belfaire
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Return of the Revenge of the Community Policing and Naming Policy Argument: The Addon
You might recall, if you've followed WoW Insider in the past few months, that I've been a relatively strong advocate of the making sure naming and RP server policies are enforced and have felt that if the community's going to be made to it, we should get better tools for the job. While I even got in a very productive conversation with Belfaire about it, I'm not holding my breath on a lot of my proposed tools and reforms seeing the light of day. After all, I work for WoW Insider, not Blizzard itself, and hey, not everyone agrees with me on how this stuff should work. Which is cool. Variety is the spice of life and all. That said, for policy reporting curmudgeons like myself, Wachunga of the Maelstrom server has created a pretty good tool: the NameViolation addon.
Forum Post of the Day: I'm a WoW Widow
And Belfaire doesn't care.Reader Kyver tipped us off to a gem of a post on the Customer Service Forums today, titled "I'm a WoW Widow" (moderately NSFW, PG-13 rating). The story goes like this: A girl, Missmegan, lost her boyfriend to the Burning Crusades [sic]. They used to play together horde side, but after buying the expansion he turned to the alliance and is dedicated to his guild mates. All is lost, as he's no longer interested in his girlfriend's "assets" and rambles like a two-year old.Of course this makes our forum posting protagonist upset, and she needs her boyfriend back. Now obviously this is a joke. At least I hope it is. And Katie (my girlfriend), if you're reading this I promise I'll never let it get this bad. I mean, I only play for 5 hours a day, not 13 as the boyfriend in the story does. And I make money with all this, so it's okay, right? Sweetie? Darling? Honey... D'oh....Tagging the first response to this thread is Belfaire The Mighty, with the simple response "Dear WoW Widow, It's actually Burning Crusade. Yours, Belfaire." This had myself and the other writers here laughing. We had to share it.So dear readers, I ask you, are you a WoW widow?
Massive connection issues in raids tonight [UPDATED]
Based on my experiences, and a slew of other folks posting over at the Blizzard Customer Service Forums, it appears many Tier 6 instances are having issues with stability tonight. Half the raid or more is constantly disconnecting at seemingly random points.Several CMs GMs are looking into the issue – but it is wide spread. This means that it is almost assuredly an issue with the Blizzard servers. Based on testing I've done it is not an issue with addons. After a disconnect, all addons were turned off, and the disconnects still happened.Stay tuned to HKO Insider for the latest. Hopefully they'll hotfix this one right up.Updated 11:00 p.m. EDT: Belfaire posted "We're gathering the appropriate info now. I have no ETA on a resolution, only that it'll be [fixed] ASAP." (April Fool's text removed for readability.)Updated 12:44 a.m. EDT: Belfaire also let us know that Q.A. is working on the problem, though no fix has been announced yet. Seems they are at work on it.Updated 1:00 a.m. EDT: Potential solution from Belfaire: "Please have your entire raid delete or rename your Interface folder and let me know here if you encounter the issue again. [One] group said that they ran without mods, but if what I think's happening is actually happening, even if one person has [an addon], it can affect the raid."
Drysc on Blizzard customer service
We are all rather critical of Blizzard at times. After all, many of us spend an inordinate amount of time in the game; especially the WoW Insider staff on patch days. We expect things to work in a certain type of way, and we expect that when we encounter a problem, things will be solved ASAP.Nothing is wrong with these expectations we have, and indeed we should have them. After all, we want this game to be the best game possible. For many folks it's the only one they'll play. The happiness and smooth sailing in game is principally the responsibility of the customer service department at Blizzard. They're the ones to fix our issues when something goes wrong.Drysc, one of the most visible community managers, made a wonderful post earlier this week on exactly what happens in Blizzard's support services. The full post and response are worth taking a second to read. The bullet points of his posts are as follows:
Patch night connectivity issues may be over soon [UPDATED]
We've gotten quite a few tips and reports that there have been some issues with connectivity this evening. It seems many people have been getting disconnected upon leaving an instanced dungeon or battleground and are unable to log back in on that character.We don't have much solid information on what's causing it, but the theory so far has been an ISP issue. I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to that sort of thing, so I can't really say how true that may or may not be. However, our buddy Belfaire seems to be doing what he can to take care of it. He just posted that they think they've found the issue and may be rolling out a fix.So, you guys with characters stuck in limbo? Hopefully your problems will go away very soon.Updates behind the cut as they come.
