A popular phrase in World of Warcraft is a symbol of the ignorance of some players – at least that’s what MeinMMO demon Cortyn thinks and has something to complain about.
The World of Warcraft community sometimes has a somewhat idiosyncratic sense of humor. Many jokes are only understandable if you have been around for many years – like the whole Allimania series. But other things are just thrown out there again and again and have become just annoying.
The absolute king of annoying phrases is “Fun Detected”, which has not only been used inflationaryly in recent years, but also completely misused. It is mostly used in forums when a fresh hotfix or patch has just been installed.
“Fun Detected” refers to a situation that, in the opinion of some WoW fans, is always repeated. As soon as a part of the community finds something in the game that they enjoy, Blizzard comes along and changes it. True to the motto: “What, someone is having fun in our game? Quick, let’s change that!” – Hence “Fun Detected”.
However, this is rarely the truth. In fact, “Fun Detected” is always said when there is a massive exploit that undermines the actual game. The most prominent example to date was probably “Frog Farming” in WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria.
Here, characters could farm a single type of enemy virtually unlimitedly for a good two days, while respawning was extremely fast. Frogs spawned every second and dropped all the relevant currencies and rewards.
Or to put it another way: Everything in WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria was completely irrelevant compared to the frog farm.
This is a massive problem from a game design perspective. If there is one method that completely outdoes all others and is 20, 30 or even 100 times more efficient than any other content in the game, then that is not “fun” – it is a bug and a problem that needs to be fixed.
Since the incident, some people have been looking for the next exploit. Hyperspawns of some sort, mobs that drop a little too much, dungeon trash that can be reset 10 times per hour (and even more often with an exploit). Blizzard is fixing one bug after another and it has become an absurd game of cat and mouse.
I also find it really hard to understand why some people just can’t understand that such exploits are damaging to the game as a whole and the enjoyment of the vast majority.
“Fun detected” is almost always an obvious exploit that undermines overall gameplay.
Some people say: “I pay 13 euros a month for the game, so I can play it however I want.” And yes, there is a grain of truth in that statement. But no more than a grain.
If you’re playing Ludo with other people and suddenly decide that your characters can teleport to get to their destination directly, then you can of course play it that way because you bought the game. That’s not exactly conducive to the fun of everyone involved – and not your own either.
I always have the stereotypical 11-year-old aimbot user from Counter-Strike in my head, who thinks he’s really cool because he can knock everyone else down and then stomps his feet angrily when he gets banned because he just wanted to have a bit of fun.
Of course, everyone defines fun a little differently. Some like a relaxing grind, others like a tough challenge, and still others like social interaction. However, if you think that “I get all the rewards almost immediately by using an exploit” really means “fun”, then maybe you should think about whether an MMORPG is really the right way to spend your time.
Because if the greatest fun is not having to spend any time in the game, then the principle of fun and leisure has really been taken to the extreme. But I still believe that the dominance of the frog farmers is not such a big problem in this case – and that fixing the exploit was still the right decision.
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