This is what I do at work
Lick the icecream, Soooophie!
Vidya Gayme Drahma 01: “SWTOR IMPERIALS R 2 IMBA”
I don’t play the Pay-to-Play Star Wars MMORPG, SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic,) but I have a few friends that are very adamant about it and they’ve kinda peeked my interest. Naturally, I’ve been checking out videos, fan-sites, and the game forums looking for some perspective. That’s when I came across this. Basically, the BioWare PvP development team packaged and released content through an update that gave the Imperials the ability to ravenously rape Republic bros on the L50+ PvP area Ilum. Obviously the PvP development team didn’t mean to do this, but how could they not have realized the potential for exploitation? The net result of all this besides a lot of angry Republics is that a significant portion of these Imperial players now possibly have a large quantity of valor points. That sounds hardly like a problem, right? Well… not really. That valor can be turned into costly and superior equipment. This can definitively unbalance the game mechanics since there is now a significant discrepancy in player’s gear - and if you’ve ever played PvP, you’d know that a gear advantage can often be the only thing keeping you alive against a skill-matched enemy.
So, what the fuck? What can be done about this? In response to the massive amount of fail, a large amount of people simply got fed up and went to unsubscribe. That’s when some of them realized that the button to discontinue the subscription was missing. Now, you could chock this all up to simple error, but there is one particular glaring fact that sticks out: this all happened the day before the subscriptions renewed after the free month of play people received at launch. When forum users found the direct link that allowed users to unsubscribe, they dutifully posted it in the community forums. Then they subsequently found their posts being locked, deleted, or both, and effected subscribers were encouraged to call into the customer support line to cancel their subscriptions. What a fucking major mess. The good news is that the problem has been fixed now, so at least that was taken care of. But there’s still the potential long-term unbalancing that needs to be addressed.
The forums were apparently exploding with ideas on how to solve the issue. From a complete valor rollback to permanently increasing the cost of valor items, multiple strategies were presented. BioWare then formally announced that they would not proceed with a massive rollback, as this was too unfair for those that did not participate in the huge debacle. Instead, they would pursue a player by player investigation:
“Rest assured though, anyone and everyone who is found to have exploited the situation to an unreasonable degree will be investigated and actions taken as needed. Our in-game metrics are able to give us precise details on where players were, what they were doing and what rewards they gained.”
Interesting, but doesn’t this sound like it will take a long, long time? Surely a player by player basis is going to leave a huge grey area. What exactly does camping mean to BioWare? What precisely counts as unreasonable? Does this mean that someone that just showed up to get in on the action for a few minutes won’t be punished even if, in fact, they were still taking advantage of the situation? I suppose Imperial players are just going to have to cross their fingers and try not to accidentally break any mirrors with their shiny new gear.
I have issues with punishments that end up hurting innocents, so I’m greatly relieved that BioWare did not go with a rollback, but in defense of subscription paying Imperial players, should a developer really punish people for exploiting something that seems to have been a massive failure on their own behalf? You screwed up in the design and some massive unintended things happened that could potentially and significantly unbalance the game. That’s on you, guys. You are trusted to develop a fair and reasonably balanced game for your subscriber base and you’ve fucked up here. (See what I did there?) You need to make a reasonable and quick fix to the issue that does not cost more harm than your first fuck-up. Get it done, folks. For an outsider that is some-what interested in buying your product, I’m not impressed - and more importantly, other people like me aren’t either.
Holy shit look at that ice cube
Hey, wait a minute! This won’t all fit on my feet!
OH GOD NO NOT A LEVEL 65 MAGIKARP! WHAT WILL MEGANIUM DO?
I Work For The Internet (REBLOG)
So this is very, very important. This little website is trying to bring awareness of how vital a free internet is for our working modern society. A lot of people depend on the Internet to make a living and enjoy recreation. If you depend on the Internet, check the site out - kay? Awesome.
I’m against any kind of Internet regulation. Mostly because the Internet is one of the last (if not the last) avenue for free speech. Americans think they have free speech. They don’t. Nobody has free speech. Except when you’re on the Internet. So let’s keep that going, right right? Right. I realize the argument for this piece of shit is that specific industries are losing money from entertainment that would have been bought instead of downloaded, but piracy is never going to go away. It was around before the Internet. It’ll be around forever. The right way to go about this might be to start changing sales tactics. The wrong way is to start interfering with our free Internet and its sites. It’s not solely their fault that content is uploaded to them that may be illegal. They should not be punished for something they did not implicitly do. By the way, if this passes - it won’t be the last steaming pile of shit that they’ll try to dump on the Internet. It’s going to get much, much worse and that’s something we all don’t want. End of story.
Here’s the actual text:
We work for the Internet. And we’re guessing many of you do too. Whether it’s researching, selling, coding, supporting, designing — so many of our careers depend on the Internet.
One argument that’s been made to Congress is that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is needed to protect American jobs. In truth, the new liabilities this bill would impose on startups could stop American innovation in its tracks.
To make this clear to Congress, we’ve built IWorkForTheInternet.org to show the world how many of our careers depend on the Internet.
If you work for the Internet, please add yourself and spread the word.
I made this post while sneaking a cigarette at work 8
Okay, I’ve been neglecting my tumblr. I admit it. Not like anyone reads this frequently. Gonna get a new layout. Gonna try video uploads more. Gonna write more about work. Probably won’t happen for a month. Skyrim. Sorry. You understand!
Today’s Challenge for the Team:
