Posts filed under ‘Game Culture’
Gaymer.org vs /r/Gaymers. Ready your weapons, ladies and gents. This could get ugly.
Well, this is a unexpected brewing war.
While browsing the League of Legends subreddit, I noticed that there’s a new sub–sub reddit for gaymers who play LoL. I found this extremely interesting, since the LoL community isn’t known for being the most open-armed group of people, so I went to check it out.
I was pretty disappointed to see the top thread being about the danger of a cease-and-desist summons over the term “gaymer.”
The summons comes from a fellow named Chris, creator of the website gaymer.org (which as of the time of this post, is curiously “account suspended”), who wrote an open-letter to the /r/gaymer community on reddit about his choice of action.
The reaction has been, unsurprisingly, negative. His site has been around for quite some time, and in his address he tried to garner sympathy by explaining how much blood, sweat, and tears has gone into his project and community. He has allegedly wordmarked the word “gaymer” and is trying to protect the brand that he’s built.
I gather he’s trying to sound worried about his site and the subreddit being mistaken for one another, as if the opinions of /r/gaymers might negatively affect his site. Or something. But I’mm not buying it. Sounds more like he’s not happy that searching the term gaymer results in the subreddit being top with his site second on the list (that could just be me, though.)
Truly, the term gaymer has been used for far longer than his site has been around. And I completely agree with the members in this community when they say he has no right to trademark an identity. That’s like trying to trademark the word “gay” or “GirlGamer” or what have you. It’s silly and uncalled for.
I’m not too sure of the timeframe of this development; Gaymers subreddit posted their warning of the CAD at around 10 pm EST yesterday, Sept 9th, and the admin of Gaymer.Org posted his response (partially fueled by the initial nasty reaction he got) at 1pm EST today, Sept 10th. So the fued is ongoing for the time being.
What do you guys think?
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?
The Legend of Beta Part III: Finale. Be the solution.
So comes the final sequel of this 3 part monster. As always, many thanks to everyone who commented / tweeted with feedback, it’s always much appreciated. Another awesome blogger, ThatShortGuy, did a reaction to the Beta ideas with an interesting view on social networking and transparency during testing phases. Check it out.
Fixing the Attitude
We are all very aware that there is tension in the relationship between gamers and developers. What it is about gamer mentality that triggers the “unwarranted self-importance” sector of the brain, I don’t know, but I’d guess it something to do with thumb movement. There’s so many small annoyances but overall it feels like so many players have it in their mind that this game is -for them- and if they find something wrong or displeasing, it should be changed so that they are happy. This is a source of major frustration and even aggravation from both the peers of these players and the developers.
Nothing sucks more than having some punk basically tell you how to do your job, or that you’re miserable at what you do. It’s unfair, hurtful, and really, really annoying.
Here’s our 12 step program in fixing the attitude of gamers towards developers and games.
1: Be aware that, no, the universe does not revolve around you. Shocking, I know.
2: Learn the difference between real imbalance and personal preference.
3. Differentiate between whining/bitching and constructive criticism.
4: Understand that game developers are not gods. They are human. This means that they eat, sleep, need breaks and vacations just as much as you. Likewise, they won’t give you anything special if you suck up to them. Be respectful, treat them as equals, and you will earn their respect back.
5: Most game company employees make crap money, and don’t get paid enough to listen to gamers whine and cry.
6. If you make ridiculous demands or insulting comments about them or the game, they have every right to bitch back at you. Customer service can only go so far. Don’t be shocked if they publicly put you in your place.
7: Game developers happen to be gamers, so yes, they know a thing or two about how games work.
8: In fact, many of them went to college for this, so just because some of you know how to action script flash animations doesn’t mean you can do their job better. If you think you can, get a degree and apply for it.
9: Betas are incomplete versions of the game. Things will be broken. Things will change. The point is to fix bugs. Don’t complain and cry malarkey if you see something wrong. Report it so they can fix it.
10: They have every right to ban you for exploiting or abusing their ToS, whether on beta or live.
11: Beta and other forms of public testing are a privilege and responsibility, not a right.
