didn’t require at least 1 mouse click per 2 XP. And XP was the only way to get higher level and potentially unlock new items. So at this moment the game became pointless.
What I don’t like about most online games is that they are open-ended. There is no incentive for the game author to ever tell you “YOU WON, GAME OVER”. The only ending is that at some moment you become bored and quit; it can happen sooner or later, but it’s the only way the game can end.
Sometimes there is more than one way to play a game. For example, I spent a few weeks playing Farmville. I had a spreadsheet with production options, so I could easily choose the best ones. I wrote an AutoIt script that clicked my fields, so instead of clicking 100 times to harvest my fields, I only clicked a button to start the script and left it running for a minute or two. I focused on those types of production that I could automate using the script. So I believe I enjoyed the game on a higher level than usual.
But it still took a lot of time to run the script regularly. And at some moment I ran out of options: the requirements to reach the next level were increasing exponentially, my production capacities linearly. Somewhere around level 100, even using the best available options, it would take a few days of doing exactly the same thing over and over again to reach level 101, and then even more days of the same thing to reach level 102, and it would only keep getting worse. The game was designed so that it was impossible to get more than 2 XP per 1 mouse click; and even with my script it meant at most 200 XP per running the script. My strategy brought me lots of gold and other in-game currency, but it was impossible to trade any of them for XP in a way that didn’t require at least 1 mouse click per 2 XP. And XP was the only way to get higher level and potentially unlock new items. So at this moment the game became pointless.
What I don’t like about most online games is that they are open-ended. There is no incentive for the game author to ever tell you “YOU WON, GAME OVER”. The only ending is that at some moment you become bored and quit; it can happen sooner or later, but it’s the only way the game can end.