The Daily Quest: Moonkins Anonymous
by Adam Holisky 
Aug 11th 2009 at 6:00PM
- Gray Matter has a great post on Moonkin Leveling Spec and Glyphs.
- Patch 3.2 Impressions are all Shamantastic over at Shamantics
- OutDPS has a guide on how to use a great online Hunter DPS spreadsheet.
- Oxhorn's take on the new races [spoilers].
- Finally, I provided some clarification last night on my personal blog as to why WoW.com does not reveal its sources in things like the Patch 3.2 release date or yesterday's Cataclysm announcement.
Filed under: The Daily Quest, Cataclysm, Druid, Hunter, Shaman
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
imsobuzzed Aug 11th 2009 6:11PM
I am SO, as you put it, Shamantastic over at Shamantics. Totem twisting button smashing muti-seconds of GCD not doing DPS no more my brethren of the elements. Gotta love it.
impurezero Aug 11th 2009 6:26PM
I'm glad you laid out so succinctly and clearly why you wouldn't reveal your anonymous sources. There were plenty of people trying to defend your decision in the comments as well, but those voices got lost amongst the screeching of the teeming masses.
Hopefully some people can be enlightened here.
kabshiel Aug 11th 2009 7:51PM
I don't think that most people wanted him to reveal his anonymous sources. They just wanted some information about them. Are they Blizzard employees? Are they someone actively working on the project? Are they those weird old ladies who live around the block?
Real journalists do this all the time, balancing the need to protect the identity of their source with the needs of their readers to be able to be able to evaluate the credibility of said source. The NY Times will very rarely just say it's information from an anonymous source, usually giving some information about the source's job and how they came across the information in question.
artifex Aug 12th 2009 7:20PM
"The NY Times will very rarely just say it's information from an anonymous source, usually giving some information about the source's job and how they came across the information in question."
Governments, even at the individual agency level, are huge. You'd be amazed at how small the gaming industry really is. I was appalled people were demanding more info, thinking it was pretty much just griefing of a sort.
jfofla Aug 11th 2009 6:32PM
Bravo Adam!
The WOW population is a horrible combination of ignorance and arrogance.
I was shocked that so many people felt entitled to "know your sources".
Thank you for making it clear, well, we can only hope, why a journalist can never, ever, reveal their sources!
Autumnlight Aug 11th 2009 6:39PM
The Oxhorn link is spoilerific as is the link name fella.
Autumnlight Aug 11th 2009 6:41PM
:thumbsup: on the fast edit :)
Mark Aug 11th 2009 6:40PM
I can understand the ethics behind not revealing a source - news reporters have (willingly) gone to jail rather than name their sources.
Example: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/politics/06cnd-leak.html?_r=1
I don't know diddly squat about journalism but I do question the morality and ethics - not of the reporter - but of the people responsible for leaking the information in the first place. In those cases, they're almost certainly breaking one or more NDAs. That makes _them_ dishonorable.
Does their dishonor rub off on the reporter? I don't know.
Yeng Aug 12th 2009 11:30AM
This is exactly how I feel on this. I don't care if they don't reveal their sources, but where is the morality in publishing information that someone broke their NDA to disclose to you? Writing that blog and trying to make yourself look high and mighty because you honor the anonymity of your sources, yet at the core of this, you are just as much as fault as the person that broke their NDA to reveal this information to you. Where is your integrity in that?
defeated26 Aug 11th 2009 6:43PM
Adam's blog post has the comments turned off, I wonder why. It seemed pretty dramatic, exaggerated really.
impurezero Aug 11th 2009 6:49PM
All his blog posts have comments turned off. I'm assuming it's to avoid giving angry fanboys a way of directly attacking him when they don't want their comments buried here where they belong. Imagine the comments on his pictures of a snowy day: "F.U. Adam! You made a joke about going AFK in a battleground. I hope you die in the blizzard!"
Fortunately, if you have a comment on his blog post, there is a place you can put it. (I'll give you a hint: You just used it.)
impurezero Aug 11th 2009 6:58PM
You could certainly argue that way. Whenever someone breaks a contract, it's technically unethical.
However, most NDAs are created with the intent of protecting the company's profit line. For example, if you leaked some information about Cataclysm's gameplay mechanics to a competitor, you'd be giving them an advantage in designing their own game, while likely profiting from it.
This type of info coming out two weeks early is much less detrimental to Blizzard. The tickets to Blizzcon are already sold, and perhaps this will get people wondering just what other big surprises they have in store. Keep in mind, sometimes "leaks" are planned for purposes of PR. (See: Nine Inch Nails viral marketing)
So, yeah...it might be unethical. It might not. It's a toughie.
impurezero Aug 11th 2009 8:30PM
This was a reply to Mark above.
Adam: Have your anonymous sources fix your reply button.
Murdock Aug 11th 2009 7:45PM
I personally feel those that scream "Reveal your sources!" are the same that scream "Blizzard buy some hardware to get us more instance servers!"
Sometimes people blindly believe their answer is the only right answer and they have more knowledge on anyone else on a subject. They ignore the facts and other information presented to them, instead relying on their own narrow world view, Factual Blindness so to speak.
Several people clearly articulated why it would be unwise for you to reveal your sources. They also mentioned that WoW.com has a reputation and wouldn't do anything to damage that. After all what good is a news site if it doesn't report the news properly? People ignore that though, they just want to get on their own little soapbox and scream. Such is the nature of the internet.
Murdock
PS For you instance people. Go take some DB, Networking and Hardware classes. Then come back and tell us why simply adding more hardware won't helping scaling issues of this magnitude. Blizzard has there stuff together, they run the world's largest MMO, trust that when they say they are "working on it" they really, really are.
jfofla Aug 11th 2009 8:11PM
The instances have been a problem for SIX MONTHS. How much money did Blizzard make in that time? Enough to have solved the problem 100 times over.
I have canceled my account in protest, and if the problem has not been fixed by mid September when my sub runs out, I will not be back.
Murdock Aug 11th 2009 10:17PM
Again, money isn't the issue. We all know they make a ton of money. Technology is the issue, it takes time to revamp the instance system, test those changes, order, install, test hardware and then do the migrations to that new hardware. That is why we had extended maintenance last month on a lot of realms, to move to new hardware.
You fall into the group I was mentioning. If throwing money at the problem would fit it, it would be fixed. There's more too it than that.
However, props to you for actually stopping play and letting your sub lapse. At least you're taking action instead of just threatening like so many others.
Murdock Aug 11th 2009 10:20PM
That was @jfofla's reply to me.
furry Aug 12th 2009 6:26AM
Way to keep your morals.