Iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat
panem et circenses.

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions–everything–now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

Across the political spectrum, this and many other statements describe a world population no longer happy with the appearance of freedom within a calculated series of carefully controlled choices, in a world defined by increasingly limited options.

From Juvenal, a Roman poet who lived in the period after the decline of Rome toward the end of the first century AD–or for those of you who have adopted the euphemism, the modera era–we face similar times as were described in the latter days of Rome, a period in history defined by a people no longer willing to be governed by distractions forged to drive public opinion.

Mere satisfaction as a population is defined by general ill-ease, while still remaining unable or unwilling to effect change when the system only barely works, yet plods along not quite willing to entirely break down.

Those scornful words become more meaningful if you understand that Romans of their time were addicted to free distributions of food and violent gladiatorial games, as well as the chariot races of the Circus Maximus.  Juvenal described a world in which Romans had lost the capacity to govern themselves, too distracted by mindless self-gratification.

And indeed, so have we become.

In the beginning, the World of Warcraft was just another game, albeit “best in class” by comparison to anything else out there.  Players flocked by the hundreds of thousands, and by the end of year one, Blizzard already commanded a force of loyal followers greater than the sum of every other MMO population combined.

In terms of “army” or “following,” this was the modern equivalent of revolution.  Blizzard came in and took by storm what other MMO providers had worked hard to build, because they had a story, a goal and a defined future.  Today, it is fair to say that things are no longer so certain.

What, then, precedes the downfall of a giant?

Where do development, production and proliferation flag and falter to become the merest bread and circuses of the modern age?

It can be summed up in three things:  the modern movement, a financial situation in which people as a whole are unwilling to shovel out case without cause; a loss of direction, since obviously the story has been told and re-told enough times that Blizzard is honestly, obviously having a hard time coming up with new ideas; and, of course, the creation of Titan, details for which are the greater popular hype for the next Blizzcon.

Whatever Titan is, Blizzard has made it pretty clear that, with the development of Diablo 3 and the release of Starcraft 2, they are getting away from the World of Warcraft franchise, and allowing it to go the way of the dinosaur.  However, instead of a big finish and popular finale, Blizzard’s developers have allowed a slow, trickling death, with crammed, rapidly released content, fast updates and frequent changes that confuse and irritate players.

In the past six months, over a million subscribers have left the game, causing Blizzard’s golden calf to lose followers at what should be an alarming rate, and indeed this is the first year that Blizzard has lost more suscribers than it has gained.

But why accuse Blizzard of “loss of direction?”

The original World of Warcraft, what is consciously referred to as “vanilla,” or Classic Wow, players had no great ENDGAME.

They mere working together in cooperative instances, leveled, geared, and then played in a few raids or PvP’d.  Blizzard wanted to stay ahead of the curve, since Everquest was rapidly working on expansions to try to compete with the new giant, and other new MMO companies were trying to break into the market.  As a result, over the next two years, we faced “the ultimate evil” three times.

The first time Azeroth faced its dooom, it was Illidan Stormrage, master of all things evil, who stole the waters of the Well of Eternity and brought down the fury of the Legion upon all of Outlands when his ten thousand year imprisonment had ended.

Then the players finally defeated Illidan, and the world rejoiced.  Then they started… farming him.

So the developers at Blizzard went back to the drawing board, and they released the next doooom!

With the creation of Northrend, they introduced an even greater evil, introducing the fury of the Scourge and their dark master, the terror of Lordaeron, Arthas Menethil, the Lich King.  And doooom! he was, raining terror down upon a shocked populace and introducing new plot points that guaranteed you the fight of your life… until the raiders kacked him three days after he was released for public slaughter.

So, once again unprepared, the developers at Blizzard threw us a curve ball, and developed a new DOOOOOOOOM!!  The only problem with creating the next “doom,” becomes the incredulity that no one had ever heard of Deathwing before, and no one ever thought Ragnaros would be recycled to be a new, bigger-bad when we’d already farmed him to death two expansions ago.

