Your Favorite Gaming Memories

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Looking back in our gaming history, we all have moments we cherish, and moments that we didn’t particularly care for.  Today I would like to visit the ones that were important to us, for whatever reason.  I have many fond memories from Ultima Online, my first MMO.  I remember how big the world felt, and how scary it was to leave town, because there were rumors of “Dread Lords”, “Tank Mages”, and “reds”.  I had no idea what those were at the time, but I knew it was bad.  Turns out, they were just players like myself, only they preferred to hunt other players.  I remember saving up enough gold to buy my first house in game, which was stolen from me in short order (PK’s got my key).  From that point forward, I decided to never lose another house by players killing me, I decided to be an Anti-PK, or for those of you who never played UO – A player who hunts down player killers.  I got pretty good at it, even entered PvP tournaments, and won a couple of them to boot.  I spent many sleepless nights playing that game, much to the dismay of my report card.  =)

Everquest, and UO hold most of my best memories, but my proudest memory is from Vanguard.  A lot happened while I was playing Vanguard in my real life, and in game.  It was the first Drow team I was ever on officially (I had played some Warcraft 3 with them but not on an official basis), and I even filled a niche in the guild that allowed me to get some Server firsts, and help to propel our Organizations Name.  In Vanguard I played a Bloodmage Carpenter.  Prior to Vanguard, I hadn’t ever really crafted, I generally wasn’t into it.   In the beta I had been recruited to do our Diplomacy stuff, I had worked personally with the developers/programmers that were in charge of Diplomacy, so I had a great grasp on what was going on in that sphere.  It turns out, that Diplomacy at launch was pretty much pointless and broken, so I searched for a new role that wasn’t filled.  No one on the team had decided to do the trade skill Carpenter, so I did.  Some of you from easier games will probably be thinking, big deal; you did a trade skill…

In Vanguard the Trade skill system was not dumbed-down, and easy to do like in games like Warcraft, and Rift.  There were actually skills, and combinations of buttons to hit in order to make an item.  The better you did those combinations the better the item was.  It wasn’t just press the craft button, wait 5 seconds and an item pops out – it was a minute of pressing the right buttons at the right time, and sometimes just hoping for a little luck.  It was more like normal combat, but my weapons were the hammer, and nail; my enemy a piece of wood.  It took a VERY long time to max out crafting levels, and you had to stick with it.  The Vanguard team started out with people whose sole purpose was to craft; that’s how ball busting it was in the beginning.

So with a lot of help from the harvesters, I was able to produce the first boats on the server.  A boat in Vanguard was needed to get to some of the islands (in theory you could fly across the water, but that would take longer), and to get to some of the better house plots (also another great memory).  The first Sloop on our server was crafted by me, but made by the entire team.  It took something like 50 combinations, over an hour of time to build the one item.  The final combine was so nerve wracking, because if I messed up during the process, it would have wasted so many materials, and time.  After crafting the boat, we named it the www DROW org, set it in the harbor of the Khal for all to see, and to show them that Drow was here, and we were going to dominate the server.  Of course, we also took it out for a spin.

Server First Sloop

Server First Sloop

Because I was the only Carpenter on the server able to make Sloops, business was good.  I was able to make sloops for an insane price, and put that money directly into the guild fund.  That money would be used to buy plots of land for the guild, and things like that.  I believe at some point some of the Officers even got banned for our Official Bank Mules having too much money on them.  It was good times.  The sloop however, was just a small ship, the Caravel still hadn’t been discovered (mostly because it wasn’t fully in game yet).  So the grind began once again, and I started to do what I could in order to prepare for when it could be built.  The sloop at the time was monumental in terms of materials needed, but the Caravel was flat out insane.  The combines were harder, and there were more of them, the materials were rarer, and there was a race to have the first one made worldwide.  I was a day (if I remember correctly) off of the Worldwide First.  On 3/18/07 I completed construction on the first Caravel on the Server.  This ship was amazing; we named it www DROW org once again, to get people to come check us out.  This time though, we had a bunch of guild mates come to the boat, and we took some screen shots.  This has been one of the greatest feelings I have had in a game.  I felt like I was able to put together this awesome ship due to their hard work, and really owed it to them to secure the Server First.  I felt like a part of the team, I felt valued, and I will never forget that feeling.  Since then, I have remained (in my opinion) a very strong, dedicated member of the Drow Organization, and have since had many more fantastic memories.

