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!