There’s only so many letters you can add to the word “doom” after all, and only so many capital letters and exclamation points you can add before it ceases to be “doomful,” and is only silly.

Add to the frustration and confusion of Blizzard players the world over by pitching curve balls like raids filled with gear that loses its value even before someone has farmed the set, and you have the opportunity for player unrest.

Anyone else remember Ulduar, and the too-soon release of the Trials of the Grand Crusader, which effectively killed the value of the new Ulduar armor and weapon drops for any hardened raider, causing most of the new player base to simply skip over Ulduar and go “straightline to the bigtime” in ToGC?

Blizzard miscalculated.  It believed that by keeping its mainstream player base happy, it would stay ahead of the curve, and so-called “noobs” would come and go quickly enough that no one would ever get sick of the old content.  Blizzard finally started to realize its mistake, and released an updated Classic Azeroth with the Cataclysm, and has advertised plans to release an updated Outlands with the next major expansion.

But in a world where finances are in increasing question, and players also have the choice of a new MMO with an even greater follows that already spans 30 years of human history, what is the future fate of the MMO giant?

Is Bioware the David to our Goliath?

We will find out in December, when everyone flocks to the stores, and when players who stolidly cleave to their bread and circuses log in to Azeroth,…

…possibly to realize that they are in a very large and empty world.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, plans to climax in a knock-down, drag-out, ride-away-on Deathwing encounter, but that’s not all Blizzard developers have in store for players in the latest expansion patch.

A variety of new, five-player dungeons are being released to introduce new content, including the oft talked about but still non-disclosure agreement shrouded War of the Ancients.  Also released is a curious snippet about “the end of times” in a nightmarish “possible future” viewed in the Caverns of Time simply called “the Hour of Twilight.”

Instead of releasing dungeons part-and-parcel, as they did in Wrath of the Lich King, developers have decided to release the final four dungeons simultaneously, and allow players to work at their own pace to complete them.

This is something of an improvement from previous releases, when Blizzard tried to limit the speed with which raiders would conquer the new content by introducing staged releases of the content, weeks apart, in order to make it appear that the content took longer to defeat when actually players were having their progress throttled by impassable doors that the heroes’ faction would batter down in the weeks that followed, “as they progressed.”

These dungeons will feature progressional benchmarks like the three Icecrown instances released prior to the opening of the Citadel itself.  The first, End Times, begins with a frantic summons from Nozdormu and a revelation of Deathwing’s ultimate plans for the world of Azeroth, which includes a throwdown with the infinite flight’s master, who is finally revealed to be Nozdormu himself, corrupted.

The second dungeon, War of the Ancients, finally makes use of the Demon Soul storyline introduced by Sinestra and used to corrupt the Blue Dragonflight’s master, Malygos.  Apparently Queen Azshara and elements of the Highborne will be involved in this fight.

Third and most pivotal in this series, Hour of Twilight, features the hero Thrall and a trip deep into Wyrmrest Temple to reforge the Dragon Soul in order to weaken Deathwing enough to make an attack even possible.  During this encounter, the Twilight Hammer releases its full fury on the Wyrmrest Temple.

Dragon Soul, the final dungeon, is a raid including six new bosses.  A giant ice elemental who just “got in the way” is part of the first encounter, followed by Faceless Ones, agents of the true force behind the Twilight Hammer, the Old God that players may face in a later expansion.  These Faceless Ones will not be alone, however!  Apparently they have come to enforce the will of the one they call, “master,” and will feature an extended fight against a forest of tentacles.

The fourth boss will be a Shaman of the Black, possibly even Magitha Grimtotem herself!  There will be extended fight mechanics involving her extensive knowledge of totems, more than likely requiring that her totems be destroyed to safely combat her (and likely achievements for killing her without bothering with the totems).

Fifth in the series of encounters will be the Twilight Broodmate, a previously unknown monstrous twilight dragon with a combination of powers owing to its mixed heritage.  Powers will likely include fire and shadow-based attacks, and some monologuing (since most Blizzard dragons love the sound of their own voice, apparently).

