Archive for the ‘Article Archive’ Category

 Most of you will remember the fake protest by staged by Electronic Arts at last year’s E3  ]in order to heap a bit of hype on their Dante’s Inferno game – but this one seems to be for real. If nothing else, the group claiming responsibility for the protest is real.  A news item crossed our desks this morning from Kotaku.com via Gamepoltics.  It seems that the Westboro Baptist church will be protesting at the upcoming Comic-Con in San Diego.  For those not in the know, this is not a small collection of kids from down the block pawing through comic books. This is the place where companies like Marvel Studios introduce the cast for the upcoming Avengers movie. So the protest may or may not be real.  Still, let me introduce you to the sign currently circulating around the internet that purports to be a member of said church protesting nerds….

 

Let me state that being a nun, a gamer, and someone who writes about the videogame industry that I still have a hard time following the labyrinthine path of twisted logic that could somehow apply Romans 9:13 to a nerd.  Further, let’s be a bit more specific. What sort of nerds are we talking about here? The Steven Jobs sort that started out in his garage and now owns a sizeable chunk of the U.S. economy? Perhaps we are talking about the proverbial teenager that is bound to his computer by virtual chains linking him to a myriad of mmos?  Or are they claiming that God hates the genius types depicted on The Big Bang Theory  or real life genius Stephen W. Hawking . Perhaps there is simply something about pocket protectors that just pisses God off.

Whatever the reason for the delusional the protest, and the twisted application of logic, let me introduce you to those who are reportedly planning the protest…

 

…The hate mongers of the Westboro Baptist Church. 

These are the same individuals who are wont to make the rounds of military funerals with signs reading “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “God hates fags. Now I could point out that the individual sporting the sign quoting Romans 9:13 has somehow managed to find a meaning the biblical passage that has somehow eluded scholars since St. Paul first penned the words some 2,000 years ago – in fact I believe I just did.  Beyond that, however, I will provide you with a bit of ammunition from the same source that you can shout, scream or casually mention to protesters should you attend the comic con, and the reports turn out to be real. Look them right in the eye and say…

How many Canadians can I own?

Then refer them to Leviticus 25: 44-46.

The answer will then be a puzzled look or the instance that God hates Abraham Lincoln as well for signing the Emancipation Proclamation in the first place. If the response is the first, simply use the resulting moments during which the protestor deals with his or her bewilderment to make a quick getaway.  If the second…well at least you have proven the protestor is a Looney (as if it weren’t patently obvious in the first place).

Cheap, but not easy

 

“Vehicle Handling: We’re already underway on a major overhaul to vehicle handling to make cars more responsive and less slippy overall. You’ll still be able to power slide around corners in stylish fashion, but steering is more responsive overall and easier to get the hang of early on.” – All Points Bulletin just after game launch, via Killed in a Smiling Accident

 

“We want to assure you that the game has not become Pay-to-Play or Pay-to-Win. At the core of Allods you can still enjoy the game without ever having to worry about spending money. Yes, Holy Charms, Incense, and Scrolls of Purification are only offered through the Item Shop, but they can be purchased from other players and the auction house.” – Allods, Via Massively

My initial reaction to the second of the two quotes in defense of their last patch, by the team that developed Allods, is a large and resounding BULLHOCKEY – my mother may have raised a stupid child but it certainly isn’t me.  As our listeners have heard, and we have discussed on past shows, Allods is designed to make the end game impossible to play without using the cash shop. This response to player’s complaints is reminiscent of the time I ran away from home at the age of four, stark naked (or so my mother tells me) with the belief that if I had my eyes closed no one could see me. MESSAGE TO GALA-NET: just because you insist the turd in the punchbowl is a candy bar doesn’t make it so. It’s almost as if the publishers of Allods were intent on taking a game that had grabbed the attention of the MMO community and driving us all away with a bull whip and a ten foot cattle prod.

Well put on your solid steel undies friends because they seem to be setting a trend.

 

In short, I may be cheap, but that doesn’t mean I’m easy.  Mind you this doesn’t mean that I have suddenly dishonored my vows, donned a pair of stiletto heels and taken to taking a walk down easy street (and I don’t mean the financial district).  That to which I am referring is not squeezing the proverbial nickel until the buffalo defecates (a reference to a bygone era when nickels bore a depiction of a buffalo).  No, I am referring to the simple reality of having a budget – and dead last on the long list that ends somewhere near the borderline of the adjoining state are mmos. Like many other individuals in our country and around the world, I have a limited entertainment budget.  I have one or two mmos that I allow myself, and these are taken by developers from whom I always know I will get a quality product and not the short end of the stick…and everyone else needs to vie for a spot on the list.  A developer can fill their cash shop with items, but unless you deliver a quality product you won’t even catch a glimpse of my money, let alone my participation. And if you produce a product that necessitates the cash shop, instead of simply making it desirable, keep in mind that Rome may not have been built in a day – but it only took one day to destroy it.

