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Twitter promises more hands-on approach to harassment following Robin Williams' death
Want to create a monster? Expose an otherwise normal human being to the anonymity of the internet and you're halfway there. Having the security of an obfuscated identity can bring out the worst in some people, and cyber-bullies remain a constant problem on social networks and online forums. Now, the untimely death of actor Robin Williams is calling public attention to the issue -- Zelda Williams, the performer's daughter, has decided to leave Twitter and Instagram following a series of attacks harassing her over her father's death.
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.
Artcraft shows off male and female trolls
The latest edition of Artcraft is upon us, this time bringing us updated male and female troll models. Though this Artcarft is somewhat scarcer on the model details -- though it does talk about how the troll's tusks are a particular challenge -- it makes up for it by packing in two new new character models. Though Senior Art Director Chris Robinson comments that "showing both genders together gives you a more cohesive visual story," male and female trolls still have significantly different looks, with the males hunched forward while the females stand upright. Still, like with all the updated models, this refresh gives them a lot of extra detail and character. See below for more images or check the Artcraft post itself for full details.
Stick and Rudder: Should you be scared off by Star Citizen's community?
Massively's Justin Olivetti and I were talking MMO communities recently. Star Citizen came up, and my esteemed colleague mentioned that the constant hubbub surrounding the crowdsourced space sim sandbox has made him a bit wary of getting invested in the title for the time being. From the inside looking out, I can see how the game's community sometimes seems like a roiling mass of internet rage and entitlement, but I think it's worth mentioning that -- like the game itself -- it's also what you make of it.
WRUP: The internet isn't real edition
Welcome back to Massively's What Are You Playing, the game where we tell you what we're playing this weekend and you tell us how you're not a jerk even though you act like one on the internet. Which is perfectly OK, of course, since the internet isn't a real place and what goes on there is but a figment of our collective imagination.
Know Your Lore: The Trolls Ascendant
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. The Darkspear Trolls are, as of the end of Mists of Pandaria, the most powerful tribe of trolls in all of Azeroth. Their leader, Vol'jin, sits atop the Horde as its new Warchief, the first non-orc ever to hold that title. In their time with the Horde, the Darkspears have weathered many challenges - the initial travails of their escape from the Sea Witch and the death of Sen'jin to the rise of Garrosh Hellscream and the reclamation of the Echo Isles, and most recently the ultimately successful Darkspear Rebellion that deposed Garrosh. Once, the Darkspear were the smallest and least respected of all the jungle trolls - cast out of Stranglethorn Vale by the more numerous and aggressive Gurubashi, they came to inhabit the islands of the South Seas, where Thrall and his orcs encountered them. It's amazing to think about how these bedraggled, oppressed trolls managed to become so powerful a force. In part, it must be credited to Vol'jin. Following Garrosh Hellscream's attempt to assassinate the Darkspear chieftain, it was Vol'jin who ultimately united and led the Horde against the warchief.
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!
Valve adds flagging option for user-made Steam tags
Earlier this week, Valve implemented the beta trial for Steam Tags, a feature that lets the Steam userbase collectively assign new tags to games. This was meant to help users find games relevant to their interests by searching for less conventional concepts, but as the "check your privilege" tag on Gone Home suggests, some users are taking a different path. Valve has since updated the beta to deal with problematic user-made tags. The update brings with it a flagging function, meant to report tags that are offensive, abusive, unhelpful, spoiler-related or irrelevant to the game they're assigned to. New tags will also have to be used by more users than before in order to show up in the popular tags section. In the event that an inappropriate tag does make it into the popular tags section, it will need to be approved for multiple games before it's listed in the recommendation-oriented "For You" tab. We can't really act surprised that some users have alternative plans for user-made tags, but it's nice to see Steam try and fix the feature for those looking for something other than snark from their shopping advice. [Image: Valve]
Know Your Lore, TFH Edition: The Dangerous Enlightenment
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. This Tinfoil Hat post is not meant to be taken as established lore, but merely as an exploration of what that lore could mean. Sometimes an idea starts small. I was musing about Saronite, the literal blood of an Old God, which as we all know was used as the material that created Icecrown Citadel. Then I thought about how the last dying breath of an Old God became the Sha, actual embodiments of corruption.... and how, even after the death of that Old God, the Heart of Y'Shaarj could taint the entire Vale of Eternal Blossoms. The very substance of an Old God... its blood, its flesh, even its last breath can taint, warp and corrupt the world. Then I started thinking about the madness the Old Gods engender. Upon first arriving in the Howling Fjord, members of the Explorer's League were driven mad by the thoughts of Yogg-Saron, trapped within the Whisper Gulch. Yogg-Saron, after all, was massive - his tendrils extend all the way across the continent, from Icecown through the Storm Peaks and down into the Dragonblight, the Grizzly Hills, into the Fjord itself. And this got me thinking something else. Northrend is dominated by Yogg-Saron... but the Old Gods predate the Sundering, and so when all continents were part of the great original Kalimdor, that means that the Old Gods lay submerged beneath it as well. The Old God N'Zoth most likely lay beneath the center of the primordial landmass, ancient C'thun lay to its west, and before its death at the hands of Master Ra and the Mogu the south was the domain of Y'Shaarj whose seven heads consumed hope and begat despair. But many were the Old Gods, and powerful (or so the Klaxxi maintain) and this leaves me to ask - was there a god to the East? And what became of it?