The final boss encounter before Deathwing will be the General of the Twilight Hammer, which is widely believed to be Archbishop Benedictus.  This comes from an apparent news leak telling players to read Twilight of the Aspects to learn more.

The final two encounters are against Deathwing himself.

First, players will board a gunship to catch the fleeing dragon, fighting their way through a series of Twilight’s Hammer traps and enemies gunships, including a short encounter with a tauren general of the Twilight Hammer.

Finally, players will leap onto Deathwing’s back and physically break the bindings on the armor holding his body together, whereupon he plummets into the Maelstrom–with the players along for the ride!

This is where the final encounter begins, in the Maelstrom.  Players will need to attack the massive dragon by jumping to various floating islands, attacking his claws, tail and wings separately.  Late in the fight, the other Dragon Aspects arrive with Thrall to finish Deathwing, using their own powerful abilities and finally the Dragon Soul to bring him down.

Expect this to be a long, lugubrious fight filled with cinematic cut-scenes and lots of language.  Apparently the dragons don’t hold back, and neither does Thrall.  Early estimates place the fight well in excess of twenty minutes of sustained combat, with breaks between phases.

What Comes Next?

Don’t bother asking about Pandas.  Nobody’s talking.

But Patch 4.3 explodes onto screens with the inclusion of new systems like the Random Raid Finder featuring a dungeon mode that will make random raids easier, while offering less powerful loot rewards.  Blizzard is anticipating that far more players will have access to new content than ever before.  The question is whether players eligible for these raids will be able to complete them.

So, Blizzard is giving casuals their chance to experience the raid environments and content as never before, but will “content” be enough?  As we’ve learned in previous expansions, accessibility doesn’t necessarily equate to kills.  Then again, that’s not really Blizzard’s problem… is it?

The art of the bard’s tale rises from the heart.  It introduces intrigue offers guile, misdirection and mystery, and finishes with a suitable climax and the perfect end.  There’s only one problem…  how the hell do you pull it off?

Getting from A to Z in an epic tale, especially a roleplay event or even a series of events in a longer story joined by multiple members of a cast you don’t control, requires a considerable amount of patience, planning and even a little luck.  And there is no such thing as the perfect plot, because your players are liable to take a good long look at it, and then do something that makes perfect sense… that you never planned for.

How is a tale best introduced?

A story can best be planned in storyboard form, usually with a sign-up to find and introduce the interested players and a general, short synopsis that describes what the action will entail.  This ensures two things.  First, it assures that you will find a player base sufficient to run your event.  Second, it hopefully identifies the event to your potential players, and it’s more likely to be an event they will want to participate in.

Sign-ups are a really good way to tell your player base about your event without giving up any important details, and it gives you a good idea how many players are going to be interested.

After the sign-up phase, it’s generally a good idea to use the forums for all your story-building needs.  The Community Site or your own guild, server or group forums allow you the opportunity to set the stage.   A storyboard forum post will give you the opportunity to set the stage, introduce critical resources or objectives and tell the tale that hooks your players.  A storyboard forum should be updated at least once a week, and can feature foreshadows for events, as well as “after-action” reports that tell the rest of the community what happened at your event.

Why is the AAR important?

In the epic fight against the Lich King, players are required to enter the Icecrown Citadel, climb to the top of the Spire, and then challenge Arthas alongside such legendary figures as King Varian Wrynn, the redoubtable Jaina Proudmoore (even if she has been reduced to the status of a tagalong cheerleader), and former heroes of the Wrathgate, Bolvar Fordragon and Dranosh Saurfang.  When our heroes finally reach their final objective, they are joined in battle by Highlord Tirion Fordring for a final showdown against the fallen Prince of Lordaeron.

When the dust clears and the party has defeated the Lich King, the scene fades-out to a cinematic, which describes in far greater detail what follows your event.  Without offering spoilers, the cinematic ends with the warning, “Go now.  Leave this place, and never return.”  And the stage is set for the next dramatic showdown.  After all… there must always be a Lich King.

