Category Archives: PC
Is leveling antiquated? Or am I just getting old?
Of all the gaming genres I’ve dabbled in, there’s always been a special place in my heart for the classic MMORPG nerd. I’ve certainly dedicated far too much time to them. One thing I have noticed, though, is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to deal with the typical process of becoming top-tier which 9.9/10 times means hitting some sort of max level first. But while this is a standard, I have found it to be one I’m growing tired of quickly.
I question if the idea of leveling is becoming old or if it’s just me.
I’ve always hated leveling, from day one. I’ve only ever maxed out characters in two MMOs, despite having played many; Guild Wars and WoW. It usually took me months to get it done for each character. The common denominator is that I did so during my early years of college or during summer / winter breaks when I had a lot of time.
The carrot on the stick is so shiny…!
Since then, I’ve grown up a bit. Yeah, yeah, I’ve become that guy with the 9-5 job, bills to pay, rent to take care of, etc. I find that if I’m not already tired from my fan-dangled commute, I’d rather spend my precious few hours / free days of waking life doing something else. Writing, coding, drawing, reading, seeing the outside world (the sun!? what?!), or maybe just sleeping. Lets face it – we all end up spending too much time gaming anyway.
It isn’t a bad thing or a knock to those who do the whole 9-5, raising septuplets spiel on top of hardcore gaming at all. I just think my priorities have shifted of late and I’m hitting that “mmo-burnout” that lots of people are talking about.
While my own factors may play a huge role in this changing mentality, I can’t help but wonder how other people feel. One big problem is that every MMO feels the same these days, and with more and more coming out to try and vie for a top-spot, you have to wonder how many times are gamers going to be willing to do the same grind over and over again before they really just stop. Maybe that’s why so many new MMOs are failing. It’s not necessarily that they are bad or boring, but it’s like starting over from scratch with each new game. At some point, one just gets weary of it.
Gamers want an alternative to WoW. They’ve been screaming for one for years now. The problem is every MMO seems to try the emulate the core aspects of WoW that have been absurdly successful and that drives gamers nuts. We can’t deny that it’s been a standardizing title for years. And yet on the same token, anything truly novel and unique from WoW’s model has to be so far outside the comfort zone of said gamers that they find the transition difficult and give up. It’s like the same demographic of people complaining about quality TV being on the decline, but then go and torrent their favorite shows while indulging in horrid reality TV. And they wonder why gems like Firefly get the boot while yet another Housewives spinoff gets the green light.
Just five more levels and I can get a REAL mount…
When I game, I want content, not grind. I don’t have time to sit through hours of kill-ten-rats anymore. If I had to start over in WoW or GW, I’d probably pass. I’ve tried Rift and Aion, haven’t gotten past level 23 or 12 in either, respectively. And it’s difficult to talk about the subject with other gamers because most often it’s the trollish “leveling isn’t hard, you’re just bad.”
Well, leveling isn’t hard, but if it’s boring and grindy, what’s the point? You learn your class while leveling, sure, but I find it hard to believe that there’s no other way to go about the learning process.
I’ve vowed not to play any new MMO until GW2 comes out. Knowing that a large 1-80 grind is in store for me when it does, I decided that it’d be best not to force myself to avoid another burn-out before it releases.
What do you guys think? Is the concept of leveling antiquated? Is there any way to make an alternative system or to make the leveling experience better?
Guild Wars 2 Hall of Monuments Rewards Revealed!
So Arena-Net released the Guild Wars Hall of Monuments calculator deal today.
This feature is so ridiculously amazing, it’s not even funny.
You input your character name and it tallies up your achievements. Each one is given a certain point value.
There’s a total of 50 points, and each level from 1-30 unlocks an in-game reward. There are titles every 5 levels and a pet, mini-pet, piece of armor, or weapon. Many of these rewards are major tips of the hat to Guild Wars One, like the Black Moa and Fiery Dragon Sword. After level 30, there are only 4 more titles to get at 35, 40, 45, and 50. The cool thing with the tool is that it also shows you a to-do list in case you wanna try to advance your score, and makes it print-able!
