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.

Comments

So we don't even...

[incom]

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.

Re:So we don't even...

[EngineeringMarvel]

Yes, the post is concerning World Of Warcraft. Dun Morough is the starting place for gnomish characters and is also one of the most populated areas on any server. Mainly because the city of Ironforge is located near Dun Morough and that is where the Alliance auction house is located.

Not a MMORPG

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't roleplay a protester, it's not a MMORPG.

Instances, pvp-limitations, lack of death penalty, etc... I could list dozens of other infractions against using the term that Blizzard has accumilated, but actively breaking up a congregation and calling it a MMORPG takes the cake.

Re:Not a MMORPG

[centauri]

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.

Re:Big fucking deal.

[EngineeringMarvel]

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.

citizenship, rights, and social pressure

[ParticleGirl]

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.

right to assemble?

[dtfarmer]

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.

As Blizzard has said...

[Cookie3]

Warriors were being looked at. You can't expect the Blizzard devs to just look at the drivel in the forums and instantly assume, "Oh, because a tiny number of kids are complaining about warriors, they're obviously broken!"

First, players need to understand that Blizzard is a massive company. Blizzard has hired managers and moderators to filter out the noise to try and find meaningful posts. The devs may read the forums, but the moderators are supposed to organize the meaningful posts into reports, showing the issues and cultivating a positive atmosphere on the forums.

A post suggesting that Blizzard "nerf pallies" is quickly followed up by an equally uninformative post suggesting that the devs "buff warriors!" -- with inaccurate, undetailed and subjective posts like that, OF COURSE the Devs won't take action. The unintelligible posts, meanwhile, continued to accumulate, and ultimately generated the motivation for the march. Apparently some players are too stupid to be able to figure out that if THEY aren't being understood, that maybe the problem is on THEIR end.

Meanwhile, a handful of intelligable players wrote out their list of greviences and, in some cases, actually managed to get the moderators attention.. thus they KNEW the devs were actually, actively evaluating the issue.

Gee. Maybe it pays to realize that the world does not (yet) use AIM-speech as a standard of communication.

Gnome?

[KillerDeathRobot]

Sure, there were a lot of gnomes there, but this wasn't a "Million Gnome March" in the sense that it was about gnome rights. The phrasing in the blurb is ludicrous: gnomes are protesting because "their" class isn't balanced? Gnome is a race that can play several classes. This was a warrior protest, not a gnome protest, even if lots of gnomes were involved.

Too bad they don't get that way about RL

[MBraynard]

I wish I could survey those participating in the protest and ask of those 18 or older:

• Are you registered to vote?
• If so, how often do you vote? Did you participate in the primary or just the general? What about school board races?
• Have you ever written a letter to a newspaper to express your views?
• Have you ever contacted your elected representative via phone, mail, or email about an issue that is important to you
• Have you ever written a check to a political cause that is important to you to help fund the printing of fliers, to pay for advertising, or to support a full-time staff?
• Have you ever collected petitions or volunteered for a candidate or cause? Have you ever even signed a petition?

• 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.

Outsiders view

[tprime]

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.

Nothing wrong here.

[Temporal]

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.

Re:Nothing wrong here.

[YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT]

It is, in fact, more important for a warrior to be able take damage than deal damage.

It doesn't matter how many times you, or I, or Blizzard ( it's in the manual ) say this, it seems nobody is listening. From playing other games, they expect their warriors to be the last word in damage dealing. World of Warcraft doesn't work like this - deal with it. If you want to sit at the apex of the food chain, play a Rogue or a Mage.

Instead of constantly neurotically comparing themselves to every other class / player, these people need to sit down and assess, 1) Am I enjoying my playing experience? 2) Am I enjoying it enough to warrant what it costs?

If the answer to either of these questions is "No", they should either try playing the game differently, or leaving it altogether.

Re:EULA

[Minna Kirai]

EULA's have been proven to be invalid after you pay for a product.

Wrong. Triply-wrong (which works out to be right, I suppose).

1. EULAs haven't been proven invalid in the USA. The most recent court decision was pro-EULA.
2. However, EULAs are invalid according to a sensible reading of the legal principles, so hopefully a higher court will reverse that bad ruling.
3. But it doesn't matter, because MMORPGs do not use EULAs. EULAs are for software, the use of their servers is covered by a traditional service agreemet (like a phone or electricity bill) which is valid as normal.

invalid after you pay for a product.

Notice that with WoW or another MMORPG, you sign that agreement before paying the monthly bills. EULAs for software you already have are invalid; service agreements for things a company is promising to give you in the future are fine. (Mutual exchange of consideration and all that)

From the "wtf-bbq-hax" dept.

[Pseudosapiens]

As a Blizzard customer and World of Warcraft subscriber I demand the right to assemble with large numbers of thoroughly incompetent teenagers in low level zones to protest the imbalance of [insert class/race/skill here], regardless of how many times the developers have said "we know, we're working to address the issue." Any negative effects of this protest indicate Blizzard's inability to "learn some programming wtf." Clearly the players know more about running an online game for hundreds of thousands of people and have a better understanding of how [class/race/skill] balance works than the people that spent several years developing the game. Seriously. Let's start an online petition or something.

Videos, screen shots, etc.

[antdude]

I posted this a few days ago on my AQFL Web site:

Death_Knight's thread (screen shots [nice ion canon] and comments) mentions a FilePlanet (account required -- free or subscription) video file link (87 MB) with Gnomevasion in World of Warcraft. Here is the video file description: "What happens when you take 300 players, throw in teamwork, voice communication, a server crash, and one of the greatest guilds of all time? You get Gnomevasion! In this video members of Sturmgrenadier form up on an alternate server in WoW when their home of Bleeding Hollow goes down. Hilarity ensues when each and every member wreaks chaos on an unsuspecting server with pink-haired pig-tailed gnomes! Download this video and witness the true power of a Gnomevasion."

Non-FilePlanet sites: #1, #2, and #3 (BitTorrent files).

Funny music video! It is two minutes and 20 seconds. Check it out!

Re:I disagree with the admins

[Chasuk]

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.