Cheater cheater pumpkin eater!

Image by Random Factor via Flickr

You are special. In fact, everyone is special. You are a unique and special little snowflake and there's no one in the world like you.

How many times have we heard this or something just like this? Mother's special little guy. Daddy's special little girl. The teachers special class of special children. And yet, if we are all special, then none of us are special.

But, if people hear they are special long enough and often enough, they begin to believe it. Once they believe it, then all bets are off, folks. You can forget about them waiting patiently in line at the bank or paying attention to road signs. They are special. Those rules are for everyone else. Definitely not them.

The rules of our games are no different. Hacks, cheat codes, exploits and bugs are all fair game. Recently, on my podcast, Inside Azeroth, I blasted people who were cheating in Wintergrasp. The response I got left me fairly amazed. emails and comments from people telling me I had it all wrong. That a tactics change was needed to combat cheaters, not a ban from the game. As if cheating were a legitimate tactic!!!

If a poker player has an ace up his sleeve, this is wrong. Yet, if someone uses an exploit in a game, to gain an unfair and unintended advantage, the gaming community not only discusses it's legitimacy as a tactic, but actually defends the cheater and protests when they receive a ban. Is this who we have become? Are we so morally and ethically bankrupt that we can no longer see simple right and wrong?

For me, the situation is black and white. Cheating is wrong...period. I cannot for the life of me fathom defending a cheater. but there are those that do. Are these simply the cheaters themselves, justifying their actions with flimsy and morally ambiguous arguments? Or, are these people who have lost their way? Or, am I just too uptight as some would claim?

Is it uptight to expect people to have some sort of moral compass? To have some sort of sense of fair play? To have some sort of moral and ethical character?

If so, I weep for the world.

I've got a headache

Image by Queen Roly via Flickr

There's a brick wall in front of you. It's a wall you have built. You keep banging your head against that wall. You have a headache. And you're complaining about it. Do you stop banging your head against the wall?

The other day I got into a heated discussion with a friend who's opinion I respect. He was facing off against a class that had his number in the battlegrounds and it was driving him crazy. So much so that the constant stream of complaints about how the class should be nerfed really got under my skin.

Checking his talent spec against the most popular specs on WoW Popular,his spec was very different than those used by others of his class. He explained that his spec best suited his playstyle and it was wrong for Blizzard to force him to spec differently to be successful. And this is someone who I respect.

Often times Ive heard players cry out for a nerf of this class or that class to find that they are sitting in quest greens and going up against players who are in full tier ear or gladiator gear.Others show up for raids without a single flask, no enchants or gems and then complain that they aren't high enough on the DPS meter because Blizzard hates their class or other classes are overpowered.

The other complaint is class specific. I am also involved in an email debate over the proposed nerf of another class. The nerf would take one of it long cool down abilities and make it use on others only. this change is proposed specifically because of its use in PvP. Yet, this ability is a spell which can be interrupted. Still, the cesspool that is the official WoW forums are screaming "Overpowered!" and it looks like Blizzard may be listening to the din, instead of reason.

The questions come flying into my mind. When are players going to take responsibility for their own failures? Why is it so hard for them to accept that the mistake just might be theirs?

Recently, I finished leveling a death knight to 80. He is intended to be my PvP only character. When I hit 80, I entered Wintergrasp in quest greens and blues. As I had expected, I did well as ling as I was in a siege engine or a gun turrent, but let me go head to head against someone, I would get spanked fairly quickly. I could damage them, hurt them, make them sweat a little, but defeat them? No. Is it because I suck? Is it because the death knight is underpowered? Or was it the fact that I had crappy gear with no enchants or gems? I think the latter. And as I gain honor points Ive been purchasing last seasons gladiator gear. I have three pieces now and now when I face other players the fights are about 60-40. I lose 60% of the time. But as I replace more gear that will change more and more into my favor. I started off fodder but will end up on equal footing with others.

I also choose my targets carefully. I don't go after the Warrior with 35,000 health. I death grip the priest with 20,000 health. I choose targets that have my faction mates already beating on them. Head to head, is stupid until I'm geared properly, so I try to play smart.If I lose a fight now, either the person I was fighting had help, had better gear or was just a better player than me! It happens after all. No matter how good a player thinks they are, there is always someone better.

