Around Azeroth: Poaching players

Hi, I'm a Hyldnir! I know it must be startling for you to see me here in Dalaran, far away from my home in the Storm Peaks. But I've been hired by Bethesda Entertainment to deliver messages to a few select gamers. Hasn't it been a while since you've played Skyrim? There's a few expansions out now, and I bet you haven't finished all the Daedric quests. All you have to do is log out and click on the Steam logo. Here, I'll even open it up for you. Wait! Stop! Don't kill me! Accept that advertisements are everywhere these days! Nooooo! (Thanks to submitter Eralis of Hardcore Mortals on Dalaran [US-A] for the screenshot.)
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm. Tags: around azeroth, around-azeroth, AroundAzeroth, featured, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ss

Filed under: Around Azeroth

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Californian WoW players imprisoned for neglect

A story has emerged today about a WoW-playing couple, who have been imprisoned in Southern California. The Albany Tribune states that the couple, both 41, were charged with two counts of child abuse, and two of false imprisonment, relating to the ten-year-old and five-year-old girls who were in their care. This is according to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney's office.

It is reported that the two girls were locked in the couple's mobile home while said couple played World of Warcraft. The home was highly unsanitary. When police arrived, they reported that it was covered in mold, cobwebs, trash and even feces, and lacked a working toilet. The girls themselves were malnourished, with matted hair, rotted teeth and dirt crusted on their feet. The girls, who were related to the couple, were not permitted to leave the mobile home for any reason, including school.

While mass media may be quick to hop on the bandwagon of blaming World of Warcraft for tragic events such as these, it is an unfortunate truth that abuse happens with or without video games as part of the equation. World of Warcraft is not to blame for this couple's neglect of these children. Parenting and World of Warcraft can actually work really well together, in the right hands.

Tags: breaking, couple, imprisoned, neglect, wow-couple

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

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Community Blog Topic Results: Rewarding well-behaved players

Previously in Community Blog Topic, we talked about the punishment of funsuckers. Conversely, last week we talked about rewarding players who are known for good behavior.

MrandMrsWoW voiced on their blog what many people in the comments were saying: good behavior is its own reward. They go on to list their reasons why well-behaved players should not be rewarded:

WoW is not school, and should be treated as such!Good behaviour is a basic human principal and should be a given (whether it is or not is a separate issue)Rewarding people for being polite will only encourage more scamming of the systemI can't think of a fair way to instigate a reward system: for LFR? For LFG? For guildies? Should we vote? How do we vote?What is 'well-behaved'? Not swearing? Saying hello? Not ninja-ing loot? I can't see a fair way to judge it.WE SHOULD NOT BE REWARDING GROWN ADULTS FOR NOT BEING NASTY TO EACH OTHER!

The World of Warcraft may not be school, but there are plenty of school-aged players who could use some guidance in the correct direction of becoming well-behaved adults. It's not WoW's job to parent them, but offering positive reinforcement by peers is not necessarily a school-only thing. With employee of the month awards and merit bonuses being used in the working world, rewarding good behavior is a commonplace tactic used by adults for adults.

The fact is that Blizzard is already engaging in behavior modification with the report system. We can right-click report for many reasons and use the customer service ticket system to report more egregious acts by players. The vote-kick system affects behavior as well and is sometimes exploited, yet is still a positive tool for most players.

But while most people want the ability to report bad players and have something to be done about it, quite a few commenters agree with MrandMrsWoW just as vehemently. Like xsushi:

That's like rewarding people who don't break the law. You should conduct yourself the way you want to be treated. You want respect? Show some!

and malacenious:

How about we, ya know, as decent human beings, try to always act nice and helpful?! I know it seems like a bold idea - doing something without the possibility of reward ... No, we should not have a method of reporting GOOD behavior. We should just act like upstanding, caring individuals and not only as such when there is a possibilty of being rewarded.

also slparker09

If you do something nice or helpful for someone else with an expectation of reward, you are no longer doing it to help someone else.

While I understand a misguided need for some people to want to offer praise, it isn't needed, nor should a system be implemented to praise them.