What this does is make all the psychical vanity stuff accessible to everybody who plays through the game a decent amount. Most are at least at 15 points, so halfway there alerady.
It’s account-bound it would seem. I have my HoM shared and so all my characters show up as having the same rewards, which is great.
Another cool feature: The heritage armor will be transmutable without needing to purchase the stones from the in-game store, as quoted by Regina:
For the Hall of Monuments rewards, we will provide players the means by which they can transmute the stats/appearance of these particular items without having to purchase transmutation stones in the in-game store. The development team is still working out the exact mechanics of this, though.
I’m at 22/50. 8 more points and I’ve got all the unlock-able stuff, and then it’s just titles after that that I may or may-not go for. Who knows!
But this is definitely going to make me play Guild Wars again for the coming months! Great planning on ANet’s part, especially after all the upset over transmutation stones last week. I must say. I’m very, very happy about this.
If you’ve got a Hall of Monuments and a few achievements, go check out their calculator here. Join the excited chatter at Guild Wars 2 Guru and Guild Wars 2 Forums as well!
Pirates of the Burning Sea going F2P. Yarrrrrrr
Nothing major, just figured I didn’t want to go over a week with no new post.
As reported by Figit, another semi-popular MMO, Pirates of the Burning Sea, is planning on goin F2P soon. While the honchos haven’t revealed any specifics, they have given us the ever elusive “Soon”. The game currently has a 14 day free-trial, and one I’m very tempted to give a go. I mean. I love MMOs, and I love Pirates. I just don’t love multiple subscription fees.
It’s an interesting announcement to come after my babble on whether or not F2P games will become a new standard. PotBS joins a long list of popular titles going the F2P route, like LotR and Eve, and several other MMOs that started out that way. Every time another game joins the ranks, it convinces me more and more that this future Gaming Utopia of F2P, optional pay will be realized sooner rather than later.
The most interesting part of this was reading up on Rusty William’s Dev Blog post on why they decided to go ahead with this change. He gives a few solid points on why it makes sense to do, and something I think lots of developers with sub-based games should consider if their numbers are falling:
With a subscription, there’s only one price, whether you like to log in occasionally on the weekends to do a few missions with friends, or if you’re the kind of player who calls in to work sick to make sure you’re ready for an important port battle. The more fun the game is, the better the model works…
This couldn’t be more true and sums up in one line what I tried to say in my wall of text.
I feel with so many large-scale MMOs that are sub-based dominating the market, it must be extremely difficult for new titles to emerge and convince players to pay. On the flip side, if they have a basic F2P format with the option for subscriptions with premium content, their changes of success rise.
While I know us “real” gamers hate to include social gaming like Farmville in the MMO mix, we do have them to thank for this surge in popularity of F2P, Optional Pay model that will make many quality games more accessible to players.
Rusty goes on to say:
.. in the modern MMO environment, players often rotate through several games that they’re engaged in. With a subscription, it’s a hassle to cancel and then re-subscribe as they move back and forth between games. With F2P, players can play the games they want to play right that moment without having to keep in mind what they committed to weeks or months ago.
Another hugely valid point.
It makes me wonder once GW2 comes out (assuming it’s as good as we’re all hoping), they will really set a high bar for F2P and MMO genre that might almost force other games to submit as well.
I also feel that Blizzard should make Vanilla WoW F2P. It would make complete sense, with Cataclysm streamlining the early leveling experience and bringing all the high level characters back to the motherlands. This would be the perfect time to let the 1-60 world be open to all.
AntiLurk Q&A: What games would you like to see drop subscription fees? Would you be willing to subscribe to an optional membership to support them? What do you think of “premium” service and memberships on MMOs?
Are F2P MMOs the new standard?
Rift is typical fantasy, but really beautiful.
If I learned anything from the recent trip to PAX, it’s that the world of MMORPG’s is ever expanding. Perhaps exploding is a better word? I must have played at least five different games: GW2, Rift, DnD Online, LOTR, Terra…and that’s just the start. The thing that shocked me most, though, was that most of these games come with a subscription fee.
