6) Grinding

If a poll was done on the most annoying thing in MMOs, I bet that more than 90% of the gamers would answer "grinding". And with reason. It's probably the most common motivation people give up games and the quickest way to create "MMO" (notice the quotation). Why people hate it so much? Simple! Because it makes them do what they do in real life – repetitive, boring stuff for small earnings. When a person plays a game, he/she wants to escape the real world and do something relaxing, entertaining, and as different as possible from the daily chores. So when a game fails to deliver it and does just the opposite, then there's a problem. There is a sort of grind in any game, but some make a living out of it and that’s not normal. Next time when you play a game full of grind, think about it (actually don't, just do it) and throw that piece of rubbish where it belongs.

7) No horizon beyond the level cap

You just did the last quest and your character (with a bit of luck) is now the maximum level. For a while you feel that you are somebody, you are cool, and nobody can mess with you anymore. But as time passes by, you realize that there's less and less for you to do. Of course, you can search for better equipment, fight in some PvP, but eventually all this is getting boring. There's no solid gain for playing anymore. This is the moment when many players give up gaming. Designers try to get them back by constantly releasing new content and add-ons, but unless it's done often, it is only a momentary solution. In response to this, a new market appeared – that of game characters. A quick search with our Google friend reveals a lot of sites willing to sell you accounts, even though this is considered to be illegal, and not that safe.

8) Cheaters

This category of people is truly hated – by me at least. They are present in each and every online game and try to quickly gain what you are working for months to achieve. No game is cheat-proof but it normally has a team of GMs that try to catch unfair players either by direct observation or using player-provided proof. The system is not perfect either. Most times, GMs are in too small numbers to handle everyone, don't care, or the worst, they are hand in glove with the cheaters. Despite the possible consequences, people still cheat.

Why? Because it's worth it! Especially in the beginning, they have nothing to lose, if they are caught they can easily start all over again. Cheating in on-line games is not as easy as it seems. It's not like entering a cheat code anymore. All your character's data is stored on the server, so altering this is almost impossible. What you can use are usually bugs and exploits, and searching for them is no easy thing to do, or easier, Bots that do all the hard work of leveling and gathering gold for you. Apart from the ones that try to obtain benefits for their characters, there is another category of cheaters called scammers. What they do is trick other players to give them money, items, or even account passwords, so beware. This is maybe what makes cheaters one of the most hated things in MMOs.

9) Bans

Bans have a direct connection with the topic above. In order to stop the unfair players, games have a set of rules and those who break them usually get a temporary (it they are lucky) or a permanent ban, rendering their account useless. Things tend to go crazy when, in desperation, GMs tend to ban anyone who is even suspect of doing something illegal, and not giving them a chance to prove their innocence. The last example is Aion, where tens of thousands of players were banned for accusations like using bots or real money trades. The problem was that with them, a lot of legit players were unfairly punished. If we consider that only 10% of the players were accidentally banned it still results in at least 1000 players, which is a lot!

The procedure to get your account back once banned is very long and chances of success are pretty slim. You have to send a message to the administrators and, most importantly, you must prove your innocence, which apart from reasoning, you have almost no way to do. Basically, when you get a ban you can say goodbye to your account.

10) Item malls (or any type of payment)

Who likes to pay? No one. It's in fact in human’s nature to try to get everything as cheap as possible, it's called survival instinct. So it's natural for us not to want to pay for our games unless we really have to (otherwise you have a 6 zeros bank account or you truly like it). And when in order to get some unfair advantages all you need to is to spend a lot of money in a virtual item mall, things get even worse.

In this way there are two categories of "free" games: those who force you to buy, else the game becomes extremely difficult for you, and unfairly easy for the buyers. The rare others are the ones that try to balance the game and only have aesthetic and commodity items for sale. The second one is more like a donation as you don't have to pay a dime and still be one of the best, which surprisingly makes you want to pay for it more than the other (sort of reverse psychology). Another special category is made of P2P games. Although you still have to pay, these games don't try to scam you using messages like "Come play, FREE for ever". Here, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, their accessibility is somehow limited by the monthly fee. Not everyone can afford it (or want to pay for). Still, better than item malls...

This was it. Like it or not, now that's a list of 10 things to hate about online games. If you have other topics you think might fit here (or just want to criticize me) feel free to use our comments section below.

Until next time, I wish you good luck!

Written by Sicaru Adrian for MMORPG Gate