Server First Caravel

Server First Caravel

First Octopus Caravel

First Octopus Caravel

I had some huge issues with Vanguard however, the game was buggy, and most of the content that was supposed to be in game wasn’t in.  Eventually I left the game due to all the broken promises from the Sony Staff.  I am glad I was a part of the team though, and even got to be an officer of it.  Vanguard, while not my first MMO, houses my greatest achievements, and memories.  It was an honor to play with such talented, passionate players, and to be a part of the Drow action, instead of reading about it.  The largest ship, the Galleon, was added to the game on 12/16/08, and the World Wide first went to Ectheleon, who is a Drow Member, so props to him for sticking in there for over a year, and doing what I could not.

When you think back to your gaming history, what do you remember?  What were some of the highlights for you?  Share them, and screenshots if you got them!

What is a Guild to you?

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I was in a game of League of Legends the other day, listening to my team, and our opponents bicker back and forth about each other sucking at the game. It donned on me, “I am in Drow, why am I playing with these people?” A good question, I knew the answer (being the oracle that I am) – because everyone else from Drow was already in a match. It got me to thinking though; what does Drow (or a guild in general if you aren’t Drow) mean to you?

I have only been a member of Drow since 2006, but I have known about them since they became quite popular in Everquest. After hearing about how they were tearing it up in EQ, I came to their website, was greeted with an awesome flash intro (clicking the link will show you the intro, but at the end will direct you to a page that isn’t there anymore), and thought it was the greatest thing in the world. Drow seemed exclusive, and out of my league, so I didn’t bother with trying to become a member, but I did read about them all the time.

Instead, I joined various guilds throughout the years, some more prominent than others. I even tried my luck at running a guild once, we ended up merging with the servers #1 horde guild at the time, that directly competed with Afterlife (who were alliance) in World of Warcraft. I kept moving around though, because nothing felt right. I had friends, and felt like part of the team, but something was missing from it for me. The players would eventually die off, we would lose standing in what we’ve accomplished, and I would move on to seek a new home.

Drow is different for me from the others. We have a very large group of like minded people, so personality conflicts rarely happen. In all of the time that I have been a member It’s been uncommon to see people have a big blowout, which used to happen all the time in guilds I was with. I think the reason conflicts happen so infrequently, is because we all know what we are getting into before we join. We strive for the best, and want to have a good time while getting there. There is pride in the accomplishments we achieve. We know that when we put in 4 hours of a gaming in a day, that the rest of the team is going to be there, just as dedicated, and roaring to go.

As a member of Drow I am expected to uphold certain values. We don’t cheat, or use exploits to get things done. I remember many times from Vanguard directly working with the Developers in order to work out bugs, and ensure things are working properly. We provide valuable feedback in the games we play, and to the communities surrounding those games. You won’t find a Drow member on the forums spouting off a bunch of dribble, taunting others, or causing mischief. We are better than that; we have an actual reputation to uphold.

I had to leave a team for a while due to real life circumstance, and it sucked. I felt terrible for having to go, not because I was attached to the game so much, as I felt like I was letting down my team. When you spend so much time with people, you form real friendships. You get used to the friendly banter, working as a team, having fun. Just because we have met online doesn’t change the fact that you have formed a real bond with someone. I am not the only person to feel that way, I see people leave a team for a period of time for various reasons, only to return, refreshed, and looking to get back with old friends, and have some fun again. I stayed in contact with many of my friends during that time through our Forums, and Ventrillo. Hell, Drow is so old school, you can meet up with members in IRC.

The whole Drow culture is great. After being around for 15 years, there is bound to be some ‘inside jokes’. Drow has their fair share of that, there is even a  Dictionary of commonly used words/Acronyms that an outsider might not understand. I can’t say that I use them often, but I have a lot of them memorized, and think it’s funny when they are used. Drow consists of members from all walks of life, and locations around the world. Drow even had 3 times World Series champion pitcher Curt Schilling as a member of the EQ2 team. This diversity, I feel, strengthens our teams, and allows us to interact with people we wouldn’t typically be able to.

Maybe the whole idea of this blog is flawed. Drow isn’t just a guild; It’s an organization of people from around the world, who share similar goals, play styles, and a sincere passion for what they do, and who they associate with. I have a great sense of pride about Drow, all of my gaming friends in ‘real life’ know I am a member, I sometimes brag about things we do, and I bought a damn shirt. =) I will always have great memories of the things we have done, and will continue to do. Drow is far more than just a Guild to me, it’s a brotherhood.

