behavior
Latest
BinCam posts photos of your trash on Facebook, shames you into recycling (video)
We're not sure how comfortable we are with everyone online being able to examine our, as the Brits would say, "rubbish." But our friends across the pond are apparently ok with it, seeing as it's the home of BinCam -- a research project out of Newcastle University that posts pictures of people's trash on Facebook. At the heart of the experiment is an Xperia X10 Mini strapped under the lid of a garbage can that automatically snaps a photo every time it's opened and closed. That image is then uploaded to the BinCam Facebook app, where you're showered with public shame for failing to sort your recyclables or celebrated for not wasting food. And, just in case you think this is all an elaborate joke, check out the BBC report after the break the the study of how it affected student behavior at the source.
The Soapbox: The selfish gamer
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. It happened a couple of months ago. I was in a remote area in Lord of the Rings Online when another player -- the only other player in this small zone -- sent me a tell. "Can you help me? I need to finish this quest, and I keep getting killed in this cave." Honestly? My first instinct was to say no. It had been a busy day, and I was sitting down to a brief, 20-minute session that would be my only chance to get anything done until tomorrow. I was hoping to knock out a couple quests of my own, and I really didn't want to log out without accomplishing something with that character. So I responded and declined to help, which he took in good humor. Then it hit me what I just did. In a social online game, I'd refused to help someone who blatantly asked for it, all because I was being self-centered. So I sent him another tell. "You know what? What the heck. I'm sorry; I was having a me moment. Let's do this." And so we did. It was fun, and I logged out 20 minutes later without having advanced my character but feeling as though I accomplished something substantial even so. It was at this moment that I started to realize just how MMOs have conditioned me to be as selfish as possible -- and I made a promise right then and there that I'd start fighting back against that conditioning. I didn't want to be a selfish gamer any longer.
WoW Rookie: Being polite in game
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. It might seem like an odd notion, but not everyone understands what's polite in the World of Warcraft. This isn't because they are rude in real life or necessarily lack the social skills to properly order a cup of coffee. (I'll admit, though, after a few battlegrounds and seeing the behavior in BG chat, I wonder about that.) The most common reasons folks are inadvertently rude in game is because they're new to our subculture. They haven't been inculcated to the subtle niceties that come with pretending to be elves and trolls. Especially if this is their first MMORPG, they might only be dimly aware that other characters are also players and that any amount of human interaction might be expected. The goal here isn't to lay down some kind of draconian law of behavior. It's just an attempt to talk about being polite.
Final Fantasy XI developers answer more player questions
Let's face it, sometimes Final Fantasy XI players can be all "???" about the game. And that's not apropos of nothing, since the most recent developer dispatch talks about the multi-function "???" used for both Notorious Monster spawns and event triggers. While players had asked to see a change to distinct symbols such as a "!!!" for events, the technical effort required to make the switch wouldn't be worth the relatively minor functional update. The same rule goes for the /names command, which players would like to see toggle for NPCs or PCs selectively. The latest answers aren't all bad news, however, with one of the more interesting factoids being the roundabout announcement of official forums for the game. There's also news about updates to General Rughadjeen in response to his strange behavior following Protect V or Shell V, a problem originating from the fact that the spells didn't exist when Besieged was created. Final Fantasy XI players are encouraged to read the full list of answers.
The WoW Factor, page 2
Correct answer: d – older men Men are 4 times as likely as women to gender-bend in WoW. The older a male player is, the more likely they are to gender-bend.
The WoW Factor: How much do you know about the players behind the avatars?
How much do you think you know about your fellow WoW gamers? WoW Insider brings you this exclusive quiz designed by MMORPG researcher Nick Yee, based on actual U.S. data from the PARC PlayOn 2.0 study linking player survey data with their armory data. Think you know what players are really like? Come find out what your WoW Factor is. (Answers and conclusions following the quiz.) 1. The average age of WoW players is: a. 18 b. 24 c. 30 d. 36 2. Which of these groups of players is most likely to be gender-bending? a. younger women (<30) b. older women (>30) c. younger men (<30) d. older men (> 30)
See Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime in action
Riding on the slimey coattails of last week's announcement, Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime received the full media push this morning, with a handful of screens and a debut gameplay trailer (found after the break). Alongside receiving assets, we learned that the Behavior-developed game will follow a team of rookie ghostbusters "on a brand new paranormal experience" in New York City. As teased in the trailer by a giant, sentient subway line, players will take down ectoplasm-filled enemies and "gigantic bosses" with several characteristic ghostbustin' weapons (insert "don't cross the streams!" joke here). It seems the old ghostbusters -- and the actors that voice them -- will be sitting this one out. We reached out to Slimer's representation for more information, and will update this post if we hear anything back. Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime should arrive on XBLA, PSN, and PC "this Spring."%Gallery-109442%
The Daily Grind: What do you really think of your game's community?