Now it may be that at this point you (especially if the “YOU” in the case is a developer or publisher) may ask yourself “why should I care?”  No doubt this will be closely followed by “who in all the name that is Holy are you that we should give a gnats tiny behind about what does or does not please you?”

The answer, of course, is that I am no one …just like everyone else like me is no one (at least to earthly eyes).  But keep in mind what we have often discussed on these pages and on our show; and that is the sage words of one of my undergraduate profs – The arts were not done for critics. Games are not made for the staff at PC Gamer. They aren’t made for the CEO or CFO of Wal-Mart, and like movies they damn sure aren’t made for Roger Ebert. They also aren’t made for those people that some individuals in the mmo development industry seem to have somehow deceived themselves into believing really exist – some pale faced teenager, hibernating year round in their mother’s basement, parent’s credit card firmly in hand, ready to throw money at whatever sparkly little pony, $25 tiger, or curse cure that comes along.  And if you think that mythical person is representative of the average gamer my response is simply this:

What have you been smoking?

 

There are, of course, a smattering of such people in the world.  But like it or not the average gamer is anything but the average teenager, or average anything for that matter. In fact we come from all walks of life, and like me, we are smart enough spend our hard earned money with at least a modicum of wisdom.

The message here is what Blizzard found out with their attempt to cram Real ID down the throats of what they seemed to feel are the mindless masses – that there is a great deal of truth in the words to the old Bob Dylan song, the times they are a ‘changing.   The famed 800 pound Blizzard Gorilla attitude is a thing of the past.  The Blizzard gorilla initially ignored the public outcry and said “just don’t use the forums” – and promptly found itself kicked in the gonads.  The same attitude makes even less sense when it is espoused by developers who feel that hype that would make a side show barker green with envy, no matter how well delivered, will substitute for content.  

The lesson not learned in this case, is that what is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander.  Facebook is busily finding out who owns its real dollars let alone worrying about who will buy their Facebook dollars.  Publishers who see the social gaming bandwagon fading into the distance as Zynga takes its dollars to the bank are still intent on running to catch up with the cart.  Publishers see the apparent (time will tell if this is so) success at how Turbine handled conversion to free to play, including Lotro’s lifetime subscribers, and look to repeat it.  Rumor around the web is that next on the list is Cryptic studios – and let me state at the outset, that if they go free to play this soon after offering lifetime subscriptions for their last two games no one in the MMO community will ever place even a modicum of trust in the company again.

Here let me pause and offer a standing ovation for some words published over at Killed in a Smiling Accident: []

“MMO developers need to break this cycle of beta testing being the glorified equivalent of demo disks on PC Magazines; they need to drop the NDA secrecy; they need to remove the pedestals from the holier-than-thou would-be-rockstar types in the company who are more interested in bathing in the frothing adulation of the game’s ‘number one fans’ than listening to what impartial observers are telling them; they need to stop pandering to the websites that just want to release exclusive details of the game first in order to generate advertising revenue, and instead perhaps start to foster relationships with the MMO community in general” – Melmoth

 

At the risk of burning my proverbial bridges in front of me, let alone behind me, let me state that we have found an unfortunate trend with some of our industry guests.  Make no mistake some of them have been real sweethearts, genuinely caring about their customers.  But some few have come around interested in communicating with the mmo community only when they are up the creek without a paddle, have a hole in the boat and hear the sound of a waterfall close at hand.

So on behalf of the No Prisoners, No Mercy team let me offer another standing ovation to those developers and publishers who really do care like that prince among you R.W. Harper.  To the rest of you I offer this advice…give R.W. a call and take him out for coffee sometime, you have A LOT to learn.

See you online,

The whole No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

By now most everyone has seen the youthful face of Mark Zuckerberg, one of the co-founders of Facebook – the host of those products with names like Mafia Wars and Farmville.  Some people will tell you they love them. Others will claim that they inundate us all with mediocrity and mass marketing.  If you ask Richard Garriott, he will tell you that such productsd are the future. Here’s a quote from our earlier article “And I shall call it the wheel”:

“So, I believe the casual gamer and the social gaming platform represent the largest ever yet seen emergence or change within the gaming industry. And all of us in the development community have a choice to either participate and lead in this journey or get left behind.” – Richard Garriott

 

Richard Garriott thinks such is the wave of the future and has launched his company Portalarium to prove it.  If you ask Brad McQuaid he will no doubt agree with Mr. Garriott.  In fact Playdom has been buying up Facebook developers like they are intent on cornering the market and the Securities Exchange Commission said they have until tomorrow to do it.  Not that long ago that we wrote an article entitled The Developers are Circling…

… now it seems that they may be circling in the wrong place.

