Data mining is a tricky thing for game developers. They can’t really avoid it, and its occurrence is very much a compliment to their game, but what’s uncovered is often devoid of context and can give players the wrong ideas about creative decisions. Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson learned the hard way that trying to mislead dataminers wasn’t the answer, even if it is fun.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Wilson went long on his experience dealing with such activities while making the original action-RPG at Grinding Gear Games. He opens by pointing to his grey stubble, because his current hair color is a by-product of handling datamining for a number of years.
In a section of the video, he discusses ways devs can prevent or minimize what miners can uncover. You can implement automated processes to scrub anything that isn’t strictly necessary to the player experience, and always aim for what’s included to be relevant only to the immediate game, rather than teasing cut assets or future updates.
“Some developers, including me in a past life, have added in decoy assets, so players don’t know what to believe.” he says. “But that’s a pretty wasteful process. Very good for trolling, though.”
I imagine so. You’re taking time out of making the game to do up fake versions of your actual to-do list. That’s a hard case when it comes to efficiency or time well-spent. But, I can also imagine seeing a wry joke travel through the community is satisfying too, especially if there are a couple of personalities who’ve caused problems for you in the past due to them spreading information they uncovered in the game’s code.
He points to encryption as a possible hurdle for data mining too, but notes it only works to protect games pre-release. Once they’re out, everything in them needs to be decrypted for players to run whatever project they’re buying. I’m reminded of the saying: make something idiot proof, someone will invent a better idiot.
You can mitigate this kind of fanfare, but full prevention seems truly difficult, and that goes triple for super popular series like Diablo. Ultimately, your best asset is hoping the community takes anything discovered with a grain of salt – and if you manage to slip in the occasional punchline, all the better.