The Bridge

user2334

2:00 PM

@RilgonArcsinh You just need someone like Cynwise to write a 7000 word screed about how much your class got people to unsubscribe!

murgatroid99

@Adanion but the circumstances aren't all the same just because they are both beta

Rilgon Arcsinh

@MarkTrapp I used to write essays like that until I quit. ;) (I also happen to disagree with a grand majority of that and have told Cynwise as much.)

Koviko

@Adanion The concept of being "too localized" has to do with how long the information will be useful and the concept of being "speculative" has to do with whether the question can be correctly answered.

user2334

@Adanion SE moderation works smoothly on a large scale, but in localized situations, you'll see weird bumps and hiccups because naturally people disagree. The goal/hope/expectation/result/etc. is that bad calls are quickly reversed due to that disagreement. In the case of MoP, it's mostly working I think (the one question that was closed was reopened in a few hours, down votes are being countered by up votes), but the contest is throwing a bit of a wrench into the works

Koviko

The length of time that the answer remains valid varies from one game to another as to how long is "too localized."

murgatroid99

2:03 PM

@Koviko I don't think we actually want to close any beta questions as "too localized". The problem would be that they are speculation

Koviko

@murgatroid99 Well, that's not true. Questions asking when content will be released, for example, would be too localized.

murgatroid99

@Koviko I meant any of the beta questions that have actually been asked

Koviko

@murgatroid99 Alright. I was mentioning it because it's one of the weaknesses that beta questions face.

Adanion

@murgatroid99 I feel like the downvotes to my question are not because it is a "bad" question, but because those users feel that I shouldn't be asking a question about the game because it is in beta.

murgatroid99

@Koviko OK right, it's just not the main one

Koviko

2:07 PM

@Adanion Well, I personally supported your question because I feel it is a valid, answerable question.

But I also didn't support one of the other Beta question because it would be speculation.

Adanion

@Koviko Thanks, I thought it was a pretty good question... and I really wanted the answer to this one lmao

Koviko

But that's my opinion of what is guaranteed to have a correct answer and what is not guaranteed to.

Adanion

I was running around clicking on a post with an arrow on it, clicking on carts, jumping around carts, dying... basically, I had no idea what was going on...

Koviko

@Adanion Now, if your question was asking if the rules are going to change after Beta or something to that extent

Then I would have voted to close it.

But Beta still has almost 2 months of life in it.

Adanion

@Koviko If my question was asking that... I would have VTC'd it too!

Ian Pugsley

2:10 PM

Mornin' folks.

Koviko

@IanPugsley Morning.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Adanion Could you link the question in, err, question to sate my curiosity? (I think I missed it)

Adanion

@Koviko I felt that this one was pretty safe when I read about the extensive internal testing they put into the BG. With as much time and money they invested in it, they wouldn't pull it out unless it was 100% broken and unfixable.

Koviko

1

Q: What is the objective of Silvershard Mine?

After waiting in the queue for a while I finally entered the new Silvershard Mine Battleground. The Alliance was already losing at this point so I didn't really get a chance to figure things out from the start and everything was very hectic. I gathered that it has to do with the carts that spaw...

world-of-warcraft

pixel

If a word count was done on the transcript for the Bridge, I would guess the two five words used would be: "meta", "speculation", "vtc", "the", and the phrase "blame Wipqozn"

Koviko

2:11 PM

@Adanion That's not to say they couldn't change it, though.

Adanion

I mean Blizzard released Wintergrasp with the WotLK xpac and that thing was horribly broken all through beta.

Koviko

Which is why I didn't upvote or downvote the question.

If the BG's objectives are altered at release

pixel

@Adanion wintergrasp was horribly broken on all realms that didn't have an even horde/alliance balance

Koviko

Such as timers, reinforcement limits, extra objectives, etc.

Sterno

Thank you for purchasing The Secret World. We very much hope that you are enjoying your adventures and are ready for many more. We need to inform you that due to your cancellation of recurring game time on account XXXXX, your access to the game will stop on 2012-08-05.

Adanion

2:12 PM

@Koviko In that case, I would ping @MarkTrapp and ask him if can update his answer

Sterno

Yeah. I played a solid 2 hours of that so far :P

Koviko

@Adanion But they changed it before release, if you remember.

They removed mechanics.

Just flat out removed them.

pixel

@Sterno thanks for reminding me, although I have probably already missed the cut off for this month

Koviko

In an effort to keep the game bug free, sometimes Blizzard just removes bugged content.

