[1. Local]: Tooting of horns
by Robin Torres 
May 17th 2010 at 9:00AM
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.
Tootoootoootoooooot! Yeah, I'm about to toot my own horn -- well, the horn I share with fellow Drama Mama Lisa. We so rarely get to hear the results of the advice we give on Drama Mamas, but last week we got the best feedback ever. Tootootooooot! We told AFK to make it work, and he responded:
Tootootoooooot! We've got more horns to toot. I may even toot my own horn again, I haven't decided yet. You'll just have to look after the break to see.Hey, Drama Mamas!
I really appreciate your answering my questions. You weren't kidding when you said that you were going to do a lot of finger wagging.
I read your answers, and I read the comments as well. I found Arann and Soonerwolf's comments especially helpful. I talked to my wife today about setting a date night every week for just the two of us, a family day to spend uninterrupted time with our toddler, and a personal day where we are to pursue individual activities. She actually really liked the idea. My wife has told me that she feels neglected before, but I spend every moment that I am not at work with her. I guess guaranteeing her a night together every week was something she wanted all along.
Lisa, Robin, and all of the commentators: thanks so much for your input,
AFK
Real ID
I think that many of you need to give up what you want the Battle.net cross-realm and cross-game chat system to be, and just decide whether you want to use what it is. Real ID is pretty much only for friends who play Blizzard games with you who already know your full name and email address. It is not the "hang out with your online chat buddies while playing on different servers, but hide from them when you want to" system that many of us were hoping it would be. Maybe there will be something like that available in the long run, but that's not what Real ID is now. Gregg Reece assuages some fears about what happens if a hacker gets a hold of an account that chooses to participate in Real ID.
Very well put, Gregg. Tootootootoooooot! But wait, there's more from the readers.Once you have closed the "Add Friend" page where you entered their email address that one time, you never again see their address. At all. Anywhere in the interface.
That is the one and only time their email address is ever shown, when you type it into the box and hit submit.
If I'm a hacker and have just stolen your account, then I can see that you're friends with "Rob Sneider," but I have no idea what his email address is. I only know that he's idling in Dalaran on his gnome warrior Notacarrot and his status is set to "Doing another bad comedy." That's all. I can check his friends and see people he happens to know, but I don't get their email addresses either.
Blizzard isn't as dumb as people give them credit for.
Magma: God I hope we can hide our real names ...
Daedhir: You want to hide you real name from real life friends who know your real name?
Michelle Madison: No you cannot hide your real first and last name attached to the account, which is why I won't be using it.
RogueJedi86: There's no hiding your real name........ RUMPELSTILTSKIN!
RP Spotlight
The reader entries for our weekly bit of RP fun are getting better and better. It's hard to choose! So this week I am tooting the horn of the person who is taking responsibility for the illness my gnome rogue has. But seriously, if reading in-character fun is your thing, take a look at the comments of For Gnomeregan!
Tirrimas: Tabbey slips the small vial of tainted spice back into her belt pouch and slips away, keeping to the shadows. Her lip curls in distaste at the job incompletely done, but her client specifically said not to kill the gnome.
The depths to which a penniless rogue will stoop ...
Stop, collaborate and listen
I honestly didn't know those were the words until my fellow Gleek, Michael Gray, pointed them out in Friday's Moviewatch. So I stopped, listened and collaborated ... kinda. Tootootoooootoooooot! There's also a pop culture education here.
Robin Torres: Word to Broodmother.
cendrekai: You know how to tell what generation you are from? When the song first starts playing, you get mad when you find out it is Under Pressure by David Bowie :P. Come on, come on PRESSURE! Damnit!
Glaras: Yeah, that opening always says "Under Pressure" to me. So I guess *I'M OLD*, thank you very much. And get off my lawn.
KrisseyB: Under pressure is Queen.
Robin Torres: Under Pressure is Queen AND David Bowie. I got over Vanilla Ice stealing the riff when the song first came out.
Angrycelt: Great parody of a terrible song which was a sickening ripoff of a great song. Does that equal redemption yet? Gleeking out right there with ya.
icepyro: So I now realize that I wish I had the situational awareness in raids, as I do when listening to music. I realize this as, while I can understand the call that this is a blatant rip off or whatever, I can tell the riffs apart. Sure, I've gotten it mixed up a time or two, but it's rather rare and usually because the music is in the background and so I miss the differences. Even then, outside of weirdos like me, there is only a few people who would play both enough that context of music, or in cases like this, the video graphics and title, don't make it obvious, even during those few seconds before vocals kick in which it will be.
Oh and now I have appropriate music for my raid tomorrow, awesome!
Since this came up in Robin's thread, I just have to give a shout out: Word to Guildmother. ;)
Thank you, icepyro. Tootoootooooot.
Ha, caughtcha looking! Hey, don't scroll away ... Come join the conversation on these and other posts around the WoW.com community. We'll see you around in [1.Local]!Filed under: [1.Local], Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Squatstopee May 17th 2010 9:22AM
The little toy train that could.... Toootoooot
Silversol May 17th 2010 9:51AM
"If I'm a hacker and have just stolen your account, then I can see that you're friends with "Rob Sneider," but I have no idea what his email address is. I only know that he's idling in Dalaran on his gnome warrior Notacarrot and his status is set to "Doing another bad comedy." That's all."
