Yes, they heard you

Mike Morhaime stopped by the official forums to beat a retreat from their announcement Tuesday regarding using RealID on the WoW forums.  Instead of real names we'll instead continue posting with your character name, but also with a unique "character code".  Meaning of course, that people will still be able to link "trolls" to "mains" unless you don't post on your main in the first place.

While I'm happy Blizzard saw the error of their ways I'm not sure Blizzard will ever regain the level of trust they had with me up to this point.  I've never previously felt that Blizzard was "committing evil" but now that I thoughts have drifted to that extreme I'm not sure they could ever drift back where they were.  And I doubt I'm the only one left feeling this way either and that bespeaks darker days ahead for a company that heretofore has had a storied history.

RealID - Do you hear them now Blizzard?

Now isn't this interesting?  Of course the blogger is correct, as all he did was use Google, Facebook, and used (it appears) a few publicly available internet databases.  That he searched for information on people who's names we already know is irrelevant to his point that others will do exactly what he did for the people in game they've had issue with at some point.  If you think this doesn't happen then you need to climb back in that hole you've been living in for the past decade.  I have a Facebook page but I have the privacy policies set tightly so that my information is only shared with a small number of friends.  But you know, that was my choice.  And choice is what Blizzard seems to not be getting here.

Except they do get it.  They've said as much.

We have been planning this change for a very long time. During this time, we have thought ahead about the scope and impact of this change and predicted that many people would no longer wish to post in the forums after this change goes live. We are fine with that, because we want to change these forums dramatically in a positive and more constructive direction.

It’s been very obvious over the last few years that the forums are an exceptionally valuable source of information both for players and for us to gather feedback. There are many threads on this forum now, and over the last few years, that people have been constructively discussing many aspects of the game. They’ve received new wisdom and have then been able to go back to the game and enjoy it further with the new knowledge acquired through the forums.
These threads, however, can often be lost amongst a great deal of other threads that are basically filled with trolling, name calling, flaming, off-topic conversations and that’s just a small amount of some of the content that has been found in these forums over the years. We don’t want that anymore, and we believe the Real ID change will bring about a lot of the improvement that we are hoping for.
There’s a lot of scare-mongering going on about the change, but there seems a need to make something very clear. The forums have always been an optional extra — something you can choose to participate in if you wish to. With our Real ID changes for the forums, this is still the case. The only difference will be, if you do choose to participate in the forums, then you will do so by using your real name. But only after you’ve been warned and accepted this in advance.

And

A lot of legitimate and understandable concerns are being raised. It would be hard for myself or any caring individual to not empathise with the fears and concerns people have. But amidst these concerns there is also a bit of something going on that I can’t easily describe with other words, but I’ll try.

Posting on the forums with your real name will be optional — yes, in the sense that the options are simply post and show your real name, or do not post and you keep it confidential. If people are happy to post and do not feel intimidated by this, then great — hopefully they will also post constructively (though it’s fair to say, this isn’t a given). It might be scary to consider posting with your real name, in which case it might be advisable simply not to post in these forums. There’s a whole load of other forums across the internet where you’ll be able to post in a more anonymous way, and maybe you will make a useful and constructive contribution there instead.

If you really do read all posts in this thread and others, like we are doing, then you will see some examples of what I was meaning by “scare-mongering”. There are posts from some people who are either confused by the changes or generally uncertain, and they are getting understandably scared and then posting in a way that scares other people in the process. With such a change as we have outlined, it is completely understandable that people can and do feel this way. Describing the process of scaring others and raising the level of general fear as “scare-mongering” does not in any way diminish people’s validity in doing so, nor does it dismiss the usefulness of anyone expressing themselves in any way, including in a way I might describe as “scare-mongering”; the term simply describes it for what it appears to be.

