#data-mining being one of the Bad Evil Modern Things that THe Past didn't have

[linkmesh-communard]

Is there really a large contingent of game developers that get upset about dataminers? I'd argue this is an attitude I see more in game players than any other demographic, and the reason those people don't like the concept of datamining is because, to them, it's functionally the same thing as spoiling the contents of a book, or seeing different parts of a carnival attraction outside of their intended context.

Of course, it's not really the act of datamining in of itself that does this, but what comes of it is frequently uploaded online, which (again, to them) creates an unintended way of seeing certain content, more specifically in a way that "ruins" the effect. Some also go as far as to lament the days where datamining was not an easily accessible thing you could do with video games-- it preserves a sense of mystery, of not truly knowing how much the game actually holds. It lets a player's imagination run wild with possibilities.

Does datamining, or even datamining and subsequently posting the findings online do anything as dramatic as destroy the very concept of being surprised by a video game? Obviously not! It's not as if datamining forums or threads for findings are impossible to avoid, after all. But the fact that the knowledge of the existence of datamining is there might be enough for some people (player or developer) to feel like "the magic" is being ruined. That Oz is just a man behind the curtain, pulling levers.

That, or maybe some game developers are just embarrassed about how badly their code is written, or how messily they organized their assets, or anything else like that.

Why do gamedevs get angry about data mining? Simply do not ship assets you don't want people to see.