It's a fact of life that community is the lifeblood of any MMO. While a bad game can be salvaged with a group of fellow players to whom you've grown attached, a good game can be utterly destroyed by a bad gathering. As a result, most of us generally say that we have at least a passable community within our games of choice. But let's be honest -- there are communities that don't so much resemble a group of gamers as a batch of particularly unruly howler monkeys with worse social skills. We've all played games with a supposedly "great" community that seemed snobbish and elitist, and games that supposedly have an awful community but really aren't that bad. Even World of Warcraft can be seen as a game with a good community if you only focus on your friends, despite the wide-ranging belief that the community is immature at best. So leaving aside the people you usually group with, what do you think of your game's community as an aggregate? Is it a good environment for other players, or do you try to stick to your own little corner of the larger playground? 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!
Breakfast Topic: Does your guild's social reputation matter?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. If you've been on the internet in any capacity for a few years, you are familiar with the Penny Arcade theory (NSFW language). I've just come through a couple weeks of this with my guild. It resulted in one person's being kicked and another leaving. Briefly, the kicked person tried to sell tracking the Time-Lost Proto Drake for 5k gold. A person on the server paid 2,500g up front and was led on a wild goose chase, after which the ex-guild member phased, hearthed and put the "pigeon" on ignore. When an officer and I confronted the perpetrator, the lies grew ever more convoluted. I kicked him and repaid, from guild funds, the money stolen. The person who quit behaved in a manner that wasn't appropriate. I called him out on it. These incidents have me thinking: Does it matter how you behave in a fake world? Realistically, I'm probably never going to meet 95 percent of the people on my server. In our guild Code of Conduct, I state right at the beginning, "We do not tolerate malicious, hurtful behavior or speech in guild chat, party chat, WoW chat or on Vent. This is grounds for dismissal. Honor and respect each other and other guilds. When you join this guild, you represent us wherever you go. Respect others as you expect to be respected. Your integrity and actions directly reflect onto this guild. Inappropriate conduct with other guild members and the Llane community at large is not permitted and is grounds for dismissal." I am adamant about this. I feel that if you want to be treated with respect, taken seriously, invited to raids and not called out on the server forum, you must respect others. I've worked very hard to create a guild that is respected. When people think about us, they know we're here for the fun of the game. We don't take ourselves seriously, and we treat you fairly and with respect. Am I way off base here? Again, does it matter? How do you think your server views you and your guild? Do you care?
The Lawbringer: A rookie's guide to the TOU
Welcome to the Lawbringer, Wow.com's weekly guide to the intersection of law and the World of Warcraft. I'm Amy Schley, a new law school graduate and your tour guide through the rabbit hole of contracts, copyrights and other craziness. Greetings again! We're on part three of an examination of the various legal documents to which we must consent in order to play our beloved World of Warcraft. Parts one and two examined the End User License Agreement; this segment will look at the Terms of Use ("TOU"). The first thing you'll notice as you examine the TOU is that it is quite similar to the EULA. This is by design -- while one of the EULA's provisions is to agree to the Terms of Use, the repetition increases the likelihood we'll actually read it. There are quite a few differences, including the code of conduct and the naming policy.
Officers' Quarters: It's a secret
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available from No Starch Press. Normally, for the introduction to this weekly feature, I write a little bit about the topic at hand before I post the email that will serve as the focal point for the discussion. This week, however, I don't want to spoil the tale for you before you read it. So, let's dive right in! Hi! I just recently started reading your column, and even bought your book on guild leadership for my husband's birthday. I have a question about behavior as a guild leader, and am curious as to what you think of my situation. I started playing in a family-oriented, RP guild on Moon Guard about two years ago. I joined just a few weeks after the guild's creation, and made quite a few friends among the other members, even meeting my husband through the guild. Sadly, I had to leave the server for a while, due to real life issues with a stalker that was trying to track me through the game. Fortunately, those issues were resolved, and my husband and I decided to rejoin the guild, even though we knew things would have changed. We were welcomed back, and I was even promoted back to a position just under my old one as an officer, allowing me to help recruit as some of our guild members had taken time off. However, my guild leader then did something that hurt me deeply, making me wonder what I saw in the guild in the first place.
