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The Million-Gnome March
This past Friday a sea of Gnomish fury swept over the chilly vale of Dun Morogh. The reason? Their character class isn't balanced. AFK Gamer has details on this outpouring of tiny fury, with liveblogging from the event itself and pictures of the naked gnome march from later in the weekend. Despite GM crackdowns and general apathy towards the Warrior cause, they appear to have gotten some sort of response from a developer (even though the response has nothing to do with the march). Terra Nova has picked up the topic and poses it as a question about the right to assemble in virtual spaces.
Unfortunately you give up all your rights, such as right to protest, when you click OK on that End User Licence Agreement :(
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
mention the game anymore? What game is this concerning? It's probably World of warcraft as that is what people seem obsessed with at the moment, but still this posting is too vague.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
You could have easily switched to a PvE server instead of playing on a PvP server. The information you posted is misleading since you can play without having to deal with the nuisance of opposing faction players. In PvE servers, no player can attack you unless you enable Player versus Player. You could be in the heart of the orc home lands as a human and not worry about being injured in a PvE server.
I couldn't think of anything witty to say, so...you're stuck with this.
I think the most interesting statement in the Terra Nova piece is "Look, there's a trend in human political systems that appears to be basically universal as of 2005: social stress eventually puts all policymaking and the monopoly of force in the hands of an elected and more or less representative body of rulers." I have some problems with this statement, but will leave them aside for now and just say that I love the contrast between this statement and the idea of individuals asserting what Terra Nova calls "citizenship" in the next paragraph and other people call "rights". We have to remember that some rights that we exercise in the real world in some countries are not rights of citizenship in synthetic worlds or other countries. Players on WoW were exercising particular rights ... which they don't necessarily have under the laws of that land (see the licensing agreement).
What is most interesting to me is that, when the few in power do have a monopoly on policymaking and use of force, and when demonstrative protest is against the rules, it still happens when discontent and indignation reach an inflection point.
Do something about world hunger. Click here
Hint: Throughout human history, protesters and congregations have been broken up many times.
Maybe that is what they are roleplaying... with Blizzard playing the role of Big Bad Oppressive Government.
But regardless, there is nothing un-MMORPG about it.
The unofficial
You've got to be kidding me. Paying a fee to play on privately owned servers implies no right to assemble (or any other 'rights' for that matter.) Statehood? Give me a break, it's a freakin' game! If you don't like the rules, you have an option - quit - vote with your pocketbook.
Guessing the answer to every one of these is no for 90%+ of these guys. But they DO feel it is important enough to go to a march on a microchip in a place that exists in only ones and zeroes.
If you're protesting the rules of the game (or the programming, in this case), you're not role-playing a protester, you're just protesting.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
I don't play MMORPGs, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt as I am only seeing this from an IT background.
I think that the "threats" that Blizzard was giving were MORE than fair. Yes, people are paying for a service that they might be banned from, but does the fact that you pay for access to a web site allow you to launch a DDoS attack on it? If I worked at Blizzard, I would view it as a malicious attack on our ability to provide a service that would impact the rest of our paying customers.
Honestly, wouldn't it just be easier to drop the service and try one of the other 15 MMORPGS that are out there right now? That is really the only way a company will truly be influenced.
Go ahead, flame away.
http://www.tomandemily.com
The admins had a point: This silly march was harming the gameplay experience for other players. Dun Morogh is a beginner region, so causing that area to have technical problems from server load will hurt people who are trying to play the game for the first time, perhaps leading to believe that the game sucks in general.
If you want to compare to the real-life right to assemble, then what the protesters were doing is more analogous to blocking traffic. If you block traffic in real life as part of a protest, you will be arrested. The right to assemble does not imply the right to make things difficult for other people with your assembly.
In any case, the whining about balance issues misses an important point: "Balance" does not mean that any two players of equal level will be evenly matched in a 1v1 duel. "Balance" means that each class has a niche to fill. For every class there is some situation where that class is better than all the others.
It seems silly to complain about warriors because warriors serve one of the most important roles in the game. Every group needs warriors to stand in front and take the damage ("tank") while the others do their things. It is, in fact, more important for a warrior to be able take damage than deal damage. The only other class that you could say this of is paladins, but even that is debatable.