Ask Massively: Nick Burns edition
Today's Ask Massively letters come from David and Abionie, both of whom wrote us over the summer with comments about, well, our comments. This first one's from David: I'm probably not the only one who is generally displeased with the state of trolls on the internet today. You know them: doomsayers, hatespreaders, the "HAHA company X is failing, finally!" types, the kind of people for whom the hatred of a video game or company has become more addictive than playing the game that company made. Unfortunately, the internet gives soapboxes to people who probably don't have much of a relationship with soap. I would like to see more moderation towards keeping an articles comments on the topic of the article. It's becoming tiring to open up an article talking about something I am interested in, only to fear scrolling down too far and inadvertently opening up the comments to see "FAIL GAME IS FAIL COPYING X GAME IS LAZY" and the many hundreds of comments like that. We hear you, David, and not just about the soap. But also that.
How SOE deals with bad seeds, in-game and out
At this year's GDC Europe, SOE's director of global community relations, Linda Carlson, talked about her management philosophy for a community infected by trolls and bullies. GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Carlson after the panel to further discuss this growing issue. Interestingly enough, Carlson also commented on how SOE monitors player behavior -- even outside of its games. "If we know who you are and you're abusing somebody on Twitter, we will ban your game account and we will not accept you as a customer ever again. It's not always possible to identify people [in that way], but we take that seriously." Carlson goes on to say, "A very influential player, high up in a huge guild -- we'll still ban them... In our games, if you are an exploiter we don't care who you are, how big your guild is, how many people you threaten to take with you when you go." Take a look at the entire interview for more on how SOE plans to deal with levels of negativity in its community.
Know Your Lore: A Precarious Position Part 1 - Horde
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Things are about to get much worse. - Deathbringer Saurfang On the surface of things, it seems like we may be about to turn the corner. Garrosh Hellscream's True Horde is about to face its enemies and the Warchief has alienated so many of his former allies that the Horde itself has erupted in civil war. But once we start thinking about the aftermath, it all starts to seem a little murkier. After all, even though we know that there will apparently be a new warchief appointed after the fall of Hellscream, that won't immediately fix the tensions that led to the Horde making war on itself. Hellscream's former supporters won't just vanish - with the vast majority of orcs behind him, Hellscream's legacy is bound to continue and any new warchief is going to have to face those orcs who took up arms for the True Horde and come up with a way to re-integrate them into the Horde as a whole. Meanwhile, it's likely that those who supported the Darkspear Rebellion are going to want to see substantial changes made to the way the Horde functions - the orcish ideals of Lok'tar Ogar, of unquestioning loyalty to the warchief are by necessity broken now. The Horde of the future is a Horde that has survived a mutiny, has seen a leader deposed - it cannot be bound by tight-knit expectations of loyalty and honor. The blood elves and forsaken, tauren and goblins and trolls who had a hand in making the new warchief possible will have demands, and they're not all going to be possible to meet. Meanwhile, the Alliance will have found itself in the position of kingmaker for its enemy. What does the future hold for Alliance/Horde relations? Will the Alliance forget the past several years of Horde aggression or will it demand concessions from its weakened enemy? And if Varian Wrynn doesn't take advantage of this moment to reclaim Azshara and Ashenvale, or Gilneas, what backlash will he have to face from within his own faction? Thanks in no small part to the threat of the Horde, Wrynn has found himself rising to the position of war-leader for the Alliance as a whole. But can he maintain that position with a much less threatening Horde, especially if he doesn't move to take advantage of its weakness? Let's look at potential threats to any return to stability. This week, we'll discuss the forces at play within the Horde.
Breakfast Topic: What will the next WoW expansion be?
What will the next WoW expansion be? With only one major content patch left in Mists of Pandaria, and BlizzCon 2013 around the corner, it won't be long before we know what's next. But what do you think is coming? Will we be venturing into the Emerald Dream alongside Malfurion, or was Anne Stickney onto something when she speculated that the Mists of Pandaria might be our Emerald Dream expansion? What about the ongoing legendary questline with Wrathion? Wrathion has been referencing the return of the Burning Legion in much of his quest text. Does that mean demons will be descending upon Azeroth in the next expansion? Will we finally get to see Sargeras? Also, you wouldn't want to forget Queen Azshara. You would think we'd have seen her and the city Nazjatar in the Cataclysm expansion, but so far she's only made minor or indirect appearances. Azshara is the perfect accompaniment to some recent fan speculation about the naga being the next possible playable race. Unfortunately, Ghostcrawler pretty much shot that down by pointing out the naga's lack of legs would make it difficult to design armor for them. And, of course, there's always ... Trolls? Wait, really? More trolls? You wouldn't think it, but in the same interview where Ghostcrawler killed our naga dreams, he said that trolls were an option the game lore could still explore in future content. Huh ... Go figure. So, what do you think the next WoW expansion will be?
