Diablo II
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Diablo II is a "hack and slash" game, and is the second game in the Diablo series developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was one of the most popular games in 2000 due to its continuation of the first Diablo game, and its access to free online play via Battle.net. The expansion package for this game, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was later released in 2001. A sequel, Diablo III, was released in early 2012. [1] These games include ethical dilemmas, including items that are considered "bugged."
Contents
Game Play
The original Diablo II is split up into four acts. Within each act, the player has different quests that he/she has to accomplish, and at the end of each act the player has to combat with a boss. There are five character classes in which the player can choose from: the Amazon, the Necromancer, the Barbarian, the Sorceress, and the Paladin. During the game, the players fight monsters in settings of dungeons and dark wilderness in order to obtain items and increase levels. The game is available to be played in 3 difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare or Hell. Players can access new difficulty levels by beating the final boss on their current level. They then replay in a harder setting to continue to work their way up. There are also two different types of characters that the player can create: softcore and hardcore. The difference between these two types of character is that in hardcore, once the character is dead, he/she cannot be resurrected and all of their items will be lost unless another player checks out "loot" icon for them. [2]
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Expansion
The expansion for Diablo II added a significant amount of content on to the original game. Two new character classes were introduced (assassin and druid), as well as a fifth act. Also added were new items and item modification possibilities.
Controversy with expansion
When Blizzard released the expansion package of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, they released a software update that made the difficulty modes "Nightmare" and "Hell" to be more challenging for all players, including the ones who did not buy the pack. Some of these players felt that this was an attempt by Blizzard to force them to buy the pack since they could no longer progress their levels without the special items and newly offered abilities. [3]
Ethical concerns
Bugged Items
In Diablo II, there are certain items that are considered "bugged items." These are items that can be used in ways unforeseen by Blizzard and grant advantages. There is controversy among players over whether using these items will constitute a fair gameplay. Some argue that any glitches should be not abused because it is akin to cheating, while others believe that unless Blizzard releases or announces a patch to fix the bug, it is a fair gameplay.
Botting and Scripting
The use of Bot and Scripts remains an issue in Diablo II. Bots and scripts automate player actions and often times optimize necessary actions performed by the player. The use of bots and scripts help players gain competitive edge over players who do not bot or script by rapidly-leveling up characters as well as farming gold and items. Despite the fact that Blizzard continues to counter the use of Bots and Scripts through anti-botting and anti-scripting systems, the constant development of new scripts and improvement on existing scripts increases the difficulty of detecting these cheats. [4]
Scamming
Many players in Diablo 2 resort to scamming to try and trick new players into giving them their items or gold. This can be done through a number of ways. Most either deal with bugs that come with opening the trade screen, or ways in which the game forces you to drop an item when you do a certain action. Scamming is a very common happening in Diablo 2, as it is in many other games.
Notable Hacks
On the online version of the game there are several hacks and modifications one can use while dueling to gain a unfair advantage over another players. Below are some examples of such hacks.
Far Cast
The Far cast hack enables the player to use a skill in the game at a range. When the far cast hack is used, the hacker can ignore the range between the two players and use the skill directly onto the targeted player. This modification can ruin the gaming experience of other players for it causes imbalance in dueling. The Amazon class has a skill called charged strike that does massive damage in melee range. When the skill is used in combination with the far cast hack, the hacker can easily defeat other players. When a player uses the far cast hack in a dueling game, the game is also more prone to crashes and disconnects. In severe cases, all players in the game might be banned from online play. Due to the fact that it is hard to pin point the single player who is hacking, Blizzard rarely enforces the ban[5]. This puts players in a precarious ethical position. If they don't hack, they are at a competitive disadvantage. If they do hack, they are breaking the rules. But if the rules aren't being enforced, are they still rules that need to be respected?
Faster Cast Rate Break Point
When a skill is cast in the game, there's certain number of frames of animation displayed for each skill. When the faster cast rate break point mod is used, the number of frames it takes to use a skill is decreased to a minimum. A player can use his skills faster with this modification. This modification also changed the number of frames it takes for a player to be stunned. In dueling games, this allows the user's character to use skills with almost no lag time in between. This modification is virtually undetectable by Blizzard since it changes only the files stored in the user end. [6]
RedVex Bot
RedVex is a wildly used script program that can run a set of pre-written commands. Players can download pre-written RedVex scripts and use it with Diablo 2. Players and use the program to set up bots that continuously make new games, kill all the monsters for loots in the game, and repeat. This causes imbalance as some players have to play the game manually to get the same loots.[7]
See Also
External Links
References
- ↑ http://us.battle.net/d3/en/
- ↑ Diablo II
- ↑ Diablo II: Lorde of Destruction http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Diablo_II:_Lord_of_Destruction#Critical_response.
- ↑ http://www.d2freedom.com/bots.html
- ↑ http://www.blizzhackers.cc/viewtopic.php?t=304775
- ↑ http://www.blizzhackers.cc/viewtopic.php?t=325796
- ↑ http://www.blizzhackers.cc/viewtopic.php?t=356200
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