SUWT and the gang wear their bunny ears

It seems we disappointed a blogger out there in regards to how we handled our recent podcast on the issues of the "Bunny Ear" debacle in WoW.

What started as a statement by Tobold, became a disagreement on Raph Koster's website.

We took it upon ourselves to discuss how we felt about avatars on SUWT this past weekend, and it may even have come off that we thought it had something to do with maturity..at least this is what Anjin at Bullet Points wrote..

"Dismissing points of view as immature because they differ from yours is counterproductive and potentially dangerous."

First, I do wish to state, that as bloggers, podcasters, gamers...this is what we do all the time anyways. Have different viewpoints. I do not believe we pushed off those beliefs as immature. But, maybe as we have aged and played these games, we have moved beyond these feelings of the avatar being more than a playing piece. We just may not have the time to delve into it (at least I do not anymore...).

I had stated how I wished we could get beyond "stereotypes" though and just play the game for the game. Maybe we RP sometimes, and want more from those characters..but we cannot expect the developers to want the same.

Before MMO's, were we ever worried in our single player games what our character did or looked like or was represented? Stereotypes were quite rampant at those times, and as we have progressed in our world, so have the games.

But, here we are with Blizzard offering an achievement that may "objectify" women (if they feel this is what it does to them. My wife for example finds it "awesome" and wants a pair)..thus, should the game be allowed to even do this.

We can go back to my previous post about support though and see it in writing on the wall, plain as day "Warranty is implied as such..."

You as a player give up all rights to those avatars as soon as you log into that game. The warranty states as much. Blizzard is allowed to do what they wish, whenever they wish.

If they wish to objectify women? They do not care. Cut off Gay and Lesbians from advertising their guilds? GONE!...

Stereotypes are rampant in the MMO world. Look at Age of Conan as a fine example. (but I digress, there are ugly people in that game as well as beautiful people..). But guess what? Our rights are thrown out the window upon the first step into that world.

This is what it boils down to. No matter how much we want the avatar to mean something more, the developers stop that all from happening due to THEIR control, their DICTATORSHIP of these games.

Heck we can't even get good support, yet we are worried our avatars are being treated unfairly? Gee, our human selves are being treated worse.

In all honesty, I wish it was a place that we had more control of...but we do not. We pay to access those game servers, and the developer controls the rest of that world. No shouting or screaming will fix it either (well, maybe...like in my case with the support issues in Conan).

But, let me say this. Do we not play these games to enter another reality, to leave our real world behind? Should we be dragging real world rules into those games? Should we be jailed every time we kill those small creatures of those worlds? Every time we use "herbs" should we be under suspicion from the guards?

Just some food for thought...

SUWT podcast live tweeted

Woot..

Just finished recording the new SUWT...my first LIVE performance..woohoo..

Anyways, that should be available Monday. 

I did a live Tweet off as we recorded to play around with that a bit...was great fun. Check my Twitter logs to see how we rolled. 

Some really good topics, including the Eurogamer/Darkfall/Tasos standoff and also the infamous Avatar discussion on Raph's website about the "Bunny Ears" in WoW.

Ok..off for now..later all!

Week ending round up

Quite a week and quite a weekend planned.

I have been busy...

First off, I have started working on Social Networking for the Non-profit I work for. I have set them up on Facebook and Twitter, and then I am responsible for filling these with content.

Tough work...especially when you are usually a static website which discusses what you do, so it has been quite a trip constantly having chatter for Twitter and adding goodies to FB.

So, far I have grown our FB page to twice the size of a standard group we had on there (we now have a "Page"), and Twitter is almost up to 200 followers.

Next up, I got featured on SUWT, and it has made me start looking at my blog again. I have noted a drop in bloggers discussing their games, and I guess we need all of us we can get, so I have been trying to make sure and stay focused on my game, and put out some info once in a while. Thanks guys for making me look twice at my ramblings.

They have offered me a day to run my mouth on their show also..dread those moments eh? Now, should I tell them I went to school when I was about 20 to be a radio announcer? Lasted about 1 month...haha.

Back to gaming..I hit level 69 today in Age of Conan. This means one more level, and then I can move a copy to Testlive and check out the new zone...Tarantia Commons.

You can check out a HD Video in DX10 here.

Tarantia on Youtube

At this point, I think it is time to look at how AoC has been doing since the release of the Trial (almost a month ago). Also a contest had been taking place on Xfire, which has helped build up audience participation.

The game had hit some high points on Xfire, getting as high as #17 or #18. The contest ended on April 16th though, and as of Saturday the 18th, they have dropped down to #27.

Now this is not too bad, as the retention after the contest is considerably higher than it had been (roughly averaging between #40 to #50 on Xfire).

My only question at this point is if the game can survive the long haul. Especially with Patch 1.05 which will be the make or break of the game.

Many titles kind of fell to the wayside since last year, and this years offerings are not that accesible (Sci-Fi and Superhero games will be pretty niche, and Free Realms will be good, just very young adult and kid oriented). To keep some variety in Fantasy, I can only hope AoC survives. I really have not felt like going back to Global Cooldowns and slow mo combat. Also, I am unsure if I want Elves in my Fantasy anymore as well (lol).

Anyways, I need to get a few more quests done so I can hopefully get on to TL by next week.

Later today I am heading out for Japanese steakhouse to celebrate a good week for work, and what not...so...YUM!

As always, I appreciate those who look here once in a while. Guess I should feel lucky I lasted through a major blog blowup and downtime between games.

Has been fun.

Anyways, Cheers all...chat soon.