So the other day a friend of mine expressed interest in The Division. She missed it at launch and wanted to know if it was worth getting into because 'The Dark Zone sounds real interesting' which to be fair did when i got it at launch. I could only explain my experiences which were when the game began and as a lone player lurking department store buildings with a marksman rifle to survive solo DZ play i saw gangs of players -often multiple parties organised together outside the game- camping the entrances to the Dark Zone, guns at the ready to mow down anyone entering for the first time.
It was a skinner box that eventually lead to the word of mouth that 'its not worth bothering, just avoid the Dark Zone its a failed experiment' and even news sites reported it as such. Trouble for The Division was that without the Dark Zone gimmick it was a bad bullet sponge looter shooter with boring loot and a player base that shrank on a level that had never been seen at the time and would not be beaten till For Honours catastrophic player drop off.
Difference was For Honours issues were entirely on the developers part. While The Division had plenty of flaws in and of itself the first domino to start the chain falling was how players ruined the Dark Zone experience for so many that it had a chain reaction and killed off interest in the game in general.
My friend ended up getting Titanfall 2 instead, funnily enough a super small playerbase thats eager for new blood and desperate to keep their game alive so hopefully she gets some fun out of that one.
But thinking on it made me wonder whats the worst cases of players 'ruining' a game experience? Not via cheating or some out of game exploits but by playing the game 'as intended' so to speak leading to unforseen consequences.
Theres a fair few mmos who have had their economies ruined i can name but the standout i always remember is Vanilla WoW's "The Legend of Angwe". An orc Rogue who spent almost all day every day for like a year keeping Menethil Harbour on total lockdown. Wanted to get to Theramore or Darkshore as a babby alliance player? well tough shit Angwe would not let you.
His kill count was astronomical, players screamed for devs to do something about him but on a pvp server he was breaking no rules. Eventually an alliance rp guild 'the cult of angwe' showed up. Lurking the wetlands to spread the word of fresh meat on the road and for a solid 3 months not one alliance player was able to use the intercontinental transport routes from Menethil Harbour because Angwe simply did not allow it.
Eventually the devs sort of told them to cut it out purely because the wetlands was becoming a no go zone for alliance players and this meant no pvp at all north of the thandol span. Still thats one example i always remember of a player using the games built in gameplay to actively shut down normal, intended game function and behaviour to such a degree.
Didn't lead to bad word of mouth like The Dark Zone camping parties, but i'll always remember that "oh no we don't go there, not when Angwe's watching" vibe at the time doing the rounds.
What about you, have you ever seen players completely shut down a game or facet of a game like this before?