Do you prefer an immersive simulationist world in which mobs have some in-game purpose (such as patrolling the parapets of a powerful necromancer’s citadel to discourage full frontal ground attacks) or do you think all mobs should be quest targets and loot dispensers?

There is no right answer, they lead to different types of games. I don’t mind some simulationist mob placing. All I ask is that if mobs are supposed to be tough then they are touch, which these are (relatively at least).

And honestly, every single time I ever attacked an own faction guard in a game that allowed it, it was because of a misclick.

I understand that you don’t want to be prevented from doing it but really, I don’t think that is the answer to my wanting more immersive games. Or rather, it’s not enough. If I can attack my own faction guards, I also want to be able to have a reason to do it. Am I able to become an actual criminal? What’s the story behind my attacking some guards? And I need more help from the game than just setting the attackable flag. I know in the old ultima games you could get flagged as a criminal for thieving in towns. Even that is better than nothing.

They could have at least put some good loot on them, made them for a quest or have them give good rep if you kill them. It’s a bit of a waste.

Combat, violence and choosing to attack should consequences. If the newbie attacks the guard and gets his ass whooped then they learn a very important lesson from the outset.

Interesting that in your latest article you wish that vendors had more of a point then just being Pez dispensers. I agree and I feel the same toward guards and other NPCs that exist as props.

I’d love to actually be forced to storm that location and either fight or evade those mobs. Even if it boils down to managing sneak/invisible or something similar, if they are going to guard an approach, people should approach it. Otherwise why not just make them NPCs?

What I do think is that theme park style MMOs like WoW tend to have such a structured approach to zoning that every little thing is attached to a quest. I personally like the shift towards things being in zones because it’s where they logically ought to be (ie. giant skeletons patrolling the ramparts of the lich king’s castle) rather than because quest #3765 says you have to kill them.

It is more old school, I think. But it’s a shift in logic towards something a bit more immersive.

I did laugh when I saw that they don’t give xp though. That’s rather telling.

And it would look silly to have all these fortifications and none of them manned.

So I think having mobs there makes it more immersive, not less.

For me this is an extension of the “NPCs as props” philosophy that WoW really helped to usher into the MMO vocabulary. At least in older MMO’s like EverQuest you could attack guards and NPCs of your own faction.