I really enjoy hearing my friends talk about their guilds, and the things that set them apart. What do you like about Drow (or your guild)? Why did you join, and what keeps you there? Why have you left other Guilds? I would love to hear some of the stories you have.

The League of Legends Community

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I have been playing a lot of League of Legends lately and wanted to talk about the game as well as its community. As you might see from some of my previous blogs, I am someone who believes in treating others with respect. Win or lose, Enemy or Ally, Friend or stranger, I will show you the same amount of respect online as I would anyone else in person. I am not here to push my personal ethic on anyone, but to take a look into the game League of Legends, and how players interact with each other.

League of Legends is a Free, micro transaction based game. The micro transactions are just for additional champions to play (every week there is a rotating pool of 10 champions you can use for free), and different skins for those champions. They also have some exp boosters and things like that. You can’t pay money to get any sort of in game advantage at all in League of Legends. So that leaves a fun, strategy based, player vs. player game for anyone to play, because it is 100% free.

I am not going to say that every player in League of Legends is unruly, but easily 75% of the games I play there is a vile, hate mongering, rude, ego driven, troll on one of the teams. The filth and childness that comes from these individuals has irritated me enough to quit playing the game for the day in favor of a community that isn’t filled with trash. I can only guess that it is the free aspect of the game that is bringing out the worst in the players of League of Legends. This type of behavior is fairly uncommon in games where you have to pay to play. A ban in League of Legends means you just have to create a new account, a ban in another game means you lose the cost of the game, and/or the monthly subscription fees.

I mostly stick to the RTS, and MMO genres, so I am unsure if the FPS community is this harsh in a game they have to pay for. I would be thrilled to hear from those of you who play FPS games (both pay and free to play) to see how their community is. I feel as though League of Legends is a great game, but I personally refuse to see others (and myself) belittled for making flair choices, minor mistakes, or just not doing what someone else feels you should do. In League of Legends you can ‘report’ players, which will send some statistics, as well as chat logs to be reviewed by fellow players. The Tribunal can either ‘Punish’ (vote to ban), or ‘Pardon’ you. You are also awarded 10 IP (the game currency for buying new characters, skins, etc), for successfully judging a case.

In theory this Tribunal system seems like a great idea. It doesn’t work though. I am sure there are a very large number of bans every day; however, it takes a whole 2 minutes to create a new Gmail address, and another 2 minutes to make a new League of Legends account. So I can talk shit for 45 minutes, give the enemy team money and experience, ruining, and wasting the time of 9 other people, and there is never a real repercussion. There is no “GM” to call about harassment in game; you simply have to take it. You actually won’t even ever know if that person was banned, or continues to play the game freely.

Now, on the flip side, some will say just ignore them. You have a great, valid point, and there is certainly a lot to be said of the people who take matters into their own hands, and just /ignore. That can only get you so far though. Yesterday I was watching a stream of a player named ‘RageGG’, he had 700+ viewers on his channel. In this specific example, we got to see how the community’s misfits, are even terrible to each other. RageGG (playing Ezreal) went to attack an enemy Ashe, who was being supported by a character named Janna. Rage’s teammate Taric, has a Stun, and so Rage assumed Taric (without even letting his team mate know he was about to initiate an attack) would stun Ashe, and secure a kill. Ashe started to run away as soon as Rage started his assault (she was at about 50% life), and Jana moved in to shield Ashe. Taric chose to stun Jana over Ashe. I assume because Jana was going to shield Ashe, and use a slow type spell to hinder Rages’ movement. When RageGG did not get his kill, he went ape shit in game, and started to immediately demoralize his team, saying how much they sucked, and would now lose the game. This was about a whole 3 to 5 minutes into a game that typically lasts 30 to 45 minutes. Despite the mistake/alternate decision of Taric, Rages’ team still went on to win the game, but not before someone on the enemy team got angry for loosing, and proceeded to call Rages’ team “n*****s” for a solid 5 or 10 minutes. The funny part is that the very next game, the racist ended up on Rages’ team, and started with the racist comments early into the game.

There are countless other examples of this type of behavior in League of Legends. The game is so damn fun though, when you take out all the assholes. It is challenging, and there is a lot different ways to play the game. League of Legends just recently announced they are contributing $5,000,000 to eSports this year as well, which is really cool. I highly suggest giving the game a whirl if you haven’t yet, just be prepared to be called all sorts of terrible things, and expect at least 50%-75% of your games to be frustrating. If you do decide to play, feel free to join the Drow chat channel, and group up with us who have been playing for a while. I promise, I won’t insult you, even if you get me killed, and feed the enemy. <3

Remember everyone; Win with Humility, Lose with Honor.

