Notes from the boardroom.

Colin: "Norman, you're looking glum, whatever is the matter?"

Norman: "You know, Colin, it's these 'player' critters; they're getting through our quests at an alarming rate, we need something to slow them down a bit, but we need to make it look like it's a cunning game mechanic..."

Colin: "Hmmm, it's a tricky one, Norman. If only... no."

Norman: "What is it, Colin?"

Colin: "No, it would never work, we would never get away with it."

Norman takes Colin's hand in his and pats it gently.

Norman: "My dear, Colin, if there's one thing we MMO developers have learned, it's that we can make those 'player' mammals jump through tiny hoops of fire into pits of boiling acid if we can put enough spin on it."

Colin: "Well... what if we made some of the mobs invisible?"

Norman: "Invisible, my dear fellow, whatever do you mean?"

Colin: "Well, I mean exactly that. Make mobs that are, in effect, and in actuality, not visible."

Norman: "But, 'players' would have to run around in endless circles for hours just trying to find them! Not only that, but it might even be that they're running around in entirely the wrong area and they'd never even know it. If we placed the not-entirely-within-the-visual-spectrum mobs in the middle of groups of plainly visible mobs, the 'player' things would have to fight through huge swathes of these normal mobs just for the opportunity to run around in circles to see if an invisible mob is roaming there."

Norman and Colin laugh nervously at the silliness of it. Then they stop and look at each other.

Colin: "It wouldn't work, would it?"

Norman: "It's genius, Colin, we'll get the programmers on it right away."

Colin: "I love you, Norman."

Norman: "Not now Colin."

Guess who spent ages hunting for invisible mobs in Lord of the Rings Online last night.