Yet, players continue to complain because they can't kill everyone. They continue to find excuses for their own shortcomings and they continue to call foul when another player bests them.

So if you're banging your head against your self imposed wall, at what point is the headache your own fault?

Our right to Health Care

Image by jmtimages via Flickr

Normally, I just talk about gaming, World of Warcraft to be exact. But today I feel the need to discuss something that's got me quite disturbed. I am going to reveal a few biases here so try to look past those and find the message buried deep in my ranting.

There's alot of talk about "Obama's Health Care plan" and that talk just ain't good folks. You see, we Americans we have this weird, weird sense of pride when it comes to our backwardness. We are the only first world country in the world without socialized medicine and we somehow take pride in that. But the truth is going to shock you, my fellow Americans. Oh yes it will.

You see, we like to make fun of France with their 35 hour work week ( which translates into 22 more days off each year ) and eight weeks of vacation, yes eight weeks, because we pride ourselves on the American work ethic. It's that hard work that put us on top of the world after all. But where does that work get us? We die younger than the French, and we have a lower quality of life. After all, we work nearly three months out of the year more than they do. Imagine that, folks. Imagine having three months a year to do whatever you wanted, instead of reporting to work. Instead of running the race, relaxing at home or the beach. In our part of the world, having three jobs to make ends meet is looked at with pride by our former President. But I ask you, should it be? Instead of American spirit in that, I see tragedy.

Our parents and grandparents worked hard to give us all a better life. It's the American way, isn't it? They worked to put us in college, to be sure we got good paying jobs, to be sure our lives we're just a little if not significantly better than theirs. So I ask you, is your life really better?

When I was a younger man, my grandfather got sick. My grandmother had never driven a car, so I stayed in their spare room and drove them places when they needed it. I mowed their lawn, I did the work around their home that they were unable to do. It was a great arrangement for me actually, because it wasn't until that time period, my early twenties, that I got a real sense of family and a sense of what the past had been.

They're both gone now, my grandmother passed just this last year. When going through some of her old papers, we found the original deed of sale for their house. They paid just $18,000 dollars for their home. I stared stunned at the price. Cars are more expensive now. Of course forty years had come and gone since they bought that house but I realized I was living in a house with almost the exact same square footage as their. I had the same number of bedrooms, I was in the same spot as they were. But, my mortgage was nearly twice the percentage of my monthly income as their. And my wife worked outside the home, unlike my grandmother who worked in the home. Like myself, they had a nice television, but the airwaves were free. No cable bill for them. there was no internet to pay for and the cost of food was a considerably lower percentage of their income as well. Today, my wife and I can't even consider her staying home to take care of our house and kids. We absolutely need her income.


Years ago, my grandfather and I had a discussion about ratios. I had paid way too much for a shirt, because of my own vanity. He scolded me for it. But I asked him, "how much did a nice shirt cost in your day?"
"Oh, about 5 dollars," He replied.
"And how much did you bring home a week?" I asked.
"Thirteen dollars a week," He said.
"Well, I bring home $150 a week and the shirt cost me fifty," I explained," So really, if you think about ratios, I paid less for this shirt than you paid for yours back then."

He smiled at me and accepted my logic. But, that logic falls apart just 20 years later, in a world with internet, IPhones and Wi-Fi access. It falls apart when the ratios become skewed out of the favor of the consumer. The percentage of my income spent on keeping up with the Jones has nearly tripled. The American debt has gone through the roof and our good jobs that our parents and grandparents worked so hard to be sure we were ready for are being outsourced overseas.

Now, we can talk about our American pride all we want but the truth is shocking. The whole "We are #1" mentality is an illusion. No, it's a lie. America is no longer #1 in anything. The truth is we are not number one in health care. We aren't even in the top five. Those spots in 2007 were held by: Japan, France, Iceland, Sweden and Cuba. Can you guess what all of those countries have in common? That's right, socialized medicine.