At least that seems to be the case based on an article carried by Reuters this morning.  How many people say to themselves “I wish I had paid more attention to that Jobs kid when he was working out of his garage”.  Well it seems that Mr. Paul Ceglia claims that he signed a contract with the co-founder of Facebook in 2003 to develop the website that became Facebook.  Reuters is reporting this morning that the terms of the contract entitled Ceglia to a “$1,000 fee and a 50 percent stake in the product” with “an additional 1 percent interest in the business, per day, until the website was completed” – which a law suite filed by Paul Ceglia said was February 4, 2004. Facebook says the lawsuit is “frivolous” (of course). Frivoulous or not, t Judge Thomas Brown of The Supreme Court of New York’s Allegany County has issued an order restricting the transfer of Facebook assets.

Time will tell whether the entire matter holds water or stinks like last week’s fish.  In the mean time, there is at least a remote possibility that developers could be circling in the wrong place.

As I read through the news feed today I could almost hear the words of my grandmother (note I said almost – I am not hearing things)…the bigger they are the harder they fall. This was somehow miraculously followed by the oft quoted words related to me by one of my professors back in my undergraduate days…

Be nice to the people you meet on the way up; you will meet the same people on the way back down.

Truer words were never spoken. In fact I could go on like this for some time, including the following:

A quote from a play called The Kings Ring that ends “even this shall pass away”.

From the movie Blade Runner, “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”

And a senior drill sergeant of my onetime acquaintance, “What goes around comes around.”

What caught my eye was the headline from Edge over at Next-Gen by Tom Ivan: “Lawsuit: Activision Created Police State at Infinity Ward “.  By now just about everyone and their brother will have heard about the infamous lawsuit by not only Messers West and Zampella (formerly of Infinity Ward) but also a group of former Infinity Ward employees – even the snail mail magazine that arrives in our mail box will have picked it up by now (that makes it REALLY old news).  So on the face of it, it’s not really that profound hearing that same said group rattling their sabers talking about the “police state” created by Activision as well as withholding bonus payments in attempt to force the development of Modern Warfare 3.

O.K. so what else is new?

Blizzard recently backed down on their Real ID issue.

 Also not news to write home about; after all it’s not that big an issue (providing the proper exceptions were put in place).   Still I can’t help but consider that this is the same company that always said it’s done when it’s done –  the famed Blizzard attitude that prevails while developers in other parts of the industry are busy dancing to the music played by their respective publishers.  For some years what seemed like exponential growth in subscriber numbers where published like Burger King used to announce how many hamburgers they have served.  Blizzard has long seemed the unassailable zombie gorilla that no developer could topple (and any who tried paid for it dearly).   On the face of it, listening to your community is usually (but not always) a good policy. But I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t a case of a widening chink in the Blizzard armor.

Gordon over at We Fly Spitfires has an interesting post on a related issue entitled Will BioWare Be To Blizzard What Blizzard Was To SOE? . Here is an excerpt of the article that is a very interesting read:

Over the next few years SOE made a handful of bad decisions (most notably the NGE for SWG) and suddenly all faith in them was lost. Justly or not, SOE had turned from the Kings of the MMO genre to the butt of every harsh remark about screwing over the fan base and selling out their morals. $OE was their new name and woe was them. – Gordon, We Fly Spitfires

 

Obviously even Blizzard doesn’t think that their light will never dim or Lead Designer Tom Chilton would not have recently pointed out that there may come a time when World of Warcraft goes free to play. Likely as not this won’t be any time soon – especially not with the Cataclysm expansion on the near horizon. Then again few people expected the recent announcement that Lord of the Rings Online was going free to play either. Between the Activision lawsuits, 25 dollar sparkling ponies (few of which I see in game anymore), and Real ID perhaps the Blizzard Gorilla isn’t as tough as he used to be.

All things considered maybe it’s a good thing that Activision/Blizzard is back to being known as Blizzard.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Say it isn’t so…

This just came across our news feed: Edward Norton will NOT be back as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the upcoming Avengers movie.  As our regular readers and listeners know, we here at NPNM love our action movies.  When we heard that they were making The Hulk we never thought that anyone could ever fill the shoes of the late Bill Bixby – the man touched our soles with his heart felt, bittersweet performance.  But after we saw Mr. Norton as Bruce banner we were sucked in to everthing he brought to the role. Now we can’t imagine anyone else in the role.

But it seems we will have to.