I offer help, I behave like a human being because it is what I am. I don't even expect a "thank you," for it. I did it because it is right, not because I deserve praise or perks for it.

But many people did like the idea and offered suggestions as to how to implement. Pashtarina blogged about this topic last year and has some very good ideas, such as chivalrous titles (Sir, Lady) being offered to those with a high enough score on the good behavior scale. I disagree with Pashtarina's suggestion about tangible rewards, however.

Instead of, or as well as, the prospect of earning a difficult to acquire title, fair players could earn more physical rewards. Not everyone is into mounts or titles, so perhaps there would have to be an array of different rewards, including good pieces of gear or weapons. For example, you could have the equivalent of a legendary, but earned in a far different way to however any such weapon has been earned before.

Any reward that affected gameplay would become a mandatory item for many guilds and would open up the system to even more abuse. It would only work if the gear were vanity items intended only for transmogging.

Quite a few people liked the idea of being able to thank players who were especially helpful.

Though mr-killik suggested sarcastically that we already had this in place in guilds

The reward for being well-behaved should be that you're allowed to call on other players for help. You could have their names handily accessible, in a sort of "friends list", if you will.

You should also be able to form a sort of 'extended group' of like-minded and supportive people. It could have its own chat channel and you could maybe pool your resources with people you trust, in a sort of "bank".

But kerfaxrogue offers up a plan which I really like

A way to avoid exploitation of this system would be the following:

Each player account would have a certain amount of "karma" that accrues over time. This would be divided evenly amongst all of the players that he/she reports "vote-kudos".

Overall, while I agree that good behavior should be its own reward and there are plenty of helpful players proving this every day, rewarding good deeds is a good thing, if it can be done properly. But can it be done properly? Or is a simple "thank you" all the reward that is needed?

Stay tuned for the next Community Blog Topic coming soon. Tags: behavior-modification, community-blog-topic, community-blog-topic-results, featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, positive-reinforcement, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

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What new players need to know about WoW patches

If World of Warcraft had but one holiday, it would be Patch Day: the glorious Tuesday (or Wednesday) in which the WoW servers go down for maintenance but come back online brimming with new, unexplored content. If you're new to World of Warcraft, or MMOs in general, you may not entirely understand all the fuss the community makes over patches. So just what is a patch? Why are they so important? And how can you get your hands on one? We'll do our best to explain.

What is a WoW patch?
Did you know we're playing version 5 of World of Warcraft right now? It's true: Version 1.1 was World of Warcraft's launch client and every expansion since has bumped the version number up a full number, while each patch release is a decimal place. The original game went up to patch 1.12 (the 1.1 launch client and 11 patches after), Burning Crusade (2.0) had a scant 4 patches, Wrath of the Lich King (3.0) had 3, Cataclysm (4.0) had 3, and Mists of Pandaria (5.0) is about to see the release of its 3rd patch, patch 5.3. These days, patches are coming more quickly than ever and we have no idea how many patches to expect before the next expansion arrives.

Unlike patches you might be familiar with from other software or other (non MMO) games, which might fix bugs or address problems, WoW's patches add content -- sometimes a lot of it! You might see new skills, new quests, new zones, and new dungeons rolled out in a patch. The patches are best compared to downloadable content (DLC) that you might find for other games you play. However, in WoW if you want to keep playing, you have to download and install the latest patch in order to connect to the World of Warcraft servers -- they aren't optional parts of the game experience.

What's the difference between an expansion and a patch?
Expansions are big: patches are small. A patch might add a new zone, but an expansion will probably add a new continent. Think of patches as what you're paying your subscription fees for: in addition to keeping the servers running and the lights on at Blizzard HQ, you're also paying Blizzard for new content. Expansions are much larger chunks of content which have their own, additional fee for purchase.