Patch 2.4 on the EU and US servers [Updated]
Many thanks to reader fLUx for sending me over to the European WoW site, which as usual, has better info than its U.S. counterpart. The service announcement reads "Weekly Maintenance - 26/03. This Wednesday there will be an extended maintenance to apply patch 2.4.0. Please note that all European realms will be offline from 03:00 until 11:00, Paris time (CET)." March 26th over in Europe is March 25th here in the States.All we're waiting for is the U.S. version of this announcement, which will soon come. After that the final patch notes will drop, which we'll have mirrored here for you as fast as we can get them up. As the posts below this one indicate, down time started about 30 minutes ago and is expect to last until at least 11 a.m. PDT.Happy patch 2.4 day! WoW Insider will be updating frequently, stay tuned.Updated 7:06 a.m. EDT: Belfaire has responded again on one of those "is 2.4 today?" threads: "Enjoy the new patch, folks!" This serves as confirmation for the U.S. realms. And you have a tag this time Belfaire. ;-)
Extended maintenance [Updated]
The in-game breaking news text just announced extended maintenance for tomorrow. This again, is a strong indicator that patch 2.4 is on the immediate queue. We can expect the down time to be at least until 11 a.m. PDT. This normally is substantially higher on patch days, usually lasting until around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. PDT.WoW Insider staff will be burning the midnight oil to make sure that you have a good list of patch mirrors and addon information ready to go when you wake up tomorrow morning.Additionally, Belfaire has said that the patch is more around 300 megs, not the 900 megs that is showing up on Gamespot. Further more, the Gamespot download is a 2.0 to 2.4 update, which very few people will need tomorrow.Updated 12:20 a.m. PDT: Belfaire is having fun with me. First he confirms, then he edits, then he edits again...Updated 1:12 a.m. PDT: Updated Gameespot info, thanks to those who left comments on tonight's posts. And a fix for Belfaire. =)
Is it scheduled maintenance, or patch day?
Well, it is the Tuesday before Easter, and true to Mike's original predictions, the rumors are flying that today patch 2.4 will hit. The PTRs are down, and everything seems set. Of course, if this happens, we will not only be looking at awesomeness, we will be facing extended maintenance. To help you wait it out, we will not only be offering content all day long, but we have compiled a nifty list of content from the past week or so that you simply must read. Belfaire comments on the issue of player policing, and GM subjectivity. See where the issue was first raised. The 10 Commandments of roleplaying. Read and vote for your favorite WoW-themed comic. The dynamic between mages and warlocks, from the mage perspective, and from that of the warlock. Continuing through Amanda Dean's adventures after her account was hacked. Fancy a good story? Learn more about the Grimtotem Tribe. Hear what Drysc had to say regarding battlegrounds and class balance. Have you been keeping up on the tanking controversy? If not, check out Alex's original post, his subsequent reply to reader feedback, and then check out Allison's views regarding hybrid tanking. Even Rossi gets involved, and lets us know how the protection warrior fits in. More interested in some light fun? Go nominate your most hated race in all of Warcraft. Harpies FTL.
Belfaire on community policing and GM subjectivity
As you may recall, a few days ago, I wrote a little Dear Blizzard letter on the subject of enforcing the RP and Naming Policy. Of course, Once one writes a letter to someone, it is a good idea to deliver it, and thus I delivered it, or at least the issues therein, over on the Customer Service Forum. I was lucky enough to have Belfaire, who you may remember from his post explaining Blizzard's stance on multi-boxing, answer some of my questions and concerns. I also got some pretty well thought out feedback from a couple other people browsing the forums, including some roleplayers who disagreed with some of my points, so I think the threads worth a read in itself, and I'll comment a bit more on what Belfaire said after the break, now that I've had time to digest it a bit.
Blue poster Belfaire explains Blizzard's stance on multiboxing
Multiboxing, the process of one person playing multiple characters on multiple accounts at one time, usually by the use of multiple computers (thus the term) and macros that can be activated on all accounts by the push of a single button, has most recently seen coverage here on WoW with our 2-man Karazhan report. The act of multiboxing is one that has been the subject of some debates, mostly centered around whether or not it violates the EULA. Those in favor of multiboxing can breathe easier today, as Blizzard poster Belfaire has stated in no uncertain terms that Blizzard has no problem with the practice in a post on the customer service forums. In short, he says that the advantages of multiboxing are no different than the advantages offered by normal grouping. Since multiboxers can be damaged, feared and CC'd as easily as separate people playing separate accounts, and since they can't do anything the same amount of characters couldn't do when played by different people, there is no reason to consider it an unfair advantage in PvP or PvE. He also answers quite a few specific questions posed by thread starter and multiboxer Velath that clarify why Blizzard accepts Multiboxing and does not consider it an exploit or an unfair advantage.
