RealID: an Epilogue

Blizzard announced this week that they finally implemented the functionality that many had been asking for regarding RealID: A way to turn it off (that didn't involve Parental Controls), a way to turn off the Friend of Friend feature, and a way to turn off the Facebook integration.

It's certain that in regards to the WoW community, Blizzard has their job cut out for them. To be honest, the WoW forums are full of trolls, pot-stirrers, and people who can barely type a coherent sentence. It's embarrassing, and the WoW community has developed a terrible reputation. Terms like "U mad bro?", "lulz", "QQ", "bads" and other silliness is the equivalent of saying "kewl" back in the AOL days. It looks borderline illiterate.

So yes, it is in Blizzard's best interest to do something about the situation, and it has been long overdue. The pros and cons of RealID have been debated at length elsewhere and that dead horse is glue at this point, but now that the RealID issue has settled down, what can Blizzard do to improve their forums going forward?

• Force people to use one unique identity. I would be perfectly happy if everyone was given a unique username, or barring that, people had to choose one specific character to be tied to. Take away the option to post on alts, and that will be the first step. This will force posters to be held accountable for what they say.

• Add in an ability to rate up/rate down posts, similar to WoWhead or WoWInsider.com. 

• Add in a reputation system. Allow posters to give positive or negative reputation to other posters. People that make better, more helpful posts, should be recognized as an MVP. People that troll should be recognized as such.

• Add more community managers, and better enforce community standards. Posts that are well-written and present points and opinions in a constructive manner should be encouraged. Flamers should be warned and banned both from the forums and in-game on the third warning. 

• While we're at it, Blizzard could also use more in-game GMs. Any time that I've submitted a ticket or a report I've gotten a message that they are experiencing a heavy load. Blizzard could react more quickly and with harsher penalties on people who are spamming [anal] jokes in Trade Chat or who are harrassing other players.

I guarantee that if Blizzard were to implement at least unique identities and the rating of posts (and my understanding is that they are considering doing both), it will improve things drastically. Add in the rest of those ideas and it would be even better! Would Blizzard lose some players? Possibly. But considering the sheer volume of subscriptions that they have at the moment, I doubt that they would be missed. An improved community could likely even bring back many players who tried WoW, liked it, but left because they didn't want to put up with such childishness.

Going into the Ethics file...

Yesterday the gaming blogosphere got all hot and bothered over an issue that was kicked off by an article  regarding a wrestling game that is shipping with a one-time-use code that unlocks online content for the game. The question everyone is now asking is: If a consumer purchases a used game (from a friend, from GameStop, etc.), is that basically the same as piracy? The developers aren't getting their cut, so it's basically the same, right?

Oy.

I admit that I've sold used games back to GameStop in the past. Sometimes a game just isn't that good, and I'd rather recoup some of that cash back into my pocket... which then goes into buying more games, thus supporting my game-buying habit AND the developers who make the games. The economy is tough on all of us, and games aren't a must-have item, so my budget is limited.

If I have $100 to spend, I can buy one $60 game. Now, if I don't like that game, I can take it back, get $20 for it, pair that $20 with the remaining $40 and get another $60 game. On that second game, the developer is still getting the full wholesale price of their game, probably 50% or so of the retail price. GameStop "ate" the $20 that they gave me for the original game, but they'll make it back when they resell it, plus an extra $15-$20 for their trouble and overhead.

On the flip side, sometimes there are games that come out that look interesting, but due to previous bad experiences with a particular publisher or franchise, I just don't want to spend $60 on that game. This doesn't happen that often, but it's usually a dealbreaker. 9 times out of 10, I'll skip purchasing a game that I consider a "risky" purchase, and then the developer doesn't make anything off of me. If I find a used copy of it for half-price... sure, I might give it a try. The developer still isn't making anything off of me, but if I try it and like it, then they've won back my trust and I'll be more likely to purchase something else from them in the future.

All that said, you'd probably think that I'm all "USED GAMES R TEH AWESOME!"... and really, I'm all for people being able to sell their used games. It's recycling and it's green and it's helpful for those of us who have families and limited budgets. But at the same time I do view game developers as artists, and I would agree that they deserve compensation for their work.

