event

Image courtesy of worldofwarcraft.com screenshot gallery. (modified by me)

May I See Your RealID? (Part II)

As I commented in my previous post, (here) World of Warcraft’s new BattleNet RealID system allows for players to communicate with their fellow gamers all across the spectrum of “realms/servers”.  All you have to do is log in to your BattleNet account, and all of your virtual friends will know that you are online.

The purpose of this is to turn World of Warcraft into a type of game-based social network. If players create a single RealID username for themselves, they don’t have to remember several different character names for each of their friends. Much like Facebook or Friendster or MySpace, your identity is strictly that; it’s who you ARE.  You could even include your RealID on your business card if you don’t mind having your business associates find you in the PvP arenas! ;)

honorpoints May I See Your RealID? (Part II)

Image stolen from worldofwarcraft.com screenshot gallery. (then modified by me)

Many World of Warcraft players were greatly pleased by this new ID system.  It allowed players to keep track of their friends online, and provided a way for characters to communicate across servers.  There are, a few unfortunate consequences to having this kind of immediate accessibility.

At first, it was Blizzard’s plan to require the player to sign-in with their RealID on the Official World of Warcraft forums. This would allow people to recognize each other as they posted on the message boards.  This was generally accepted as a BAD idea.  Although many people are very civil and well-intentioned on the official forums, many others enjoy venting their grievances with great passion and reckless abandon. Having a RealID that could be used to trace the commenter back to the player, could have very negative consequences for some.  The anonymity in WoW is what allows some players to express themselves in a more unrestrained fashion.

paid May I See Your RealID? (Part II)

From Penny Arcade, 7/9/10

So while some argue that the RealID system is a useful tool for preventing abuse on the forums, still others have argued that this is a privacy issue.  Some users can even discern issues related to the Freedom of Speech and the expectation of privacy in this system.  Shouldn’t players be free to speak what’s on their mind, regardless of the content? While we all hate trolls (no no, not this kind) and griefers, but don’t they have the right to spew their venom online too?

As it turns out, this a moot point. Not only has Blizzard kindly capitulated to the message board trolls, (your RealID name is not shown on the Forums now) they’ve also taken steps to ensure that the player is reasonably safeguarded from their personal information.

battlenetprivacy 300x94 May I See Your RealID? (Part II)

From the BattleNet FAQ: http://us.battle.net/realid/faq.html

Only the people that you add to your RealID friends list can see your name, and they ONLY see your name. They can’t track you down in that magical land we call “Real Life” unless you personally give them the information that they’d need to do that. Parents are also able to safeguard their children’s identities by using the BattleNet parental controls to lock their wee ones out of this feature. (as well as control the amount of time the kidlings spend on online, and other such things.

So while there was a brief blizzar– … er, snowstorm, of controversy surrounding the RealID system, it turns out to be much ado about little. Of course, the potential for drama is still there. There are doubtlessly still players who secretly play characters of an opposite faction from their regular Guild for a little good-natured competitive ganking, right?

www.watchtheguild.com No seriously, watch this series. It's got  Felicia Day yumminess!

... or does that kind of thing just happen in fictional web series?

… and of course, there are certainly those who can probably track down their fellow gamers no matter how carefully you cover your tracks.  But the question is, where do we draw the line between privacy and socialization.  Do we necessarily want anyone else to be able to put a real-life name to our virtual identities? Does anyone really NEED to know that the sexy warlock Lachrymae of the Lordaeron Undercity is really just some pathetic librarian in a lame fedora? Am I personally willing to sacrifice privacy just to be able to find my friends online?

Perhaps World of Warcraft is a safe haven.  Maybe the protections and security there are solid.  But what about the other social media? Are we TOO connected? Can someone trace my Nintendo Mii back to … Me?  How much of my identity is my virtual identity? Am I more Craig, or more Lachrymae, or more whatever you’d call my XBox Live avatar? It’s been said that privacy is dead in our modern culture. That young people are not concerned with privacy, they want the spotlight. Thousands of self-indulgent YouTube videos would seem to bear this out, but the truth is more complicated, isn’t it?

Are we too involved? Have social media completely ensnared us in a web of connections that we can’t escape? How much of you is online for anyone to see? I’m looking for answers from YOU, faithful reader. Could I track you down in real life from your Facebook profile like some creepy stalker guy?  What is YOUR Real ID? ;)

Capcom announces Mega Man Universe

As a HUGE Mega Man fan, I was excited to see the trailer for Mega Man Universe. But at the end of it, I was left thinking…”well now, what the hell was that?!?!?!  Is this Capcom’s answer to Nintendo’s Mario Party or Super Smash Brothers series?

Luckily, we’ll find out more information today at the San Diego Comic Con 2010.  Stay tuned to the Comic Con website here to find out more.

What’s my take?  Well, my fingers are crossed that we’ll be getting the next great video game that can be used in library gaming programs.  The trailer reeks of 4 player cooperative play.  But then again, I may be wrong.  We shall wait and see…

Until then, enjoy this speed run of Mega Man:

Sky Blue at Piscataway Public Library World Cup Event 014

World Cup Programming in Libraries is a Win for the Whole Community

Sky Blue at Piscataway Public Library World Cup Event 014 300x225 World Cup Programming in Libraries is a Win for the Whole Community

Sky Blue FC player looks on with Piscataway-area kids during the 2010 FIFA World Cup US-Algeria game on June 23.

