Oh, and by the way...

I'll be gone again this weekend. A sort of vacation time again.

I'll try to be online more than I was last time, but... we shall see.

(We'll try Deadmines again this weekend, though, okaaay, Mister Ed?)

Just thought I'd let you nice readers know...
...since I was yelled at for leaving without telling anyone last time.

Slashdot reports that the Sony UMD is on it's way out...

I dislike Sony, so I won't lie to you... I rather enjoy this happening. I've always said that I can't see why anyone would want to watch a feature film on your handheld... It always seemed like an extra "wow!!" feature that Sony tossed in to (try to) compete with the Nintendo DS. You have to watch out for features that companies say you can use, regardless of if they're features you will use. You can watch movies on your handheld, and that was a large arguement you heard when comparing PSP to DS. ("Well, it plays movies! So hah!") But it turns out that the majority apparently didn't turn that "can" into a "will".

The Slashdot comments actually taught me something!! Sony made the Betamax tapes. (Yeah, old news, I'm sure... but I just never really cared about who made them, because they failed a long time ago.) Apparently, they just made a ton of mistakes that VHS never had... and VHS was able to keep new features coming. Features that people will use. (Or... do use...) I just find it ironic that the second time Sony tried to attempt a "universal media", it died... horribly. (Could I hold out hope for Blu-Ray doing the same?... Hmm.)

Heh, a Universal Studios executive even told the newspaper that "sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb." Sony was buuurned. Apparently, Walmart has stopped selling the things entirely. (That whole quarter-rack full of all 10 movies, heh.) Anyway... here's a link to everything Google's turned up about it, for all you... one certain person... who likes a bunch of news sources.

Ubisoft?

Kill the developer of an MMO?

Who woulda thought it possible?

Oh wait... They did that to Cyanworlds, didn't they.

Guess I forgot!

(For those who don't know me... take this post with a dish of heavy sarcasm.)

But this time, I don't think Wolfpack Studios, like Cyan, is going to get funding from someone new...

So it's a free country, right? The citizens have a right to make themselves heard over anything they think needs... heard... or something. Today, while browsing forums, I've seen a few petitions...

The first few are for Oblivion. Some forum members' computers aren't quite up to the task of playing Oblivion at full speed, but they insist it's Bethesda's fault. Anyway, they've started "petitions" to make themselves heard. With titles like "Who wants a patch now? Sign!" or "Petition for patch to improve performance" and various ways of saying that. I always get a laugh out of that. Like, really... I laugh. Out loud. (As rare as that is.)

Do they honestly think that stirring everyone up to post in some stupid thread is going to make Bethesda work any faster? Do they honestly think that everyone at Bethesda is reclining in chairs purchased with the money from Oblivion sales and watching chaos ensue? I'll go as far to say that those who create such petitions are selfish little brats. They think they're being ripped off by a company they were so totally devoted to until they ran into problems. You can see how far their trust runs, can't you.

The World of Warcraft community is terribly spoiled. Today was a major patch day. Upgrading servers and clients to version 1.10.0 from 1.9.2. Everything was supposed to go according to plan. Realms back up at 11AM PST. Unfortunately, something went terribly wrong... the entire WoW community site is offline, as are the realms. (The forums are kinda up, but extremely slow... and, right now, the main site has just vanished.)

But I managed to catch a glimpse of the General Forums. Guess what I saw? A petition thread. "Server Downtime: Unacceptable - Petition". Well of course it's unacceptable, you morons! Blizzard knows that, too! The employees aren't sitting on their butts watching the servers topple around them! Their jobs are to keep things running smoothly or they'll get fired. So I'm quite certain they're working as danged fast as they can already, and no pathetic petition is going to make them go "oh... customers don't like dead servers after all?"

Even in times of perfect stability, people find something to whine about. I haven't seen it so bad before or since I subscribed to WoW. This fanbase takes the cake for haing the most angry players. Personally, I think these players need to put their money where their mouth is and leave like they threaten. I don't think with 6 million customers that Blizzard is going to miss you, and I can say for sure that those of us who realize that Blizzard is one heck of an awesome company aren't going to miss you, either.

Reminds me of patch 1.6, I believe it was. The Warlock Class got "revamped". Their spells were much more powerful after the patch. People, of course, were whining because Warlocks were weak before the patch... so Blizzard finally gets around to balancing the class and BAM, people are complaining because they had to retrain a few skills because a couple things were reset.

I was questing in a place called Stranglethorn Vale... just RIGHT after the realms came back up. Fresh 1.6. One of the first conversations that took place was about how a Warlock was demanding that Blizzard refund him the training fees of a spell he had to retrain. I think it amounted to 2 gold pieces. (You can pick up 2 gold in about 15 minutes if you're not messing around.) After everyone else in Stranglethorn Vale assured him that Blizzard would do no such thing, and that by now, he could have made the money himself... the Warlock announced that he submitted a Problem Ticket to the Game Masters, and if they refused to give him 2 gold, he would cancel his subscription. It was awesome to see the chat window fill with "bye!" from the real players. (Actually, it was more like "good riddence" and "good, one less whiner to worry about".)