Why all the fuss over patches?
Blizzard's patches for WoW include can include lots of gameplay changes -- and not every player will agree that all of them are good. Before a patch rolls out, players are eager for news of how their class will fare in the coming patch: will they be buffed? Will they be nerfed? Blizzard makes calls like this based on overall game balance rather than a particular player's wants, so with each patch you'll find a lot of discussion, speculation, cheering, and complaining. And since WoW players love to chat about their favorite pastime, you won't always find this stopping once the patch comes out. What is the PTR?
You've probably heard the term "PTR" tossed around in advance of a new WoW patch. The PTR is the Public Test Realm, where Blizzard releases early versions of patches for players to test out. How long content is on the PTR and when it arrives on the PTR is entirely up to Blizzard: when they have new content ready for players to see, they'll open the PTR and when the patch officially launches they'll close it again. Though a lot of pre-patch chatter is based off content on the PTR, nothing about a patch is for sure until Blizzard finalizes it for the live realms. The patch data up on the PTR can -- and usually does! -- change between its initial roll out on the PTR and its final release on the live servers.

For more on the PTR -- or if you want to do some play testing yourself -- check out Blizzard's PTR FAQ.

Just when is patch day?
Patches will always be applied during WoW's weekly maintenance, which is on Tuesday for North American and Australian realms and Wednesday for European realms. Smaller hotfixes, which fix bugs or other problems, are sometimes applied between patches and, if the problem the hotfix is addressing is serious enough, may go out at any time instead of waiting for maintenance.

Following Blizzard's philosophy of only releasing content when it's done, patches don't come out on any specific schedule. However, Blizzard usually gives a few days' warning before a new patch is expected to land. In the case of patch 5.3, they told us on Friday that the patch would be rolling out the following Tuesday and Wednesday. How do I get the new patch?
When you fire up World of Warcraft's launcher, one of the things it does before letting you in to the game is check to see if there's any patch data to download. If there is, it will start downloading it immediately -- usually, it will start before the patch's official release, downloading anything Blizzard has finalized so you won't have a huge download on patch day.

However, there will still be downloading on patch day: when you fire up the client, it will prevent you from logging in until the patch is downloaded. There's a certain amount of essential data it has to download and install before you can play (the download bar will appear red while it downloads necessary components). Once it's grabbed essential data, the bar will turn yellow and you can log in while it finishes downloading in the background: though you may not have a flawless gameplay experience. When it's completely finished downloading, the bar will appear green and you're good to go without any problems.

We typically find the downloader to work perfectly, but if you're having problems, check out Blizzard's patch troubleshooting information.

Now you know all you need to know to celebrate this week's patch day holiday! Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't bring your A-game to World of Warcraft! Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from the seven things every newbie ought to know to how to get started as a healer or as a tank. Tags: featured, guide, how-to-play-wow, new-to-world-of-warcraft, noob-guide, patch, patch-5.3, patch-day, patches, ptr, rookie-guide, world-of-warcraft-guide, world-of-warcraft-help, world-of-warcraft-noobs, world-of-warcraft-rookies, wow-guide, wow-help, wow-noob-guide, wow-noobs, wow-patch, wow-patch-5.3, wow-patch-day, wow-patches, wow-ptr, wow-to-play-world-of-warcraft

Filed under: WoW Rookie

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Breakfast Topic: Should Blizzard brake base XP while preserving boosts for experienced players?

We recently explored how you felt about alternate characters, whether you believe they should represent true alternatives to your first character or whether they should remain secondary to a more fully developed main. Either way, there's no stuffing rapid leveling back into the bag. WoW's current leveling design pushes players forward relentlessly, whether they're experienced gamers or not. The problem is that today's leveling pace already outstrips zone content, quest lines, gearing -- you name it. Should Blizzard apply the brakes to base XP while still permitting seasoned WoW players to choose to move more rapidly?

Consider this: What if the leveling experience weren't tuned to catapult players so quickly through and past leveling zones and dungeons? What if the pace were a little looser, giving new players more time to soak up the leveling game itself -– and then at the same time, the current XP boosts were spread across tools designed for experienced players who choose to hop, skip, and jump their way to 90?

The precedents are there -- just look at the heirloom armor system. Today, you can buy Grand Commendations to boost various reputations for your characters once you've played through them once. And remember when everyone was buying the Tome of Cold Weather Flight for their alts? The tools are already in place. From leveling XP to reputation gains to player convenience, the helping hand of a level-capped main character is key.

