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Google wants first refusal on the patents you want to sell
When a business is finished with a patent or just needs some cash, it often winds up selling its intellectual property to a patent troll. With it, these "non-practicing entities" can then fire courtroom broadsides at outfits like Microsoft and Google in the hope of raising a quick buck. It's become so much of a problem that Google is hoping to tackle it simply by buying those patents before the trolls can get their hands on 'em.
Twitter helps verified users keep trolls out of their tweets
It's not all sunshine and roses for Twitter's verified users. They may have more features, but that blue checkmark also makes them a bullseye for trolls, spammers and people who simply have a chip on their shoulder. This group should have an easier time having meaningful discussions from now on, though. Twitter has started giving verified iOS users a simple "quality filter" that lets them remove abusive remarks, duplicate content and suspicious accounts from their notifications. The social network already had tailored filtering, but this new option theoretically cleans things up with the flick of a switch.
Twitter makes it easier to report abusive tweets
If you've ever been the victim of harassment on Twitter, you know how hard it has been to report abuse until now; you couldn't really do much on mobile, and the complicated process made it difficult to flag all but the scariest threats. Thankfully, Twitter is at last simplifying the reporting process to give you a better defense against abusers. You now need less initial information to make a complaint, and the reporting system is easier to understand as a whole. You should also have less trouble reporting harassment when you aren't the target, and a mobile-native interface lets you deal with troublemakers away from a computer.
Star Wars: The Old Republic hit by DDoS attacks
If you were playing Star Wars: The Old Republic yesterday, you may very well have been hit with some lag and disconnections. The good news is that it's not a problem with your ISP; the bad news is that it appears to be yet another installment in the ongoing saga of irritating twits with nothing better to do than try to damage servers. Yes, it looks like this was another DDoS attack. Community manager Eric Musco's last update on Sunday night indicates that most of the issues should be resolved now, but it's possible that players may still experience intermittent connection difficulties. The representatives from BioWare have not officially stated that it was a DDoS attack, but it lines up perfectly with a DDoS attack made against Electronic Arts servers, leading to the accepted conclusion. [Thanks to Leiloni for the tip!]
Turbine pledges to act on LotRO player event griefing
Concern over trolls disrupting and griefing player-run events in Lord of the Rings Online has been hitting our inboxes here at Massively, which is why it's good to see Turbine take an official position today against such griefing in the future. According to a post on the forums, the studio will be "making a concerted effort" to combat trolls and encourage the continuation of player-run events. GMs pledged to take action on help tickets as well as monitor such events as they occur, but said that it will limit such policing efforts to stage areas only. "We know that players moving throughout the performance area on mounts can be particularly frustrating and distracting," the studio said. "To combat this problem we're looking into what options are available to help combat this behavior in designated performance (stage) areas. We'll also be removing players who are mounted from the stage area manually in the meantime." [Thanks to George for the tip!]
UK wants tougher prison sentences for internet trolls
Online harassers in the UK may soon face much harsher consequences for their scare tactics. Justice Secretary Chris Grayling tells the Daily Mail that a newly proposed measure will let magistrates send cases of internet abuse and threats to crown courts, boosting the maximum prison time for those cases from six months to two years. The measure likely won't intimidate the most determined of trolls if it takes effect, but it could serve as a warning to "casual" abusers who don't think they'll pay a price for their long-distance hate campaigns. Given how nightmarish internet threats have become as of late, the proposed tougher sentencing might be well-timed. [Image credit: Eirik Solheim, Flickr]
US House of Representatives faces Wikipedia ban thanks to trollish edits
We already know that the United States Congress (or the countless people it employs) can't seem to stop editing Wikipedia articles, but do they need to be such jerks about it? Case in point: Wiki tinkerers using an IP address connected to the US House of Representatives have been blocked from making edits to articles for the third time this summer. The first two bans were relatively short, but this time the block will stick for a month because a congressional staffer (or staffers) associated with the IP address made a handful of offensive edits that denigrated transgender people. And the straw that seemed to break the admin's back? A particularly distasteful change to the page devoted to Orange Is The New Black.