News has just come to us that Marvel Studios President of Production Kevin Feige made the following announcement:

“We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers. Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members. The Avengers demands players who thrive working as part of an ensemble, as evidenced by Robert, Chris H, Chris E, Sam, Scarlett, and all of our talented casts. We are looking to announce a name actor who fulfills these requirements, and is passionate about the iconic role in the coming weeks.” – Kevin Feige

Well friends all I can say, as a long time Marvel and especially Avengers fan color me hopping mad.  It’s one thing to decide you are not going to use Mr. Norton in the role but is it necessary to slam the man on the wayout? Now truth be told you never know what the Edward Norton is like to work with.  Some of the things Mel Gibson has done in the last few years has us both dropping our jaws to the floor and throwing his movies out in the garbage (with the sole exception of the Passion of the Christ of course).

Sad news indeed. Hopefully Mr. Feige will come to his senses.

[posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster]

 

Bella:  It’s your fault Narcissa.

Cissy: No it’s not – and don’t call me Narcissa. Besides the Amoveo Magiatus curse is better than a trip to Azkaban isn’t it?

Bella: Well this isn’t exactly Malfoy Manor is it?

Cissy: We’ll get by…

Bella: Without magic?

Cissy: Shut up and throw another tire on the fire…I’m cold.

 

Every now and then while I am “out and about” with my co-host Fran we will drive by those symbols of freedom, those who dare to place nothing but leather and bone between themselves and the pavement…motorcyclists.  To me they always summon up images of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider.  Ah for the life of the open road, living free, riding your metal steed with the wind in your hair as “Born to be wild” by Steppenwolf plays somewhere in the background.

But what, you might ask, has that got to do with Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy in the dialogue above?

Eating Crow

 

Time for me to eat a bit of crow…those who are regularly listeners to the No Prisoners, No Mercy show know that I have on occasion voiced my ire at software that isn’t backwardly compatible, with special emphasis on that unassailable bastion of the Electronic Arts stand alone games, The Sims.  A friend of ours who is a devout follower of the series first got me interested.  It all started with Sims 1, which rapidly became Sims 2. Then of course there were all the expansion packs.  Got to have them all of course…don’t you want all the features?  One edition followed after the other as Electronic art doled out the features slow enough to keep that carrot on a stick dangling in front of the players.

Then came Sims 3….

Yes, it got rave reviews.  For the first time it was one continuous world. No instancing, problems solved, full featured game all in one.  Still, I felt burned to a crackly crunch by the fact that all the work I had done as a virtual architect for Sims 2 couldn’t be used for Sims 3. It felt like EA had told me “bend over baby” hot poker in hand.

The Doldrums

 

Summer is usually the time for the release of all the big budget blockbuster movies.  The same cannot be said, however, for the mmo industry – at least not this particular summer.  All the big budget, blockbuster, “triple A” mmos seem due out this fall and beyond.  And so sets in the doldrums of summer.  You know the feeling – When all those mmos that were bright and shiny now seem to lack their luster as your characters all reach the level cap and your interest wanes.   It is at that point where the talent of developers is tested to the full….how do you keep your audience interested? What is your endgame like? Is it a system of inventory management catering to the bank sitters of the virtual world? Do you try and convince your customers, but more yourself, that you really can continue to put out content faster than players can consume it? (Turbine once claimed they could do it and we know how well they succeeded).   And so it was that as I played my gnome warrior that somewhere in the distance a siren call sounded.  It was the promise of creating a virtual world without the programming necessary to do it in Fallout 3.

Back again, back again

 

And so as I munch on my bit of crow I find myself once again indulging in the virtual world of the Sims.  The most pleasant discovery was revealed when at the end of a pleasant evening when I attempted to take the Sims disc out of the drive only to discover it missing. I had just spent an entire session without it!  A quick re-check of the instruction booklet revealed that apparently EA had indeed learned the lesson taught by Spore and reconsidered their DRM (digital rights management). Now it only requires on line validation.  New tools have also been provided made easy tasks that once took innovation – like the basement tool that opened the world of subterranean development without disturbing the surface above.

Hook Line and Sinker

So I seem to have once again grabbed at the virtual carrot dangled by EA, even if it was only the result of the “dull-drums” of summer mmo play.  Thanks to the good graces of our friend and frequent guest Saylah I have also been able to discover the talents of artists who bring a new aspect to the world of Sims…grunge living.