The word socialized scares many American's. We tend to think of Communism when we think of socialization. And Communism has been our enemy for so long that it's hard to get beyond it. And rightly so, Communism is as Totalitarian as Fascism. America was founded on the principles of freedom after all and Socialism is a restriction of those freedoms in the eyes of a great many.

But I ask you, if we as people of America have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, then what exactly does that mean? Let's face facts, The Pursuit of Happiness is a rather grey area. It means many things to many people. Liberty is easy. It means freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom from wrongful imprisonment, freedom! But the first thing our Founding Fathers listed was Life. Life! We have the right to live. Under our current system, in 2007, nearly 46 million Americans under the age of 65 were without health care coverage. Only 62% of American workers were covered. That's almost four out of ten working Americans without access to affordable health care in a country that claims to be the best place on Earth to live. Four out of ten working American did not have access to the Life that our Founding Fathers saw as the most important human right.

Today, President Obama and his Democrat cohorts are presenting the American public with a health care system that is flawed certainly, but aims to cover more Americans than ever before. The opposition is of course the Health care industry which desperately needs for the American system to go unchanged. The health care industry spends one million dollars a day on lobbyists and political contributions. Why? What could warrant that? 2.5 trillion dollars are spent each year on health care. The health care system is addicted to American money.

2,974 people died in the September 11th attacks. It is considered the worst American tragedy of all time. Yet, According to the Institute of Medicine, "lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States." That's three 9/11's every single year. And there's a debate over this? The next time someone argues against a national health care system, ask them instead if they could prevent 9/11, would they? Ask them if they could prevent three 9/11's a year, would they? How could anyone say no to that?

If our first inalienable right is our right to Life, then how can it be denied through a lack of health insurance? How can a country based on freedom imprison it's people in a financial cage that can only end their life? If America is ever going to be the best place on Earth to live then shouldn't we as Americans be alive to enjoy it? Isn't it time that our lives were better than our parents and grandparents? Isn't it time to fulfill the America Dream?




Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/27/60II/main704571.shtml
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2005/090205threejobs.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8191.htm
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4025
http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/weekinreview/14abelson.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Healthcare-Profits-vs-Pe-by-John-Basel-090716-385.html
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/checkup/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

Are they or aren't they? Two views of the same interview.

Image via Wikipedia

I would like to point you all to two write ups of the same interview

First, here's the link to the Rob Pardo interview in question:

Original Interview

Now here's the write up from WorldofWar.net:

Rob Pardo Interview Hints Blizzard Games Heading to Consoles

and now another write up on the exact same interview from WoW.com:

Pardo says Blizzard still not interested in bringing WoW to consoles

Do you see the problem here?

Often times, we see players posting on here that blizzard promised this or Blizzard promised that, but if we are honest about it, we get most of our information from WoW news sites like these. And if two different people can get two so amazingly different ideas from the same interview, then maybe, just maybe, those promises from Blizzard were pie in the sky random thoughts from untrained bloggers pretending to be journalists.

And to Blizzard:

I really think you need to step in here and have a word with WoW.com. When WoW.com ( which is a darn good site for the most part ) starts posting in their headlines that Rob Pardo said something, then he should have actually said it! Misrepresenting him in such a way, in this particular case, will probably bother no one but it sets precedent and gives them the idea they can attribute quotes or paraphrased statements to Blizzard employees that were simply never said. The majority of those who scan the news, do just that, they scan it. Meaning they see the headlines and move on, especially if it doesn't effect their class in the here and now. they then tell their in-game friends what they saw and three months down the road when Blizzard makes a change, they start screaming on these forums that Blizzard said this or blizzard promised that. This leads to customer dissatisfaction and to the eventual cancellation of accounts and bad word of mouth down the road for future games.

Allowing inaccuracy in the press leads to bad press and that's just bad business.

Apples to Oranges

Image via Wikipedia

A few weeks ago, I blasted WoW.com for comparing Free Realms account totals to World of Warcraft's subscription totals. Today on twitter I see people comparing facebooks farmtown totals to WoW. What is it with people? how can they possibly think this is even remotely the same thing? Is it some innate need to tear down success that fuels these comparisons? or just a complete lack of understanding of where these numbers come from?