Anyway, yeah... Stuff like that bugs me.

Blizzard sued by WoW guide author

Basically, this is how it goes:

1. Author collects techniques on how to make gold and level up quickly. He uses screenshots and other such things to provide visual aids. Author decides to sell it on eBay.
2. Blizzard sees the auctions... requests eBay to terminate auctions citing copyright infringements.
3. eBay terminates auctions, awaits Blizzard's further response.
4. eBay reinstates auctions, since Blizzard didn't follow up.
5. Blizzard finds out, once again requests to terminate auctions due to infringements.
6. Author's eBay account is frozen due to amount of warnings by Blizzard and other companies. (Vivendi and Entertainment Software Association)
7. Author creates new eBay account and continues to sell. (Major eBay no-no.)
8. eBay freezes second account.
9. Author claims his book is for "eductational purposes" and not commercial. Author decides to sue the Companies, seeking "monetary compensation to cover, among other things, profits lost from the halted sales; an injunction preventing the entities from interfering with Kopp's book sales; and a judgment that his book is protected by the First Amendment and doesn't interfere with intellectual-property rights."

The article quotes someone saying that if the Companies win, "then selling a how-to book about Microsoft Word would infringe Microsoft's copyright, especially if the book contained one or more screenshots of Word's user interface..."

I'm biased and I support Blizzard. But I will try to explain, in unbiased terms, why I think this guy really oughta stop actually selling this thing. For one... well... he's selling it. I think it would be okay to be non-profit, if he was selling it, but he's essentially making money off of World of Warcraft without their permission. I had thought that strategy guides had to ask for permission before they were sold. Is that not true?

I think both sides are a bit off base here... the "author" says it's for educational purposes, yet he's clearly making profits. A small profit, maybe, but a profit is a profit... and he's using someone elses work. I think his "educational" arguement is worthless... if it was for educating people and not as a means to make a small buck or two, then he'd just offer it to people for... well... nothing. But I think Blizzard is releasing their wrath on someone who really doesn't matter. (I think Blizzard is lawful with what they're doing... but being lawful doesn't always mean doing the best thing... if you know what I mean. But if Blizzard wants this stopped, then I think it should be.)

Strategy Guides are for educating people, yes... but you think that the companies who make them are only interested in that? Nah... it's a commercial endeavor. So I don't see a need to compare this guy with Strategy Guide companies. (Since they also ask for permission before selling.)

As for the fellow who says selling Word how-tos would be against the law... I'm still pretty sure that they would be if they didn't ask for permission. I think it's kind of a gray area here. The people who get away with doing it are technically breaking copyright, but sometimes companies just don't care. But I think if a company wants you to stop... then you should.

I dunno... that's just how I see it. Random guy making money using WoW, Blizzard says 'stop', guy says 'no', Blizzard tells eBay, eBay says 'stop', guy says 'no', eBay bans guy... guy sues Blizzard, citing, among other things the First Amendment. Like, er... how is writing a strategy guide freedom of speech or freedom of press? I think he's a bit confused and trying to grab onto whatever he thinks might give him a little edge. (Remember, kids, Freedom of Speech is knowing you can say whatever you want about whatever you want without the GOVERNMENT throwing you in prison. ...and with all freedoms comes responsibility. You shouldn't hide behind the First Amendment. Especially for something it doesn't even apply to.)

So yes... I was bored.
Waiting for WoW's servers to get back online.
Patch day! HOORAY!

Speaking of World of Warcraft... prepare yourself for a rant that'll have no impact on you if you've never played on a "Roleplaying / Player vs Player" (RPPVP) realm, heheh.

First, all Says, Yells, and Emotes are In-Character. Period. End of story. If you don't like that, then why the heck did you pick a Roleplaying server? It's a whole new ruleset, people. Learn to live with them. Don't expect to get around them unnoticed... Someone always notices when you break the "In-Character Rule".

Second, Whispers are only In-Character if your character is standing next to mine. I'm aware that Whispers are global capable, but whoever heard of someone Whispering at you when you're in the United States and they're in England? Common sense would be prudent here.

Third, Party chat is, once again, treated rather like Whispers. Though I tend to treat it like Say/Yell/Emote just to be safe... until that one moment where someone says they have to use the bathroom and they'll "brb" or when they announce that the phone's ringing and everyone needs to stop.

Which leads me to the fourth point... Talking Out of Character in In-Character communication channels is not forbidden. If there's an emergency, such as straightening out people who can't separate RP from real-life, please enclose your OOC speak in something like parenthesis. The most common and widespread method of doing this is saying something like: ((Whoops! I'll brb... I'm needed for a minute!))

