Posts Tagged ‘World of Warcraft’

Friends Hangout is a new web-based virtual world in open Beta that’s been gaining a lot of attention from fans of the genre. As a special offer to Social Times readers, you can click this link to get 2000 extra virtual tokens to spend, when you create a free account. Developed by a small Tampa startup, it comes with FaceBook and Bebo integration, and enables players to create and share a one million square meter virtual world space with up to 10 of your friends (30 if you become a paying customer.) Unlike most other web-based virtual worlds, such as Habbo or Zynga’s YoVille, Friends Hangout boasts realistic 3D graphics running in the Unity 3D Web Player plugin, one of the best, perhaps last hopes to revive consumer interest in 3D virtual worlds.

Why “last”?
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Triumph of the Horde! A huge turning point in the relationship between consumers and virtual worlds is occurring today, and it took thousands of pissed off orcs and elves to make it happen. Only 3 days after announcing a widely protested policy to require real names in its user forum, World of Warcraft developer Blizzard just announced that they’re cancelling those plans. “We will always appreciate the feedback and support of our players,” Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime wrote this morning, crediting the community for influencing this change. (That’s one way of putting it. The protest got so ugly, some Warcraft fans resorted to posting real life details of Blizzard employees and their familes; even info on Bobby Kotick, CEO of corporate owner Activision Blizzard, was put online.) And now that the West’s most successful MMO developer has backed away from connecting real names to online worlds, a line has been drawn:
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Uprising in Azeroth! When World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment announced this week that it would soon require its players to use Real ID log-ins to participate in its online community forum, the company probably wasn’t expecting the backlash that followed. Instead of buying Blizzard’s explanation that using real names to post forum comments would discourage “flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild”, the Activision-owned studio is now under siege from its own outraged players, with its forum ironically buried under thousands of infuriated posts from folks who don’t want their real identity linked to their WoW activity. (Typical sample: “Blizzard, your stupidity knows no bounds.”) In an act of juvenile judo, some players even resorted to finding and publishing the home address of a Blizzard employee. Given the collective fury, Blizzard may reverse its policy. But whatever happens, the reaction exposes a major cultural rift in the Facebook era:
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I remember when I first saw Disclosure, the steamy suspense drama featuring Michael Douglas as a corporate executive who designs and uses a 3D computer interface system.  Each person that logged in had an ‘avatar’, and they could communicate within the virtual world, and of course while Michael’s avatar is searching for files online, another user approaches and threatens him within the world.  The idea of interacting with others in a virtual world seemed unreal at the time.  Years later, 3D is a standard in computer applications, and in fact, there are a number of great chat services that hinge on virtual worlds to enhance the ability for people to communicate with one another.  I take a look at these below.

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