Breakfast Topic: Real-life virtues in WoW
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Is your WoW behavior radically different from how you act in real life? If it is, should it be? Is the virtual world of WoW your escape from the rigid expectations of society, the requirements to be a productive member of your community in terms of career, education and family? Is WoW your opportunity to "act out," to take out your aggressions and subliminal anger on other players you come in contact with? Or do you look at your WoW characters as extensions of self and attempt to emulate your real-life, day-to-day behavior (or possibly even improve on that behavior)? Let's look at a few common virtues, the actions and words that support them, and then ask, "Am I doing that? Or am I deliberately doing the opposite?" Respect Do you treat people in game with courtesy and consideration? Are "please" and "thank you" normal parts of your vocabulary? Most people operate on the premise that they give respect and expect it in return. Responsibility Do you do what you commit to do? Are you prompt and prepared? In real life, responsibility can be a pretty tough burden. It can be interesting that some WoW players shoulder that load well, while others may fall short. Cooperation Being able to work with others is important to success in WoW, just as it is in real life. Any married folks among us can certainly identify with that -- and for that matter, players with siblings will also know that working well with a brother or sister is more productive (and more fun) than the alternative. When you raid, do you do as directed? How about in BGs, where a bit of cooperation can easily be the difference between victory and defeat? In game, we have only to look to successful arena teams to see cooperation at its finest. Generosity Ever help someone in RL, even if they don't ask? How about in WoW? Have you ever seen a player being overwhelmed by mobs and decided to jump in? That's a form of generosity, because you're giving freely of your time and effort with no expectation of return. Have you ever helped a player by purchasing an item to help him level a skill, even if you really didn't need that item? Loyalty Generally speaking, real life rewards loyalty. We are loyal to friends, to family, to our employer, our alma mater, even to our country. Do you demonstrate that same level of loyalty in game? The best example is to consider whether you're loyal to your guild. Do you stick with the guild through the ups and downs of progression, even if the grass may seem greener elsewhere? This short list of virtues can provide some insight into your in-game values versus your RL values. Is it okay to behave differently in an online game? Of course it is; after all, it's just a game. On the other hand, it can be argued that everything we do in life is a reflection of our inner character, and this is especially true of how we behave when we're not answerable to anyone. Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions for articles via Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!
How gaming can make a better world
About ten days ago, an interesting video of a speech was aired on TED talk. For those of you who don't know what TED is, it is quite literally a meeting place of some of the world's greatest thinkers: economists, philosophers, doctors, environmentalists and so on. These are people who dedicate their lives to making the world a better place. So imagine my surprise when I was notified of a talk from someone who said that gaming fit into that ideal? Enter Jane McGonigal, game designer. She says that the video game-playing youth of today -- that's us, by the way -- have within us the power to save the world. I know, I know, sounds crazy, right? Well, put down that energy drink and listen in. Jane's mission is to "try to make it as easy to save the world in real life, as it is to save the world in online games." The basis of her theory lies in a few things: motivation, an investment of time and the need to be rewarded. Remember that time your guild downed Ragnoros? Or triumphantly came through to the end of ToC? Yogg-saron? How did you feel then? That's right, you felt satisfied.
The Daily Grind: What attitudes can you not stand?
Blizzard has always been known by the fans for going all-out with their jokes on April 1st, and this year was no exception. The entire Equipment Potency Equivalence Number was funny in its own right, but especially as an attitude prevalent not only among World of Warcraft players. No matter what game you play, you know people whose sense of ego and importance at in-game achievements drives you up the wall. For some people it's a minor irritation; for others, it's the sort of thing that is so insufferable it's not worth even trying to work with them. There are no shortage of helpful and friendly players in games, but there's also an abundance of arrogant gear worshippers, socially inept trolls, die-hard PvP grognards, ineffectual PvE carebears... you get the idea. Almost everyone agrees the extreme cases are bad, but we all think some are worse than others. So what about you? What sort of outlook makes you just quit a group in frustration no matter how the player performs? Is it something hugely removed from your own playstyle and approach, or something that's close to how you normally run and becomes more obnoxious as a result?
WoW, Casually: Playing WoW with your teen
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win. Last year, I talked about playing with preschoolers and reading-age children. Several months later, I'd like to continue the series by tackling the topic of teens. I'm now tempted to talk in tantalizing alliteration, but I really can't keep it up. Anyway... Teens provide a completely different challenge than the young children we've discussed before. Teens are already extremely competent readers, experience Trade Chat-like talk in school on a regular basis and have the coordination skills required to fully play the game. So they don't need the coddling and constant supervision, but that doesn't mean that the benefits of parents playing with teens aren't just as valuable.