Grunge is something we have discussed on past show.  Most recently Tipa of West Karana fame told us how she enjoyed EQ2’s Freeport precisely because of its grunge.  It seems the tinge of foul air emanating from the City of Freeport provided Tipa with a bit of fresh air simply by being different.  One particular artist that has seemly devoted a great deal of time to bringing an urban air to the world of the Sims is called Cyclonesue. When I found that my poor starting sim (my own version of Bellatrix Lestrange) couldn’t even afford the starter homes in my virtual Paris I decided to take a clue from Cyclonesue and provide a real starter home…

You have seen them I am sure.  If you have ever traveled country back roads you will occasionally come upon small roadside rest stops out in the middle of nowhere. Usually they are little more than a place to eat your lunch and rest your butt.  So I decided to bring a touch of realism to Sims and make a true starter home that would have fit right in to Easy Rider…a road side rest stop.  It is those wonderful touches that Cyclonesue’s work made possible:  The heap of burning tires, the faded fabric on the mattress put up on cinder blocks, the bathroom with the broken toilet, filthy soap dispenser, and even a puddle on the floor. And thanks to an artist whose name I don’t have at the moment, there is even a Harley Davidson motorcycle in the drive way to zoom around the virtual world of the Sims with “Born to be Wild” playing in the background.

Sadly, the one thing that is missing is any sort of a magic system – something that many a Sims aficionado has longed for. So my virtual Bellatrix Lestrange will have to settle for a new life as a muggle as she works her way up from roadside thug to evil crime boss.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Welcome to another back page for Friday Afternoon.

Imperfect Citizen…

the whole thing reminds me of the place in Sims 3 called “outstanding citizens’ warehouse” where you go start a criminal career. Such is the name for the Whitehouse version of the cybersecurity bill which is now being called “Perfect Citizen” – considering that this version of a cybersecurity program would fall under the review of the National Security Agency I could have thought of a lot better names for the program.  The name just screams “illegal wiretaps” even if it isn’t the case. T his is from this morning’s report that crossed our news desk from Politco.com

 “ A NOT-SO-PERFECT CITIZEN – Few seem satisfied that the White House’s forthcoming cybersecurity program – dubbed “Perfect Citizen” – will fall under the NSA’s purview. While the program is meant to secure critical IT infrastructure from crippling cyberattacks, such as a plot on the power grid, the WSJ’s scoop still prompted skeptics on Thursday to compare the once-secret plan to the NSA’s heavily criticized wiretapping program launched during the Bush administration in 2007.” – Poltico.com, Morning Tech Report

Playdom continues to acquire Facebook Developers, and with the new released by the San Francisco Chronicle one can only wonder “Why?” – do they know something we don’t know or are they just playing the proverbial long shot.   As more source continue to quote slipping numbers for both Facebook games and Facebook in general it begins to summon up images of the aftermath of the “dot-com” expansion and subsequent crash.  This from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Inside Facebook, which analyzes user data that the social network provides to advertisers, noted that in the last 31 days Facebook registered 320,800 new active members – first-time users and those who logged into Facebook for the first time in over a month. The figure is notably low compared with the astronomical 7.8 million new active users registered in May, which represented a 6.7 percent monthly growth….”They don’t necessarily need to grow user population to become a profitable, highly valued company,” he said. “They do need to maintain their value proposition and keep users engaged even as the novelty factor wears off. It’s not about getting users to sign on, but about getting them to log on.” – San Francisco Chronicle, U.S. Facebook growth sputters in June

Um…what was I saying?

 

Breaking news from a new study by the University of Iowa…too much gaming makes your mind wander.   Via Kotaku.com , the study found that exceeding the guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics (a limit of 2 hours a day of television and gaming per day) causes attention problems. Here is a quote from our Kotaku.com news feed that brought a smile to my face…

“Those who exceeded the AAP recommendation were about 1.6 times to 2.2 times more likely to have greater than average attention problems.”

At first, this completely shocked me. Then I found a neat picture of a bunny and posted it at the top of the article. Hello there, bunny! – Kotaku.com

 

I suppose it’s fortunate that I am neither a child, nor a teenager because I exceed my maximum recommended dosage a LONG time ago.

 

Slaying the Beast

 

Playings in WoW have long been used to slaying mighty dragons and terrifying beasts…now it appears that they have slain the mightiest beast of them all…Blizzards Plane for Real ID. This comes to our news feed via Slashdot.

“Earlier this week, Blizzard announced that they were going to be implementing changes in their official forums (for StarCraft II when it launched, and for WoW prior to Cataclysm) that would require users to post under their real names, as part of the Real ID system. After perusing nearly 14,000 European and 50,000 US forum posts, the majority of which decried this move with various levels of vehemence, it looks like Blizzard has given in to the pressure. From the official statement: ‘We’ve been constantly monitoring the feedback you’ve given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums. As a result of those discussions, we’ve decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.’

 

[posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster - still  with no Real ID, and loving it]

“Will our mystery challenger enter and sign in please?”

