To Prove a Point: The True Driving Force Behind Progress

When it came to tunnel warfare, the players got the hang of it much faster than expected.

Of course, their ability to move quickly through the complex tunnels had nothing to do with any exceptional sense of three-dimensional orientation. They were simply cheating.

There was a post on the forums that documented the layout of the first tunnel network near Shadow Valley. The Chosen Mason from the Stonecutters' Guild had even made a scale and coordinate grid for it. That meant all the players had to do was check the coordinates on the calculation orb in their hands, compare them against the map on the forums, and do a bit of arithmetic any middle schooler could manage. Then they could pinpoint their location with great accuracy.

There was even a three-dimensional version of the map. Open it on a computer with a graphics program, and you could follow the tunnels' twists and turns in real time.

This "map hack" gave players a huge advantage underground. But before they'd had even twenty-four hours to enjoy their "Earth-Traveling Sun" mode, someone posted a picture on the forums.

"Fuck, there are monsters spawning in the tunnels!"

The squad led by Sai'en, the "No. 1 Internet Celebrity in Transia" and "Medical Insurance Warrior," had hit the jackpot. He vented in a thread he'd started himself:

Medical Insurance Warrior Sai'en: We'd just taken a mission from command and were getting ready to ambush a gnoll water convoy. But less than ten minutes after we entered the tunnels, a squad of armed kobolds spawned right in front of us. Good thing we're strong and haven't been slacking off. When we ran into them in that narrow passage, we drew our blades and hacked away. The ten NPCs assigned to us were vicious too, so we managed