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   At the same time I can see this idea being quickly withdrawn by Blizzard as the hate mail piles up.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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Unfortunately, lately I have been noticing that I no longer am looking forward to new games.  I constantly find myself searching through my old video game collection to play through the classics again.  Even today, I had a discussion with a co-worker about a little shop down the street that still sells the old cartridges for NES/SNES/Genesis/etc..  We reminisced about games like Chrono Trigger, Super Castlevania, and more.  Now, I am not going to sit here and bash all new games, there are still a good amount coming out that I look forward to.  However, for the most part, they are made solely by 1-2 developers and I will talk about them here in a second (i.e. Blizzard and SquareEnix).

I admit, I am an avid collector of classic video game series.  I own all of the Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil series.  I have a lust for Squaresoft/SquareEnix and Blizzard games.  I recently went through Final Fantasy 3 again and am about to go through Final Fantasy IV and V again in preparation for Final Fantasy XIII (hey, what do you know, another SquareEnix game).  I’m doing the same with Starcraft and Diablo as their new games get closer and closer to release date (more Blizzard games!).

My questions is, what is it nowadays that makes the majority of new games coming out non-enjoyable?  Is it the price?  Maybe sub-par gameplay?  Maybe it’s the lackluster stories?  Are most games too easy today?  Any of these questions could be the answer to any number of new games coming out on the market.  Every single one of those reasons has been a reason why I have not picked up a game at some point or another over the past 5 years or so.  The only two games I can honestly say that I have bought and enjoyed over the past 5 years have been FFXII and Demon’s Souls.  Demon’s Souls is a game that is very challenging and allows me to reminisce about old, hard, games like Ninja Gaiden and others.  It’s the best game on the PS3 in my opinion, simply because it’s the only game that actually brought me back for more.

So, by now maybe there are many who would venture to disagree with me on this topic.  Maybe you think there are plenty of great games out there that have come out in the past 5 years.  I am ready to hear about them.  Write me comments about games you think contradict my view.  Please, help me see the light in this abyss of sub-par video games over the past few years.  But please do one thing before doing so.  Think about those games that I talked about before.  Those games that you fell head over heels for when you first unwrapped it and plugged/slid it in to play.  If you don’t get that same feeling from any of these new games out, then why bother?  Why bother playing them when you can get a better feeling by playing the oldies?

Here’s to hoping the hardmodes give us something to chew on and Icecrown lives up to the standards put forth by climactic raid zones of the past.

If the Colosseum wasn’t laughable in and of itself, they’re recycling and bastardizing more classic content.  Onyxia is on deck, complete with a refurbished Vis’kag the Bloodletter, Deathbringer, and Quel’serrar.  I’m as sentimental as the next guy, but the recycled content in this expansion has grown tiresome.

One nice thing about the casual state of the game is that it takes little to no time to get toons “raid ready”.  My rogue has been 80 for exactly 2 weeks and it’s more or less ready for hardmode Ulduar, minus a couple pieces of gear which I expect to have during this week’s raid lockout.  All achieved by running 5-man dungeons, pug raid content, 10-mans, and daily quests.  Huzzah…

Not a chance.

I’m playing DotA with Kurkis and the other WoW guys.  I’m playing TF2 with Smashylarry and Ziros and Odd and other choice WoW vets.  I’m debating checking out the HoN beta (a DotA clone).  I’m leveling a fucking Rogue alt in WoW.  I am doing some light reading (which makes me feel mildly productive) - Philip K. Dick novels and some other classic Sci-Fi.  I’ve got a copy of "Choke" sitting on my desk that I haven’t watched, next to the copy of "The Wrestler" that I want to watch again.  In short: It’s 100 degrees and cloudless outside and I’d never know it if I didn’t look at the window.

And what is it about competitive PvP gaming that brings out the worst in people?  I’ve been playing DotA for three days and if the learning curve in that game wasn’t steep enough with the 50+ heroes to select from and the staggering itemization choices, you’ve got some 12-year-old korean on the other team telling you how good your mother was last night while he farms your toon.  The icing on the cake is when tells you to just quit and uninstall.  Not even Kurkis’ magic dust can save our DotA team…

@Tippo.  Come game it up with us.

@Ashy.  Let’s play some TF2

Back with more in a few days.

This wasn’t just an end-zone boss kill - it was end-zone boss kill when all the chips were down.  After a staggering amount of turnover and roster change from the start of Ulduar, we put ourselves back in the US top-30, after being Top-100 only weeks ago.  In that time, we’ve been spit on, poached, laughed at, and abandoned.  We’ve been told we were washed up.  We’ve had people log into our vent calling us “Has Beens, Woulda Beens, Shoulda Beens”.  People doubted us, called our successes a fluke, didn’t think we could hold a top standing.  So here it is…

And for the record - the actuall kill was closer to US 21st or 22nd.  With the way scoring works on WoW Progress, we got bumped 7 or 8 slots back in ranking by guilds that got the kill hours after us.  It is what it is.

We’ve got Alone in the Darkness to keep us occupied, and hopefully some more PTR work to get our feet wet with 3.2.

/Salute to the team and to Kurkis (The Magic Man) in particular.  I’m pretty sure he made this win possible for the guild.

I need to write more, hopefully now that the stress is off I’ll have more time to play here.  See you guys in a few days…

Sorry for the fruity looking achievments, I SSed that off the WoW armory.

And the kill shot, with our smiling e-mugs:

Credits go to:  Just, Hexagram, Rollins, Talifey, Arriellwine, Triess, Phoa, Preachers, Rapida, and Asper (lol-app).

To the folks that have jumped ship on us recently without word or warning:  May Drow’s hard work and commitment to making our players better, faster, and stronger pay-off for you.

Logged back in, started loading back into Dalaran, machine locked up.  3rd times a charm…

Lucky number three, yet another lock-up loading into Dalaran.  Fuck this.  My PC doesn’t deserve this shit.

Made a level 1 alt, loaded in just fine.  Ran around and did a quest to make sure I wasn’t imagining things, hit level 2, no lock-ups, no CTDs.  I don’t know why this would fix anything but at this point I’m willing to suspend my disbelief…

Tried loading back into Dalaran after my level 1 expedition, was able to load in this time.  Ran straight to the JC trainer to take some notes on the profession changes.  Found the vendor, started sifting through recipes, looking at the new epic cuts, noting gem costs.  Forty-five seconds of productivity on the PTR, and then a CTD.  “Fuck it”

Loaded in one more time and started snapping off screenshots to circumvent the innevitable CTD.  Got what I needed and logged off.

Here’s the documentation:

Cost of new recipes: 5 Jeweler’s Tokens

New epic gems are on par with current Stormjewel values:

Epic gems cost 10-20 badges:

Stormjewels are getting nerfed:

JC profession gems getting buffed:

Otherwise this week has been slow.   4th of July is one of the hollidays I dread the most - it definitely rivals Christmas in terms of team absences.  Not really sure why, but it does.  People love to burn chicken on the grill and blow shit up.  We didn’t get much done in the way of progression raiding, but we have tonight and tomorrow to catch up on hardmodes, and of course our hour on Algalon.

It’s possible our 10s comp will see an Algalon kill this week, however.  Stay tuned for that.

As promised, the fruitcake.  Recipe courtesy of Adap0 (extra nut):

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