12: Contrary to popular belief, game developers are not after your blood, sweat, and tears, but rather put a lot of their own into making games great for you. Respect and appreciate this very important fact.
Once gamers can come to terms with this hard to accept but very real facts of e-life, then they can more aptly prepare themselves for being a good beta tester and player overall.
How to be a good Beta Tester.
Now, say you’ve accepted the 12 steps but you still want to get into a beta. Deep down in your heart, even though you’re thrilled to be invited, you want to make sure you’re also contributing. You also like the idea that good testers sometimes get invited back in future tests.
If you’ve come that far, I could shed a tear of happiness.
So what exactly makes a good tester?
First of all, pick an area in the game you think you’d be good at testing.
• If you’re big on mechanics and key-binds, focus on testing basic game-play.
• PvP or group play, skill balance might be your thing.
• If graphics and visuals are important to you, checking for texture glitches, UI, and clipping is a great focus.
• Explorers do great finding possible exploits or unstable terrain that cause disconnects or falling through the world.
• People who enjoy questing and leveling can report on how those aspects of the game flow.
• Lore buffs who like to read quest text might find they’re good at picking out typos.
• Social butterflies can test out the chat systems and guild controls.
Obviously, you don’t -have- to pick just one area but it helps keep you focused and is great for the company if you report on mundane things that most people aren’t really interested in. Combine them.
I’m a graphics / explorer kinda gal. Back in the Lich King beta I spent hours just flying around taking screenshots of the terrain and reported on a few bugs I saw with textures. Simple but fun, easy, and constructive.
If you see something wrong that’s stationary, try to get screenshots from different angles. Re-log and see if it persists.
Something that’s an event is harder to report, so do your best to replicate what you did to cause it as much as possible. Use different variables. Did you disconnect when walking to a certain spot? Does a specific spell cause this glitch but not another? Is it just your class? Make use of the scientific method from grade-school. The more you can re-cause a glitch, the better, and likely easier to fix.
When you report a bug, be as detailed and organized as possible. Make use of bullet points and listing, and break down your report into sections.
• Brief description of the issue.
• How it happened as detailed as possible.
• Your experiments afterwards in trying to re-cause the glitch.
Next, organize your media and outlet sources. Be weary of NDAs. You don’t want to release information if it’s against their ToS.
But definitely make use of things like recording game-play and screenshots.
Most importantly, though, do have fun. Betas are a responsibility to testers but also a joy on the down-time. Make friends, talk to developers in-game or in forums, and get to know the community.
Which leads me to the last and most important part.
Creating a solid Beta Testing community.
I think one issue is that there’s no real central spot for prospective testers and those seeking testers to converge, and there needs to be one.
The idea I have involves a forum with sections for recruitment and requests. But the most important feature it would need is a resume / rating system.
This is also the most difficult to implement, I imagine.
There are different levels of testing. Yes, you have the gamers, but QA/QC (Quality Assurance / Quality Control) are the professional version. These guys are usually employed by a company but there’s no reason you can’t have professional free-lance testers, right?
In my dream beta site, everybody would have a profile that would detail all the things a game company might need to know to find beta testers. System specs, past experience, genre preferences, and a rating. When a developer finds a certain tester particularly useful, give them a gold +1. Other gamers who think they were good on reporting or answering questions can give them a blue +1. That way at a glance people can see and find exactly what they’re looking for.
Said site would make extensive use of social networking to promote new games, betas, and exclusive previews.
It’d be great, and if I had money and programing experience I’d start it. But alas. I’m just a small fry with big dreams of a gamer utopia!
Well that’s that. Thanks to everyone who’s been commenting and discussing these posts here and on twitter. You guys rock.
And sorry for the long wait. Blame my job.
~Izzie
The Legend of Beta Part II: Demos Vs Beta
Before I start, I wanna give a shout out to Hunter’s Insight. He made a post on betas a few days before me and it’s definitely worth a read over here: To Beta or Not to Beta?