Do you think WoW's leveling experience should remain something to be played through quickly and efficiently, even for brand new players, or do you think there's merit to allowing that part of the game to move at a more deliberate pace? Would you support more mechanics that give experienced players a way to speed up leveling for their alts, preserving a slower pace for new players and players who enjoy slower leveling? If you like a strong emphasis on mechanics like heirlooms and commendations, should those tools be simple, affordable purchases for any level 90 player, or should they take some time, effort, or money to earn? Tags: alts, featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, leveling, main, main-character, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics, xp

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

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What's your guild's niche? Help players find your specialized group

What is your guild all about? Many guilds are fairly easily described by their schedules and raid progressions (or their lack of either). More likely, though, the essence of your group -- the part that gives it its flavor and makes it stand apart from other guilds -- is somewhat trickier to describe. "Social," "casual," "raiding" ...These terms pretty much describe most guilds.

Even terms that seem fairly self-explanatory at first glance can be problematic for players trying to evaluate a potential fit. "We're a dedicated roleplaying guild." OK, so what's the spin? One RP guild might maintain a military structure and campaign, while another plays out some very adult-themed interpersonal dramas -- definitely not interchangeable concepts!

Our experience is that player and guild drama becomes inevitable when members end up unhappily guilded in a group that doesn't truly fit. The Drama Mamas frequently get mail from players who find their guildmates nice enough but still have that itchy feeling that something just isn't clicking. So as we prepare a guide to help players target the qualities they're looking for in a guild and figure out where to find them, we're turning to you for feedback plus a chance to let other players know about what your own guild's niche has to offer. Click past the break for more details on how to participate.

Guilds worth searching for

One of the things our upcoming guide will do is to let players know what types of guilds exist out there in the vast space beyond general classifications like "social" or "casual." Whether by design or happy accident, is your guild filled with players from a particular niche?

A few examples of guild niches:
Social niches such as all-male or all-female, LGBT-friendly, politically minded, players from a specific city or region, real-life friends, specific age ranges (30somethings with careers, college students, etc.), professional/career interests (such as military or firefighters/police)Retro content (PvE twinking)PvP twinkingParticular schedules such as non-traditional play times (including wee-hours raiding), limited-schedule raiding (one or two nights per week), weekend-only raidingDisability-friendlyThemed guilds (all gnomes, all rogues, etc.)Players who enjoy professionsNo voice chat (raiding and non-raiding)Re-rollersX-rated atmosphere (guild chat that's often or usually inappropriate for younger players, as opposed to a "mature guild" that's more about shared commonalities like careers or families and whose members may also make incidental off-color references)Raider training (for new/rusty raiders)
Spin cycle

Here's your chance to help us build our guide to helping players find a guild that fits and let other players know about your own guild's special mojo. Keep descriptions brief -- tweet-length, 140 characters or less -- and add them in the comments here, tweet me at @LisaPoisso, or email me at lisa@wowinsider.com.
What are we missing? What niches or angles not listed above have you or other players you know searched for in a guild? How do you describe the playstyle, focus, or social atmosphere you're looking for?Share your guild info What's your guild's niche, and where can we find you? (Include your realm plus faction or your guild website – and remember, 140 characters or less!)
Please note that you must be specific about the unique aspect of your guild in order to be included in our article. Guilds without realm/faction or website information will not be included. If your guild can be described best by its schedule or progression or a label like "heroic raiding" or "casual non-raiding," please don't comment; players can already find you by those traits.

In the meantime, learn more about finding a WoW guild:

How to find a World of Warcraft guild
How to leave your guild without drama or burning bridges
20 signs it's time to leave your guild
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com. Tags: advice, casual-guild, drama, featured, guild-advice, guild-drama, guild-types, guilds, leveling-guild, niche, playing-wow, pvp-guild, raiding-guild, retro-raiding, rp-guild, social-guild, types-of-guilds, warcraft-advice, wow-advice, wow-drama, wow-drama-guide, wow-player-guide, wow-q-and-a

Filed under: Guilds, Drama Mamas

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