The names in the following have had an extra character added, so as to not give away who they are. These are real examples of chat log.

Examples of things people said while losing;
AWwwyzzzerddd (Dr. Mundo) [All] [00:09:47]: god what horseshit you faggot
BCetarded Runt (Jax) [All] [00:06:30]: OMG NOOB ANNIE
BCetarded Runt (Jax) [All] [00:06:32]: FUCK’ YOU CUNT!
BCetarded Runt (Jax) [All] [00:09:50]: I’ve realised
BCetarded Runt (Jax) [All] [00:09:52]: I cant play with noobs

People being mean for no reason;
CMorning Sex (Blitzcrank) [00:20:49]: another ks from heimer
CMorning Sex (Blitzcrank) [00:20:55]: what a fag
DSir Stranger (Heimerdinger) [00:21:23]: dude!
DSir Stranger (Heimerdinger) [00:21:26]: it was my turret
DSir Stranger (Heimerdinger) [00:21:30]: i dont controll it
EMorning Sex (Blitzcrank) [00:23:00]: fag

FIgnight93 (Teemo) [All] [00:05:34]: only pussies use heal
GSupermok (Dr. Mundo) [All] [00:06:01]: only puussy use teemo

HArtsyAlraune (Leona) [All] [00:40:55]: at this point I’m voting no just to spite you because you’ve been bitching the entire game

IBobbybobobob (Heimerdinger) [All] [00:01:34]: u guysa all american?
JHashTagTrending (Kog’Maw) [All] [00:01:43]: im korea
IBobbybobobob (Heimerdinger) [All] [00:01:47]: chink

Comments from people who were actually winning their game;
LRollednReady (Twitch) [All] [00:37:12]: You fucking noob
LRollednReady (Twitch) [All] [00:37:17]: You are gay

MWwwyzzzerddd (Tryndamere) [00:18:29]: yall are so fucking bad
MWwwyzzzerddd (Tryndamere) [00:20:27]: dont play again
MWwwyzzzerddd (Tryndamere) [00:20:30]: you fuckin suck

NMorning Sex (Blitzcrank) [All] [00:37:23]: lol you guys are badd

The Sony Incident

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Now that the Playstation Network has had service returned, I wanted to see how this has affected you. I personally only use my PS3 for Netflix, and for Blu Ray Movies, so the Playstation Network going down didn’t really bother how much I use my PS3 (I just used Netflix on my Computer, and Phone with the outage). The Outage did affect my gaming though, because I was unable to play SoE games. Now, while I don’t play the bigger games like Everquest, or Vanguard, I do play a game called Dungeon Overlord, which is a facebook game. I have used station cash in that game, and I really enjoyed playing it. There isn’t even a ‘make up’ for the loss in that game. No station cash as compensation, no added bonus of any sort. Just a ‘thanks for waiting’, and nothing more. On top of losing the game time, my customer data was compromised as well. As a long term Sony customer, this is the part that bothers me the most.

I have read about this incident just about every day, and have followed it passionately. I am a very firm believer in customer support, and being honest, and straightforward with your customers. I treat every customer of ours like I would want to be treated. That means if there is a delay at our manufacturer, I find out why, and what is being done to get the order in. I make them give me a rough idea of when they think we will get the product, and then I relay it to the customer. I work in a business where customers spend literally thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars on our products, so keeping them informed is key to them feeling comfortable.

I feel as though Sony was very reserved in the information they were giving. There were no ETA’s given, and at the end of each day we would get messages on facebook/twitter saying that the service wasn’t going to be up on that day. Well that is pretty damned obvious. Why tell me this at 8pm eastern? It’s pretty clear that it’s not coming up tonight… Why not let that information out at 8am, and then if it does come up, it is a nice surprise for your customers? That would have at least let me feel like Sony knew what was going on. These nightly updates happened pretty regularly, I only remember them missing the updated a few nights.

The kicker is that because the services were down, you were not able to cancel your accounts unless you called Sony and had them do the canceling. Of course, when doing that you are subject to guilt trips into keeping your service, and given a spiel on how they are going to take care of any identity theft, and their make good policy. I understand they have to keep their customers in order to make money, but retainment like that seems shady to me. You just got done losing all my customer data due to your lax security measures, and now you want me to keep that service? I think not.