The eastern-style of free-to-play MMO-RPG’s making it’s way over to the other hemisphere has been a hot topic for a while now, but the ball really got rolling when Tom Chilton of Blizzard fame suggested that subscription-based cash-cow World of Warcraft may one day follow suit and EverQuest II announced a watered-down F2P version of itself.
Needless to say, online gamers all over America and then some flipped their collective shit at the “news”, freaking out and wrongly declaring “FREE-WOW WORLD, DREAMS HAVE BEEN REALIZED” malarkey.
Unsurprisingly they ignored the fact that he also declared this wasn’t going to happen “anytime soon”, if at all, which likely means Blizz is waiting for their next big hit to take the place of WoW. Let’s face it, guys: Blizzard will most likely be the ones to make the much-fabled WoW-Killer.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if this happened sooner rather than later. For the first time since WoW started, subscriptions have declined. They continue to do so, and that’s with nothing out there right now that’s even much competition. People are, as many have said said, simply getting bored with it. This is following an overall trend in subscription MMO’s losing players, with the exception of seven-year-old Eve Online who have boasted more players than ever.
Subscription MMO's dying slowly from lack of HOTs.
The reasons is pretty clear: there are tons of free to play MMO’s out there of notable quality, and others that are dropping their subscriptions in favor of micro-transaction supported markets. This is a very Asian concept and is common in flashy Korean and Japanese based online games. It’s worked well in the far-east, but never quite picked up in the west until now. These days there are many options where players can get their hack and slash fix without paying 10-25 dollars a month for it. People are willing to settle for something a little less in terms of content if it means it’s free, and who can blame them with the economy being what it is? But free doesn’t have to mean a shitty game, either.
Guild Wars was one of the first western MMO fantasy games of quality to dedicate themselves to a free-to-play environment from the start, supported by new content every six months and small upgrades like storage and character slots. Once they switched gears to their new game, additional content ceased and they added vanity micro-transactions like make-overs and costumes to continue financial income. Determined to stay true to their original gaming model, ArenaNET has promised that the sequel would be just as free to play as the original and offer nothing less than groundbreaking graphics and gameplay. Ambitious, yes, perhaps a little risky. But brilliant, none-the-less, and very necessary a move to shake the long-stangant idea of what an MMORPG needs to be.
Most people will pay for one game only, rarely two, which puts all subscription games at ends with each other. Theoretically, a game is more likely to have a larger or more dedicated player base if it’s free to play than not, because they’re not competing for a spot on the “please pay for me” ballot. A F2P game is more likely to have people return to it after absences and warrants much less feelings of forced play-time and resentment (“Oh, I have to play to make it worth the money I put down…”). Someone who has their main sub-based MMO likely has their guilty side-dish F2P games as well (GW, TFII, and Starcraft would be mine 
).
One huge fear gamers have about F2P supported by Micro-Sale games is that they feel selling vanity services eventually leads to selling items that give them clear game-play advantages over others. People seem to have this huge vendetta against the idea of “paying for content” because this is immediately what they assume is the case. Every time WoW puts another vanity item in the online store, you get droves of threads crying out blasphemy and wondering when they will cross over to the dark-side of selling gear and levels. But there is a deep irony hidden in these caverns.
Everquest II’s “extended” model is another, albiet misunderstood, marketing tool that takes advantage of the popularity of F2P mmos. The part many gamers initially found hard to swallow is that it’s basically a glorified eternal trial-version. You’ll eventually cap-out on stuff to do unless you pay, and that part is where the “optional” content comes in and this is what the gaming community is hemmraging about. But the very people who scoffed at the idea of EQII:E’s model are the same ones blowing 25 bucks on ponies and ponytails. And lets consider this: how would one define WoW-style expansions ? Oh yeah. Paying for additional “optional” content, except that it’s not. WoW expansions are literally optional, but far from it in context. We all know this.
So then, what difference is there between buying the expansions every two years for WoW or paying 10 dollars in EQII:E for a new level cap and gear tiers? Absolutely nothing.