After-action reports are your chance to play your own “cinematic” that describes the success of your event.  You can invite other players to participate as well, adding their own observations, stories or critiques, then decide whether your story received enough attention and support to warrant a sequel, or a totally new tale based on characters or specific events that might not have been a part of your original intent, but could be expanded on and more fully explored.

Story of the Human Condition

When the tale begins, your characters are placed in harm’s way.  Parts of your story might be no more difficult than hearing out a couple of town criers and deciding on the best tavern for spending a few hard-won copper.  Other parts can involve life and death decisions, where lasting character development can occur that may change your character permanently–for good or ill.  Important footnote:  the good guys don’t always win, and sometimes even when you win, you lose.

Character development occurs when the story changes a fundamental behavior in your character.  Take for example the story of Tevne Tolliver Camphrey, simple town drunk who would become a hero.  In the beginning of a story I didn’t take very seriously, he was a healer for the Stormwind Guard.  In one fell swoop, his unit was overrun by the Scourge; one at a time, each of his friends fell, and Tevne was unable to save them.

In retrospect, I should have realized it was just a badly rewashed version of Patch 1.1 when the Scourge and some bad players shut down the game, but hey! it was a story, and I decided to roll with it.

Well, the Scourging of the World of Warcraft wasn’t a very fun time for Tevne.  He ran from battle, defeated.  He was branded as a deserter, and fled Stormwind.  A year later, he was found by a former friend in Menethil Harbor, slobbering drunk in the inn.  He had squandered his life savings on alcohol, trying to forget the war, and was little more than a wandering idiot.

Tevne reformed shortly before the Sundering, eventually joining a raid that went into Icecrown looking for the Lich King.  He never faced Arthas, but it was enough for the healer to pull himself up by the bootstraps and get back into the saddle.

Had the story never run awry (the result of griefers taking advantage of the biggest tool for griefing Blizzard has ever handed out) Tevne’s story might have been quiet, even died out.  Instead he became the focus of a two-year-long tale, in successive follow-up stories that continued his adventure until he finally pulled through.

Point is, stories like these don’t write themselves.  It wasn’t the story we were writing, but the focus quickly changed, and adaptive storytelling was able to continue a tale that otherwise might have died out.

Organizing Chaos

Stories end badly when bad players with malicious intentions crash the party.  They also have the potential to go awry when players simply miss an important pointer, or see it, understand it but choose to do something other than the storyteller expects.

When you expect a player to do one thing, and they do something else, will it totally cripple your plot?  Well, it shouldn’t, however you may have to do some creative footwork to get your story back on track, or you may decide that the direction it’s heading in now is even better, and just run with it.

There are two kinds of storytelling: open-ended storytelling, and scripted or directed storytelling.

Scripted storytelling can be easily derailed, because it’s linear and features specific important events.  The next event may well depend on the successful completion of a prior event, so the entire story can derail with a single misstep.

Open-ended storytelling includes more components of improvisational theater.  The storyteller may have a “best” ending in mind–what they might like to see happen–or they may have a series of alternative conclusions, based on the actions of the players involved.  A dedicated storyteller might even have sequels planned based on any or all of the endings that the players choose.

Planning for Disaster

What happens when the player carrying “the item” you need for a specific event doesn’t arrive, or disconnects?  What happens when an uninvolved or unsigned player steps into your scene and potentially throws off the group?  What happens when the players just keep making choices you never planned for, then turn to you for answers?

Common pitfalls for any story start with basing the success of your tale on the presence of a specific cast of players or a certain item, especially magical, awesome items of power–and even more especially on magical, awesome items of power that only a certain member of your cast can wield.  If your plot falls through because a specific player can’t log on, there’s already a serious problem.

Other problems can arise from planning modules or events around game mechanics that the players may have no trouble defeating, or mechanics far above their level they can’t hope to defeat.  Make sure you check the power level of your group, and if you find a massive shift in the power level (say a Level 20 traveling with a Level 80) make sure you plan accordingly.

Don’t make the lower levels suffer an area where they can only trudge along and call for help (and probably spend a lot of time corpse-running), and don’t force a high level that should be able to squish something to stand out, or potentially destroy the climax of your campaign by one-shotting the bad guy.  Allow lower levels to participate in a specific leg of the story in one location, while the high levels deal with something else.