 

Back when I was so young that my biggest decision was whether I should read my comic book or eat my Fudgicle there was a game show on called What’s My Line?  Each week those words would be heard as a panel of celebrities were blindfolded and tried to identify someone’s identity.

Now it’s not news that people on the internet love pseudonyms.  In fact, with the exception of our developer interviews, our guests use fake names so often we have begun to think we are interviewing fugitives from the law.  We had, of course, received multiple emails about something called “Realid” from Blizzard – but we receive so many fake missives pretending to be from Blizzard (Phishing expeditions) that we assume that they are all fake.  Not to mention that there wasn’t much reason for me to concern myself with it. I did, of course, scan the messages from Blizzard to determine if they are real or not, and found one tell me I could “friend” other players using my “Real ID” (real name).  I dismissed it nearly immediately. After all, the person I travel the virtual highways and byways of Azeroth with the most sits across the table for me at breakfast every day – and if there is a question about my co-host’s identify at this point I am in BIG trouble.

So it is that I hadn’t paid much attention to the matter when I scanned through all the spams our filter catches each day and found one on the same subject by an irate Blizzard Customer.   Then I scanned the morning headlines from local news and saw comments on the subject by Keen from Keen and  Graevs , The Ancient Gaming Noob , and Scott Jennings over at Broken Toys .  But the best quote by far was simply a one liner….

Blizzard are about to ban themselves from their own forums.” – Melmoth. Killed in a Smiling Accident

As we all know by now…

 

And when I say ALL I MEAN all – when even the Washington Post  carries the same news it is either a slow news day or a big issue (I will assume it’s a slow news day).  The thing about the Washington Post carrying news from our favorite industry is twofold. First, it tells of how fast news travels around the global village that constitutes the internet.  If you miss a day it’s old news. Second is reminiscent of something a co-worker told me once. She said that by the time the suburbanites start using a phrase or catch on to a particular trend she knows its passé – the same goes for the main stream media covering mmo news for the most part.  For those of you who, like me, either didn’t care or had the audacity (as the No Prisoners, No Mercy Team did) to take the long holiday weekend off here is the official blurb from the official source:

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players—however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well. – Via Ars Technica, Source Post  

The Washington Post article was quick to point out that the angry replies are now over 2,000 pages long (and probably growing exponentially).

Two problems leap immediately two mind, the first and most important being the real identity of children (and like it or not those nasty teenagers that hurl epithets at you over general chat ARE LEGALLY children).  If there has not been some provision made by Blizzard to exempt children, especially young children, the whole concept of using a real identity is a class action law suit waiting to leap out at Activision (the deepest pocket in this case) and yell GOTCHA!!!

The second problem, I have already experienced to some degree.  It was recently mentioned by Scott Jennings over at Broken Toys:

Especially if you’re female. Because in the New Facebook Order, levelling while female is the new driving while black*. Of course, if you don’t want people to treat you differently for being a woman, you could just not post in the forums – Scott Jennings, Broken Toys

On occasion I have experienced this myself. One instance pops into mind immediately – I was fishing Azeroth when this gnome walks up to me and drops a line in the water.  It doesn’t take long for the trash talk to start (this was back in the days when I was delusional enough to play a Night Elf).  The youth of the player behind the pixels, whether physical or mental or both, became immediately apparent. When I pointed out to the young man in question that I am, in fact, an overweight middle aged nun and no doubt old enough to be his mother there ensued a long, long pause…followed by short gnome feet running speedily away.

As to the rest, there is an old adage that says “boys will be boys” – followed quickly by what should be an addendum to the adage:

Asshats will be asshats.

Real name or no, Blizzard is right about one thing – the official forums of any game have so many flames that the Great Chicago Fire pales into insignificance.   Real name or no that will not stop until the asshats find out just how perceived is the perceived anonymity of the internet.  Real name in hand it is a relatively easy thing to find just about anyone. And when someone says on the forum “if you don’t like it come and get me” eventually some will. 

In the end analysis real id doesn’t affect anyone here on the NPNM team personally.  No one here even reads the forums let alone posts in them.  Still, it makes for some interesting reading.

See you online,

Millard Filmore

[Posted for Millard Filmore by The Webmaster who will never give out a real identiy]

*Side Note:  For those of you living under a rock and haven’t heard of the expression “driving while black” a local example is a man who was stopped by a police officer from the Chicago Suburbs when he saw a gentleman of African heritage driving a Cadillac through his town.  The officer from reasons which I can only presume was prompted by insanity, assumed the driver had stolen the car.  The officer soon discovered that yes, the physician driving the car not only owned it but probably even paid cash and probably paid more in taxes than the kind officer made in a year.

