Ultimately, the situation they describe (4++ hours of trash kills) is an inherent design flaw in raid instances. There should be various points at which, once reached, a guild could return to only do that part of the raid instance they desire. As for the "haxxzors" and how "horrible" they are, I will say this. I used to get onto people about buying gold and stuff like that, but I remember that back in the WC1, 2, and 3 days, Blizzard always put cheat codes into their games for people who just wanted to experience the content (for fun) without investing the time to bash their heads against each level until they beat it the old fashioned way. I was never one of those people, but I can understand how some people who are merely playing the game to get specific gear and then go use that gear to PvP or do whatever is *actually* "fun" for them may not want to continue to put in hours upon hours grinding away at trash mobs every night. I think people lose sight of 2 things:

1.) This game is supposed to be for FUN.

2.) Blizzard gets paid by making you play for longer. Therefore, annoying grinds and time sinks makes them $$$.

Number 2 is why we don't see any cheat codes or sanctioned gold selling built into the game. Blizzard doesn't want to lose revenue. At the same time, grinds aren't fun, so when your raid feels like a grind, I can see why people would try to make it less of a grind (less not fun).

That said, I believe that what we are seeing is the product of another flaw in game design, namely the 40-man raid. In order to fill a raid of 40 people on a regular basis, you need to have somewhere between 60 and 120 level 60's, depending on the dedication to raiding of your players. What's the result of needing such a massive number of 60's? You never really develop that sense of family fun and cohesive friendship that you can with a smaller guild that does smaller raids. People resort to joining big "raiding guilds," playing with people they don't know, and the result is clear: when you're not playing with people you consider to be your friends, the game ceases to be as fun. Yes, grinding sucks, but grinding with your best buddies can still be tons of fun because of the company. Fortunately, Blizzard seems to be on the right track with their change to 25-man raids in the expansion.

In sum, what this letter from Overrated makes clear is that while they take responsibility for their choice to use the cheats, they made that choice as a result of forces and pressures that were largely created by Blizzard's game design policies. Yes, we admit, we "cheated," but if the game was done right, we wouldn't have needed to do so. Just my 2¢.

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