Do you think that the “Welcome Back” program makes up for what has happened? Are you still a Sony Fan? Will you be doing away with them? Do you feel comfortable doing business with Sony?

What real life skills have you learned by playing games?

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“Turn off the god damn game, and go outside!”. This is something that most of have heard at some point in our childhood. The past couple months I have gotten into watching Esports, and I am loving it. It has made me think about all the times that I heard a parent say that playing video games would get you nowhere. Those games were just a waste of time! Now I won’t argue that going outside, and being active is a bad thing, and I won’t agree that gaming is a waste of time.

I think there are a lot of things that can be learned from playing games. I feel a great skill that I have learned from gaming is problem solving. In a great number of games, you are presented with a problem; “the princess is in another castle”, or you can’t figure out how to get past the green tentacle, maybe there are a dozen people guarding an entrance you need to get into, and you only have a squad of 5 people to attack them with… You as the gamer have to be creative and figure out how to overcome these hurdles. You don’t want to waste your time, you want to be efficient, and you don’t want to lose any lives, and certainly you only want to use the fewest amount of recourses to accomplish the goal.

In the Mario example, you just have to keep pounding through levels, navigating mazes, and trying to find short cuts, which will allow you to rescue your dream girl quickly. In the Maniac Mansion example, you have to figure out all the characters traits, and build your ‘team’ optimally. If you pick Bernard, you are going to have a hard time getting past the tentacle, but he is the proper guy for fixing the phone! Maybe you only have 4 or 5 people on your team, and are going against a bigger force in a first person shooter. You will have to out think your opponent, and use a good strategy to defeat them. You will formulate a plan, communicate it with your group mates, and execute it, hopefully with success.

In today’s games, you even get to learn social skills, as a lot of them now have an online option. You will see people show initiative, and drive, people step up as leaders, and some adapt to fill in positions that are needed. You learn to work as a group, to accomplish these goals. I remember when I was on the Vanguard team, and was told by the Lead at the time, that while I was an officer, he didn’t feel I was vocal enough; he thought I was a ‘yes man’. That encouraged me to communicate my thoughts better. Now when I encounter something in real life, I am able to just take my stance, and really say what needs to be said, instead of pussy footing around.

My good friend Govtcheeze likes to do trade skilling in games. I remember talking with him, and coming up with excel spreadsheets to help him and I keep track of blueprints, and costs, and all sorts of things like that. You have to learn what your time is worth, what items cost, what people are willing to pay, if the economy can support what you are selling, etc. to be a good trade skiller.

I am interested in how you feel games contribute to your learning experience. Has it been positive? Have you learned anything really valuable from gaming that has helped make you who you are? Do you support our youth playing games today? What negative traits do you feel come from gaming?

How we treat each other in games.

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Last night I was playing a 2v2 game of Starcraft 2, with a random partner. My partner wasn’t very good, and due to his choice in unit composition, and poor decision making, we lost the game. I could have cared less about the loss, but the team that beat us went nuts on the guy. In Starcraft 2 if someone is lagging, it will stop the game for everyone playing, until their lag is gone. After I think 45 seconds it will drop the player. Well it just so happened that my partner was lagging a little, so the guy on the winning team said something to the effect of “Quit lagging fag”. I was confused at first because it isn’t anyone’s intention to lag, and even more, his team was winning, so it shouldn’t have mattered at all. I managed to repel the opponents push, and bought us a few more minutes of time. During this brief reprieve my teammate lagged a couple more times for a second or two, which would cause the game to stop briefly.

The name calling and badgering didn’t stop, the verbal attacks came more often, and eventually I started getting frustrated at hearing this guy unleashing his fury on my poor team mate. I didn’t know the guy, but I kind of felt bad for him. It wasn’t his fault he was lagging, and our opponent that was doing the complaining wasn’t even the one that was doing well against us. He continued to trash talk my ally as I pushed slightly into his base, the attacks again escalating, more vivid pictures were painted with words. My opponents ally was silent throughout this, just as I was, both of us probably focusing on helping our weaker partner. The lag hit again, and my attack was repelled, and left me very vulnerable.