Warlords of Draenor Beta: New character models incoming
One of the things about the beta is, it can still surprise you. CM Zorbrix just posted to the forums about something we've all been wondering about - several of the new character models will be making their appearance in the beta. Both male and female trolls, human males, tauren females and night elf males will all be playable. Zorbrix - Beta Realm Maintenance - 8/21/14 I just wanted to confirm that this build will have 5 new Player Character Models. Troll Male and Female, Human Male, Tauren Female, and Night Elf Male. We've mentioned this before when models are first shown to you folks in beta, but I wanted to stress this point again: These models are a Work-In Progress. Things will not be perfect, and our QA testing of these models (and the subsequent bug fixes) are not yet complete. I do hope you enjoy the models and give constructive feedback as appropriate, but please keep this is mind when looking at the models today. source It's important to note that the night elf male hasn't even had an Artcraft yet. This is definitely a work in progress, as was the case when the draenei male appeared on servers before it was previewed. But I find this amazingly exciting - finally we'll get to see how these models look in action. We've added a slideshow of the new night elf male model below for players to look at.
The Daily Grind: Do you comment on headlines before you read articles?
I'm not a Twitter fan. I never use it outside of work, and the time I spend manning the Massively Twitter feed is one of the least enjoyable portions of my workday. This is due mostly to the large numbers of people who read our headlines via Twitter and then proceed to comment or tweet back without reading the article. I know; it's a game of trolls and the winner gets to feel like a special snarkanaut for cramming his invaluable insight into 140 characters or less and hopefully provoking some sort of reaction. But like all casual games, it gets tiresome rather quickly. Ultimately, we, like most writers on the internet, design headlines specifically to entice reading, not to sum up a post in 10 words. How about you, Massively readers? 'Fess up: Do you comment on headlines before you read articles, either on Twitter or elsewhere? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
World of Warcraft spotlights Draenor's new Troll models
Today's World of Warcraft Artcraft blog is all about Trolls. No, not the trolls who plague internet comment sections everywhere; the playable Troll race that outcools all the other Horde races. Blizzard's Chris Robinson spotlights the new models for both the male and female Trolls, noting that the race's tusks posed "unique challenges": In the character customization options, you have the ability to select from a number of tusk "styles." While other race models (like the Tauren) have similar customization options, the additional modeling, texturing, and animation articulation of the Troll face-and mouth especially-made this a distinctive challenge. We actually had to model the Troll with a flat lower lip; then, for each facial customization option, we went in and posed their lips to naturally wrap around each tusk option. We've included a pic of the female Trolls below.
SOE relies on players to report inappropriate posts
If you see something, SOE definitely wants you to say something. EverQuest II CM Linda Carlson responded to a post on EQ2Wire to say that the studio depends on its players to help police the "meeelions" of comments in its forums. "Unless we are actually perusing the forums when something comes up, we do indeed rely on players helping to keep the forum community a reasonable and comfortable place to post by reporting disruptive or inappropriate posts," Carlson said. Carlson went on to give advice on how to constructively post on forums and avoid unnecessary conflict with other posters, including "Never post angry. Never post drunk." and "Two trolls do not make a right."
Xbox One griefers may have Twitch privileges, dessert taken away
When Microsoft revealed its reputation system for Xbox One in July, it sought to match the worst members of the gaming community with one another based on a long-term gauge of their behavior in online games. Now, the console manufacturer will begin issuing warnings for those that fall into the "Needs Work" category of players following feedback from other members of the community. In an Xbox Wire blog, Microsoft said, "these warnings are based on community feedback collected since Xbox One launched," so bad reports from others shouldn't take effect from just a few weeks of play. While Microsoft plans to "introduce rewards for good behavior," the more noteworthy course of action applies to the bottom-tier of the community. Those that fall into the "Avoid Me" category will see penalties on their account, such as "reduced matchmaking pairings" and restrictions on other Xbox Live functions, such as the ability to use "certain privileges such as Twitch broadcasting." Microsoft clarified in September that Xbox 360 reputation scores don't carry over to Xbox One. [Image: Microsoft]
The Daily Grind: Does griefing in MMOs reflect a sinister personality?
