re: RealID on Blizz forums

Hello hot button topic!  If you keep up with Blizzard news at all you have probably heard something about this Real ID on the forums.  If you haven’t, here’s a link to the original blue post.  The thread on the WoW forums (as of this writing) is up to 1210 1379 1969 pages… WOW.

There are places all over discussing this issue at the moment.  You have my old stomping grounds, Leftovers and there’s the Starcraft Legacy Forums.  There are of course tons of blogs chiming in about it, Matticus and Lodur pt. 1 / 2 of World of Matticus, Saresa (the first person to tag me EVER) at Destructive Reach, and KiwiRed from One of These Alts.  KiwiRed’s post has a fuckton of links in it.

All the different discussions / blog posts have given the pros and cons but most everyone is against the change.  Most of the green posters on the forums (the community helpers) have posted out against it.

Personally?  I want to be on the side of “this is bad” but I just can’t bring myself to it.  It’s probably because I never really used the Blizzard forums or it’s because I like to argue and being on opposing side allows me to do more of that.  I might randomly read them but for the most part… I consider them useless.  I’d be willing to wager that 50% of the people posting in that big thread on the B.net forums don’t or haven’t ever posted there before.

The internet is growing and anonymity isn’t what it used to be.  We aren’t living in the movie Hackers where everyone is known by their handle.  We live in a Facebook / Myspace / Twitter era where people know you (even if you don’t know them).  Where information is shared (not always to your benefit).  You can learn to move with the times or you can sit back and bitch about the new fangled technologies.  Their are consequences to every action but I think in the end this will be a benefit to the majority.

People keep mentioning the crazy fuckers who have gone out and killed someone because they got gank’d… those people are nucking futs!  They tracked down people with just a handle.  They are still nucking futs!  It wouldn’t have mattered if they had your real name… they would have just killed the person faster.

I think what pisses me off the most about the situation are all the juice bags that have decided to show just how bad we can be.  Bashiok (a blue poster) posted his name, Micah Whipple, and those juice bags have taken it upon themselves to harass the person and be distasteful.  Way to prove just how pathetic some of the human race can be.

Now I’m ranting.

My point is that Blizzard is going to do this whether you want to or not.  If you don’t want your name on the forums then don’t post there.

– Oh you are afraid for your child?  Go into parental controls and turn off Real ID.  This will keep your childs IRL name from showing up in game and prevent them from posting on the forums.

– Oh you are mad you can’t post on the tech support forums?  Search them first then because your problem has already been solved.  It hasn’t?  Blizzard has an email address you can send to for technical support.

Treat the internet like you would treat taking nekid pictures of yourself.  Don’t do something you’ll regret.  Removing the anonymity is a good change that will help make the internet safer and more respectful.  Plus, if someone starts calling you cuz their nucking futs you have evidence to get a restraining order.

Have a good day!

Update:

Blizzard caves.

Death of 25man?

Yesterday I talked about the two most recent announcements and how it would effect your free time.  Today I want to talk about a different aspect of the game it will effect and hit mainly on the first announcement that is putting the 10 and 25 man raids on one lockout.

Should I be angry about a change to a game I don’t play?  Sure, why not.

I’m not actually angry, just sad.  I think this change is a huge detriment to the community that they try to promote.

At the moment the reason to run 25 man is because the loot is superior.  You have a lot of groups that struggle in 25 man raids because they are PUG’ing 5-15 people.  They do this struggle because they know its where the good loot lives.  If they could drop those PUGs allowing them to run a decent group for the same loot they would happily do that.

I think we’ll see a HUGE decline in the number of 25 man raids that are being run.  Raid leading is stressful, if you can ease that stress by 150% without really losing anything… then its a huge boon.

You’ll still see the uber 25 man groups I think.  There is more prestige to do it with 25 than 10 of course but there’s no reason to struggle on 25 man for less than you could do in a more competent 10 man.

You’ll see a lot of really horrible 25 man groups as well.  They’ll be recruiting in trade chat (/point Marisse) and forming groups to go do things you wouldn’t have imagined.  Except now those groups aren’t going to be mains that missed out on their 25 man for the week… they are going to be semi geared alts trying to figure out why they get aggro when they death grip the mob.

My estimation is that you’ll see 60% less 25 man raids than there are right now.  Even if the difficulty level is similar… 10 people management is soooooooooooooooooo much easier than 25 people wrangling.

Once you take into account the fact that your character is cap’d on the number of points you can earn in a week you realize you have another reason to go with a group that is better and more likely to get the job done.

Why struggle with 25 when you can rape with 10?

Blizzard doesnt want you to login (or do they?)

Everyone has kept asking me if I’m coming back for Cataclysm.  Up until this recent week I wasn’t 100% sure I wasn’t coming back (who’s to say I’m 100% sure now).  Blizzard has been announcing major changes to the game in my opinion, fundamentally changing the way you play it.

First we take a look at the raiding changes.

The first of the refinements being made is that we’re combining all raid sizes and difficulties into a single lockout.

Both 10 and 25man raids will now be on the same lockout, with the same difficulty, with the same loot.  That means the 4 hrs you do for 10man and the 8 hrs you do for 25man is being reduced (assuming you don’t just fill those nights with more of the 25man or 10man).

At first this led me to the general assumption that Blizzard is trying to get you to not login as much.  Take a break, a breather from the game ya know.  Maybe Blizzard is trying to get you to not be addicted to their game like a crack whore with an infinite supply.  Lets take a quick look back though.

You remember how awesome it was when you could send those heirlooms to your alts and level them?  How much more time did you spend playing the game?  Then they made it so that you could send them across faction!  A whole new game opened up.  People were playing with their friends on a different faction but not being so horribly geared that they quit.  This was a stealth injection of crack, straight into your brain.

Blizzard just announced the way badges will be working in Cataclysm.

Hero Points — Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph)

Valor Points — High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids. (most like the current Emblem of Frost)

This system sounds like a good change, I kind of like it.  Again, it looks like Blizzard is trying to get you to logoff and go enjoy the sunshine.  They are capping the amount of Valor points you can get so that you aren’t logging in to do countless daily dungeons and raiding.  Sounds good right?

Its a devious plan, it truely is.  Don’t you see it?  Blizzard is looking all puppy eyed like they care and want us to log off…

…but really… they want us to play our alts more!

Not only can you get them to 80 extremely easy before this xpac (and mostly likely easier after the streamlining of the lower tiers) but your mains will be capped on just how much they can do each week.  This opens the door to work on your alt(s).  You think I have some free time, I’ll just get a few badges on this toon.  Ya know… I don’t have to raid as much on my main, maybe I can take my new 80 to some raids. Before you know it your life is gone, your living in a Burger King restroom leeching the WiFi.

That’s right everyone.  Blizzard doesn’t care about your IRL.

They own you.

Blizzards programs money

I’m sure by now everyone knows about the Celestial Steed.  While I haven’t logged in I hear its the only mount in game now.  It really is absolutely awesome, if I still played I’d own it.  I didn’t know at first but the item you get is account bound so ALL your toons can use it AND it will adjust itself to the appropriate speed.  That 310 drake you’ve been flying on forever… now you can ride your celestial steed at the same speed!