And honestly, I think the way that THQ is handling it... with the game content being playable solo but having a key to unlock online play... is brilliant.

Think about it: you buy a game used, for let's say $30. You play it, you like it, you want play against other people, but you can't because you don't have the key. The publisher can then sell the unlock keys online. Pay $10-$15, and voila, your online access is there. You've still spent less overall on the game, you've saved one more plastic cartridge/disk from being thrown into a landfill, and the developers got some compensation for their work. Like a 10-day free trial in the MMO world, used-game players would get to see if they like it first. If it's a good quality game, the companies get the cash from unlocking the additional features.

Maybe it would even encourage companies to, you know, make better games.

Guilds! Guilds! Get Yer Fresh Guilds!

I have the privilege of being the recruitment officer for my guild. It's something that I enjoy doing overall, since I do like meeting and talking with new people and I really do believe in what our guild is and what we represent. But sometimes I get slightly frustrated with the state of guild recruitment in WoW. It seems like players don't have one specific, easy-to-use place to look for a new guild, so players up to this point have come up with all sorts of ways to do it.

What are the normal ways to advertise your guild?

You could advertise in your realm forums: This seems to work the best, particularly since it's primarily seen by people who are already playing on your realm and it's the first place most people look when they decide it's time for a change. The bad thing about the realm forums is that they only reach a limited number of people. There might be a slew of people out there that would be a great fit for your guild, but they just haven't found your server yet. You also open your guild up to possibly being trolled, although most of the time the trolls will leave you alone as long as you don't have a bad reputation.

You could advertise in the official WoW recruitment forums: Honestly, these forums are a mess. They have them split into two boards, one for Alliance and one for Horde. If you actually peruse those forums they have hundreds of posts, all with a slightly varying but generally similar subject line: 11/12 25H - 12/12 10H Pro Core LFM Heal/DPS/Tank. First off... that is soulless and reads like a line in an IT hardware catalog. Second, all of these posts have been bumped hundreds of times, probably several times a day, and those boards move FAST. Wait an hour and you're on the third or fourth page already.  So you're left furiously bumping your recruitment post so that you might possibly get seen among all the eye-bleeding pandemonium.

The other side of this method is that the guild representative can peruse those forums for players who are advertising looking for a new guild. Again, this is hard on the eyes and involves scanning through about 20 pages of posts, searching for a needle that might not even be in the haystack. But, it can also be very rewarding if you do find some promising players.

You could advertise in trade chat: Oh yes, we've all seen it...

Knights of The Azerothian Hamster are recruiting all classes, all races, all levels! We are a fun, friendly, mature guild with 5 bank tabs, a tabard, and a website! PST for more info!

Granted, the KotAH might be a really fantastic group of people. But that advertisement really doesn't tell anybody what the guild is about. Most guilds would need to be "fun" and "friendly" in order to retain members, and "mature" could mean several different things. Most guilds also have bank tabs, a tabard, and a website, so that's not necessarily something to brag about. Even worse, if you're advertising in trade chat there's no telling what kind of folks will see it and want to join. The few times that I've tried it, I've generally gotten whispers like "invte now plz" or "i join ur guild". Responses like that get put on /ignore.

What are some alternate methods?

Alternate guild recruitment websites: Sites like lookingforguild.net are a good option if you are looking for a quieter and much more user-friendly place to post. I really like their layout and it's much easier to search for recruitment posts by faction, battlegroup, server, server type, playstyle, raid times, progression... just about any possible criteria you might have can be filtered. Plus, you don't have to deal with trolling. The bad thing is that of course it's a third party website, so you likely won't be seen by as many people.

If I could shoot for the moon, I'd love it if Blizzard implemented a similar system on their website. Then instead of maintaining server guild lists and individual recruitment posts, a guild could set themselves up once and be done. Entries could be easily changed and maintained at any time to reflect guild needs.

Mentions on fansites: Probably one of the more difficult things to do. This includes getting mentioned on WoW.com or in podcasts. First, you have to do (or plan) something really nifty and unusual. Then you have to notify those outlets about what you did, and hope and pray that it's a slow enough news day for them to take notice. If they do mention you, what kind of recruitment that'll generate is a bit iffy. I've seen some guilds grow by leaps and bounds after a WoW.com announcement, and I've seen others that didn't see any new recruits at all.