Ending a Story

If a story is going well, sometimes the urge is to keep the tale running.

Don’t.

Completing a story when it’s done will keep your players talking about it.  The other option is to run pointless epilogues until the high wears off; if that happens, players don’t end on a high–they just wander off when they’re bored.

When a story is executed with precision, and you end on a high note, your players will be eager to jump into the action next time, because they know you’re bringing something worthwhile to the table.  Always take advantage of a good stopping point when your players reach their final goal.

Putting together the perfect story can also end on the forums, in an after-action report, where you talk about the high points of your event, perhaps include a few screen caps, and offer a few perspectives about the event itself in the characters’ own words.  Some players use chat add-ons that can save your event to your notepad, offering a powerful tool when putting your event in print.

It’s a hard sell.

Storytellers run tales within the confines of their environment.

In table-top, you are restrained by the rules of the system, but can leap beyond many limitations by inventing completely new themes, environments or characters. In LARP, you can find yourself restrained by physics and costuming. In the MMO, we find ourselves restrained by Lore in a world where the immersive reality never really changes.

In the video game construct, it’s hard sometimes to develop an independent theme, because outside the proffered stories, quests and the occasional world event, there is no real change. The server doesn’t realize you’ve sacked the city of Stormwind and killed the King. No mourners take to the streets, and no armies plot vengeance, because in ten minutes he’s back on the job like nothing ever happened.

The biggest advantage to telling a story in the World of Warcraft setting, is that players can immerse themselves in their character roles, even more than they did using the construct that is provided–and when a character completes a series of raids the credits don’t just roll at the end. That player still needs something to do with their “hero” whether they return to their farm in Elwynn or become an instructor of the future protectors of the realm in Hearthglen.

Eventually, for everything the World of Warcraft offers, you will run out of things to do.

That’s where the Storyteller comes in.

Players who delight in adding to the mystique of their own world can sometimes develop exhaustive character histories, a sort of biography that tells where the character has been, what they’ve seen and where they’re going in their little pixelated life.

A Storyteller can see connections between those players and the game world, and perhaps introduce a new theme, idea or plot that pits the characters against a new threat, or compels new behavior. Ultimately, it’s an exercise in studying the human condition, and seeing what people will do when faced with new circumstances.

In the World of Warcraft, as one famous players once said, “There is more to be written,” but a story needs to do more than introduce another alphabetical monster fight, or the need to assault a few mobs and carry away the treasure chest. We can get that by just playing the game.

Success at storytelling comes from knowing your players, and their characters and those histories, and then coming up with a theme that the characters can interact with. The seasoned Ulduar raider has not a care in the world about the Defias Brotherhood plotting insurrection in Moonbrook, and the young Defias cutpurse can’t fathom the great hall where Yogg’Saron waits. But give the Ulduar raider knowledge of a secret treasure captured by Van Cleef shortly before his death that the Defias Brotherhood knows how to reach… and you potentially have a story that brings the two together.

Ultimately the Brotherhood was founded to take by force what the Crown refused to pay the masons, after they rebuilt a shattered Stormwind at the end of the last great war. Van Cleef was potentially a Robin Hood figure who unfortunately became the villain–probably because the developers needed a unified kingdom and a brewing rebellion was only helpful to the story if the players helped to crush it.

After all, there are only two factions in Azeroth, when it comes right down to it: the Horde or the Alliance.

SO, how does a Story work?

It’s easy to say, “I’m a storyteller!” or “I have a story!” but the truth is a dedicated MMO storyline requires knowledge, research of the players who will be participating and a general schedule of events that is not immutable.  Adaptably will give  a story the ability to change directions based on the input of the other minds involved, and one of the first downfalls of a (potentially) very good story is the potential to paint yourself into a corner, because your players will invariably think of something you never expected.