If WoW’s recent, though sometimes questionable, dabbling in micro-transactions on top of subscription fees and Guild Wars’ F2P model supported by micro-sales are any indication, we see clearly people -are- willing to pay extra for vanity items. Pets, mounts, costumes, and make-overs. Transfers, bonus missions, storage, and sex-changes. If you offer a good game to base something on, players won’t mind investing a little extra into it, especially if that game is free-to-play to begin with and they feel compelled to support something they enjoy.
There are many games that will doubtlessly continue to charge monthly, especially those based on franchises like Final Fanatsy or Starwars. But we could definiately see a huge shift towards the end of free to play MMO’s supported by optional content and this is something that I think everybody should be excited for, not fearful of.
Now to encourage all you lurkers to comment, I have some questions for the masses: Do you think F2P will eventually eclipse sub-based mmo’s? Why or why-not?
SC2 Heating things up…literally.
I guess the firebat made it to SC2 after all.
Apparently there’s a known bug that has processors rendering menu-screens up the wazoo, causing overheating and in some cases, complete melt-downs of video cards.
Originally reported by Gameinformer, the fix is pretty simple: players can input two lines of code themslves to alleviate the problem. Furthermore, the numbres can be tweaked by the more tech-savvy. This is especially important to players who use laptops or older machines notorious for fans spinning out of control and blasting off into space.
DocumentsStarCraft IIvariables.txt
frameratecapglue=30
frameratecap=60
More info:
http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/07/28/blizzard-confirms-starcraft-ii-overheating-bug.aspx
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/939643-starcraft-ii-wings-of-liberty/55785055
Aion wants you back. No, really. They’re desperate.
Aion announced earlier this week in a news update that they were going to automatically reactiviate all accounts for the weekend, and offer a double XP reward event as well. They originally had also offered free character transfers since merging
This is semi-exciting news for anybody who had been toying with the idea of playin
g again. Even I was tempted, if only for a stark reminder of why I quit in the first place.
AION hasn’t crossed my mind since I rage quit a after level 10; i had made a scout and upon choosing my destiny as a ranger, found out that the mechanics were horrible. Everybody kept saying “oh they get better after 20″ and such, but 10 levels of suffering is hardly worth it, IMO. How can one justify that? A delicate leveling bracket (10-20) being insufferable is worthless.
I’ve played a lot of MMO’s of different kinds, and for a combat mechanic from one class to cause me to pretty much quit the game entirely is pretty bad. I usually just switch classes and start over. I mean, level 10 is nothing, right?
My leveling experience aside, I’ve heard nothing good about the end-game past 30. It becomes a grind for levels and gear, worse than anything many players have experienced, and the pvp is completely lopsided since server merges downed the maximum realms to 5. I don’t even know where my useless ranger is at this point.
Anyway, if anyone is interested in picking the game up again, this weekend is the golden ticket. The biggest let-down is that they dropped the free server x-fers for the time being, making any re-activated accounts who have no clue where their toons are now (like myself) can’t move over to a server with friends. Go figure.
PS:
Day 3 of the Hurricane RealID, Damage is Begining to Surface
Brief recaps:
Day one, the official announcement is made during regular sever maintainence. The initial shock and repulsion by fans is unprecedented. Blues are overwhelmed by the response and attempt to keep the massive response under control. Blizz Employee reveals his true name and the backlash is intense, he is forced to take down his facebook.
http://izziebytes.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/blizzards-realid-forum-shitstorm-is-cat/
Day two, the scope of the reaction reaches new heights. Blizzard officially announces that RealID -will- happen, and that they were aware it would turn away many current posters and were ok with this consequence. Activision’s announcement that RealID will be integrated with Facebook and their partnership begins to raise eyebrows. Enraged gamers start to make a connection between Activision’s increased involvement in Blizzard’s marketing to their decreasing integrity.
http://izziebytes.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/the-irl-maelstrom-continues/
So it goes on
Here we are at day three of what is easily one of the most impacting events in the history of gaming and the gaming industry. The world-wide attention of this is much more far-reaching than we expected. I said this was history in the making in my first post, but even I didn’t realize just how big this was going to be.
