Earlier this summer, MOP’s Tyler casually dropped a term that leaped out at me. In describing gameplay in World of Warcraft, he wrote,

“It’s not like these intricate rotations require interesting decision-making, either. Everyone’s mathed out the optimal usage of abilities. Having this many buttons is mostly just an attention tax.”

I think I get what he’s saying: When everyone knows how to do a thing because of years of number-crunching and the execution itself is trivial but still requires attention, being forced to do it is kind of a waste of time – and worse, a waste of attention. You still have to pay attention to execute it, but it’s not as if you’re getting anything substantive out of the process. It wouldn’t really make a difference if three buttons or ten were required, but the extra seven are the tax.

I’ve been trying to think of other examples of this. Cooking in Palia. Crafting experimentation in Star Wars Galaxies. Crop farming in LOTRO. Most crafting in old-school EverQuest II. Maybe even daily login rewards?

What else constitutes an “attention tax” in MMORPGs? Does this concept annoy you as it annoys me?

Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!