Components of a good story require a theme, and it should be something that a good range of players can become involved with.  Whether your theme involves a hunting expedition to kill a certain rare lion that has a taste for the players’ team, or even a fight against a major plot enemy like the Druids of the Flame in the Firelands, the story needs to be something that the players can sink their teeth into, and something their characters can actually affect.  A great story about the fight against the Lich King doesn’t do much for a bunch of Level 20-25 players who can never actually see him.

Choosing your setting actually comes second, though, to the needs and wants of your player base.   Players aren’t as likely to be interested in an epic battle against Arthas if they’ve been Level 30-35 for five or six months playing in and around Stormwind, but a story that revolves around the Scarlet Monastery may encourage them to actually progress a little, while at the same time rewarding them with a story that will be fair but challenging, while offering actual accomplishments presented by game mechanics.

On the Blizzard Community Site today, I noticed a curious conversation between an average player with a complaint, and the responding forums customer service agent, in this case Vrakthis, for whom I usually have the utmost respect for his past work and prompt replies.

Amidst the usual “ignore it” and “get an add-on” and “it’s your problem” responses from most of the forums trolls that double as “concerned citizens” came the game master’s reply, which I found a little less than endearing.

The atmosphere for a realm is often determined by those that inhabit it, Friski, if you are alone in your disdain of this behavior it is likely that you are doing the majority of the work in reporting it. This usually means that any possible chat restrictions/actions are fairly limited. 

It may be that the others on your realm that do not like the spam are unaware of the option to use the Report Player/Report Spam option to report it. You may wish to encourage others to report them in the same manner.

I am sorry that others who play on your realm continue to find amusement in perpetuating this behavior. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide transfers or faction changes due to possible violations of our policies by other players. 

 

So players who decide to act like petulant children only need to find a server with more petulant children, and if they become the common denominator, nothing will happen?  Well, pardon me for being blunt, but this is why we’re waiting for Star Wars in the fall.  This is why people are unhappy.

Blizzard has, unfortunately, just admitted that stupid people in large numbers outweigh Blizzard’s own rules, and the report of the player abiding them whose experience is disrupted by spamming, profanity, harassment or other myriad inappropriate behaviors.

Enforcing the rules, unilaterally, across the board, general solves these types of problems.  But where Blizzard doesn’t explain its odd acceptance of frank inappropriate behavior, it actually states it won’t act on the complaints of a sole player who reports a rules violation, if the majority of the server is doing the same thing.

Well, sorry to put it this way, but paying customers shouldn’t have to join a server to figure out whether it’s populated by idiots, then be expected to waste even more time trying to figure out whether any efforts toward reporting inappropriate behavior will be taken seriously.

This highlights exactly why players are unhappy, why our own Level 21 guild with 300 members decided to become a Level 1 guild with 100 members on another server, and ultimately why Blizzard has lost a million subscribers in the last eight months.  For all the statements that Blizzard takes its rules seriously and values our attempts to police our realms, it really falls short when it comes time to actually do it.

Blizzard employees are apparently afraid to do their jobs, because dropping subscribers who are petulant assholes means losing money.  And who wants to lose money, after all?  …so they’re losing their player base anyway, because they won’t enforce their own rules, and the players are tired of asking.

Today, Thalanaar proudly welcomed its first partnership on the Wyrmrest Accord.

After receiving welcome and encouragement from the kind folks at Tradewind Enterprises, Flowers of Isildien, the Waterfront Company and–our old friends from back home–Sub Rosa, we were approached to forge a formal alliance with the members of the Hand of Stormrage.

Officers and members from both houses met in the temple gardens at the Temple of the Moon in Darnassus yesterday evening, and formed plans for what hopes to be a solid friendship with plans for future, shared events, and of course mutual defense.

But what does a Guild Alliance mean?

Well, for starters, let’s explain the mechanics involved. In other systems like Guild Wars, guild alliances are a function of the game itself. Guild Wars allows guild leaders to travel to a main faction city together, and declare an alliance by paying a fee to the Luxon or Kurzick houses, and up to ten guilds can participate in such a joining of houses.