Fellow blogger Zaldinar has been keeping rigorous track of as much information as he can. His lists are much more organized and comprehensive than mine, and I feel his posts are beyond a must-read:
http://zaldinar.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/the-case-against-realid/
http://zaldinar.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/the-problem-with-real-id/
What is stunning is the list of mainstream news sites that have covered this since it’s fruition on Tuesday, including the BBC. With all this publicity going around, it’s amazing at how inappropriate the developer’s reaction has been, which leads me to this interesting new factoid:
Rumor Mill
A moderator from the Guild Wars 2 Guru forums, Neo Nugget, pointed us in the direction of this posted rumor on the Starcraft Inc-Gamers forum:
http://starcraft.incgamers.com/blog/comments/rumour-blizzard-realid-unpopular-internally/
Although the validity of the comments is here-say at best right now, it may suggest that Blizzard creative team are just as miffed at this system as we are, have little control over it, and even possibly left a little in the dark. Whether this is directed at the RealID forum change or the Facebook partnership I’m still unsure of. The post was quoted from the 40,000+ thread on the forums, so it’s hard to say. While it’s definitely a case of he-said, she-said there are a few things that anybody who’s seen this sort of corporate push and pull will recognize:
• The creative team (artists, programmer, designers) having little to no say in the business aspect of any company is nothing new. It’s unfortunate, but a reality.
• Corporate hush-hush is a huge problem when it comes to big business and PR. Just look at BP and their Gulf fiasco. Press are being forcefully turned away and anybody working with them in the clean-up efforts are forced to sign non-disclosure contracts.
Needless to say, I have little doubt that Blizzard employees are under similar pressure from the higher-ups. They are remaining rather cold and neutral on the subject: the only blue that has been saying anything of note has been Wryxian of the EU forums.
Both this scenario’s are common in big corporate decisions like this, and thus lend themselves to some validity. The poster on Inc-Gamers is trying to dig up more info / confirmation on the subject, so I will keep an eye out for any updates.
US vs EU
That brings me to another interesting and final thought for now: why is it that Europe has been much more open about it than the US? Albeit, it’s just one poster, but I do find it interesting that all we’ve gotten State-side has been a whole lotta copy-pasta “please post in the main thread” spam. A lot of posters are assuming we’re being ignored, but Wryxian insists that all feedback is being looked at and considered and is urging gamers to continue providing suggestions and comments on the matter:
I can only reiterate what we’ve already said, that is that we are listening and compiling your feedback for review and consideration. We cannot foresee what will be the outcome of that and thus we cannot make predictive statements about future events and decisions. However, when there is further information to share, as is always the case we will endeavour to share it here.
At the same time he says that RealID is going live in it’s current form … basically regretting the loss of constructive posters like Flanks:
Privacy is very important and if you’re not even slightly comfortable with revealing your real name in the forums, then I think it is perfectly understandable that you err on the side of caution and just don’t post. It’s a shame that some perfectly constructive and decent folk predict they will no longer be posting in our forums when we make this change.
Lots of mixed information in that regard. It’s hard to believe they are seriously considering what we’ve all said when it seems pretty clear that this is happening in it’s current iteration. Maybe there’s something to be said that Blizz has little to no say in the future marketing of their products. And I can’t help but wonder if the silence from the US suggests they are under stricter non-disclosure rules than the EU reps.
More to come!
Special Links / Updates Section
Factoids: • 22% of all cyberstalking involve online acquaintances. • Over 4,000 posts have been deleted from the RealID Megathread
• A pro-RealID poster challenges the masses to find him. A fellow WoWer takes up the challenge and within 20 minutes is talking to him on his work phone. Read the tale here, it’s extremely interesting, and kudos to both parties for going about the entire thing in a mature, classy manner. Despite the fun-ness of the story, though, it still sends a huge warning about how easy it can be to find someone / be found with just a name.
• http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626461439&sid=1
As plans to move forward with the facebook partnership continue, little is said about consumer reaction.
• http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626051708&sid=1
Somewhat of a self plug: posted a thread to try and extend my thanks to Wryxian, and some discussion on the state of US Employees has started. I’m not the only one who feels they are in a pickle dealing with parent company policies.