Multi-media: Of course, if you're so inclined you can always start your own WoW fansite, podcast,or YouTube channel and make your own splash. Look no further than the Instance podcast or the MooingDruid's Crimson Blood Clan videos for great examples of this. This isn't an option for everybody but if you have the resources and the creative and technical talent to do it, go for it!

What kind of results can be expected?

A few months back, I went on a recruiting spree for my guild. I tried all of the above methods for two months, except for the trade chat (of course) and the multi-media option... my skills aren't quite up to that point yet! But here's the results we got with a fairly detailed post describing our guild:

Server Forums : 13 recruits
Guild Recruitment Forums: 11 recruits
LookingForGuild.net: 2 recruits
WoW.com: 2 recruits

28 recruits over a two month period... not bad! However, don't get too excited yet.

15% of the applications were rejected outright.
30% of the recruits were invited but didn't make it through our associate period.

So really, we ended up with a little more than half of the recruits actually becoming full members. We're still quite happy with those numbers, as we got some really excellent players that fit with the overall group dynamics and atmosphere. It's important to not get discouraged when recruits don't work out. If it isn't a good fit for both the guild and the player, it's much better to acknowledge that and give each other a friendly "Best of Luck!" before moving on.

What about you folks? Have any of you discovered any other unusual methods of recruiting that have worked pretty well for you?

We are the World... of Warcraft

After Monday's post with my rants about WoW and LotRO, I really started thinking more about the WoW community in itself, and I think the subject deserves it's own post.

When you look at the WoW community, the easiest thing to do (and I admit that I'm guilty of this) is to look at trade chat and the WoW forums and draw conclusions from that. While trade chat and the forums are certainly representative of a certain part of the community, it's definitely not the entire community. To be fair, there's a huge number of players that don't participate in the forums or in trade chat, and there are pockets of good communities tucked away in corners of the internet:

• Guilds: Easily the biggest subset, but it seems like most guilds keep to themselves and there's little interaction between them, unless it's for raiding alliances.

• Class Websites: Sites like shadowpriest.com tend to have very strong communities and offer a place for players to discuss their classes without the "Ghostcrawler nerfed my class to the ground!" hyperbole... which usually is done to try to bait the devs into talking to that particular post. On class websites, there's no reason to assume that the devs are watching, so the discussion tends to be more productive.

• Blogs: There's a WoW blog out there for just about every specific interest, from leveling to making gold to collecting pets. Plus there's a slew of general interest blogs by players and communities like Blog Azeroth and Azeroth United that serve to put bloggers in touch with each other and encourage group collaboration.  

• Special Interest Groups: These groups are all over the place, from the WoW_Ladies on LiveJournal to the World of Warcrafters on Ravelry.com to the folks at Christian Gamers Alliance. 

A while back Gordon at We Fly Spitfires wrote a post about the WoW community, and in one of the comments MMOGamerChick wrote that:

WoW is like a big city. Everyone sort of minds their own business, people are rude because the chances of ever running into each other again are slim to nil, and as with any big population you’ll have your share of jerks and crazies.

And as an inhabitant of a big city myself, I think this is a great analogy. When you look at the overall population as a whole, it's very impersonal and stand-offish, particularly when compared to smaller "cities" like Lord of the Rings Online. Those communities are better because they're small enough (and well moderated enough) that your reputation matters. You can't run from a bad reputation because there's nowhere to hide, so it pays to be a constructive member of the community.

But in big cities there are small pockets of community, usually focused around schools, places of worship, clubs, sports leagues, and so on. It's unfair to write off the entire city based upon a top-level view. To really get the true picture you need to get to know the inhabitants in their smaller communities and see how they interact with each other and what kind of things they're doing.

So after thinking about it some more... the sky isn't falling. Sure, Blizzard has some serious street-cleaning to do on their forums and in trade chat, and there are a lot of unsavory types of WoW players out there. But there are also a lot of really friendly, fun, and kind WoW players out there. It's just a matter of finding them.