You see? Anyone with trepidation or outrage over this upcoming policy change is simply fear mongering. While many are indeed completely naive about the information available about them, they are protected by obscurity. In the IT field that's called security by obscurity, which of course is no real security at all. But it works in that no one know to look for you specifically. Run your mouth on the forum, or piss someone off in game -- hey that bastard keeps undercutting my auctions (just go read Gevlon's blog for the hate mail he gets regularly) -- and you might just find out how far some people are willing to take things. They only have your name right? Ever hear of social engineering? Look it up some time. Google is as much your friend as it will be for that special someone looking for you too.

Using social engineering skills to locate you physically is the extreme (I hope). But don't think for a moment that it's the only possible action that can transpire out of all of this. Imagine all of those embarrassing bits of information out there that you'd rather keep separate from your gaming persona. Instead they'll be be posted and brought to the attention of those folks you raid with three times a week. And don't think that THE GUILDS won't be using Google as a further tool to see if you are GUILD material. Hey, the sky's the limits baby.

For a major company Blizzard and Activision sure seems to have completely missed the boat on this one.  And on the heels of very public melt-downs by Facebook over nearly the same issues.  When Blizzard would have desired the coverage about RealID to be positive it's instead virtually unanimously negative.  That sort of thing goes viral very quickly and will only leave a lasting, nasty, black-eye on a company that here-to-fore had a very good reputation.  Of course we know what and who is driving this (cough Bobby Kotick) but it's Blizzard that's going to pay the price.

Blizzard eats even more of that bowl

Could this possibly be correct?  I can't vouch for this obviously, but if true shows exactly what many people have said would be happening.  Blizzard apparently recognizes that their employees lives would or could be subjected to harassment but it's also apparently fine to allow that for the gamers who lavish the company with billions of dollars each year.

Irony, it seems, is not without a sense of humor.  BTW, Scott Jennings had even more to say.

Possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen Blizzard do

No, I do not like the current implementation of RealID.  But instead of taking those privacy concerns I and many others have stated repeatedly, they decided to eat a heaping bowl-full of dumbass.  Coming to the WoW forums near you -- Posting that identifies you by name only!

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature - 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. 

And:

One important point which I don't believe has been relayed yet is that the switch to showing RealID on the forums will only happen with the new forum systems we're launching for StarCraft II shortly before its release, and a new forum system for World of Warcraft launching shortly before the release of Cataclysm.

All posts here on the current World of Warcraft forums, or any of our classic Battle.net forums, will remain as-is. They won't (and can't) automatically switch to showing a real first and last name.

All posts in the future on the new forum systems will be an opt-in choice and ample warning will be given that you're posting with your real first and last name.  

I absolutely will not use RealID as it is currently instantiated.  So I guess that now means I also will not longer be able to post in the WoW forum once that goes live.  Scott Jennings pulls few punches about it himself.

I have a feeling I'm not much longer for healing

I've made various comments in-game in the past that I was anxious about the changes to healing and mana regeneration.  Continued comments like this do not make me any easier.  Healers already have a difficult position and don't even get to participate in the same raid as everyone else.  For a healer their raid is is always the raid frame they are assiduously glued to, while everyone else is staring at the content and the creatures running around through it.  It was the same in Vanilla and BC too, except in Vanilla and to a lesser extent, in BC as well they also had to worry about mana and would often go OOM.  Blizzard wants to bring those days back apparently.

Prior to LK, healers could run out of mana, and for the most part it worked. They didn't just use their efficient heals, because sometimes their group would die if they did. They didn't just use their big heals though, because they'd run out of mana (and then the group would die).

I think of healing like a cross-continental road race. If you go too slow, you'll lose the race, but if you just floor it the whole itme, you'll run out of fuel a lot and waste time stopping to fill it up again. There is a happy medium somewhere in between. However the encounter specifics push you out of that medium, sometimes asking you to choose big numbers over efficiency and sometimes vice-versa.

I know it sounds like we are picking on healers all the time, but once you can run out of mana again, I think everything will just feel better, your choices about what spell to cast next become more compelling, and the healing game overall will be more engaging. 

