What Would Matt Do

(as seen on Broken Toys) 

It's a fact of life. If you're having a good time with whatever MMORPG you're currently playing (just resubbed DAOC myself), don't read the official game forums. Why? Because they will bring you down. They are a kill joy. Much like finding hair in your food. Though at least with hair you can pick it out and keep eating…with the official forums, it never gets better.

Take for instance, WoW. Biggest selling MMORPG currently and ever…and reading their official forums is liking putting salt in your eye. Literally. Makes your eyes tear up, makes you a bit angry (why was I so stupid as to put salt in my eye!) and overall you just aren't happy with whole experience.

That being said, what's the solution? Well, these guys think the developers need to talk with the community more instead of having community managers… For the exact same reasons Lum says , it's a very bad idea. The solution? Well, your guess is as good as mine, but I might suggest treating the forum goers as a good thing instead of something you have tolerate. Aeropause uses Stardock as an example… Sure, they make a game  that has an exponentially smaller user base, so that helps a lot, but they also do some things right. One, they don't have nameless, faceless people that often know about as much as you do trying to explain why things in the game. Often Brad gets out there himself and helps set people straight and talks about where they are aiming with future patches and why they are patching it like they are now. That's a big difference.

What does Blizzard do? They pass along notes to their guys in blue and that's it. Those guys, now armed with a smidgen more info than you, have to go out the raving made community (raving mad might be an understatement) and try to tell everyone it's all good. It doesn't work. One, because they don't really know why lots of things are done. Two, because they are just customer service reps and have no clout, say or so on in the company. So any request, info, ideas, etc you put to them, the best they can do is, "I'll tell someone."

Want to help make the boards better? Assign a project lead or the company CEO or someone with some pull and knowledge to read forum posts. Heck, since the forums with WoW are so big, have someone pick the posts they should read and they can not have to browse the entire forums to keep up. But it should be someone high up in the company for these reasons. One, people are easily cowed by status (CEO? He must have a good idea of what's going). Two, said assigned person should have a lot of knowledge about why certain design decisions are made and be able to talk about them without say, "The developers though it was best." or something along those lines. Three, they should be able to interact with the customers and diffuse situations that others can't. The guys in blue aren't going to be able to say, "We'll look at that." or "I'll get someone on that." and have it mean anything.

I'd also love to see a state of the union address once a month. Or at some determined interval. Have the person at the top of the WoW chain give a post that explains why they are doing things, what they are working on and when they expect things might be done. Sure, this leads to things like not getting said features done on time, but you can couch everything you say in a "we're efforting to". Just don't stretch the truth or lie. Be honest, explain where the company is coming from and where they are heading. Keeping people informed will diffuse a LOT of the problems with the official forums.

On a different note, do I think this will happen? Probably not. :) 

(as seen on Kotaku)

Know what I really like about WoW? People in all walks of life have no problem admitting they like them some WoW. That's a huge step for the general public. Sure, a fair amount of us geeks have always been happy to proclaim how cool such and such game is, but now everyone can feel comfortable saying they spend countless in a world that doesn't really exist.

It's both good and somewhat scary… Will MMORPGs become the new golf? *shrugs* Either way, it can't but be good for the game industry. 

If you fancy (thanks bago) a good read about freedom of the press and how some peoples are calling for it to stop, go read this article by Glenn Greenwald.

Apparently the New York Time is just all out of control posting the semi-illegal to all out illegal things the government is doing. Those bastards. 

Ann Coulter: 

Darwinism is an illogical theory…with lots of evidence to contradict it…it's a faith belief without any evidence to support.

That kinda of stuff just makes me chuckle like a mad man.

Ann Coulter is plain crazy. Worse than Bill O'Reilly crazy…and that's hard to do. 

(as seen on Kotaku)

Ever play on Live or Battlefield or whatever with a girl? You probably have, you just don't know it. You know why? Because lots of girls are afraid to talk and let it be known they are of the opposite sex. Why you ask? Here's a good quote from girl gamer Chantal:

 Basically, it was my first time EVER playing Live! because I was so petrified of being called out for being a girl, so, I was being made fun of for not speaking. Finally, I started speaking and half the guys started kissing my ass and then half were telling me to get off because I was a girl. Some of the guys were really cool though - like helping me out and giving me pointers but, overall, I felt totally embarrassed for having a passion for gaming. Nothing killed me more than the comments about “shouldn't I be buying shoes and drinking frappes with my girlfriends at the mall??”

That's great. Someone new to gaming on Live doesn't feel comfortable enough to talk because when she does, she gets shit for it. I blame all of you bastards out there scared of girls, not just girl gamers. Making women feel uncomfortable because they are women is about the silliest thing you can possibly do. Why, you ask?

1) It's just against all common decency. Girls like games too, some of them are very good at them, just like some guys are very good at them. You aren't better at video games because you're a guy. Where in things like track and field the extra height and muscles a man gets normally can give them an advantage over women in general, it doesn't mean shit in video games. 

2) If you're one of those annoying bastards on Live or the like that don't want girls on there, you're probably without a girlfriend or wife. Lets assume at some point you think you'll get a girlfriend and/or wife. Wouldn't it be great if she played games too? The more women you can get to play games, the better chance you have of finding a girl to date that plays games.

3) Not to mention, women that play video games are sexy. Definitely.

If you're a guy, go read this article and realize what a pain in the ass it can be for girls to get accepted in the gaming ranks. They don't just have to be good, they have to be handle more crap than any of us guys do. If you're a girl, go read the article and know you're not alone. It'll get better as time goes on. More and more girls are gamers every day.

—

Also, a note to those guys that want to help women feel accepted in gaming. Don't do anything for them you wouldn't do for other people you play with. Don't harass them sure, but don't try to hold their hand and protect them either. Let them get their game on and be cool. And if they, OR ANYONE, asks for help, give them help. Just treat them normal. That'll help them, or anyone, feel accepted faster.

—

 UPDATE:

To add some notes from a girl gamer I know online, Caryn/Hellchick gave these examples that happened to her, being the die hard gamer that she is:

I've had so many of those experiences for years. I remember someone on a public Quake 2 server asking me if I was really a girl, and I said yes, and then one of the other players started calling me a bitch, a whore, making sexual jokes involving his rocket launcher, etc.. I didn't respond, I just kept playing. He was trash talking so badly that he lost miserably and I won by yards. I didn't respond until the end when I said, "maybe next time you'll actually play instead of being a chatty little bitch." The map changed and he quit.

One time I was in a GameStop (or an EB, I can't remember) and I was wearing a QuakeCon t-shirt. The guy behind the counter sneered and said, "so did your boyfriend give you that shirt?" I was there with the sports game genre guy from GameSpy (we were buying some games for work) and before I could say anything he started in with the "dude, this is Hellchick" stuff. The guy blushed to his roots.

After work at GameSpy one day I decided to jump on a public Rocket Arena server. There were two guys on it. One of them said, "is it really Hellchick?" I said yes. The other guy said, "no it's not, Hellchick wouldn't play on public servers." (I was surprised that they even knew who I was.) So they started tearing into me. I was beating them and one of them said, "OMGLOL I got beat by a pretend girl". So ridiculous.

It's hard to believe that girls still get this much attitude about it. I can understand back when I started gaming, but come on — console games are an everybody thing now. It can't be that hard to imagine anymore that a girl might play.

 Emphasis is mine.