I lol'd
Kay May 17th 2010 10:20AM
Re: RealID
I'm going to have to respectfully, but strongly, disagree with your take on this.
The new features of battle.net...cross-game friends list and chat, were announced first. Some time later, the RealID rider was announced. Along with a partnership with Facebook, a company with a long and storied history of resetting security settings with each update in the hope of getting out what is valuable marketing information. Along with friend of friend issues and lack of privacy controls, all of which are present on every other gaming network in existence, the whole thing boils down to Blizzard not being -stupid-, but rather making a bad decision in pursuit of what they hope is a money-making deal with Facebook.
Furthermore regarding "just get used to what it -is-", if we do not make our disapproval of this decision known, there will be no need to fix it. Personally, I will be boycotting this tool even with the one or two people I trust enough to use this with, because I am very aware Blizzard is going to be watching usage numbers on this. I encourage anyone who opposes the current form of Battle.net to do the same.
As was pointed out many times on the announcement thread at the forums, as it is this is a tool for noone. Anyone who is a close trusted enough friend for the rather security-low state of Battle.net friending as it is now already has a myriad number of other forms of communication with which to contact them...phone, messengers, email, etc. The exact people, then, who could benefit from the Battle.net features being added is the exact group that is being excluded by its current design.
Robin Torres May 17th 2010 11:24AM
I understand that you feel passionately that Real ID is not for you and that you want something else for your crossrealm chat.
But just because it isn't for you does not mean it is not for anyone. I will be making use of it as will many others.
Kay May 17th 2010 11:38AM
No, you are correct, the fact that it is not for me does not mean that it isn't for anyone.
It is restricting it's use to only extremely trusted individuals that makes it not for anyone. My argument is that anyone that you trust enough to use this service's lax security and privacy with, you should already have a myriad of communication channels with. To put it another way, the people who RealID targets, are the people who need it the least (if at all).
TR May 17th 2010 12:54PM
You've hit the nail right on the head. Googling one's name will give you your Facebook profile (should you have one) near the top of the list. Ever notice hits for getting internet info for your name right under it? More often than not you have to pay them, but more often than not that info will include your current email address.
Docs.com has a partnership with Facebook in that when signing-up your Facebook profile info is shared. All of it. There's a pop-up that notifies you, and you can opt-out, but you lose the single sign-on advantage. Currently there are no settings to allow you to filter this information including information gathered by other Facebook apps and partnerships you use no matter how unrelated, but Facebook shares it with everyone else. So you share a presentation or file via docs.com to a business colleague or client, and /now have access to your Facebook profile without being added as a friend/. For free.
There are also /many/ documented examples over the years by CNET, dice.com, and games-related sites of employers using Facebook for background checks. It was once suggested that gamers in general not emphasize their game playing on their MySpace or Facebook pages. We are often percieved (MMO players most of all) as not being able to properly prioritize our time. Such as playing WoW at work.
Catacomb Kid May 17th 2010 4:22PM
@TR
You can remove yourself from Google (and other search engine) results on the Facebook Privacy Page.
kunukia May 17th 2010 10:39AM
My question about the lovely feedback letter is...who cares for the toddler on "a personal day where we are to pursue individual activities". I dunno about them, but for the most part that means the man is free to pursue, and the woman is free...as long as she has the kids with her. That is the usual reality. I never minded it, but I wasn't trying to raid at the time.
GormanGhaste May 17th 2010 11:07AM
Just have personal days on different days of the week?
Sinthar May 17th 2010 11:13AM
Or maybe, like reasonable adults, they realised you cant have a day free to pursue individual persuits, with a toddler sitting on your lap. So maybe its one day (with babysitter or toddler at friends) for together time or the 'date' night, one day (Dad free, mum with toddler) and one day (Mum free, Dad with toddler), and finally, but in no way least or last, a family day...Although it does make me wonder what they then classify the other 3 days as.....
Robin Torres May 17th 2010 11:22AM
Sinthar, you are being WAY too hard on kunukia. I don't think her assumption is unreasonable considering AFK's recent history (there was no family day for example).
The mom as the default caregiver is extremely common and is also my reality.
I have deleted the inflammatory part of your comment.
kunukia May 17th 2010 11:34AM
Woot! What I said provoked inflammatory!
There are many couples who would do just the reasonable things you suggested, Sinthar. However, there are many who would not even think it necessary, and I am talking the woman as well as the guy. We female types are mostly hardwired (genetically) to WANT to care for the kids. It's cool. Each family has to work it out for themselves.
Sinthar May 18th 2010 7:22AM
I dont think asking someone to be more even handed as being inflametory. In fact in the current age, this is something i find objectionable tbh. Please note i ASKED. I did not berate, nor insult. As i am not actually allowed to voice my objection over what is imho sexist views, even in what i consider to be an non accusatory way, and ask for more consideration, i fail to see any point in continuing to post here.
