In my case, smellsofbikes, showing off that I run my own domain is the key point. I'm a web professional, and my email address' domain name is the same as my blog, so it serves a dual purpose. First, it immediately identifies the fact that I have the know-how to run my own site (obviously useful in my line of work). Second, it provides free advertising for my blog to anyone with whom I correspond. Either is a great way of boosting my profile in the eyes of potential employers and clients.
Your point about woz.org is an interesting one. I would argue that impressing average users is irrelevant, at least as far as personal branding goes. What really matters is impressing the handful of people with whom you need to build trust and authority. If your email address can help you pull that off, I'd say it's a big plus.
It's for perceptions such as this that I recently moved from an old high school GMail address to a more generic MyName@MyPersonallyBrandedDomain.tld address. The former was hindering my professional development, whereas the latter is enhancing it. It's a small thing, but your email address is often a first impression. Ask yourself, "What does ChronicCommenter@Slashdot.org saying about me?"
I don't know about the author, but I've seen nothing but increased spam since the patch. It's impossible to/ignore since the spammers send from brand new characters that never send more than one message to you. Heck, I even saw one spammer brazenly standing in the middle of Ironforge peddling his site's services out loud. The existing filters obviously aren't enough.
A simple way for Blizzard to help fight spam would be to disallow some communication commands for low-level characters. For instance, you could prevent all characters below level 10 from using/tell. That way spammers would have to spend hours rather than seconds to set up a spamming character. Sure, it'd be a tad inconvenient for honest players, but you don't really need help from your level 70 buddy when you're still in a starting territory.
Sure, a civilized community sounds nice, but who decides what is civilized? If we limit people to one person's opinion of propriety, many others will feel needlessly limited by it.
One solution is to let everyone say what they want without filters, a radical idea called freedom of speech.
The other is to eliminate communication altogether. Then again, if you do that, it's not really a community anymore, is it?
As others have suggested, I recommend the "/ignore" command. It can work wonders.
I love Zelda games, so I hate to agree with this assessment. However, I noticed while playing Twilight Princess that I instinctively knew the answers to most puzzles and boss fights. Heck, I even walked into dungeons and started guessing the sort of obstacles I'd face and the sort of treasures I'd find based on familiar themes. I'm sure I can't be the only loyal fan suffering from Zelda deja vu. Don't get me wrong; I still love the series and plan to continue playing the games as long as they keep coming out, but I think the "same old, same old" criticism is perfectly valid.
Not to wax anecdotal, but I'm a huge consumer of news and information on the internet and I still maintain a subscription to Dragon. Sure, you could put it online, but there's just something about getting that issue in the mail every month that's so much more fulfilling. You can put your collection of Dragon magazines right there on the shelf next to your gaming books. I echo the sentiments of other subscribers in saying I'll be sad to see the print version go, as will many of my friends and family.:(
I'll be interested to see how people take it the day that Blizzard puts out some unacceptable patch and the Chinese government attempts to completely remove World of Warcraft. I can see the headlines now. "Chinese government overthrown by gold farmer revolt in a single night," followed shortly by, "Azerothan gold piece replaces the yen as official Chinese currency."
The same mentality applies here as peer-to-peer file sharing. Why buy it when you can get it for free, even if you happen to violate a few copyrights in the process? Given that P2P is still going strong despite large-scale initiatives to snuff it out, I'm sure Copybot will only be the first Napster of its genre.
This is by no means meant to jeer those who have been hurt by gaming addiction, but I think it's worth pointing out that MMO's aren't the same as cocaine or nicotine. There are players who will take them to unhealthy, and even clinically addictive, extremes. Likewise, there are players who will drop the game without difficulty, like I did.
I prefer to think of the relationship between MMO's and gaming addiction as analogous to the relationship between casinos and gambling addiction. Can we really censor Blizzard (or any other MMO maker) for creating the best and most enjoyable game that they can? No more so, I think, than we can take exception with a casino providing a stimulating atmosphere at the craps table.
Those who develop gaming addiction undoubtedly need help. However, stating that a game itself wrecks lives is debatable. In many cases, it may very well be the person's own personality and predispositions that cause them to become addicted to a passtime that would be harmless otherwise. For many, blaming the game is merely a cop-out, a way of avoiding responsibility for their own problem. And, whether they want to admit it or not, it is their problem. If it were the game's, we'd all be addicts, and that obviously isn't the case.
Okay, I'm done ranting. *braces for flaming death*
Fiendish Codex - Cool. I can always use a few more demons in my campaigns. My players hate them because I tend to play them as *gasp* intelligent adversaries that use tactics. Greater Teleport at will, yes indeed.
Players Handbook II - Eh, pretty useless, really. This whole kick on creating a bunch of new base classes is getting really old, especially when those classes start losing the whole "role" aspect of roleplaying. The character development chapter is interesting, but not nearly comprehensive enough. This one's of pretty low value, in my opinion.
Power of Faerun - As a DM currently running a near-epic campaign right now, I must say there isn't enough source material to do it well. The rules are scattered and disjointed, and the only true sourcebook dedicated to it hasn't been updated for 3.5 (unless you count the update booklet). Avoid epic levels like the plague unless you want a big DMing headache.
Complete Psionic - Every time I make a character, I think, "Hm, maybe I'll play a psionic character this time." Then I get over it, no matter how much extra material gets printed. If you want to play a psychic, stick to gothic-punk RPGs; it just doesn't seem to mix well in a fantasy setting.