• Treesdiel continues to provide us with more content: coverage from reputable news sources
Wall Street Journal –
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/07/07/real-names-rile-online-warlocks-and-wizards/
Washington Post –
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/07/world_of_warcraft_real_names.html
• In a twist of savage but warranted irony, someone posts a slew of information about Robert Kotick, the soul-drained CEO over at Activision, including but not limited to political donations. This gets more and more interesting:
The IRL Maelstrom Continues, Blizz apparently is OK with it.
Note: In keeping this up to date, the end of the post will include quotes and a lot of links to threads, posts, blogs, and outside sources of interest to this topic. So be sure to check back down there for any updates and additions. And a huge “Thank You!” to Treesdiel, Jake, commentors and friends who have been pointing me to new content and helping me keep this updated.
More Izziebytes Coverage:
Day 1 : Initial Impact
Day 3 : Continued Damages
Alright, well, good morning America.
As an update to my post yesterday, since I went to bed last night and checked the forums in the AM briefly at breakfast, it would appear the madness of the General Discussion Forum hadn’t slowed down one bit. I replied and true to form, ended up three pages behind. By the time I got to work (now) posts have eclipsed 20,000 on the American forums, reaching 5,000 on the European forums, over 1,000 on the Starcraft 2 forums and thousands more comments across other WoW-related platforms.
One thing of note is that the OP in the American forums has been edited down to a brief summary and is now pointing to the Battle.Net / Starcraft 2 thread that has the full and updated explanation. I suppose they’re trying to push the flood over to Battle.Net, where Warcraft Players can’t actually post, but it hasn’t seemed to stop anything.
To be expected, right now most activity is coming from Europe as the work day hasn’t started in California yet, and they have actually been addressing some of people’s fears. Most importantly, they’ve made it pretty clear RealID is happening regardless of what players say, but that they are reading as much as possible and considering the reaction of the players. America -should- be seeing some replies coming in an hour or three. Some quotes of note:
We have been planning this change for a very long time. During this time, we have thought ahead about the scope and impact of this change and predicted that many people would no longer wish to post in the forums after this change goes live. We are fine with that, because we want to change these forums dramatically in a positive and more constructive direction.
…
There’s a lot of scare-mongering going on about the change, but there seems a need to make something very clear. The forums have always been an optional extra — something you can choose to participate in if you wish to. With our Real ID changes for the forums, this is still the case. The only difference will be, if you do choose to participate in the forums, then you will do so by using your real name. But only after you’ve been warned and accepted this in advance. [Source]
So there you have it, folks. RealID Forums are happening whether we like it or not. They go on further to explain that they feel the over-reaction of a few has lead to scare-mongering and wide-spread panic and confusion.
The saddest part about all this is that the fact that we don’t trust -each other- and that’s the problem. We’re not afraid of Blizzard, or the FBI, or anything like that. We fear each other. We’re afraid of having our personal lives targeted by fellow gamers.
The other sad part is that Blizzard would have -never- even dreamed of something like this before merging with Activism. Pig-Headed or not, stepping the bounds between gaming and something a little less desirable.
I’ll keep this post updated as more information comes along.
Special Super Links Section
Here I am keeping a close eye on as much relevant information as possible. Some of the links are of extreme interest to anyone that is deeply concerned with this development, while others are simply further reading. Feel free to add suggestions via comments.
• A disturbing rumor floating around finds itself all but confirmed on WoW.com. Apparently the plan to “show the danger” of RealID by revealing the brave Blue’s personal information has backfired: Blizz has apparently taken back their original statement that their employees names would be also be displayed, meaning theirs will be hidden while players would still be forced to use theirs. Thanks again to Trees for the update.
• A wonderful thread post consolidates the most popular concerns as well as links of note from among the masses. It includes links to articles and quotes regarding Acitivsion Blizzard’s plan with intergrating RealID with Facebook, another issue that is likely to start more issues, especially given Facebook’s recent trackrecord of privacy breaches with its own users.