 

No doubt you have all heard of the Man with No Name – the movie featuring tough as nails actor Clint Eastwood. Now meet the nun with no ass. No, not me…I still have plenty of ass to go around…and around, and around, and around.  The nun with no ass is my co-host Fran who worked it off over the Fourth of July Weekend.

Yes, she still did the usual holiday routine: cooking enough food to feed the Eighth Army and scouring the house (and ensuring the occupants did the same) until they all met what we call “Fran specs” (a standard of clean that would make even an Army Drill Sergeant shudder).  But once the fireworks died down, including the neighbor who apparently raided same said Eighth Army armory for what must surely have been a Howitzer Cannon based on the strength of the explosions….

Once the uproar was settled down there was still work to be done.

Yes I refer to the fact that no sister has greater love than she, a dedicated hordie, work her buns to the bone leveling up a night elf druid 10 levels so she can team up with me -  Now THAT my friends is sisterly love.  This is a woman who tanks with a tough Tauren and loves every bit of it.  This is a woman whose level 80 healer lives the expression “once you roll troll you never re-roll.”   Yes, same woman who death knight kicks butt and takes names agreed to level up a front flipping, rail thin, valley girl night elf who is so saccharine sweet those who group with the character risk instant diabetic coma.  And the toughest part of it all is that it was one of my characters, left languishing on our family account after I saw the light and wisely decided to roll troll.

And what made all this possible?

A wonderful new game mechanic introduced by Blizzard I call the “O.K. play nice kiddies system.” That works like this….

The functionality of the Vote Kick feature in the Dungeon Finder will now behave differently according to a player’s history with the system. Players using the Dungeon Finder who rarely vote to kick players from a group, or rarely abandon groups before a dungeon is complete, will find that the Vote Kick option will have no cooldown. For players who frequently abandon groups or vote to kick other players, the Vote Kick option will be kept on a cooldown. This functionality will adjust itself as a player’s behavior while using the Dungeon Finder changes. – WoW Patch Notes, Patch 3.35

 

The ever so wonderful result is much like the opening moments of the commercial for Life Cereal with that urban legend Mikey.

Gnome Mage: You kick the tank.

Healer: No YOU kick the tank.

Gnome: I’m not going to kick the tank, get Mickey to do it, he doesn’t care if he gets kicked or not, he’s a hunter.

And so friends, let us pause for a moment and stand in a well deserved ovation to the developer that thought up this wonderful addition to World of Warcraft. Yes, let’s cheer as we utter those words that are so well deserved…

What took you so long?

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Side Notes

 

Do you play Star Craft?  I am not aware of anyone on the No Prisoners, No Mercy team who does play Star Craft. However we received an email (see below) today from someone who wants to give YOU (or at least one of you) a copy of Star Craft II.  So what say you? Is there an interest amongst you to win a free copy of Star Craft II from Henley Chiu at Sunbr.com? 

Let us know.

Hi there,

I’m the founder of Snubbr, a recommendation site. We’re interested in giving away a free copy of Starcraft 2 to 1 of your readers as part of a giveaway/contest when it comes out. Would you be interested?

We’ve done many giveaways in the past (just Google us up). We could setup the giveaway such that your readers have to leave a comment, and maybe answer a question such as “What are you looking forward to the most about Starcraft 2?”. We then will pick our favorite comment, and mail him/her the copy when it comes out. Let us know if you’d be interested. =)

Henley

Snubbr

 Mind you no one here knows anything about Henley Chiu, nor Snubbr.com.  Here is what we found out:

Linkedin profile

Chiu, Henley  henley@snubbr.com

34-62 60th street

Woodside, New York 11377

United States

(917) 385-9365

It’s like running with a pack of lemmings that never quite reaches the proverbial cliff…like the ever read/energizer bunny they just keep going, and going, and going…

So here we are again.  On the cusp of the great outpouring of hype, or hope, that is the release of every new game.  Yes of course eventually there will be Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.  But now we are all anxiously awaiting the news of the big one…

World of Warcraft – Cataclysm

The release of the changes that Blizzard once said would never come.  Remember back when the powers that power the mighty Blizzard 800 ton unbeatable zombie gorilla said they would never redo classical “old world” Azeroth? Yet here we are – and I am as excited as the rest of you (well the rest of you who don’t loathe WoW with the burning passion of a thousand suns). 

Even back when I had just about had it with WoW, between the neck deep asshatery that has become the pick up groups who rate your armor like a credit agency scores your credit…

Even through the days of “getting keyed” for instances in Outland – back when Jeff Kaplan said sure you could skip Karahzan “but enjoy storming the castle”.  Yes those were the days, back when static groups had membership so closed it would have been easier to sneak into the gold vault at Fort Knox.  Those where the days back when even Jeff Kaplan admitted the keying process was tearing apart guilds wholesale (I was in a few guilds that it ripped to shreds).

