This will be my attempt at recapping yesterdays newspost, which is forever lost to the nether-void of the interweb. Flung to the cosmos in tiny bits of information barely remembered and soon forgotten. Like dust in the wind. Like duuuuust in the wiiiind.
So Ctrl+Alt+Del was apparently mentioned on CNN the other day. I guess they were doing some segment on teenagers and how much time they spend on the internet, and they interviewed a girl wearing a Lilah t-shirt with my website open on the computer, and she talked about how it was her favorite website. That’s pretty neat. If any of you know how I can catch that segment drop me an email.
So I’ve been using a Zboard lately. It’s hooked up to my gaming rig, and I use it primarily for World of Warcraft and Battlefield 2. I’ll be honest… I really enjoy it. To to the point where I went back to play WoW with a regular keyboard (my girlfriend was using my gaming rig) and it just didn’t feel right.
The WoW keyset doesn’t do much for the game, I’ll be honest. It makes some of the keys and commands easily accessible, and there are a few shortcut buttons I really find useful, but it wasn’t that hard to memorize what keys did what anyway.
The keyboard really shines in BF2. Due to the scrapping of the WASD keys for movement, and you get a more natural feeling set of arrows.
Combine that with this badboy and you’re good to go for some modern warfare.
So as long-time readers of the site know, I have constantly ranted on the sheer stupidity found in MMORPG’s, and I assure you, this rage of mine has no expiration date. I’ve been playing World of Warcraft on a PVP server for the last month (Crushridge) and I absolutely love it. My previous two server incarnations were RP and PVE respectively, and although I enjoyed it, for going back to the game for a third time, and starting a new “main” for the third time, I needed something new to keep my interest.
Playing on full PVP gives me the added edge that has resparked my love of the game. Whereas in the past I would encounter a member of the opposite faction and could do nothing more than give them a nasty sneer as we passed eachother on the road, now I have to be constantly looking over my shoulder when hunting/traveling in contested areas. Now when I encounter Alliance scum, I stand and fight, or run, depending on my perceived chances of surviving the outcome.
It adds constant danger that should be present when hunting in no-man’s land. Alliance and Horde are mortal enemies, and should treat eachother as such. Sure, I get jumped and killed on occasion. Sure, it can be annoying when I’m just trying to do a quest and I some Alliance ends me. But none of the inconveniance compares to the thrill of coming out triumphant in a PVP encounter. Especially when they get the drop on you, they have the upper hand, and you still corpsify them.
However, there is something else I’ve noticed. It seems that PVP servers attract a significantly higher number of retards than other servers. Constantly you come across players with names like “Snakeplisken” or “Icedchicken” or “Ownjoo”. For me at least it causes a pause and a “What the fuck?!”.
Now, I understand that most of these kids belong to the “AOL generation”. They had a chat handle before they even knew how to add or subtract. I understand that on IRC, AIM, or whatever, you choose a name, whatever it may be, to represent your online existence.
But when transitioning from the world of faceless chat rooms to an environment with pre-structured atmosphere and a graphical representation of yourself, such as a MMORPG, wouldn’t you think that a certain level of intelligence would kick in and say “Hey, Cooldude101 isn’t something an orc mother would name her warrior son. Choose something more appropriate”.
Side note:And this has nothing to do with roleplaying. I’ll be honest… I have rarely roleplayed in a MMORPG. Most people aren’t very good at it. They jump into a fantasy game and start throwing around “thou” and “thy”, without stopping to think that Azeroth is an entirely new property, and is in no way bound to the history or dialects of middle-ages earth. There is no reason to use antiquated speech. Further more, even in middle-ages earth, most people didn’t speak that eloquently. But I digress…
In FPS games, or RTS or any other type of game, your gamer tag doesn’t matter. They are round-based games. But in a persistant world of a MMORPG, the mentality should be different. EVEN if you don’t roleplay, but out of respect for your fellow gamers who may want to. Or at the very least who don’t want to be forcibly yanked out of a meticulously crafted, detailed atmosphere by coming across a Night Elf named “Sirkillsalot”.
And I know that I can’t expect people to change. This is a problem that is only getting progressibely worse as MMORPG’s become more accessible to younger and younger audiences. Back when I played the original Everquest, right in the beginning, you would see people like this, but nowhere near in the abundancy you see them now.
This stupidity isn’t isolated to PVP servers, by any means. You’ll find it no matter where in WoW you go. It just happens to enjoy a higher concentration on PVP servers, because this mentality goes hand in hand with the “griefer” or “ganker” mindset.
I’ve turned off names, so that I can spare myself witnessing the decline of creativity in today’s youth. I keep all of my broadcast channels turned off, because (especially in the Barrens for some reason) it becomes nothing more than a mini AOL/IRC chat room, complete with bickering and “your mother” jokes.
Unfortunately nothing can save me from the “on mouseover” display of these naming attrocities. Nothing can save me from interacting and grouping with these people by necessity. It’s gotten to the point where I have created a (frequently used) macro along the lines of “I will not respond to you because your character name shows a frightening lack of intelligence and creativity. Please go away”.
It’s all I can do to shield myself from an enroaching, increasingly accepted practice that turns my stomach.