A great effort on part of this poster and others who have contributed.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25552355289&sid=1
Do you expect any push back from diehard Blizzard fans from the Facebook features?
We don’t anticipate any. We are going to be very clear and upfront with the user. Once they log in and create a Battle.net account for the first time, if they choose to participate in Real ID, it is of course, an optional set of features that you don’t have to participate in. Beyond that we are going to notify them upfront their names could be used to populate via Facebook and how their names could be used via this Facebook feature.
• A little too Conspiracy Theorist for me, but an interesting post here recounts the US Military’s interest in MMO’s and how they use these games to predict mob behavior.
• Those concerned and wanting to stay updated can join a Facebook group here, dedicated to those of us who are against all the changes. Big thanks to Naktab for the heads up.
• A quick recount on Blizzard’s plan to merge Battle.Net and Real ID With Facebook. Thanks to Jake.
• Annndd Activision’s official investor page announcement on said merge.
• Ctrl+Alt+Delete mocks RealID’s fail troll-spray in today’s comic, as well as shares their thoughts on what this whole system means. Thanks, again, to Jake for the tips.
• 4chan not surprisingly has a rather active thread on the subject. Caution: it’s 4chan. Read with care.
• For an epic reply from someone who’s name I cant even find:
When they offered race changes, some rose up and said, “This is a harbinger of things to come!”
I laughed. Silly, I thought.
When they offered faction changes, some rose up and said, “This is a harbinger of things to come!”
I laughed. Ridiculous, I thought.
When they offered pets and ponies in the store, some rose up and said, “This is a harbinger of things to come!”
I laughed. Optional, I spouted.
When they offered ReadID, many rose up and said, “This is a harbinger of things to come!”
I laughed. Uneasily, I laughed.
When they forced forum names on us, we all rose up and said, “Enough!”
I hung my head. I, and many like me, enabled this day to happen. I am so very, very ashamed.
Blizzard’s RealID Forum Shitstorm Reaches Category 5
Note: In keeping this up to date, the end of the post will include quotes and a lot of links to threads, posts, blogs, and outside sources of interest to this topic. So be sure to check back down there for any updates and additions. And a huge “Thank You!” to Treesdiel, Jake, commentors and friends who have been pointing me to new content and helping me keep this updated.
More Izziebytes Coverage:
Day 2: IRL Storm Continues, RealID unchanged
Day 3 : Continued Damages
Anybody paying even minor attention to the gaming industry today will probably have heard about Blizzard’s uncanny announcement that RealID would be used in future Battle.net2.0 forums for all their games. What this means is instead of posting on your realm forums under your main, a Blood Elf Pally named Shnookums, it’d post as you, your real life self, John Doe.
Needless to say, this raised more than a handful of eyebrows. And by handful, I mean over * 10,000 replies in the official posts on the WoW forums and almost 1500 on MMO-Champion at the time of this writing (and counting, I assure you).
Replies and concerns vary greatly: those who’d rather not have some shmuck they ganked google their pictures or sign them up for porn on their e-mails, females worried about being harassed, etc. Then there are those legitimately fearful of abusive exes or overly-judgmental employers who are sometimes warned not to hire Warcraft players or gamers. The most extreme, and unlikey but very real threat, is that of unstable / borderline pscyhotic players who can now more easily get a hold of personal information about someone they may want to target, such as the case of a counter-strike player stalked and stabbed by a rival.
The biggest argument for it is that it will thwart trolls. That’s the idea, anyway, that no one can really anonymously post their Gentleman T-Rex ASCII art or call you a fucking newb without you knowing now.
But wait. You can still technically hide because it’s optional to have your character name displayed with your real name. So basically someone named John Smith can go flame some random pug tank he disliked on said tanks home forums, but nobody will know who they are in-game, only who they are IRL. And if he’s named John Smith…well, you get the idea.
Others say that forum posting is optional: and they’re right. This is blizzard’s site, they can technically do with it what they want. It’s also somewhere in the fine-text of the TOS, but nobody knows when that happened. But if it goes through, it’s digital suicide for the official community. People will stop posting, migrate to other outlets like MMO-Champion, and Blizzard will have lost a very vital tool: official control over their community. They can no longer delete posts bashing their products, mentioning other games, or threatening their mods, GMs, and other staff. They can’t monitor what’s being said or gain official feedback.