Second, fellow blogess Kaae of Way Too Serious and commenter Winter both offered some great input, some of which I already had in my head for part two and other points that I’m going to borrow from, so I thank both of you for the awesome. Kaae also did a great reaction / reflective post on her more positive experience in betas and why she feels they are not gonna die out: Concerning betas.
(As an aside, I also don’t believe betas will die out. My multi-post write-ups usually include a lot devil’s advocate, apocalypse conspiracy theories in part I, and I adress the issues and solutions in the later posts. So I’m not that crazy, really!)
"Give me the precioussssssss....."
So now that we’ve laid out the issues with what betas are becoming currently, it’s time to set the mold for how to fix it. There are several steps in this process and like mending any relationship, it requires compromise, communication, and respect from both ends: developers and gamers. We need each other through this process. Gamers need to game like crack-heads need their fix, and developers know there are some aspects of the game that just need that massive player influx to fully test. So, on that note, let’s hold hands and make up.
Developers. From Alpha to Release: Don’t forget the Demos
The process of testing a game once it’s playable generally follows the A-B-D-R format: Alpha, Beta, Demo, Release. Then each step usually has all it’s little sub-steps to go with it. Internal Alpha (Developers), Friends and Family Alpha/Beta, Closed Beta (Invite-Only), Open Beta (Opt-ins, pre-orders or open weekends), Private Demo (events/media), Public Demo (downloadable/dics/weekend events), Release.
How many instances of each and how long they last really depends on the game, progress, and the company producing it. One common problem, though, is that game developers are skipping the Demo parts, or in some ways confusing the demo and the beta step, and that’s where a lot of the issues with the abuse of actual betas come from.
As Kaae put in her comment, not everybody scrambling to get into a beta is doing it for the fame and status: many non-testers are either just fans of the franchise or wanting to test the game before it comes out, since it will often be the only real chance to do so. I’d put myself in this category more often than not. When I’m in a beta, I try my best to report to the developers as I see things, but I’m not actively looking to test most of the time. I just want to try it out. If I knew the game would have an open demo even if it’s close to release, I’d rest easy and skip the beta all together.
Let’s face it: dropping 50/60 dollars on a game you might not enjoy is a big risk, and with consumers of all areas being more money-concious, it’s not unwise to be skeptical about buying a game you didn’t really try (I, for one, very much regret buying Aion).
If developers invested some time into releasing a public demo close to release date, they’d get rid of a decent population of beta-players who really just want to try the game to bypass the beta stage. It won’t be everybody, sure, but a lot of them would.
Demos are both simple and not to create. Technically if a game is ready to ship, a demo is possible, but there’s usually limits that have to be implemented. Perhaps a low level-cap (usually before the game gets super grindy, haha) or a limited time (weekends). ArenaNet’s open beta weekends for Guild Wars Factions and Nightfall were basically demos. At the point of release, the games were pretty much done, with just later content being added and last minute skill balances. Many demos are available through pre-ordering and offer bonus’ to players, like reserving names and characters or getting a head start when the game releases.
There are many instances where a company will call a beta such, when really it’s a demo. The game is close to complete and all they want to see is last minute bugs and stress tests. This isn’t truly a beta, not in the full sense, so in a lot of ways we -are- getting demos already, just under another name. Another common mistake is using an early beta as a marketing tool. In my honest opinion: game companies should never, ever market a beta for promotion. Gamers will take that as a serious representation of a game, and will be in that mindset when they play it. Mistakes, flaws, and bugs will be frowned upon.
If developers want the players to experience the game at an early stage as a promotion / marketing tool, they should borrow from ArenaNet’s practically flawless Guild Wars 2 demo platform: a limited, dumbed down version of the final product that showcases the best and most developed aspects of the game.
What we got at Pax and Gamescon was a small piece of the pie, but it was the yummiest, most deliciously filled icing slathered piece they could offer. Two races out of five, four professions out of eight, and 40 minutes of two different leveling tiers. What we saw represented only a fraction of what the final game will offer, but it gave us exactly what gamers want to see in a early preview : beautiful graphics, intuitive mechanical gameplay, and insight into the leveling experience.
