posturing
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The Soapbox: No game is cooler
I don't think I'm ever going to understand why some people have what seems to be an outright phobia about bright colors. There are people who look down on WildStar and World of Warcraft and Free Realms because the games are colorful, stylized, and uniquely designed. I can't understand it, but I can accept it, even if I disagree with the premise. We've all got our own tastes. What I can't accept is people who try to argue that as a result, another game is somehow inherently better than these games because it's "not as cartoony." This is something that crops up time and again in MMO fandom, this sort of never-ending back-and-forth over how one game is cooler than others because of reasons. Here's the skinny, people: Your game is not cooler than anyone else's video game. Your playstyle is not cooler. Your choices in story are not cooler. And if you're trying to play games based on which game is the coolest, you are officially doing this wrong.
How visible Achievements and Talents affect anonymity
Reader Alex was kind enough to send along this forum post he wrote, and he hits on some interesting questions about achievements and how they might affect bullying and posturing on the forums. Right now, people can spout off pretty much any opinion they want without repercussions, but when achievements are added into the Armory, people won't be so anonymous -- we'll all be able to know, within a few clicks, what bosses you've downed and what you've really done in BGs and Arenas. Sure, people will still spout off whatever they feel like saying, but as Alex says, there'll be a little less anonymity.I'm not sure how much of a change it will really bring -- when it was first announced that talents would immediately be viewable by other players, a few worried that it would cause more problems (people would be discriminated against because of their talent choices), but I haven't seen that happen in game -- just like always, if someone says they're a Feral Druid, you just assume they can tank as a bear, without checking out their talents closely.And my guess is that it'll be the same with achievements -- people will still say whatever they want, and while there may be the occasional player called out for not getting the Onyxia achievement after he's claimed to have "been a raider from the beginning," there's always the old argument of "this is my alt!" At least, that is, until Blizzard shows us a way to see whose alt is whose...
