News and Opinion

General news and opinion about WoW.

Tobold Interviews a Gold Seller

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MMO Blogging enthusiast Tobold managed get in an interview with a gold selling company that’s not based in China. I don’t support RMT at all in any shape. With that being said, that does not mean I’m not curious as to the motivations and foundations behind them. Im always interested to learn about everything and anything (I have Wikipedia as my home page for crying out loud). Tobold asked some intriguing questions and received some ever interesting answers.

EDIT: RMT stands for Real Money Trading (or the process of exchanging real money for virtual currency and items).

After posing this perspective I’m often asked, “So why do Blizzard ban RMT accounts then?”, and the answer is always the same. To open a WoW account requires both a CD Key and subscription, but as Chinese credit cards are not accepted this become a 60-day pre-paid game card. A Chinese workroom would pay around $35 for both these resources, the majority of which goes right into Blizzard’s pockets. As a rough estimate based on experience within Chinese workrooms, I would say 200,000 workroom accounts were banned in 2007, 99.5% of which would have been replaced by a new account (with a new CD key and pre-paid card) right away. Based on these numbers, the banning of Chinese “Gold Farmer” accounts was worth approximately $7,000,000 last year alone. Now you can better understand why RMT continues to exist and why legal action against RMT is extremely selective.

Obviously a controversial piece like this would garner a few negative comments. Sure enough, a brief look at the comments showed several dissatisfied readers. True, Tobold had to publicize the address of the company in question but I think a link is a fair trade off in order to ask honest questions and get honest answers. The world revolves around a give and take relationship and you can’t expect to get something for nothing.

There’s been documentaries and interviews of serial murderers and rapists and other criminals done before in the past. It doesn’t mean we support what they do. Interviews like this help in expanding our understanding and view of deviant acts like this.

If you’re against buying gold or RMT in general, then it’s highly unlikely that reading an interview like this will change your mind.

In Vancouver, we have a special place in the Downtown East side called a Insite. It’s essentially a safe injection site for drug users to go to in order for them to practice what they do in a safe place. This government funded installation is meant to help drug users in a controlled environment that is fully staffed. Obviously a place like this can send the wrong kind of message; namely that the government supports illegal drug use. On the other hand, if an individual is going to shoot cocaine or do drugs anyway, at least there’s a hygienic place that exists where they can go to in order to do it safely without overdosing themselves.

Applying this to WoW and RMT, I’m more aware of the trades and practices that dealing with Chinese RMTers can do. This organization reports itself as being in America which means it is subject to American laws and business practices. I’d like to say that offers an element of comfort to players who might be desperate enough to turn to RMT in the first place.

Disclaimer: I mentioned it earlier and I’ll say it again. I don’t support RMT at all. But I still like to learn. If you’re going to comment, please do it respectfully with regards to the views of others.

Technorati Tags: , , rmt, , , tobold

Raiding is Hardly Hardcore

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I want to direct your attention to a post made by Galo, at Ardent Defender. The post is an example of the casual guild experience when they raid. In the last paragraph, he poses a question:

Am I hardcore?

It all depends on the measuring stick that is being used. But in this case, Galo, no you’re not. Here’s a pattern that I’ve discovered when I’ve raided with "casual players".

  • Ten minutes to buff
  • Not listening or following instructions in raids
  • Frequent AFK breaks
  • Ridiculously late start times (an hour after a scheduled raid begins?)

Behavior like that is just unacceptable to me. It proves to me that a player is lazy and unmotivated. No real raider wants to raid with players like that. They give "casual" gamers a bad name since that’s what they’re frequently classified under.

Here is my other question. Why are players who do the exact opposite of what I’ve listed above considered hardcore?

Namely things like:

  • A quick 30 minute buff after a player dies
  • Staying quiet and doing as the raid leader says
  • AFKing only when necessary and only on trash
  • Showing up on time

That’s not hardcore. That’s showing that you’re willing to work for your gear. Galo has no problem getting gear since he does heroics regularly with relative ease.

My advice

Join that Guild, Galo. They sound like the kind of players you will get along with and progress with. Sure you might not be able to make all their times, but the runs you can get in on them with deliver a huge thrill for you. It sounds like you actually want to go somewhere. I’ve had to make the tough choice of parting ways with some friends a long time ago to play in my guild now. But we’re on the same server and we still chat and I still play with them every now and again. Just because you change guilds doesn’t mean you change friends.

I guess one would say I’m a zentastic player.

But throw away those old stereotypes of raiding. Don’t be a casual raider. Don’t be a hardcore raider. Just be a raider.

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Hitting the Big Time

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Do you know when you’re considered popular?

When people on your server send you tells and in game mail asking you for advice and telling you that they read your blog. That’s when you know you’ve hit the big time.

In other news, I finished Professor Layton after 2 straight days of mental elastics. Now you know why the lapse in posts recently.

No Kara Key? No Worries!