Alliance features include a shared Alliance chat channel, access to an Alliance guild menu, special NPC characters in each allied guild hall offering unique rewards, and special alliance-secured locations in captured cities or towns.

Maintaining an alliance is a fairly simple process. The guilds involved donate a portion of their faction rep to a guild pool, which must be regularly refilled. Leaving is also just as easy, and requires that any guild leader simply select the option to drop the alliance.

In the World of Warcraft, no such mechanics exist.

Since there are no guild halls or capture of cities possible in the game mechanics, players receive no special benefits for choosing to work together, and there are no rewards for declaring an alliance. As far as Azeroth is concerned, if you’re a member of a faction (Horde or Alliance), you’re already allied, and that’s the extent of their interest.

Players choosing to declare a closer working relationship or a formal alliance of houses usually specify their own requirements–participation in shared events, pooling of resources to gain difficult achievements or even trading of members in order to give alliance members their best possible “fit” with a guild, whether for benefit of the story or for the players involved.

Since there are no special rewards, there are also no special costs. Guilds continue to gain their reputation and individual rewards, and by working together can avoid using things like the dreaded LFG.

However, there can be a few disadvantages, since things like guild achievements–especially for raiding and random dungeons–require a majority of your guild to be present (meaning someone must play the filler so someone else can get the achievement).

All in all, we look forward to our guild alliance with the Hand, and thank them for the opportunity to review the best and worst of guild alliances in general, and in the World of Warcraft in specific.

In 1964, Columbia Records released Bob Dylan’s third album, concerning issues such as racism, poverty, and social change. During the first reading of that now-famous melody, producer Tom Glover reportedly turned to Bob Dylan, and asked, “What is this shit, man?”

The album ends, “I’ll make my stand, and remain as I am, and bid farewell, and not give a damn.”

Today, Turus Thalanaar has recognized the changing times in the World of Warcraft. The Blackwater Raiders have been our house and safe harbor for many years, but with the departure of so many standards that made the server the wonderful environment that it was, we too have bid farewell.

The guild has enjoyed a fervent life, becoming one of the oldest and largest guilds on the Blackwater Raiders server. In our time, we have become a Top Ten raiding guild for our server, introduced roleplay to thousands, and maintained a pursuit of gaming meant for all players, in an environment we have strived to keep safe and familiar.

But times change. Servers change. We change.

In our unceasing efforts to bring the game to the masses, we have asked more and more of our officers, to the point we began chasing them away, and while we have continued to receive near-daily whispers and applications, a lucky few have passed our application process and become members in good standing.

There came a day, about a week ago, when two of my officers, and my co-GM approached me with an offer: a new server. They took me to what will become our new home in a week, the Wyrmrest Accord.

We see this as so many things, but mostly a chance to do it over again, with all our friends, the way we always wished we could have. The people that have joined us through the years have enriched our lives, and become our lifelong friends. To them, and their posterity, thank you. We are forever grateful.

No goodbyes. Just good memories.

And the story continues…

Blizzard Community Manager Nethaera is confounding players today, after posting only the words, “Curiouser and curiouser…” along with a link to this image.

Presently, this “curious” image is stored in the World of Warcraft Facebook site, under the Photo Album “Glimpses.”  No one seems to know what it means, but the local posting community have generated thirty-seven pages of responses in less than twenty-four hours.

Suddenly, there is more to talk about than “pandas.”

With this leaked image comes speculation about another pending expansion, an Outlands upgrade, more new playable races or all three.  The common thought seems to be that arcane reforgers will be “disenchanters” for players that don’t have the skill themselves, and that transmogrifiers may have something to do with gear alterations, which has been hinted at but never confirmed.

Void storage remains a mystery, but it was speculated briefly this may have something to do with appearance tabs (though why you would need to interact with an NPC to use such a feature is a complete unknown).

But Malistra of the Sisters of Elune made the observation that Ethereals in Azeroth would be nothing new, saying, “There were Ethereals in Karazhan (both friend and foe).”

People who roll to an RP server haven't a clue what RP means.