I know we dont have 'freedom of speech' rights as this is a private blog. But i feel what you have done is taking it too far.
Grovinofdarkhour May 17th 2010 12:24PM
Wonderful to hear about AFK resolving his at-home issues. I consider myself really lucky my wife plays too, but still, we had conflict off-and-on for a long time over the fact that it was "taking over" and last year took steps to counter it.
1. We don't play on Mondays or Thursdays (Monday is usually TV night and Thursday date night, but sometimes we switch em). Breaks up the week quite nicely. If something comes up we can swap Tuesday for Monday, or Wednesday for Thursday.
2. We can play all weekend if we want, provided it's "idle time" - Saturday and Sunday, WoW gets priority over absolutely nothing. Grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, dinner with the in-laws, a cousin's birthday party - if it exists, it's more important. WoW gets the scraps RL leaves behind, not vice versa. But if/when there's nothing going on, we can just nerd out and love it.
This arrangement protects our guild's Friday Night Raid (3 years strong and counting), gives us together-time, allows us to see the new tweaks on patch Tuesdays when applicable, and puts social life first when applicable. If you're dealing with real life/game life conflict, the key is just to communicate, draw up a plan, and be ready to tweak it as needed til you have something both parties can live with.
Anominous May 17th 2010 11:23AM
Hi, Id like to say i quite agree with your well written post. I have few friends i would use this with, and none of my RL friends play wow or any Blizzard game (god there a boring bunch of piss heads). As to the giving out your real name, i am FIRMLY against that. With the current age of the average wow user, if they found out my real Surname (Its Shufflebotham - That the gods honest truth), many people would be immature enough to discount what i say, and snigger about my name. This HAS happened to me before so i speak from experience, trust me, this WOULD happen.
Personally i see little or no point to this atm, and its time and Bandwidth that could be put to better use.
PS i Also hate and loath Facebook - the cause of more 'social engineering' that any other sites put together imho
If you need to keep in touch with your mates so badly, get em to log into vent/TS/TT - easy, quick, efficient, no security risks, and it works no matter what games you and your mate are playing.
Skadja May 17th 2010 11:40AM
Yeah, I already decided about RealID. I will NOT be using it, even though I have brothers and friends from RL who play on other realms (and in one brother's case sometimes my own)...and live hours away. People I very much wish to be able to speak to while they're on their home realms.
However. My first name is distinctly feminine - think something similar to Cassandria...not something you see a lot of guys with. I'd honestly prefer first initial, last name...though other individuals understandably don't want their last name out there. They should just leave our real names out of it entirely.
The friend of my friend is not necessarily my friend. And I don't want anyone to be able to confirm that the owner of any of my toons is definitely female. Sure, they can guess now, they can assume (though funny enough they never assume my male toons are). But they can't know unless they hear me in vent.
Vent's bad enough, but honestly people behave a little better when there's real voices involved than when everything's just text....
And just how do they think people will react to players with middle-eastern names, anyway?? Someone in the blizzard thread referred to these as "politically awkward names", and had a good point. Anyone who plays on Vindication battlegroup knows how stupid people can be about things like this...anyone who's ever seen a group attempt over and over to kick someone from a Latin-American realm for being from a Latin-American realm...no matter how good their English communication skills, or how well they're contributing to the group. It's not quite at Yahoo games levels of racism, but wow.
People shouldn't be idiots about that kind of thing, but they will, they are. People should be allowed to keep names private. Unfortunately, it seems the only option to do so is to simply not use this feature, as it lacks options.
Jackwraith May 17th 2010 12:07PM
Um, isn't the point of RealID that you only see the full name of people WHO ALREADY KNOW YOUR FULL NAME?
Which means that none of the scenarios you describe (racism, sexism) will actually take place if you use the tool. People you only encounter on WoW will only see the name of whichever toon you're playing. People you encounter elsewhere will be able to see your full name IF YOU ALLOW THEM TO.
I'm all for people deciding whether or not they want to use it, but the level of vitriol emerging about this based almost solely on either misinformation or misinterpretation of the description is getting ridiculous.
That said, I can't say I'm particularly thrilled about the Facebook connection, either. Considering the latter's willingness to violate privacy and only renege when the community revolts after discovering it, I'd like to hear more about that aspect of it before I decide.
Tirrimas May 17th 2010 12:14PM
Jackwraith: "That said, I can't say I'm particularly thrilled about the Facebook connection, either. Considering the latter's willingness to violate privacy and only renege when the community revolts after discovering it, I'd like to hear more about that aspect of it before I decide."
Hear, hear. I'm THIS close to deleting my Facebook account as it is. What started out as a cool "toy" has turned into a commercially-invaded quagmire, IMO.
Grovinofdarkhour May 17th 2010 12:36PM
Real men don't play Facebook.
Life management advice from Christina Hendricks to you.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/18/christina-hendricks-in-es_n_541955.html
Tirrimas May 17th 2010 12:09PM
Toooot!
:D