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Several of my colleagues have already reported this. But players no longer need a key to get into Karazhan. What you do need is 1 player with a key to let everyone in. The concept is similar to that of Arcatraz.

As Eyonix said:

It’s not a matter of difficulty, really. We wanted to make it more alt friendly at this point. I’ve gotten my kara key on four characters, and have helped a dozen others. I’m really quite content with never having to work on the attunement quest for kara again. Also, you should note that at least one person in the raid will need the Master’s Key, as the gate will function much like Arcatraz or Shattered Halls.

What about them noobs?

My stance on this is that you’re responsible for the raid group you’re joining. If you’re leading it and don’t agree with having an undergeared player with the group, then you can just remove them from the raid. Karazhan isn’t as hard as it used to be when TBC first came out. A lot of the trash in the instance got removed. A lot of players understand how the fights work now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see players on their 5th alt running Karazhan (I’m on my 3rd).

I suppose the argument here is similar to that of noobs going into Black Temple. So what if they can get into Karazhan and BT and such? It doesn’t mean they’re going to succeed most of the time. And if they happen to be holding back your raid group, you have the right to remove them. If I get pickups who are interested in joining my group, I typically screen their gear and their spec first before saying yes or no. A simple check before hand can save many  heartaches later.

It seems to me that there are some players out there who are too darn nice and don’t know how to uninvite someone from a party or a group. All that needs to happen is for the raid leader to right click their name and uninvite. Voila!

Problem solved.

Who is “That Guy” and How Do You Deal With Them?

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Several weeks ago I received an interesting link to a forum post titled “So you’re off to BT/Hyjal (A Guide for bads)” (Update: Link has since expired, but has been preserved for posterity on WoWWiki). It’s a HUMOROUS read for anyone who understands the raid encounters in that area. There’s an interesting bit during the part 2 segment for Black Temple especially in regards to Teron Gorefiend.

Here’s a quick snippet:

Teron Gorefiend:

The key to this fight is prayer. Before attempting this boss, everyone in the raid take a 15 minute break to address their deity of choice. Their request is simple: Please don’t let THAT GUY get Marked for Death. if everyone prayed hard, this fight should be extremely easy, everyone goes about their merry way hitting things, healing things, killing ghosts, and collecting loots. However if your raid didn’t pray hard enough THAT GUY will get marked for death, possibly followed by THAT OTHER GUY, causing a whole bunch of skeletons to run into the raid and 23 people to groan loudly on vent, this simply means you didn’t try hard enough with your prayer, human sacrifice is also an option. Once your bloodthirsty gods have had their fill of human hearts, you can collect your elemental shaman totem and thrown weapon (YOU DESERVE IT!).

Every Guild Has one

That’s the cold reality of the situation. A good glimpse at determining whether or not your Guild has THAT GUY is the Big Bad Wolf encounter in Karazhan. He’s the person that you dread getting the debuff because he’s not very good at handling it or just downright… fails. Their attitude and spirit may be in the right place. But that doesn’t amount to anything if they’re not able to battle through.

There are technical encounters in the game where the success of a raid rides on the ability of one player.

So what do you do about THAT GUY?

Educate him

Have someone sit down with him 1 on 1 and figure out what the problem is. Teach THAT GUY as much as possible. Show THAT GUY a few “training” videos on how to get past that phase that he has trouble with. Give them a few links to excellent sites that might help him get a big picture idea of what to do.

Remember that a lot of people learn differently. Some absorb information better when they “see” it. Some are great at processing a ton of stuff that’s said to them or on a screen (such students make me jealous). I’m more of a hands on learner.

But if that doesn’t seem to be working…

Bench him

As a raid leader and GM, you will have to make a few touch choices throughout your WoW raiding career. One of them involves making THAT GUY sit out for a fight in the interests of progression. You may not like it. THAT GUY may not like it. But don’t forget you’ve got the pressure of 23 other people in the raid looking to you to make the call or fix the problems somehow.

Obviously, no GM envies having to tell a player that they suck and must bring in someone more competent (in a nice way).

Two reactions

Expect 1 of 2 reactions when you break the news to them and be prepared for it:

Tantrum: The worse case (or best case) scenario is a gquit. They get so heated up that you question their ability to play. There is a feeling of disbelief and betrayal that anyone especially the GM could think such a thing. After all, their image as an “awesome” WoW player has been shattered and reality has set in. So they end up attempting to cause huge drama and rouse the Guild against the GM. Such coups usually fail.

Acceptance: The mark of a good Guildie is one who accepts their short comings. He understands that he’s not quite there yet in terms of performance. He’s willing to sit out this boss for the next one in the interests of progression. Hopefully, you’ll find one of these types of players instead of the one above.

Whatever the case, there is no denying that THAT GUY is a part of every Guild. It’s up to you and your Guild to figure out the best way to deal with THAT GUY or else sooner or later, you will have some very frustrated players.