GGG wants us to exploit this game

You are fundamentally right. This post is accurate and insightful, and your grasp of our philosophy behind the word 'exploit' is heartwarming.

A great thread.


But we're going to have to nerf it. ;)

Reposting my views from the other thread:
This issue is clouded by mixing uses of exploit for different meanings, but what it comes down to is what Jonathan says in that video, which is that when people think they're explioting the system, they're having a fun.
People actually finding and using actual exploits in the game is bad, but we want people to feel like they are.

In short, people exploiting the game (in the truest sense of the word) is bad, but people feeling like they're exploiting the game is good (because that's fun).

So we want there to be things which aren't exploits (because we've very specifically put them there and intend for them to be used that way), but which feel to the user like exploits.
The diamond flask as discussed in the video is a great example. We put it there knowing that people would try their best to break it. And despite the fact that everyone knows we've put it in for that and balanced so it will probably not be completely broken, when someone finds a way to kill 80 monsters while under the flask effect so they can use it again immediately, that feels like an exploit. You feel like you're 'beating the system', even though the system is built to handle this. And that feeling of beating/exploiting the system is fun - and doesn't depend on it actually being an exploit.