Farmtown is a minigame provided free to users of facebook. You buy seeds and plant a crop, then wait a few days and harvest. You take your harvest to town, buy more seeds, plant again and...well, you get the idea.

Farmtown is one of those things that your friends try and spam gifts to you getting you to take a look. Like Free realms, by simply trying the game, you are counted as "playing" the game, even if you NEVER play it again. So, today when someone twittered that it had as many players as World of Warcraft, I stood appalled that someone could even compare the two.

These free games never give an accurate count as to the activity of their player base. They simply count all those who have signed up from day one until now. WoW, on the other hand, like all subscription based MMO's, counts only those accounts that are still active. And to have a 12.5 million active and paying customer base wins hands down in my book.

Someday, I hope Blizzard will release the numbers on how many accounts were created over the years, playing or not. I suspect it's more than twice their active subscriptions, and would silence the naysayers once and for all.

The next big game

Throughout, my time in MMO's I have watch game developers create great games with such promise and then fall short when it comes time for release. They often fail to realize that an MMO is not like other games. Only a handful of developers truly understand the genre, and fewer still are creating new and innovative game mechanics. Most are simply experimenting with the business models believing that it is the subscription that keeps people from exploring the genre. Considering that tens of millions of players are paying subscriptions today for the various games out there, then maybe the issue isn't convincing people to pay a subscription for a game, but creating a game that player will pay a subscription to play. I have seen many aspect of this genre over the years. Many of the games released made promises that the technology of the time simply could not keep. By combining some of those promises into a single game, Blizzard has turned World of Warcraft into a cash cow that will fund their various projects for years to come. But, as well as Blizzard has done, there are still promises that have not been fulfilled. And the MMO community is waiting and primed for the next firestorm game to take them and challenge them all over again, just as it was when WoW was released. The "next big thing" will be a game that delivers on those promises. And it will make the success of WoW seem quaint.

WoWMatrix Rules! Curse and WowInterface should die!

Curse.com and WowInterface.com can go fuck themselves! Yeah, you heard me. Their sites suck. Addons are a pain in the ass to find, especially with Curse autocompleting my search entries to give me returns for things I absolutley wasn't looking for. And the Curse Client is just plain bad as well. It doesnt update properly. I find myself being force to go to their webpage to find addons their client wouldnt update, even though the update is ON THEIR SITE!!!! Now that they've screwed us over my blocking WoWMatrix, they can go blow a goat! WoWInterface who blocked WoWmatrix as well and offers nothing in anyway for a replacement and is so far up Cryptics ass, they have a full page background link to Champions Online!!! So fuck them too. And their Client, MMOUI Minion? ( stupid name by the way ) I found the documentation for it, the FAQ and even screenshots! But guess what!?! Its in Beta and theres NO WHERE to download it! Even though they say the Beta is "public"

So if you ask yourself," Why does David support WoWMatrix? Because it WORKED! So much about our little world is buggy and broken, but WoWMatrix worked everytime. It did exactly what it claimed to do and I didnt need popup blockers and spyware sentries running full board to use it. I support things that work and work well.


I think it's time Blizzard woke up and stepped in. How about Blizzard goes after them now and opens its own addon site?After all, Why should Curse and WoWInterface be allowed to use their World of Warcraft related websites to sell advertising to Blizzards competition? Blizzard step up to the plate. Create an addon "armory" or an addon "store" for us to download our addons from. It doesnt have to be perfect, and a simple disclaimer that Blizzard doesnt tech support any of the addons would be needed, of course. But hey, its Blizzard's game, Blizzard hard work, Blizzard's IP and if Curse and WoWInetrface are gonna make money from blizzards competition and then complain and block the ONLY tool that works for ALL my addons, then they've made themselves fair game. How is it NOT ok to ask for donations to support an single addons website, but ok to sell advertising to your competitors while hosting multiple addons? Personally, after thinking about this hypocracy, I think either Blizzard has to tell Curse and WoWInterface to cease and desist or Carbonite should sue. Blizzard, you guys don't like other people making cash from your IP, its time to get serious about that and replace these sites with one of your own!