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The Daily Grind: What MMO are you embarrassed to admit you play?
One of the silly questions I posed the Massively staff during our end-of-2012 awards was about embarrassing MMOs that we play. But we didn't publish the answers, partly because we couldn't come to any consensus. Glitch took my vote; browser games are still looked down on, no matter how creative they are. Among the other writers, Clone Wars Adventures cropped up, as did RuneScape, Free Realms, Habbo Hotel, and Star Stable. It wasn't just "kids games" making the cut, either. Mike lamented the fact that World of Warcraft is a "punch line" in the community and that "serious" MMO players can't play it. Jef said Lord of the Rings Online makes him want to shower after he logs out, while Patrick argued that Champions Online's apparent lack of developer resources makes for a sad experience. But the other reason we didn't publish our responses was that most of us just aren't deeply embarrassed about playing anything. As Eliot put it, If you're playing an MMO, you have absolutely zero ground to make fun of someone else for playing another MMO. This is something that really gets under my skin, the idea that some games are somehow cooler than others. MMOs are just plain fun, and there's no reason to be embarrassed by anything you like to play. I'm happy when anyone finds a fun game, even if it's a game I'm personally not fond of. Follow your bliss, people, and hold your heads high. So where do you stand? Are you embarrassed to play a certain MMO, and if so, what is it? 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!
Facebook admits hiring PR firm to smear Google
It seems like the ongoing rivalry between Facebook and Google has taken a turn for the subversive. Last night, a spokesman for the social network confirmed to the Daily Beast that Facebook paid a top PR firm to spread anti-Google stories across the media and to encourage various outlets to examine allegations that the Mountain View company was violating user privacy. The PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, even offered to help blogger Chris Soghoian write a critical op-ed piece about Social Circle -- a service that allows Gmail users to access information on so-called "secondary connections," or friends of their friends. Social Circle, in fact, seems to have been at the epicenter of Facebook's smear campaign. In a pitch to journalists, Burson described the tool in borderline apocalyptic terms: "The American people must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day-without their permission." Soghoian thought that Burson's representatives were "making a mountain out of a molehill," so he decided to prod them about which company they might be working for. When Burson refused to spill the beans, Soghoian went public and published all of the e-mails sent between him and the firm. USA Today picked up on the story, before concluding that any claims of a smear campaign were unfounded. The Daily Beast's Dan Lyons, however, apparently forced Facebook's hand after confronting the company with "evidence" of its involvement. A Facebook spokesman said the social network hired Burson to do its Nixonian dirty work for two primary reasons: it genuinely believes that Google is violating consumer privacy and it also suspects that its rival "may be improperly using data they have scraped about Facebook users." In other words, their actions were motivated by both "altruistic" and self-serving agendas, though we'd be willing to bet that the latter slightly outweighed the former. Google, meanwhile, has yet to comment on the story, saying that it still needs more time to wrap its head around everything -- which might just be the most appropriate "no comment" we've ever heard.
Breakfast Topic: Care to share any recent embarrassing moments?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. It was my first run through regular Grim Batol. I was in a guild group made up of the movers and shakers, including the guild leader. I was still a fairly new member of the guild and had never actually run anything with the leader in tow, so I was feeling on my guard. This was the first time in GB for several of us, so things were getting spelled out as we went. The bombing run went adequately, and so did General Umbriss. I'd managed to dodge the worst of it so far, and my DPS was holding up all right, so I was beginning to puff out my chest and not feel like a total failure. We crept around the corner and the tank began pulling the trash leading up to Forgemaster Throngus. I peeked my head around the corner to see what was going on ... and my water elemental promptly pulled Throngus and everything else in the entryway. We all fought valiantly but suffered the inevitable wipe. Fortunately, everyone was in good spirits about it and laughed. It's become a bit of a guild joke, and I now get told when I should stay put, but I was completely mortified and wanted to slink out the back door with my draenei tail between my legs. What moment has made you want to log off in shame and never return?
Breakfast Topic: Foot in mouth disease
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The World of Warcraft is a common topic of discussion in my family. As such, I tend to forget that while my parents might enjoy hearing about my exploits on my shiny new shaman, my friends may not. In fact, they may very likely have no idea what I'm going on about. A simple change in subject can fix that well enough. Laugh it off and move on. Sometimes, though, I say these things in public. Maybe I'm on the phone with Dad or shopping with Mom, and suddenly a lack of context leads to embarrassing misunderstandings. To wit: I spent all last weekend grinding on turtles. So many turtles! They just kept coming! That guy in Tarren Mill is awful! He always convinces me to poison the dog. I kept beating that priest over and over and he just wouldn't die! All innocent statements, if you know the jargon and context. All reprehensibly immoral acts punishable by a court of law, if you don't.
[1.Local]: The WI week from the inside out
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Don't be that guyYou are not prepared – but do you really need to be? Readers are of varying minds when it comes to how much preparation to expect (and even to demand) from fellow players in heroics and pickup raids. "Whether you like the idea of being 'carried' or not, I don't see a problem with people diving right in on heroics," notes Steve. "As many posters in this thread have demonstrated, if you know how to play your class, you can make up for being undergeared. ... I recognize that most of the folks out there in your PuGs will not be min/maxed or have ever heard of the Elitist Jerks site or have an optimal rotation. No worries -- I don't bother to look people up on the Armory, since Armory doesn't tell me anything about their skill level. And now that I'm outfitted head to toe in Naxx epics, I can do the carrying for low party DPS or a tank that isn't def capped."I actually enjoy healing bad PuGs more than guildie groups, because if everyone is geared and knows what they are doing, there isn't a lot for the healer to do -- the tank is taking steady predictable damage and I occasionally need to throw out an AOE heal if the party takes damage from something. So go ahead and 'be that guy'; I'll still heal you as long as you aren't rude and are at least trying. Just be up front with the group about where you are at in gear level or DPS when you join."
Witness the on-stage Rock Revolution press conference failure
Embarrassing on-stage moments were at a minimum this E3 -- especially compared to last year's Disney and Activision debacles -- but there was one shining moment of facepalm during the Konami press conference. After rocking out on stage and playing real bass to The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" with a cover band, Lauren Faccidomo – senior product manager on Konami's Rock Revolution – proceeded to fail out of the very same song in Rock Revolution. It very well may have been one of the worst compare/contrast press conference ideas ever conceived -- not to mention, Rock Revolution looks like it drunkenly stumbled in from 2003. Check out the oopsie after the break.
DS Daily: Embarrassing!
We've probably all got an embarrassing album or three in our music collection, or a film that makes us totally cringe in our DVD pile. It's the sort of thing that can lead to this kind of fumbled explanation/lie when a friend sees it:"Yep, that copy of Lady in Red: The Very Best of Chris de Burgh is ... um ... yeah, that'll be my aunt's. You know, she really needs to pick this up. What, that autograph on the front? Weird story: She is also called Chris."But what about games? Are there any entries in your DS collection that would make other people titter, or are you an extremely fussy, selective shopper? Incidentally, anybody who confesses to owning a DS game with a "z" at the end gets a cookie for honesty.