A recent psychology paper picked up by Slate suggests that maybe there's more to bad behavior on the internet than previously thought. Researchers asked study participants to evaluate what they found most fun about commenting on the internet, then gave those same participants a personality test to determine their levels of sadism, narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism -- the "dark tetrad" of antisocial personality traits. (One of the agree/disagree statements on the personality exam? "I enjoy griefing other players in multiplayer games.") The researchers found a significant correlation between those who flagged as sadists and those who claimed to enjoy trolling and expressed "sadistic glee at the distress of others." While the study focused on the 5% of participants who cause comment moderators the most grief on the internet, over here in MMOland I'm wondering whether this study would map equally well to griefers in video games since we might define griefing in a virtual world the same way: causing someone distress because it's pleasurable for the griefer. That guy who ganks your lowbie and corpse camps you for an hour might not be so socially well-adjusted in the real world after all, in spite of what griefer-apologists have been claiming all these years. What do you folks think? Does griefing in MMOs reflect a sinister personality? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
HTC and Sony prevail over patent troll WiLAN
A federal jury has just taken a bite out of patent licensing firm WiLAN's business plan, ruling that HTC, Sony, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson didn't infringe any of the four patents it sued them over. The latter two companies fended off three wireless base station claims, while Sony and HTC defended a fourth involving handset technology. HTC said it believed that WiLAN "exaggerated the scope of its patent" to extract royalties, while a spokesman for Alcatel-Lucent said it believed the company "was stretching the boundaries of its patents" -- all of which were invalidated by the court. WiLAN has been fighting such battles on numerous fronts for many years, including one reported to have resulted in a large settlement with Intel. Though it said it was disappointed by the decision, the IP firm still has pending litigation against Time Warner and Comcast, among others. Those cable firms may be hoping a White House patent reform bill will be tabled sooner rather than later.
Xbox One reputation system matches trolls with trolls
Xbox One's reputation system is a brand new beast designed to group people who harass other players into a separate matchmaking layer, where they'll end up playing with others who can give as good as they get. Players who consistently get banned or reported for griefing will find themselves in games with players who do the same things, Microsoft Senior Product Manager Mike Lavin tells OXM. "There'll be very good things that happen to people that just play their games and are good participants," Lavin says. "And you'll start to see some effects if you continue to play bad or harass other people en masse. You'll probably end up starting to play more with other people that are more similar to you." It won't be so easy to sink a specific, innocent player's reputation score in the new system, since the calculations are taken over time, Lavin says. "If we see consistently that people, for instance, don't like playing with you, that you're consistently blocked, that you're the subject of enforcement actions because you're sending naked pictures of yourself to people that don't want naked pictures of you .... Blatant things like that have the ability to quickly reduce your reputation score," Lavin continues. This tactic is similar to the Cheaters Pool in Max Payne 3, where players confirmed to have modded games or hacked saves are thrown into an online matchmaking system together, where they play only with other cheaters. Microsoft's version – the Griefers Pool, maybe – won't impact people's friends lists, but is designed to facilitate anonymous matchmaking based on compatible reputation scores. "Ultimately if there's a few per cent of our population that are causing the rest of the population to have a miserable time, we should be able to identify those folks," Lavin says.