This evening my better half and I were settling in for a long evening leveling our characters. We have been bitten by the leveling bug while trying to reinvigorate interest in our roleplay guild, Turus Thalanaar.

Unfortunate circumstances led us to look up a guild leader for a fellow guild, and we were surprised to learn that the guild leader’s name was a name that had been reported for inappropriate content about a week before. The ticket was recorded as “RESOLVED,” but apparently the game master’s resolution had been to ignore it in the order in which it was received.

This led me to review the rest of my support tickets as far back as July 15.

For the record, I’ve filed a lot of reports. I don’t just sit in Stormwind and /who people to report them. Most of the time I run around with name plates and other tags turned off because I try to create an immersive game atmosphere for myself. When someone crosses my path and forces me to notice their ignorance, I will of course reward them with a report on everything I can find.

Names are the easiest and usually first thing to find.

But imagine my surprise when I checked my reports, and found every single name, intact and still present on our server (or elsewhere, where the LFG had been involved). Yes, that’s right, all those “RESOLVED” tickets had been best resolved by doing…. nothing.

On Blizzard’s own website, violations are addressed by a strict three-strikes policy:

Naming Policy Overview

If a player is found in violation of the Naming Policy, he/she may:

• Be given a warning
• Be assigned a randomly generated name
• Be temporarily suspended from the game
• Be given a Final Warning, any further ToU violations will result in permanent suspension

It goes on to identify varieties of specific violations.

Highly Inappropriate
Names which fall under the following categories are deemed to be highly inappropriate. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below.

• Racial/Ethnic/National
• Extreme Sexuality/Violence
• Sexual Orientation
• Obscene/Vulgar

Moderately Inappropriate
Names which fall under the following categories are deemed to be mildly inappropriate. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below.

• Harassing or Defamatory
• Blizzard Employees
• Inappropriate
• Advertising

Restricted
Names which fall under the following categories are restricted and will most likely not receive an account penalty on the first instance. Clarification on what constitutes each category can be found by clicking on the links below.

• Trademarks
• Pure Gibberish
• Contain “Leet” or “Dudespeak”
• Titles (Does not apply to Guild, Arena Team or Pet Names)
• Real World References
• Partial or Complete Sentences (Does not apply to Guild or Arena Team Names)

Fair to say, these names…. violated most if not all these policies at the same time.

So what’s the deal Blizz?

I was directed to Cynical Brit this morning to read about new developments on the Diablo 3 platform.  Let me say, I was somewhat less than impressed by Blizzard’s new game, which is apparently printing money.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that Diablo 3 will legalize gold and item sales, for real money, taking advantage of their ton of premium services and fees. The Gaming Union reports that players will be able to access the new Auction House without paying any special fee, but our friend TB is reporting that it will be a part of the new “premium support” services Blizzard started offering next year.

If they do this to Diablo 3, you can bet any future release of any Activision-Blizzard MMO will try to do the same, and the risk to players is that other gaming companies may jump on the cash cow bandwagon, because Blizzard stands to make a lot of money in the short term.

• Players can sell or trade any item they pick up in game by posting it in on the Auction House
• Selling items for real money will work just like the World of Warcraft Auction House
• Posting requires a deposit for either gold or cash, depending on what you accept
• Players will have to pay a fee to list an item, just like the current Auction House system
• Players can be undercut, just like the current Auction House system
• Players will take a hit when they list an item, or when they collect on a sale
• Players will still take that hit if their item fails to sell, just like the current system
• The skill of the player, chance or guild affiliations no longer have any bearing.
• The wealth of the player is now the paramount factor

Think account theft is bad now?

Good going, Blizzard.

Good going.

Personal editorial moment…  Over the past several years, I’ve been a happy, satisfied customer.  I have to admit at this point that every naysayer has ultimately been right.  Blizzard has destroyed its game, and I will be happily headed to Star Wars in the fall if this farce comes to fruition, and I will be taking as many of your paying customers with me as possible.

This may be the death of everything good Blizzard has ever done for the MMO market, and while it looks like I will be one of the last rats off the sinking ship, I’m sure as hell not going down with you.