On June 23, the Piscataway Public Library was cloaked in silence. Not the regular kind of library-silence. Silence, as people sat on the edge of their seats, hoping and praying. The silence suddenly erupted into yelling, clapping, and cheering. The U.S. had just scored a goal in the 91st minute to gain a victory that sent them into the next round of play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. But as far as I was concerned, the real win was for the community of Piscataway.

Coordinated by the director, James Keehbler, the Library hosted its first ever World Cup event. At around 9:30 am, I stood in the back of a room packed full of 60 plus jersey-clad people of all ages. The far end of the room featured a large movie theatre style screen displaying ESPN. There was a buzz of excitement in the air that this building just wasn’t quite accustomed to. Was I really in a public library?

In addition to screening the all-important group C match, the Library also arranged for the local women’s professional soccer team Sky Blue FC to join in the fun. Sitting with kids from the community, the team watched the drama unfold, and signed autographs for fans during halftime. During the break in play, I watched a young girl wearing an “O’Reilly” jersey talk to none other than Heather O’Reilly (two-time Olympic gold medalist and member of Sky Blue FC) and the full impact of this event really hit me. I don’t know what they were saying to each other, but I had a feeling the young soccer fan would not forget this day any time soon.

Piscataway is an incredibly diverse community, and the demographics have changed considerably in recent years. The room was packed with people young and old, and reflected a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. But on June 23, none of that seemed to matter. For one magical morning, regardless of where we were born, or what language we spoke at home, the only country on our mind was the United States of America.

"After the cocktail party, we're going to go fight monsters, right?"

May I see your RealID, please? (Part I)

About a week ago, Blizzard Entertainment (the fine folks who bring World of Warcraft to us gaming addicts) unveiled a new game feature through their Battle.Net service. This new extension of the World of Warcraft gaming experience is called the BattleNet RealID, and it’s caused quite a little bit of controversy.Why? We’ll get to that.

Consider this post to be part one of a two-part series about identification and anonymity, of trolls (literal and figurative) and truth-seekers. We’ll start by talking about the RealID service.

World of Warcraft is what most gaming folks call an MMO, a massively multiplayer game. (or MMORPG, if you want to get sesquipedalian)  Multiplayer games have been with us for a very long time, but it wasn’t until the mid-90s that multiplayer gaming got massive.  In the early days, Multiplayer gaming meant that you’d get online with 4 or 5 of your best buddies and play a video-game together.  As games grew more advanced, it became possible for 6, 8, and even 10 people to get online simultaneous to go kick some badguy booty.  But then online gaming grew into something resembling an Internet chat room.  Why play with 5 people when you can have 20, 40, or 100 people online at the same time?  Early MMOs like Anarchy Online and EverQuest allowed a veritable East Coast suburb of people to gather in the same virtual location!

gather May I see your RealID, please? (Part I)
“After the cocktail party, we’re going to go fight monsters, right guys?”

However, the only way to accomplish such a daring feat is to segregate the players into different servers.  If you had 30 or so people all interacting with each other in real time, the entire game would slow down to a grinding halt, and turning your head to face another person would take 5 minutes!  So when you play an MMO, you need to first select a server on which to play. ( WoW calls them “Realms”, Because “server” doesn’t quite sound “fantasy” enough) :)

realms 300x82 May I see your RealID, please? (Part I)
I actually play on NONE of these realms …

So you’re ready to play World of Warcraft, you select whichever of these “realms” your friends play on, and you’re good to go, right?  Well yes, but once you limit yourself to a single realm, your communication is limited to only the people on that realm.  If you’re away at a  conference, and someone says: “Really? You play WoW? Me too! We should get together and game sometime!” you first need to find out what realm/server that person plays on, and only THEN can you game together.  Which is fine, really. There’s no rule saying that you can only play on ONE server/realm. You can play characters all across the spectrum of venues, depending on which friends you want to talk to that day.  But it does become somewhat of a scheduling nightmare.  If you only have a few close friends, you can all gather on the same server/realm. But if you’re like me, you have one circle of friends on the Lightbringer server, all of your Librarian friends on the Aerie Peak realm, a few friends on Velen, and what was that one server that attractive girl said she plays on? Shattered Hand? Exodar?? Before you know it, you need a rolodex just to play WoW. :(

Enter the brand-new RealID system by BattleNet! Using this system, you not only have a name for each character on each server, you also have a single username that can identify you across every server/realm.  In other words, every time you log in, your friends can see a pop-up message indicating that you’re online.  Not only that, but you can chat with friends, even if they’re on another server.  The RealID system brings World of Warcraft one step closer to being a unified virtual world.  One online community under a groove, where everybody knows your name!

What could possibly go wrong?

Travis May I see your RealID, please? (Part I)
“You chatting with me? Are you chatting with ME?!”

[To be continued ...] (Part II next week!!)