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Auto-playing gets people banned from World of Warcraft while mobile RPGs continue to embrace it

The old grind

Auto-playing gets people banned from World of Warcraft while mobile RPGs continue to embrace it

Over the weekend, Activision Blizzard reportedly banned over 100,000 players from World of Warcraft for six months for using bots.

These bots allowed for auto-play, meaning that players could use them to avoid the grinding that is so common in MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft.

Rather than sitting at their PC for hours, these players activated the bot, and then went about their business. Upon returning, they would find that their character has gained experience and maybe even levelled up.

Activision Blizzard didn't like this practice, explaining that
it's "committed to providing an equal and fair playing field for everyone in World of Warcraft."

World of Warcraft

The important distinction to make here is that Activision Blizzard sees auto-playing bots as a form of cheating.

However, ZQGame Global has spoken out against this view of auto-playing practices in RPGs. Instead of banning auto-playing, ZQGame has embraced it in its RPGs by adding auto-play options to its players.

It should be noted that ZQGame doesn't quite work in the same space as Activision Blizzard as its RPGs are on mobile rather than PC. Those are Soul Guardians: Age of Midgard and Celestia – Broken Sky.

Nevertheless, what Elliot Almanza, ZQGame's community manager, has to say on the matter is interesting. It highlights one of the big differences between playing RPGs on mobile and playing them on PC.

"After finding that a majority of our gamers tend to multi-task while playing, we decided to insert auto-play options," Almanza said.

"It has been well received and now is a permanent fixture in all of our games. Having this feature also negates the need for anyone to use third-party software to automate gameplay, which this whole controversy surrounds."

Soul Guardians: Age of Midgard

These auto-playing options in ZQGame's RPGs differ between them. In Soul Guardians: Age of Midgard there are special dungeons with an auto-play option. You can gain loot and experience without playing yourself, as such.

Whereas in Celestia - Broken Sky it comes as an auto-battle option. This allows you to focus on team management instead of getting stuck into the real-time combat.

So ZQGame Global has noticed how people are playing its RPGs on mobile and designed them around that. While Activision Blizzard is fighting against similar practices on PC, forcing its players to put in hours of grinding.

ZQGame Global isn't the only mobile game developer doing this. In fact, there are plenty of games on mobile that are designed around idle play and auto-playing.

For example, take a look at Dreeps, which is an RPG you only interact with by setting an alarm. Or the rise of incremental games that let you amass fortunes while you're away - Bitcoin Billonaire, A Dark Room, and AdVenture Capitalist.

Bitcoin Billionaire

The difference here is that mobile game developers are finding ways to work with their players and designing their games to respect their time.

More often than not, mobile games allow us to multi-task with auto-play options, fitting the games around our busy lives.

All of this isn't to say that auto-playing may not be the demon that Activision Blizzard makes it out to be.

Chris Priestman
Chris Priestman
Anything eccentric, macabre, or just plain weird, is what Chris is all about. He turns the spotlight on the games that fly under the radar.