Officers' Quarters: Courtesy counts
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. The community of WoW is not best known for its courtesy. The bar for what constitutes civil behavior has been set pretty low. We as officers don't expect much from random people, but we'd like to think our members and counterparts are better than the average player. That's why it's always so disappointing when we discover we are wrong. Dear Scott, I have been an officer in my guild for quite a while but one thing I am noticing more and more is the lack of courtesy between members. I along with several of the other officers and members think of our guild as a family and it kind of cuts us when we have members leave without any word, explanation, or a simple "goodbye". Just today we had a member (we will call him Bob for simplicity) just up and leave without any word and one of the officers made a hasty remark in the trade channel. Probably 4 hours later Bob gets on an alt still in the guild and starts smarting off which gets others responding likewise (including officers) so much so that I have to step in and stop it.
Observations from running a Naxx-25 PuG
I'm very "up" on PuGs. I started my career as a PuG tank and met a lot of great players that way, many of whom I still raid with today. I've always been a stout supporter of throwing caution to the wind and joining LFG for an afternoon to see where it'll take you; it's been my experience that random players on your realm can and often will surprise you. Once you master the art of the 5-person PuG, the ultimate risk is a raid PuG. One-shot the instance, or spend the night wiping? You won't know until you try.I used to run Hyjal PuG's in late Burning Crusade and got to be the person in charge of arranging healers on Anetheron, explaining where to die on Azgalor, and uttering a hollow laugh at suggestions on whether or not Archimonde was in the cards (answer: hell no). I wasn't around for my guild's Naxx run one of these past weeks, and a few guildies were interested in gearing up their alts, so we thought -- PuG a 25-man Naxx? Why not?
GDC09: Havok demonstrates behavioral tool v6.5 (with ninjas!)
With so many fantastic panels and discussions happening at GDC, how does a company make its message stand out? The answer: Use ninjas. Apparently the guys and gals at Havok got the "What's awesome?" memo and did just that, showcasing version 6.5 of its new behavioral tool set during the conference. Admittedly, video footage of the tech (found after the break) isn't going to smoke your shorts and knock your socks off, but the event-driven character behavior system hopes to make realistic reactions easier for game developers. Havok's behavioral tech demo (featuring wacky ninjas) demonstrates animation "tells," allowing characters to properly react to what is about to happen or is in the process of happening. The tech -- which uses the very technical sounding system of Hierarchical Finite State Machines and Blending Trees -- hopes to empower game devs to create realistic scenarios that are easily transferable between artists and designers. What does that mean for the gamer? When a dude gets punched, it looks like that dude done get punched fo' reals. See, we can be technical too ... we have a doctorate in Awesomology.
Breakfast Topic: Get off the #%&$#^$ stone!
My guild had Tuesday night off (our raid leader sensed the coming of doom on the wind, I think, and had canceled the raid as of Sunday), so Wednesday night I found myself at the Naxxramas summoning stone doing what I do every time I run Naxx: trying to right-click the ever-shrinking portion of the stone to be found under dozens of flapping wings and giant mammoth butts in a forlorn attempt to actually -- I don't know -- summon people.Now, it's no secret that a select portion of WoW's playerbase is comprised of people whom we might politely term "jerks," and the Naxx summoning stone is an almost unparalleled environment for them to practice their delightful skills. The stone is set on a very small ledge, servicing the summoning needs for a very popular instance, and no matter what the area was bound to be crowded. But the situation's made so much worse by the constant presence of players going /afk on top of the stone while conveniently perched on their largest or otherwise unnecessary mounts.
Officers' Quarters: Unchart(er)ed territory
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.It's no secret that the game we all know and love is in a period of transition. Many basic assumptions of Warcraft are changing, from the way loot is itemized, to the way buffs work, to the very nature of raiding. Amidst all this change, I decided to update the document my guild wrote to define our basic principles and guidelines. Written in 2005, it was astonishingly outdated. I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised. Someone who stopped playing back when Blackwing Lair was the endgame would barely recognize WoW if they rolled a premade 80 on the beta servers today.We call this document our guild's philosophy. Many guilds call it their charter. However you label it, right now is a great time to reevaluate exactly what your guild is all about and what your basic rules and beliefs will be going into the next expansion.