The Soapbox: Community or comments
If there's one thing gamers love doing, it's insult games they don't play. Any news item, editorial, hands-on, review, or general pile of text dedicated to a few key games -- normally those with high profiles -- receives an instant and visceral response from a collection of commenters who seem to exist only to insult a particular game and berate its fans. Much of the time, these commenters have no actual experience with the game in question. Here on Massively, EVE Online and World of Warcraft seem to be the biggest magnets for such tomfoolery. Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic attract these behaviors as well, and WildStar is well on its way to becoming the next troll-favorite comment piñata. There's nothing wrong with not liking a game, of course. And a little conflict is good; why allow comments if everyone's going to have the same opinion? There's just one problem: If your opinion of a game is based on preconceived notions and not actual experience, that opinion is adding nothing to the dialogue. In short, you are trolling.
Ask Massively: Everything in moderation
Happy Fourth of July, Americans, and happy new columnist day to Massively! Yes, it's official: Anatoli Ingram will be joining the Massively staff this month as our new Guild Wars 2 columnist. Those of you who dwell in the land of comments and trolls might recognize him from his erudite posts as Ring Bonefield. We're thrilled to have him on board to lend a pen and a critical eye to such a popular game, and we were equally thrilled at the impressive pool of applicants. Thank you all for applying! Speaking of commenters, we have comments on the brain today in Ask Massively. Let's review how -- or more specifically, when -- we moderate the comment section.
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.
Google, BlackBerry, EarthLink and Red Hat ask DoJ and FTC to help starve patent trolls
Tired of all the patent-related stories? Especially the ones that seem like they are more about financial gain than fairness? We thought so. We'd imagine it's even more of a frustration if you're one of the companies regularly involved. No surprise then that some firms -- such as Google, BlackBerry, EarthLink and Red Hat -- have decided to do something about it, taking the fight directly to the FTC and DoJ. In a recent blog post, Google explains that -- along with its collaborators -- it has submitted comments to the aforementioned agencies, detailing the impact that "patent trolls" have on the economy. While the financial cost to the US taxpayer is said to be nearly $30 billion, the four companies also point out how such behavior hurts consumers even further, suggesting that when start-ups and small businesses are strong-armed, innovation and competition suffer. Some specific practices such as "patent priveteering" -- when a company sells patents to trolls who don't manufacture anything and therefore can't be countersued -- also come under direct criticism. The cynical might assume this all comes back to the bottom line, but with the collaborative extending an invitation to other companies to help develop revised, cooperative licensing agreements, they are the very least making it difficult for them to engage in similar behavior in the future. At least until the FTC and DoJ respond.
The Engadget Interview: EFF's Julie Samuels talks patents, podcasting and the SHIELD Act
We've heard it shouted from the mountaintops more times than we'd care to mention: the patent system is fundamentally broken. But that manner of righteous indignation can often fail to make an impression on those attempting to live their lives unaffected on the sidelines, as hardware behemoths level a seemingly endless string of suits based on often overly broad language. One's perspective shifts easily, however, when targets change and the defendants themselves are no longer aggressively litigious corporations with an arsenal of filing cabinets spilling over with intellectual property, as was the case when one company used a recently granted patent to go after a number of podcasting networks. When we wanted to get to the bottom of this latest example in a long line of arguably questionable patent litigation, we phoned up Julie Samuels, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has also been designated the organization's Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. Samuels has been fighting the battle against dangerously broad patents for some time now, recently traveling to DC to support passage of the SHIELD Act (Saving High-tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes), a congressional bill that would impose heavy fines against so-called patent trolls. We spoke to Samuels about supposed trolls, podcasts, SHIELD and how those with microphones can make their voices heard. Note: The owner of the podcasting patent in question declined to comment on the matter.
Hellscream is not my Warchief
Sometimes, it's not just about the race you choose to play -- it's about how the story behind it is handled. Matthew Rossi wrote an interesting piece about how the race one plays has a direct effect on how one approaches the story in the game. Playing an orc and keeping in mind what it is to be an orc makes Garrosh and his plans look infinitely more appealing than one would consider straight off the bat. But on the other end of the equation, there are lots of Horde players who don't play an orc. Take me, for example -- while I started out as a Forsaken priest, I've now played a blood elf rogue for far longer. To me, Hellscream's actions are questionable at best, horrific beyond imagining at worst. Yet here I am, still playing Horde and carrying out the orders of Hellscream. The why of it all is the part that is an incredibly clever design move on the part of the story development team.