So for companies to insure that the beta will provide quality testers and rest easy about pre-mature conclusions, there needs to be a specific divide between the demo and the beta. They can overlap, for sure. Demos can come before open betas if done right. But by making the clear distinction of purpose between the two, they will effectively split the community as well. Those interested in testing and tecnical groundwork will opt-in for betas. Those that just wanna give the game a test-drive will go for a demo. As long as the company makes it clear there will be both, the community will do the rest.
Coming up in Part 3: Gamers. Loose the ‘tude and become a part of your gaming experience.
Anti-Lurk Q&A: What other aspects from the development side do you guys think could be used to further encourage actual testing in beta tests? Do you think the beta vs demo model would work and is realistic? And of course any other thoughts and comments.
The Legend of Beta Part I: WTF Happened?
There are certain key words that have become natural triggers for people who are gamers: free, epic, loot, newb. But none have the lasting power or influence over our minds that that one, magical four letter word: Beta. Say it at convention and 20 heads will turn your way. Mention it online and your traffic boosts by 10%.
At PAX, I must have gotten 30 different invites and codes to sign up for them. But there is a huge loss that is hidden behind those enticing strings of digits. What has come lately is a huge shifting mindset regarding beta-testing from gamers, and more importantly, developers. Times have changed as gaming becomes more popular and mainstream. Infiltrated with twelve year old boys with tender egos and attention-whoring house wives, this sub-culture of the hardcore gaming comes with it’s own set of social rules, heirarchy, and bragging rights. Just like high-school all over again, everybody’s trying to be the cool-guy and forget the point of school is to learn. Well, once upon a time the point of betas was to test a game and improve on it. But that has been completely ruined: now betas are feared by developers and savagely sought by gamers, and for all the wrong, unfortunate reasons.
The issue is that Beta invitations have become a status symbol in recent years. As the popularity of PC gaming grows, so does the desire to be “in the know” and on the inside of exclusivity. Everybody’s blogging about it, posting about it, tweeting about it, and they are driven to be the one of the firsts to get their hands on it. And no matter who you are, if you’re an online gamer, you have definitely experienced that uncanny urge to Beta. I know I have. I am part of this pandemic. And so are you.
“So why is this a problem?” you ask. Because when status among peers becomes a driving force behind something, that something loses it’s “something”. See: teenage sex. See: iphones. They do it just to do it, they buy it just to buy it, because they want to be the cool guy and the object of envy from their peers. The real meaning and merit is lost in this struggle for status. We forget sex is supposed to be meaningful. We forget iphones are supposed to have utility in day-to-day life. That’s what betas have lost. The “testing” got dropped and hasn’t been able to find it’s way back, and it’s killing this important part of online gaming.
“So what’s this about developers being scared?” you ask.
The first issue is that gamers don’t respect NDAs. NDA Stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement: that’s a binding pact that during certain phases of testing, no information or media regarding said game is supposed to be coming out. You will always inevitably have that guy, or those guys, who ignore this and post screenshots, videos, and bits of information.
In small amounts this isn’t too big a deal. In fact, it’s even a good thing. Small leaks often keep the masses craving more. In droves, however, it becomes dangerous. It’s kind of like the density of water. It shrinks a bit before expanding. Likewise, for a small moment in time, leaked info is ok but then it becomes a problem that leads to the next big issue:
Gamers prematurely base their opinions on betas, and developers have become all too aware of this. How many times have I heard “Ugh, is that armor clipping?”, “How come these animations are so glitchy?” “WTF? LAG ON MY BETA SEVER? I’m not buying this game.” and I cringe every time. One of the biggest reasons Betas are postponed closer and closer to release is because people decide before it comes out whether or not it’s worth time based on glitchy, laggy, incomplete versions of the game. Sometimes they haven’t even tested it: they’ll make conclusions based on a screenshot and some angry guy’s blog post. Soon enough, if not already, having an open beta early in development will be marketing suicide and companies won’t be able to do it even if they wanted to. The suits will forbid it.