Sure, the trolls will be gone because there will be nobody left to troll.
My thoughts? It’s counter-productive, stupid, and a mistake from all angles, both business-wise and social wise. I have a huge doubt it’ll go live. The fact that there’s yet to be any official reaction from the Blues in my mind indicates that this is was a very unexpectedly massive and negative reaction and they have no fucking clue what to say.
It’s tough for them I suppose. The entire system is likely almost ready to be implemented meaning resources have already been spent. But it’s hard to ignore the outcry. This is the biggest reaction to anything ever in the history of Warcraft and Blizzard games. This, my friends, is history already made.
Things with Blizzard have changed since they’ve become the monopoly they are, between becoming greedy with overpriced services, bullying other companies with immature and unethical marketing tactics, and milking their devoted playerbase for what it’s worth. Blizzard is falling prey to the same poison apple other formerly cool-for-the-everyman company (IE google, apple, facebook, etc) has savagely devoured once the big bucks roll in.
Thanks to a good friend and fellow wow-player, Jake, there’s a great read on how Blizzard’s business model has changed here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252
Whether it’s soley pressure from Activision, their own inflated egos, or a combination of both, one thing can definitely be said: this is not the same Gamer-Next-Door group they once were. The only thing that will stop it is if we, the players, make a stand for what gaming should be about; if the above links are any indication, this is something that we are ready to do.
Edit 1: * Grand total of posts reached 11600 as of 9:40 pm
Edit 2: As of 10:00 the total has reached 12,000. Additionally, I found out what all this Micah Whipple crap is about. Blizz poster Bashiok posted his real name on the forums, a move i’m sure he deeply regrets as now his phone number, facebook, picture, and personal information about himself and his family is now very public.
Edit 3: 10:34 PM. The plot continues to thicken. In another creepy twist, apparently cancelling your subscription to WoW is no longer instant. Instead, you have to fill out a form and wait for a confirmation e-mail, and an odd glitch seems to be keeping players trying to cancel in an endless loop. WoW.com reported earlier in the day that a loophole allows some in-game addons to actually have the ability to access RealID names without that person having been added. Activison Blizzard stock falls almost immediately after the announcement is made.
Blizzard responds with a handful of shallow responses that completely dodge the main concerns of players.
Real-ID could be a security risk
Even though the lifted NDA for Cataclysm has pretty much outshined anything else WoW-related, I took the time to read up on the much anticipated Real-ID networking system and found myself to be less than thrilled.
The official page says this is meant mostly for IRL friends, but they contradict themselves by also stating they’re hoping the entire thing will be central to their efforts to streamline communications within all their games.
If they are serious about cross-game chat, they should realize that being able to be friends with more than just people you trust 100% is going to be important. As the feature is planned now, it’d be pretty dangerous to add anyone you don’t know.
First of all, your e-mail doubling as your Battle.net ID is a huge, huge danger to accounts. The login is the first step to account compromise, and even identity theft if the culprit so wishes. With REAL-ID, the people I’m adding will know what e-mail I use to log into my games.
This basically limits my friend options to people I know IRL or really, really trust in-game.
That means no random guildies having your ID to harass you to come online for heroic runs or raids.
That means no adding that pretty cool tank you met in LFG the other night to try and organize more runs together.
That means no befriending the badass warlock who pwned face in BG’s by your side.
These are all things that could make Real-ID very central to the blizzard gaming experience but are currently far too risky to be implemented to their full potential.
Then there’s always the possibility that if I get hacked, said hacker now has access to all the e-mails and names of my friends, which is like striking gold, pun completely intended.
I am not the only one who feels this way, either. The discussion is getting heated on the forums: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24702231147&sid=1
I suppose we’ll see what Blizzard says about all this. Hopefully they will give more privacy controls and allow us to make better use of this system without compromising our accounts.
If that happens, this Real ID could truly change the future of gaming!