 When I healed in BC I hated the fact that my HOTs were so underutilized, as they were often quickly over-written by faster direct heals.  I wasted my mana but then the Priests who were busy COH healing would always ask (demand) my Innervate on top of it all.  The situation was only fixed when I would be asked to tank heal where I'd keep HOTs ticking on the tank but would be using Healing Touch most of the time.  In WotLK the situation was much relieved.  While my HOTs are still often over-written the "wasted" mana is much less of a concern to me as I have sufficient mana regen to ignore the situation.  Regardless I still do considerable healing because I can keep Rejuv and Wildgrowth flowing throughout the raid.  In Cataclysm it doesn't sound like I'm going to be able to do that.

I can certainly understand the underlying rationale for wanting to change the dynamic, however I think Blizzard has some gaps to bridge in their rationale and our experience.  First, how does any of this change the current healing dynamic where I see virtually nothing but raid frames?  I'm able to survive because of raid warnings that tell me to get out of goo and my eyes are constantly moving but that is not much fun at all.  I'm not watching the encounter, I'm watching my feet and my raid frames.  And it's very much more stressful than either a DPS or Tanking role -- I've done all three.

If there is going to be ample time in combat for these types of decisions to be made, then would this not also necessarily mean that fights are going to be much longer and become more tedious?  Doesn't sound much fun to me either.  Ask yourself the same questions about PVP and the question just becomes more murky.

All of my questions harken back to what I've said about Blizzard in the past -- that I'm not greatly heartened by the decision making process I've seen Blizzard use over the years.  They've implemented too many things to change them too much later on.  They've introduced, pulled back, reintroduced and made everyone's head spin in the process.  As it is we are to expect almost completely changed game play every 18-24 months and changes that also make such vital roles as healing much more difficult are not welcome in my opinion.

Moonkin PVP movie

I watch videos all the time, but don't often link to them.  Moonfury is just one such of those that I feel compelled to do so though.  Not only does he appear to be a very good PVP'er, and for a Moonkin that is saying quite a lot, but he's also an artful and masterful video editor.  The video is as striking as it is beautiful and his music selection is very complimentary.  Ivan's made one of those videos that you tend to remember, and when we are swimming in a sea of videos that is also saying quite a lot.

Eclipse update from Cataclysm Beta

There's a very interesting thread that was recently highlighted over at MMO-Champion concerning how the new Eclipse mechanism works.  First, understand what the Eclipse problem (and especially) is, then you can look at Blizzard's solution and begin to make some informed opinions about it.  I don't have exact figures but I wouldn't be jesting by any means if I were to say my DPS is boosted by 1500-2000 DPS by Lunar Eclipse.  It's a huge percentage of my overall damage figures, so any movement or wasted portion of Lunar Eclipse severely gimps me.  Making the matter worse is that my Eclipse effects are already largely at the mercy of  RNG.  Despite that I've come to like the randomness of Eclipse.  Ignoring the mana efficiency issue that was a hallmark for Balance in BC, the strict spell rotation made it somewhat boring to play.  While I know what my immediate opening is in any fight in WotLK, a quick Lunar Eclipse immediately changes things up for me.  The randomness brings just the right hint of reactionism to the mix.  Yet with that does come the perplexing problem of how to retain the oomph of the Eclipse while forcing movement at the same time.

Blizzard indicated they understood the problem and had a plan to fix it.  But after reading how that plan is currently implemented I'm not certain they have.  In fact I think they've taken a bit of a step back toward BC.  Currently each spell gives a certain amount of Eclipse power and will move a scale from the Lunar to Solar end and vice versa.  I don't like the fact that our casting rotation seems to be becoming formulaic again.  And the 15 second Eclipse window also doesn't seem to solve the problem of movement.  It's still a massive considering no other caster class receives such a big portion of their DPS from a proc mechanic.  Instead of the 15 second window I think I'd rather like to see a "pool" of Eclipse power become active, from which either Starfire or Wrath will pull from.  Each cast would draw a "random" percentage with a specified range of the power, and after the power is depleted you'd begin to work up to the opposite side of the Eclipse scale.  Having a pool available would retain the Eclipse effect, despite movement, until a range of casts had been made.  And just to ensure an advantage wasn't retained over others, you could clear the effect upon end of combat.