Patent challengers must prove they have a 'significant presence' in the US: ITC
The International Trade Commission has become increasingly tired of all the patent mischief it's forced to deal with, just as we've become tired of reporting on it. That's why its latest defense against time-wasters could potentially be a very good idea. According to Reuters, the ITC will soon demand upfront proof that the complainant in a patent case has a "significant presence in the United States" and isn't merely a fly-by-night outfit created for the purpose of pursuing litigation. The new rule has already been trialed in a pilot program, and Google, Intel, HP and others have voiced their support. It can't fix everything, of course, since major companies will still be able to game the system to hamper their rivals, but with the FTC and the White House also taking steps to subject "patent-assertion entities" to greater scrutiny, it feels like the wheels of government may be starting to catch up with the trolls.
Savage trolls roleplay the revenge of the Zandalari
Deep in the heart of steamy Stranglethorn Vale, within the golden city of Zul'Gurub, gathers a savage band of Zandalari trolls. Loyal to neither the Horde nor the Alliance, these players embrace a fierce roleplaying ethic that can be both fascinating and intimidating to newcomers. Yet Atal Zanza Aka is esteemed by other guilds on Argent Dawn (RP-EU) and has become a vital (if quantitatively small) ingredient in the roleplaying community. We visited with guild leader Zazajin to explore this niche of WoW roleplaying and find out how this guild manages to thrive in as antagonistic role that sweeps it away from the well-traveled paths and populated city centers of Azeroth. WoW Insider: It would appear that making a troll character for Atal Zanza Aka is full-throttle roleplaying not for the faint of heart, would you agree? Zazajin: Our guild is indeed first and foremost a roleplaying guild. We formed as a breakaway from the Loa Atal Ai (a Darkspear-based trollish guild which serves the Horde but includes different troll tribes) during the occupation of the Echo Isles, and abandoned the Horde to serve the Zandalari and preserve trollish culture, which our characters felt was threatened under the Horde's regime and thus moved to Zul'Gurub to try to preserve that culture. We're made up of various troll tribes, much like the Zandalari themselves. We've members from the Amani (forest trolls), Drakkari (frost trolls), farraki (sand trolls), Gurubashi (jungle trolls), and Zandalari (those trolls that stand up straight, haha).
This is the Modem World: Why we troll
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. Back when the PlayStation 2 was the world's most popular game console, the original Xbox was struggling to gain a post-Halo audience and the GameCube was a cute diversion with a couple decent titles, I trolled gaming message boards. I was so sure that anyone who bought anything other than a PS2 was out of their mind that I set on the most immature mission in history: to inform the masses, proselytize the word as handed down by Hirai-san, and ridicule those who were wasting their time with The Wind Waker. Those who were active gamers at the time probably read that paragraph and are now either annoyed or cracking a wry smile in understanding. The latter are the ones who played Ico. Those who weren't gamers at the time can insert their own products into the mix for context.
Ask Massively: The mobile site and trolly trollersons
Welcome back to Ask Massively, that corner of the site where we take a stab at answering random questions you deposit in our inboxes and comments. Hey guys, we have a cave troll, checkit. soundersfc.tid wrote: I have a question or two about the commenting system. Do you think there will ever be a way to flag offensive comments through the mobile version of the site? And speaking of offensive comments, what metric does Massively use when considering permanent bans on commenters? Long-time mobile viewers will know that our mobile site is... well, it's a thing. A thing that doesn't get a whole lot of love from the technical staff, unfortunately. We were thrilled that the new comment system works so well on mobile, but you're right: It has some deficiencies, which is a bummer because according to our site analytics, a lot of you surf from your favorite hand-held gadgets.
WoW Moviewatch: RePlay
Seems like everyone's talking about trolls today; good, bad, tusked, or otherwise. Let's kick back with a rerun of RePlay by Quixotica. Get it? Do you see what I did there? Twice? Also, as a quick note, I really miss this version of the iPod. While Quixotica released this video for the trolls, she probably didn't mean the kind in forums on comments. For whatever reason, you don't see much machinima focused on our blue-and-tusk Azeroth trolls. It's a shame because the race brims to the rim with lore and character. And while RePlay isn't a lore video, I'll take what I can get. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