And, anyway, who cares which class is most powerful? It's obviously more important to consider which class is most fun to play, and that completely depends on your own taste. If you don't enjoy playing a warrior, don't play a warrior.
their passions don't revolve around politics?
What if these people simply do not care about that? What if they're so sick of how badly broken it is, they'd rather concentrate on things that make them happy rather than trying to fix a system that will never be fixed while any of us are alive?
I'm not saying that participating in the system is wrong or pointless for everyone, the people who do will have a good impact on it, and the people who do not wish to, can live ignorantly happily within it. I'd rather use my supposed ~75+ years on this planet enjoying the ride, seeing as in all probability it's the only shot you get here.
All sorts of people are meant to do all sorts of things, some become soldiers, doctors, teachers, firefighters, drunks, murderers, rapists, drug addicts, bums, presidents and politicians, miners and athletes, and a list a mile long I can't finish here. We all have our purposes, some of us aren't mean to be a part of a system that epitomizes all the horrible things about human nature they would rather not be enveloped in.
So instead of forcing your system onto people who don't want it, be happy with what you are and the choices you make, because I don't see them forcing their system onto you either.
All your base are belong to Google.
It isn't roleplaying, to protest something the role you are supposed to be playing would have no knowldege of.
If it slows other people down in a game, or stops traffic at an important intersection so much the better.
;)
Whereas I support the concept of running people down who feel that their whiny crusade is more important than anything else and feel it is their right to stop traffic
Here is a hint, if you have to annoy other people to raise awareness for your cause then either your cause sucks or your communication skills suck. Either way you will not be recuriting fighters for the cause by pissing people off.
Finkployd
I join a salad club (one of many) so that I can enjoy salads that are available exclusively to salad club members. I can't enjoy these salads unless I am a salad club member.
Analogous referent: I sign up for Internet access (from one of many ISP's) so that I can play on-line games. I can't play on-line games without an Internet connection.
Out of many varieties of salad, I choose Rudy's Special #6. This is a potato salad. There were many different potato salads availabe, but I chose Rudy's Special #6.
Analogous referent: Out of many on-line games, I choose World of Warcraft. This is a MMORPG. There were many different MMORPG's available, but I chose World of Warcraft.
I discover that Rudy's Special #6 contains onions. I don't like onions. I suggest to Rudy (the maker of Rudy's Special #6) that he modify the ingredients of his salad so that it is more to my liking. Rudy isn't responsive.
Analogous referent: I discover that World of Warcraft contains gameplay issues that I dislike. I suggest to Blizzard (the makers of World of Warcraft) that they modify their game so that it is more to my liking. Blizzard isn't responsive.
What should I do? Should I:
1. Stop buying Rudy's Special #6, and buy a salad which doesn't contain onions?
2. Scream and pout that Rudy didn't make changes to Rudy's Special #6, but continue to order it?
3. Disrupt Rudy's business operations, so that even those who are happy with Rudy's Special #6 suffer?
Analogous referent(s):
1. Stop playing World of Warcraft, and play a MMORPG which doesn't contain gameplay issues that I dislike?
2. Scream and pout that Blizzard didn't modify their game, but continue to play it?
3. Disrupt Blizzard's business operations, so that even those who are happy with World of Warcraft suffer?
Assholes choose #3. The stupid, or the hypocrites (often the same person) choose #2.
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
seriously. On the mage forum I see posts like, I want my spells to be dripping with pixels and look kewl! I want to summon gods and throw down big as spells, that would be so cool!!
Blizzard had done a great job balancing this game as far as I am concerened. That warrior post was fantastic by the dev, and should assure warriors about the changes they are working on, as well as how so much more thorough the devs are at analizing the data. Not to mention most warriors have no knoweldge of other classes, and have NO CLUE about how their changes will effect the game as a whole. I trust blizzard to do the balancing right, not a bunch of whiny people who havent even reached level 60 yet to fully understand their class.
Incidently, I spent about a half hour reading the forums just before I bought WoW, long enough to see that yes, indeed, every single class was bitching about getting nerfed. That was enough for me, and I have not (and hopefully never will) have to read that kind of crap again.