Yes even then…

Even then there was still that siren call in the back of my mind.  Something that said, “yes other games are fun but what happens in this one really matters.”

Of course nothing could be further from the truth, and if you think those guild mates of yours (with rare exception and I know more than a few) are true blue friends ask them to help you move…as in back up the truck to your driveway and start hauling them cardboard boxes.

Yet just like everyone else I am back again, chomping at the bit like Secretariat about to run the third race of the Triple Crown.  I think the big difference this time is that Rob Pardo has been listening to our show and decided to take our suggestion. 

Yep. You read that right.

Back before anyone said, “hey wouldn’t it be great if…” Fran was listening to me clamor for a chance to play a goblin hunter named Inktomi. (Don’t even think about taking the name I already have a character with the same name).  Now is the chance, and soon is the time.

Exciting times ahead.

See you online.

Julie Whitefeather

Online and Offline

 

Virtual worlds and game worlds aren’t always the same thing – that is something we discussed with Dr. Richard Bartle when he was a guest on the show.  I have heard definitions given that consider virtual worlds limited to online persistent worlds, but even online worlds aren’t “online” 24/7. There is little doubt that the more dynamic of the two are online virtual worlds – or synthetic worlds as author Edward Castronova (Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games) describes them. Here is a quote from an interview with the author:

“In virtual worlds—or synthetic worlds, “virtual” having lost much of its meaning—only the icons around which human interactions flow are nonreal. The interactions themselves are as real as any we have outside synthetic worlds. When six soldiers take out a machine-gun nest at Fort Bragg, the machine gun is real and the teamwork is real. When the same six soldiers take out a dragon in a synthetic world, the dragon is not real but the teamwork is. In synthetic worlds, the things we trade may be fantastic, but the process and value of the trade is real.” – Edward Castronova

Whether you call them a virtual world or a synthetic world, the common misconception is often that the interactions are as non-real as the pixilated world in which they take place.  Perhaps the perceived (and erroneous) conception of the anonymity of the internet does something to people – like putting a normally demure person behind a mile long back up of cars on a hot August day, in a car without air conditioning  (a catalyst for road rage if ever there was one).

Initially my concept of a virtual world was limited to movies like The Matrix and games with persistent worlds like World of Warcraft. Author Castronova takes the concept further:

Finally, I can see a forest of unruly and unstoppable little worlds that breed in peer-to-peer environments, hundreds if not thousands of alternative spaces, each one with a slightly different take on what “fantasy” means, all of them collectively creating a powerful condemnation of the social and economic and political and relational assumptions of the “real” world. – Edward Castronova

I will be the first to admit that I hadn’t considered chat rooms, and even blogs as a virtual world.  Yet the term “blogosphere” seems to have grown out of it. I won’t even begin to debate the etymology of the word. But the fact that it is so apropos in describing a world within the world of Marshal McLuhan’s global village is what seems to stimulate the use of the term.

Most offline single player games I wouldn’t consider a virtual world at all – Not, at least, those games like the Half Life series which are really a story on rails. Let the player stray from the intended track just once (I did) and the game comes to an abrupt halt.  Anytime a player has a choice of going forward or not at all, it seems to exclude it from definition of a virtual world.   Sand box games like Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion may not be online, but they certainly resemble virtual worlds. But are they persistent?  If you define a virtual world as those which continue to exist even after the user exits certainly those fit the description.  However, unless purposefully programmed to do so, they do not simulate actions which would have occurred in real time once the game has been shut off.

 

Worlds within worlds

 

It is not the pixilated part of virtual worlds that I find fascinating but rather the persistence. Author Edward Castronova extends the definition of synthetic (virtual) worlds beyond the boundaries of common definitions.  If we think of the books written by J.K. Rowling there is little doubt that she has created a fascinating world.  Millions of people the world over (myself included) would give their eye teeth to spend some time in it.  Yet, barring time spent at the new Harry Potter Theme Park in Orlando, Florida and watching Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows (due out this November) that isn’t possible.  On the surface of it all it seems like it would be thrilling to be part of the process that brought the Harry Potter stories to life, yet the very act of “breaking the proscenium” seems like it would make the virtual world seem less “real”. I have come to think of it like watching a magic act. If you try and figure out how it was done, it becomes simply a trick – the sense of amazement gone out of the whole thing.  In the end, if you don’t know how the trick was done – if Hogwarts persists only in your mind, it seems as if it would be a lot more “real” than if you saw the famed castle as the production of computer graphics set to film.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

(posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster)