Ciaran Laval

November 12, 2010January 12, 2014

Worlds Can Collide Sometimes

Battle.Net the Blizzard partner site that caused a kerfuffle over the way they wanted to engage with Facebook and display real names on the forums has evolved into quite a useful tool. I can now talk to friends who are playing on different realms or even in different games in the Blizzard family and now that they’ve removed the threat of Facebook, real names on the forum and displaying your friends of friends when they shouldn’t be being displayed, it’s now something worthwhile.

However, at some point this sort of tool will be more beneficial if it extends across other worlds, such as Second Life, and allows you to talk to non Blizzard game users. There’s also something else they’ve introduced that’s handy, an authenticator. Basically, with this little USB device, you can only login to your account or the game, whilst it’s plugged in, and whereas such a device is far from perfect, it’s an improvement in security. Continue reading “Worlds Can Collide Sometimes”

November 11, 2010January 12, 2014

Inworld Classifieds To Have 256 Character Limit?

I found an odd issue whilst using the beta version of Viewer 2 recently, one of my classifieds had been torn apart and there wasn’t much text left. I felt that this may have been an accident carried out by me, possibly whilst drunk, so I decided I better rectify it and found out I couldn’t. I was unable to add any more text to the classified description, I thought little of this, it was one advert and I’m using a beta viewer, no biggie.

However today I have discovered the cause of the problem, it’s a bug that limits classifieds to 64 measly characters, well there’s a Jira about it, so it must be good hey, but …and it’s a big but, the Jira itself, STORM-577 has some rather worrying revelations in it and some odd guys called “productEngine” posting there. Continue reading “Inworld Classifieds To Have 256 Character Limit?”

November 5, 2010January 12, 2014

The Free To Play Model Gathers Pace

Linden Lab have long been criticised since they opened Second Life up to potentially more customers in 2006 and allowed people free unsubscribed access, some of the criticism was justified as it did open the doors to some unsavoury types who only wanted to cause trouble, but it is also a model that gives people greater choice than a straight subscription model does.

Four years on and Lord of the Rings Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea have both moved away from the subscription model, to allow people free access to a point, while addons and premium options can be purchased. Champions Online will move to a similar model in Q1 2011, which must all in some ways please those at Linden Lab who took the decision to move to this model, the cold harsh reality being that payment and registration are barriers to entering a new world and limiting how much freedom one can potentially have, puts people off at the door. Continue reading “The Free To Play Model Gathers Pace”

July 7, 2010January 12, 2014

Micah Whipple – A Name To Remember In The Privacy Stakes

Micah Whipple, remember the name because it’s an important one in the privacy stakes. Blizzard it seems, have bought lock, stock and extremely smoking barrel into the whole concept of sharing the love of real life details, many of their users however are not at all impressed about the Zuckerberging of their names, the problem it seems stems from forum changes that will mean anyone posting on the forums at some point in the future (the exact date is vague) will post using Real ID, which will mean posting with their real first and last name, they can helpfully post with their character name alongside it.

The problems for Blizzard started when they posted this information on their forums, the US forums here and the European forums, here. Some forum goers feel this is a wonderful move and will cut down on trolling, which is one of the reasons Blizzard cite: “The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players — however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well. ” Continue reading “Micah Whipple – A Name To Remember In The Privacy Stakes”

February 1, 2010January 12, 2014

Forums To Be Nerfed

“Upgrading the forums” shouts the blog headline, as Linden Lab announce that they’re, well upgrading the forums, as you can read here. However having used the new forum software for some time, both inside and outside of the Second Life experience I have to say, the technology may be considered an upgrade but the experience often isn’t.

When the Xstreet forums closed people complained that they were losing a community, the commerce forums are a very pale shadow of the old Xstreet forums. People do not find the clearspace platform as user friendly and this isn’t just a complaint from Second Life users, I saw the same complaints when Frontrange closed their old forums and moved the platform to clearspace, some people who used to post on the old forum never migrated across and the same will happen here.

Continue reading “Forums To Be Nerfed”