Unfortunately Blizzard doesn't seem to be thinking along this line at all:

Here are a few clarifications on Eclipse and Balance intent is general. As you probably guessed, part of what you're seeing is a work in progress.

On Eclipse -- Currently Eclipse has a 30 sec cooldown on its proc, so it may be beneficial sometimes to say proc Lunar, go almost halfway to Solar but then just go back and proc Lunar again depending on the situation. In an upcoming build you cannot proc Lunar unless you proc Solar, and visa versa.

Eclipse’s “predictability” -- A new talent is being added that if taken will make lunar/solar energy gain a little more random, so as to make Eclipse less predictable. 

You can currently re-proc a specific Eclipse effect but they intend to fix that; a fix that will force you to proc the other Eclipse effect before being able to re-proc the Eclipse effect that just did.  And they intend to introduce some measure of "randomness" to the equation again by making the amount of power you receive from each cast somewhat random.  But that's only window dressing.  Instead of 5 Starfalls, 10 Wraths, 10 Starfalls, etc, it'll be something like 4-7 Starfalls, 8-14 Wraths, etc.

Graylo over at Gray Matter has even more to say on the matter.

Troll and Worgan Druid forms

I wondered when we'd see these.  Started seeing them discussed on the forum yesterday but Blizzard was all over those threads, deleting any links to them for some reason.  No, these are not the final forms (we believe), but I still get annoyed when Blizzard acts like a total tool.  People will talk about what they want to talk about Blizzard.

Thanks to Big Bear Butt I was able to see these.  And all I can say is uggh.  The Worgan models aren't too bad, but the Troll versions are simply horrible.

Cataclysm alpha is ended and the closed Beta has begun

That Alpha really didn't last very long but Blizzard announced yesterday that the closed Beta has officially begun.  And unlike in previous years, they immediately dropped the NDA.  Which means we'll begin to get a flood of information and it won't be taken down at the insistence of Blizzard lawyers -- Cough MMO-Champion.  According to various reports beta invites have begun to trickle out.  I doubt I'll get one, but I'm honestly not all that excited about getting one this go around in the first place.  It's enough for me to be able to read about the changes and report on what I feel needs to be discussed.  Other than that I'm only concerned about the release date, which still hasn't officially been released, but which I'm anticipating to be in November or December.

Switching gears

It was a very difficult weekend.  After a long talk with one of the officers and after talking to the GM on Monday I decided to leave my Paladin in the guild, but step back from raiding on him and instead focus on my Druid.  I had already made plans to refocus on my Druid and make him my main again in Cataclysm, but I've accelerated that plan now.  I've been looking at various guilds but decided to take my friend up on his offer from a few weeks ago.  After I joined my new guild I had a bit of a long talk with my friend about what took me so long.  He hadn't been in the previous guild all that often whereas I'd been in it for a year and a half, so he perhaps didn't have the personal connections to the guild and the people in it like I did.  But the conversation also focused on the difference in motivation.  A lot of people are singularly focused on raiding, and those folks are the ones I consider to be truly elitist.  In other words, motivations like friend ship and the pleasure of just doing things with folks you hang out with aren't the driving factors for them.  They want progression above everything else and when that is stymied they will typically hop to another guild that can provide it for them.  For them all other motivations are either non-existent or so far removed from the top of the priority list that they might as well be.

While I want progression as well, it isn't the sole motivating force for me.  I enjoy running through older content and completing achievements as much as I do killing a progression boss.  In fact I'm just as happy running through a series of 5-man dungeons with friends as I am raiding.  That's what kept me in my old guild so long and why it was a very hard decision for me to "move on".