Slashdot Mirror
In my case, smellsofbikes, showing off that I run my own domain is the key point. I'm a web professional, and my email address' domain name is the same as my blog, so it serves a dual purpose. First, it immediately identifies the fact that I have the know-how to run my own site (obviously useful in my line of work). Second, it provides free advertising for my blog to anyone with whom I correspond. Either is a great way of boosting my profile in the eyes of potential employers and clients.
Your point about woz.org is an interesting one. I would argue that impressing average users is irrelevant, at least as far as personal branding goes. What really matters is impressing the handful of people with whom you need to build trust and authority. If your email address can help you pull that off, I'd say it's a big plus.
It's for perceptions such as this that I recently moved from an old high school GMail address to a more generic MyName@MyPersonallyBrandedDomain.tld address. The former was hindering my professional development, whereas the latter is enhancing it. It's a small thing, but your email address is often a first impression. Ask yourself, "What does ChronicCommenter@Slashdot.org saying about me?"
I don't know about the author, but I've seen nothing but increased spam since the patch. It's impossible to /ignore since the spammers send from brand new characters that never send more than one message to you. Heck, I even saw one spammer brazenly standing in the middle of Ironforge peddling his site's services out loud. The existing filters obviously aren't enough.
/tell. That way spammers would have to spend hours rather than seconds to set up a spamming character. Sure, it'd be a tad inconvenient for honest players, but you don't really need help from your level 70 buddy when you're still in a starting territory.
A simple way for Blizzard to help fight spam would be to disallow some communication commands for low-level characters. For instance, you could prevent all characters below level 10 from using
Sure, a civilized community sounds nice, but who decides what is civilized? If we limit people to one person's opinion of propriety, many others will feel needlessly limited by it. One solution is to let everyone say what they want without filters, a radical idea called freedom of speech. The other is to eliminate communication altogether. Then again, if you do that, it's not really a community anymore, is it? As others have suggested, I recommend the "/ignore" command. It can work wonders.
I love Zelda games, so I hate to agree with this assessment. However, I noticed while playing Twilight Princess that I instinctively knew the answers to most puzzles and boss fights. Heck, I even walked into dungeons and started guessing the sort of obstacles I'd face and the sort of treasures I'd find based on familiar themes. I'm sure I can't be the only loyal fan suffering from Zelda deja vu. Don't get me wrong; I still love the series and plan to continue playing the games as long as they keep coming out, but I think the "same old, same old" criticism is perfectly valid.
Not to wax anecdotal, but I'm a huge consumer of news and information on the internet and I still maintain a subscription to Dragon. Sure, you could put it online, but there's just something about getting that issue in the mail every month that's so much more fulfilling. You can put your collection of Dragon magazines right there on the shelf next to your gaming books. I echo the sentiments of other subscribers in saying I'll be sad to see the print version go, as will many of my friends and family. :(
Great, as if I needed another group to grind rep with, now I'll have to get full Exalted with the IRS to get a tax break.
Tickle Me Elmo Extreme goes on a killing spree. News at 11.
I'll be interested to see how people take it the day that Blizzard puts out some unacceptable patch and the Chinese government attempts to completely remove World of Warcraft. I can see the headlines now. "Chinese government overthrown by gold farmer revolt in a single night," followed shortly by, "Azerothan gold piece replaces the yen as official Chinese currency."
The same mentality applies here as peer-to-peer file sharing. Why buy it when you can get it for free, even if you happen to violate a few copyrights in the process? Given that P2P is still going strong despite large-scale initiatives to snuff it out, I'm sure Copybot will only be the first Napster of its genre.
This is by no means meant to jeer those who have been hurt by gaming addiction, but I think it's worth pointing out that MMO's aren't the same as cocaine or nicotine. There are players who will take them to unhealthy, and even clinically addictive, extremes. Likewise, there are players who will drop the game without difficulty, like I did.
I prefer to think of the relationship between MMO's and gaming addiction as analogous to the relationship between casinos and gambling addiction. Can we really censor Blizzard (or any other MMO maker) for creating the best and most enjoyable game that they can? No more so, I think, than we can take exception with a casino providing a stimulating atmosphere at the craps table.
Those who develop gaming addiction undoubtedly need help. However, stating that a game itself wrecks lives is debatable. In many cases, it may very well be the person's own personality and predispositions that cause them to become addicted to a passtime that would be harmless otherwise. For many, blaming the game is merely a cop-out, a way of avoiding responsibility for their own problem. And, whether they want to admit it or not, it is their problem. If it were the game's, we'd all be addicts, and that obviously isn't the case.
Okay, I'm done ranting. *braces for flaming death*
"Guns aren't difficult to use"
As they say, Smith & Wesson is the original "point and click" interface. ;)
Fiendish Codex - Cool. I can always use a few more demons in my campaigns. My players hate them because I tend to play them as *gasp* intelligent adversaries that use tactics. Greater Teleport at will, yes indeed. Players Handbook II - Eh, pretty useless, really. This whole kick on creating a bunch of new base classes is getting really old, especially when those classes start losing the whole "role" aspect of roleplaying. The character development chapter is interesting, but not nearly comprehensive enough. This one's of pretty low value, in my opinion. Power of Faerun - As a DM currently running a near-epic campaign right now, I must say there isn't enough source material to do it well. The rules are scattered and disjointed, and the only true sourcebook dedicated to it hasn't been updated for 3.5 (unless you count the update booklet). Avoid epic levels like the plague unless you want a big DMing headache. Complete Psionic - Every time I make a character, I think, "Hm, maybe I'll play a psionic character this time." Then I get over it, no matter how much extra material gets printed. If you want to play a psychic, stick to gothic-punk RPGs; it just doesn't seem to mix well in a fantasy setting.