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World of Warcraft In the Axis of Evil
Kotaku is running a piece by Wagner James Au, discussing the place World of Warcraft has in 'The Axis of Evil'. From the article: "Then again, there's little reason to think the ban was enforced much at all. Veteran WoW players tell me they often raid with folks who say they are Coalition troops in Iraq who've cleverly hacked around military firewalls to log in. And while it's doubtful that anyone but Kim Jung-Il and his geek cronies could log into World of Warcraft from North Korea, there's still an embargo on Iran."
Rule of thumb: Anything that allows you to "level up" is out to fuck you, take your money, or both. Examples: School, military, corporate hierarchy, catholic church, world of warcraft, scientology, etc.
Now if you're both in the military and addicted to WoW then you're really in trouble. That's either the second or the fourth circle of hell, depending on how the maths work. Either way it isn't good.
This is about the Axis of Evil - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_evil
Regardless, WoW should have nothing to do with either of them apart from legislation restricting export of certain goods, such as software, to countries to which the originating country holds an embargo - such as Iran.
I had to look into that for the software developed at our country as well to see if we could sell to a potential customer in Iraq - and we could after it was 'liberated'.
Fore more information, see:
But I kinda wouldn't like the Chinese players to vanish because their government cuts them off.
Whether Vivendi will bow to Chinese requests, should they decide to demand it? Certainly. But they will enforce it only when there's positive proof that a player is Chinese, and only when someone requests it, they certainly won't waste resources to hunt them down. After all, it's money for them when someone plays. Actually, I'd guess they'd appreciate such a demand. After all, it allows them to ban an account, knowing well that the customer will buy another one.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The Iranian government doesn't represent the WHOLE population of Iran. Just like the Americas Presedent doesn't represent the opinion of 100% of America.
I'd be happy to be proven wrong on this, as I'd love to think that even in a hellish war zone my fellow gamers can get their fix, but it just doesn't seem like something that would actually be allowed to happen all that much. And even if against all odds and logic it somehow did happen, I doubt said gamers would be bragging about their exploits in a damned text chat.
The idea that people who are sitting comfortably at home playing a computer game may be fishing for some sort of street cred or sympathy by falsely claiming to be among those whose lives are being put on the line is completely disgusting on every level.
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From http://vnboards.ign.com/wow_general_board/b19789/9 6506468/p1/?73
Just got banned today after playing WOW because I am not currently in North America. Apparently Blizzard does not care about those who are stationed abroad in the Armed Forces and working for them. I purchased WOW in the Post Exchange in Seoul Korea on the Yongsan Army Base there, which is considered by law, U.S. Soil. I installed the game and created my account using my U.S. Credit Card from Delaware. My billing address was an APO, AP address which stands for Armed Forces Pacific, Army Postal. After playing the game for 3 months I got an email stating this:
" Access to the World of Warcraft account BTOBEYONDER, and all World of Warcraft accounts associated with the payment information you have provided, has been permanently disabled. It is implicitly stated on the account creation page that: This account creation process is only available to customers in North America, New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore. As a result, the account(s) will no longer be accessible in any way and will not be reopened under any circumstances. Thank you for your time and understanding in this matter.
Regards,
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment "
The concept of a "U.S. Military Firewall" is not particularly intimidating. When I was stationed in the Gulf with the Air Force, the Communications squadron was using the same garbage as my 55-year-old mother - McAfee products, and not always with up-to-date patches. A friend in that unit informed me that such was common practice throughout the military in unsecured environments (such as a MWR tent with Internet access.)
Hell, even the censoring of certain websites (rotten.com, ebaumsworld.com, and theonion.com are the only ones I can recall, but it's been a few years) was easy to circumvent for anyone clever enough to uncheck the "Proxy Server" setting in IE. I wonder if anyone ever bothered fixing that?
Given the temperament of the bored kids I remember staffing the Air Force's server rooms, I'd imagine they're probably enabling this kind of activity. Can't say I blame them. I wish we had WoW instead of a copy of Tekken 3.
Tags != Comments, and -1 (Troll) != -1 (I Would Respond Angrily To This Poster So They Must Be Trolling)
I can't understand the US attitude to Cuba - can't trade with them but renting space for a naval base is OK.
"I can't understand the US attitude to Cuba - can't trade with them but renting space for a naval base is OK"
:p
That's the only thing about US policy you don't understand?
Whoo, signature!
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In Comm squadrons over here (Yes, I'm in Iraq this very moment) - we've got a network morale drive filled with games, movies, etc. - all of which our leadership doesn't mind us using so long as we don't have anything better to do at the moment.
Communications jobs in the Air Force aren't exactly filled with tasks, so we've got a lot of free time to play around. Nobody here is a WoW addict to my knowledge, but it wouldn't be terribly difficult to pull off, and no-one would care even if they did.
As soon as Britain can take it by force, of course.
Excatly. And the name of the difference is power. As long as the US is the strongest nation on Earth, it will keep on being the biggest bully as well. As soon as some other nation gets the power, they will become the bully as well.
Why does the US, or any other country for that matter, still keep on talking about right, justice, democracy, or any such thing in their rethoric is beyond my understanding. No one believes it. International policy is not about those things, never has been, and likely never will be, and that's hardly a secret. It is about power, the acquisition and defense of it, at any cost. Talking about "Axis of Evil" or other such nonsense simply adds a touch of hypocrisy to it, it does not make it any less filthy affair.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.