The silent opponent launched an attack, and capitalized on it, defeating my ally, with the exception of his command center, which he flew to the safety of my main. It was now up to me to win against 2 players. My ally, and the opponent started arguing continually now, which was really aggravating me. I should have just called GG right then, but I was so angry, that I just fought harder, to extend the time that he would have to suffer in a game with my lagging partner. Eventually the silent opponent spoke up during the argument, and said she was actually the girlfriend of the boy who was being a rude asshole. My ally quickly began attacks talking about how the opponent’s girlfriend was such a better player than her boyfriend.

She didn’t say another word. I kind of felt bad for her too; she was dating that cruel, rage filled, kid, who snapped at the littlest of problems. While they argued, I holed up into my base, playing a terran; we are able to defend our base fairly well. I threw up turrets, and put tanks into siege mode. I gathered various units and prepared them to defend from all sides. Anything to delay this prick from achieving a faster win. I built a Command Center to send off to various places on the map, in case I was overrun. They would have to tech to air units to find me, and finally destroy my last base. The attack came in; I was overwhelmed, the game being in the 45 minute range (super long for Starcraft 2). I had 2 players with probably max food cap coming in at me, I stood no chance. I knew we lost, but I stooped to the same level of the trash talking opponent. Well maybe not the same level, as I never retorted back at him, but I stayed in a game just to waste his time, and to fuel his anger further.

My main base was quickly destroyed, but I floated a few buildings around the map, extending the game for another five minutes or so. When I was found the guy attacked my command center until the building was on fire, then said he wasn’t going to kill me, he wanted to watch me burn. So I ran my command center into his girlfriends units, and they auto defended, attacking me. The guy yelled at his girlfriend to not kill me, so she backed her units off. My hp slowly deteriorated, but I landed, and got an scv built, and started to repair my building. He saw this, and killed my worker, and started to make fun of me at this point. His girlfriend came in with a carrier fleet, and destroyed my command center against her boyfriend’s wishes. The game ended.

Now I am fairly sure the opponent was a kid, due to the way he was talking, and he was probably trying to impress the girl, or maybe he just had a bad day, and wanted to take it out on someone. Either way, it was pretty ridicules. My partner sent me a message after the game was over asking if he was lagging, I told him he was, pretty badly. He said he lived in Hawaii, and a lot of people were just getting home at that time, and the connections get a little bogged down. So really the lag wasn’t even something he could have controlled, shy of not playing during that time.

I had never seen someone say such horrible things to another person, and I know the only reason it happened was because it was online. Had this been real life, I don’t think he would have had the courage to say half the things he did. In hindsight I feel kind of bad for extending the game, but that was the only thing I could do to “defend” my partner. I knew that arguing wouldn’t accomplish anything, so I just made him mad by letting him experience more lag, and by defending my base.

So my question to you, is have you dealt with people like this in a game? How do you react to them? Do you fight back? Do you take a passive aggressive stance like I did? Do you just leave the game? Do people like that affect the types of games you play?

Real ID edges its way into Blizzard Forums

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Blizzard will now be using their subscriber’s First and Last name to represent their forum posts on Blizzard forums.

What’s your take on this?

I can think of an obvious pro right off the bat.  Hopefully less trolling.   At the same time I can see this idea being quickly withdrawn by Blizzard as the hate mail piles up.

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature – http://www.battle.net/realid/ , a new way to stay connected with your friends on the new Battle.net. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about our plans for Real ID on our official forums, discuss the design philosophy behind the changes we’re making, and give you a first look at some of the new features we’re adding to the forums to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID — that is, their real-life first and last name — with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged.

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.

We also plan to add a number of other features designed to make reading the forums more enjoyable and to empower players with tools to improve the quality of forum discussions. Players will have the ability to rate up or rate down posts so that great topics and replies stand out from the not-so-great; low-rated posts will appear dimmer to show that the community feels that they don’t contribute effectively to the conversation, and Blizzard’s community team will be able to quickly and easily locate highly rated posts to participate in or to highlight discussions that players find worthwhile.

In addition, individual topics will be threaded by context, meaning replies to specific posts will be grouped together, making it easier for players to keep track of multiple conversations within a thread. We’re also adding a way for Blizzard posters to “broadcast” important messages forums-wide , to help communicate breaking news to the community in a clear and timely fashion. Beyond that, we’re improving our forum search function to make locating interesting topics easier and help lower the number of redundant threads, and we have more planned as well.

With the launch of the new Battle.net, it’s important to us to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment — one that’s highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. All of our design decisions surrounding Real ID — including these forum changes — have been made with this goal in mind.