Fifth, General global chat channels, including Trade, Local Defense, Looking for Group, Guild Recruitment and World Defence are all Out of Character. Period. The little infant roleplayers LOVE arguing about this without end. But literally only in the starting zones. Once you venture out into higher level zones, that argument disappears, because now you're surrounded with slightly more intelligent players who realize that there's no way people could yell across the forest without actually using the Yell command. I ain't joking... that arguement will stop dead and you'll never hear about again. (Unless you pass through the starting zone again.) So my point is... there's no point argueing. It's already technically been decided in the WoW RP realm policies, and those who stick around and actually level up a character on those realms eventually realize there's no use fighting.

Sixth, don't use Trade to gab about random crap. It's a global channel because it's SUPPOSED to be useful. People actually read the Trade channel to see if there's any loot to buy at decent prices. ...when you go mucking it up by screaming about how some player stole that super special item off the corpse without asking, not only does nobody care, but you're being extremely selfish by hogging the screen in 4 major cities with your spam. Don't do it. You'll get more of a bad reputation than the thief.

Which leads me to my seventh and final point. Learn these rules so you can separate Roleplaying from Real Life. You'll make Roleplayers upset that you're screwing up their play, and you'll get angry at something that, after all is said and done, had absolutely no impact on YOU as a player until you went and made a fool of yourself.

I was in Goldshire with my kickbutt Level 30 Druid. I'd just logged in and was leaving the Inn when I heard a serious battle happening outside. I peeked out the door and my fears were confirmed... some Warlock had, once again, for some reason I can never understand, released a very powerful demon on the village and all the little level 10 and 20 players were trying to kill it... and everyone who COULD actually kill it were standing by and laughing at their brave but ultimately futile attempts to protect their town.

After it was all said and done (some high level druids finally took up the defense and destroyed the demon), still amidst the laughter of some lame Level 60 Warrior from the not so cool guild called High Impact. Anyway, before this all happened, I pubically said, IC, with my character, something like: "I see that the warlocks are showing off their flawless control of demons again." (My elf is a Druid... Druids (should) be flat against demons and those who think they can control them... so my character is always dripping sarcasm and disdain when speaking to Warlocks.) I don't think the offending Warlocks heard me, though, since I didn't get a response... but after the Infernal (the name of the super demon) was destroyed, I actually used Yell so that the entire region could hear me and said something like: "You've gone and shown your perfect control over demons once again, stupid Warlocks... how arrogant." (Technically, from a character's standpoint, people died because a Warlock was playing.)

Anyway, this time the offending Warlock heard me, and starting using Yell, too, and he was actually Roleplaying... BUT! At the same time, I got like a tell from every other Warlock in the area, yelling at me that I just offended each and every Warlock in the zone, because they weren't involved with the attack. Now... Tells are also Whispers. So I seriously looked around me for all these names that just verbally assaulted me... and I couldn't find them. If someone whispers you from so far away that you can't even see them... it's OOC. I don't care what you think.

So I replyed on General, "To all the warlocks who just whispered me, learn to RP, kthanks." ...and a couple responded and apologized, saying they thought I was serious. I'm sorry? You thought I was speaking my real feelings about Warlocks and their players? That's........ well, that's dumb. I was using legitimate RP channels that should only be used for RP, and you thought I was talking OOC? Man, talk about a serious buzzkill. I was sooo upset that I just got flamed by a bunch of people who didn't know what Roleplaying was...

ON A ROLEPLAYING SERVER!!!

Moral of the story: lern2play

Widespread Outages for World of Warcraft

Hmm... interesting. As an avid player of WoW, I haven't noticed any such thing. As a matter of fact, I have never experienced crippling internet-related lag while playing any server, except for the occasional loot-lag. (Which I haven't had for a very, very long time.)

Right now, everything seems okay. All realms are up. No special notice on the log in screen... I wonder when this happened... (yes, I'm extremely skeptical... the forum link they provided no longer works)

Personally, I've always noticed how everyone is so darned critical of Blizzard and their server operation. Computers have problem, man... especially when under the distributed load of 6 million people!! They keep adding new servers to lessen the load... but there's only so much you can do so quickly.

Whenever I even start whining about lag like the omnipresent fanbase of complainers... I stop and remember Star Wars: Galaxies... the first MMO I paid for. Servers were always going down at random times, for random durations, with absolutely no warning. I have seriously only experienced one or two random reboots in World of Warcraft... sure, it's a bit inconvenient, and people might be in the middle of doing some gigantic instance, but, hey, guess what... you'll live.

I think people are spoiled by Blizzard, and when something outside their control happens, everyone explodes and starts thinking they know how to run things. They expect Server Maintenence on Tuesday mornings (does anyone else have a designated server downtime so people can plan around it?) but when servers crash like any computer eventually does under strain, it's suddenly the end of the world and people are ready to stop paying. Talk about fair-weather fans... good riddence to you, I say.

Anyway, if the above article is true, that would be very interesting indeed... It would seem that Blizzard isn't so totally "responsible" for problems after all. (Nah, who am I kidding, the forum kiddies will find some way to blame them about using AT&T in the first place.)