Gamers don’t fucking test in beta testing. Seriously. While I don’t have any official numbers, just from experience alone I can safety bet no less than 75% of players who get into betas haven’t contributed an ounce of useful information to the developers. All they do is cry in public chat. So basically there’s these droves of people posting screenshots and videos and running around wasting data and sever space just to say they can, will, and have.
That’s like having painters come over to work on your house and all they do is sit around, eat your food, order porn on your TV, and kick your dog. Wouldn’t you be pissed? Can you understand why developers are fed up?
Once upon a time, the point of a beta was to break a game. Testers purposefully pushed the client to it’s limits, and the developers wanted this. They wanted you to overload an area, they wanted you to walk through walls and fall through the world. And once upon a time, the bragging rights wasn’t about who was -in- the beta but rather who was able to find and report the weirdest bug and best exploit. It’s called beta testing after all, not beta leeching.
The only company that can pretty much put out a beta whenever they want is Blizzard because if someone complains about something, they can basically say “Fuck you, it’s beta, if you don’t like it, there’s 3,000 other people willing to take your place.” Blizzard has a large enough following that by sheer numbers, there are enough reliable testers around to make it worth the 80% of others who do nothing but spout bullshit about low-res textures and nerfs to their class.
It’s a crying shame, too, because with technology and social networking being what it is, there has never been a better time to test out games and help developers dig up the sorts of bugs only players have the magic ability to find.
We’re likely to find in the next few years that game companies no longer release open betas at all. Instead, fans are likely to get a “demo” a few weeks, maybe a month or two, prior to release when the game is essentially done and simply needs the sort of en-masse testing for stress, servers, and population issues. And we only have ourselves to blame. Yes, our number-crunching, epeen evny-ing, status obsessed selves.
Anti-Lurk Q&A: Have you ever beta’d without testing (DO YOU FEEL GUILTY? J/K)? Do you think companies are right to worry? How do you feel about the impending Death of the Beta?
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 :D).
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?
European Games Award Public Voting Open
..and we're not talking about football.
For all you savvy gamers on the other side of the lake, the Europen Games Award opened up public voting yesterday on their website.
The point of the EGA is to give worldwide recognition to a sometimes under-represented industry: European game developers find themselves out-shined by Asian and American companies.
But they deserve as much kudos as the rest of us.
Check out the site and register to vote for your favorite European gaming gurus!
Her Universe, aims to bring geek chic apparel for the ladies
Cute and Badass, easily describes geek chicks as well.
Ashley Eckstien, voice actress of Ahsoka Tano in the 3D Star Wars spin-off The Clone wars has founded an apparel company that aims to be exclusive in female sci-fi clothing.
Her line will be “debuting” this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, and she’ll be holding a panel to both promote the site, Her Universe, as well as talk about the importance of representing female Sci-Fi fans.
Her first license is for Star Wars, and I imagine she plans on expanding this to other titles (Battlestar Galactica, oh pretty please!) as well.
What I like about the designs is that they are more than just Star Wars art screenprinted onto the front of stock t-shirts. They’re actually thought out to be appealing as something girls would wear: colorful, lady-cuts, placement of the artwork, and even a little cutesy here and there.
A few have argued that this is offensive (“why should it be ‘cuteified!’ in order to cater to women!?”) but I strongly disagree.
Men and women have different tastes in clothing and design, that’s a given. I enjoy rocking my geek side, but not all fangirls are tomboys (well I am a bit, but I do like to look cute, too). Some of us like to actually dress up, and if I’m going out with friends I’m not gonna run around in an oversized men’s T because that’s all there is.
I do, however, happily don some of those baby-doll cut gamer shirts. And soon I may even rock a Star Wars one.
The item I have my eye on is the hooded thermal. I really like the design and thermals are awesome.
The down-side, as expected, is that the clothes are not cheap. 30 bucks for the tees, 40 for the long-sleeved items. That’s kind of pushing it, even for geek apparel that’s usually overpriced.
It’s pretty tempting, though.
Check out her website for news, blog, store, and more info.
http://heruniverse.com/
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.
https://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.
https://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.
IzzieBytes 