We’ve given a great deal of consideration to the design of Real ID as a company, as gamers, and as enthusiastic users of the various online-gaming, communication, and social-networking services that have become available in recent years. As these services have become more and more popular, gamers have become part of an increasingly connected and intimate global community – friendships are much more easily forged across long distances, and at conventions like PAX or our own BlizzCon, we’ve seen first-hand how gamers who may have never actually met in person have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans. As the way gamers interact with one another continues to evolve, our goal is to ensure Battle.net is equipped to handle the ever-changing social-gaming experience for years to come.

For more info on Real ID, check out our Real ID page and FAQ located at http://www.battle.net/realid/ . We look forward to answering your questions about these upcoming forum changes in the thread below.

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25626109041&sid=3000

Starcraft 2. Are You Ready?

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The wait is almost over.  Over 12 years we have been waiting for this moment.  The sequel to one of the most successful RTS games of all time, not to mention one of the most successful GAMES of all time.  Starcraft 2 is less than a month away.

As July 27th comes closer and closer, SC2 fanatics around the world have been getting more and more giddy about the new release from their favorite franchise.  Commentaries, replays, beta testing, strategy discussions, etc.  But let us zoom in for a moment to Drow specifically.  Plans have been put in place to do something with this game that we have never really done before.  We want to bring all of our teams together to make one clan in one game.

If you haven’t noticed yet, we have a new board dedicated to SC2.  Check it out. We also have a new vent channel.  And along with these, come new mods/vent admins, Medii, Tivia, and myself.

So stay tuned.  There is some pretty cool stuff being planned right now for Drow’s endeavor into this game.  Get excited.  Practice up in beta (when it opens again!).  And, of course, head on over to the SC2 forums and make some suggestions on what you’d like to see happen as we make our mark in SC2.

5 Things I Hate About You, Final Fantasy XIII

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Before you start flaming, it must be known that I’ve played the FF series ever since it’s first release on the US shores. Sneaking into my game room when the parents were asleep. I lost mass quality shut-eye for my show & tell the next morning, but catching up to Kefka was well worth it. Fast forward to today and now we have the newest installment of the Final Fantasy series. There’s plenty to like about the game and to name a few, the game looks hotmazing and the battle system is very smooth. Thousands of man hours and tajillions of Yen were poured into developing this game and a even though I’m only 5 hours in, I have a few gripes. Let’s start off with the first and obvious one.

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1) No Nobuo

The disappearance of his musical scores in the Final Fantasy series is more apparent than Snow’s douchebag demeanor. There are a few tracks here and there that are composed well, however, I want to know why they hired Asimo as the musical director. No, musical director, I don’t want listen to Japanese Pop when there’s a pivotal scene. No, musical director, I don’t want to listen to a harmonica every time you have a dialogue with Sahz. No, musical director, I don’t want to listen David Sanborn while blasting through The Vile Peaks. Come back Nobuo, this is getting ridiculous.

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2) Akward Silences

It took me awhile to figure out why I feel uncomfortable listening to the dialogue, but I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t like listening to actors that sound as if they forgot their lines while opposite actors will try to play charades to give them a hint on what to say. No really, I get it, some things are lost in translation and there must be extra pauses added in to dub the English so it matches the Japanese mouthing but for me, it’s like trying to watch a sitcom while muting the laugh box.

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3) Diarrhea Dialogue

The romance between Snow and Serah is one that is typically present in a FF series and the only reason I could put up with it in the past is because I would read it in a monotone voice like Ben Stein. Now I have to sit through these cinematics and listen to what appears to be an animated series of Rock of Love. Not to mention Serah looks no older than 13 which makes the dialogue much more disturbing than tub girl.

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4) Vanille

Never thought I’d say this but someone kick this drunk girl out of the bar before she gets anymore wasted. Don’t argue with me, she’s not giddy and innocent — she’s just a rundown barfly, loaded up with gin and tonics on the beaches of Bodum, mixed with the exposure of the awful clothes people wear there, which in turn creates a borderline retarded chick whose personality is a bit brighter than Forrest Gump’s.

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5) Yuj

Demo Yuj on left, Final Yuj on the right. I’d really like to punch the guy in the face who decided to use the latter. I have to use my whole body to hate this character. Screw you asshole.

I don’t hate this game. I actually really like it, but as I progress through it, its little crap like this that bugs me. I can’t be the only one annoyed by this.