So, to assume the Beta will be the release is possible, but not guaranteed.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Koviko Thanks. I dunno, I feel it is, as much as can be for something in beta, a question that can have a succinct, concise answer, so it's something I wouldn't VtC (if I could, that is :P)

Koviko

2:14 PM

@RilgonArcsinh Agreed. I just took a hands-off approach on that one.

The main weakness of any beta question is that, for it to survive through to release, it's speculative.

But if you don't imply that it needs to live that long

It doesn't really matter, I guess.

Rilgon Arcsinh

To make the Minecraft analogy - I could see a query about Endermen and their mechanics/mannerisms being the same sort of angle. (They were added pre-release, yeah?)

Adanion

Like I said in my meta post, the community is so split on the topic so I will leave the asking of questions to others and just try and post answers (as those seem to be safe from downvotes if they are accurate).

Koviko

@Adanion The contest also seems to include non-MoP questions. I'd say those are probably safe.

Rilgon Arcsinh

(I.E. The feature is added, the feature is working as it stands in the current moment, so tell me about the feature.)

Adanion

@Koviko The problem with that is I have been playing WoW off and on since Vanilla... I don't have many questions that I can't find by simply searching WoWHead lol

murgatroid99

2:18 PM

@Koviko not any more

> All Mists of Pandaria questions and answers tagged world-of-warcraft that end the contest with a score of 5 or more are eligible for the awesome prizes listed above.

Jin

i've been using it wrong this entire time...

Koviko

@murgatroid99 Damnit. Guess I won't be taking part, after all.

Personally, I'm scared of spoilers.

I want MoP to be a surprise.

@Adanion Instead of doing all of that, I just ask whatever questions I have. And I have a lot of them.

I'm trying not to dump them all on Arqade at the same time.

pixel

my guild has a no pandas rule for mop

Koviko

It's good for the website to have the info here, regardless of whether it can be found elsewhere.

pixel

they are accepting male blood elfs though, confuses me

Koviko

2:23 PM

@pixel Blood Elves still have crappy character models.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel That's silly, the food buff racial is broken, arguably the best throughput racial there is.

Koviko

Pandas are too pretty.

pixel

I know, I wanted to race change, I'm not allowed to

Koviko

@pixel Do it anyway and transmog to look like a Tauren.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Koviko Perma-clicked Orb of the Sin'dorei? :P

Koviko

2:25 PM

@RilgonArcsinh And when that's on cooldown, use Leyara's Locket.

Sterno

I hate WOW so much it hurts.

pixel

@Sterno but WoW loves your money

Koviko

@Sterno o.O

@pixel WoW is the most fun for my money, IMO.

$15/mo for a game that keeps my attention for the entire month?

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Sterno I find it exceedingly difficult to think about returning to it after playing Rift for the last year, but I don't think that's the same.

Koviko

I'm down.

Sterno

2:26 PM

More accurately, I hate the way I used to behave (and my wife would still behave, if we didn't have a baby now) when it came to playing WOW

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh You played Rift for an entire year? You are quite the specimen.

pixel

@Koviko That is too much of a leading question, I cannot respond without potentially incriminating myself over something.

@Sterno long, late nights, raiding?

Sterno

@pixel Yes. And days spent farming mats for potions

or daily quests

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Koviko How do you figure? It's basically WoW with a dev team that understands agile development and doesn't sneer at the community that pays their paychecks :P

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh ... I've never heard anyone bash Blizzard like that...

Rilgon Arcsinh

2:27 PM

But yes, I've played since release and can foresee no reason to stop.

Sterno

Hitting /played was one of the most depressing things you could possibly do in your life.

pixel

@Sterno I'm 20 next year, if I want to spend my last teenage year up until 7am in WoW, going to work and playing WoW at work, and then playing WoW when I get home, then I shall do just that!

Koviko

Blizzard, the company that releases patches all the time

And is constantly rebalancing classes

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Koviko I think we have conflicting definitions of "all the time".

Jin

you guys should play Eve, and become space pilots

pixel

2:28 PM

@Jin I already have a job, but thanks

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh More often than any other MMO I've played.

Rilgon Arcsinh

Last I checked, Cata did not have 9 major content patches in one year :P

Sterno

@pixel Playing WOW at work sounds awesome. no, wait, what am I saying? BHERLJUERH!

Jin

@pixel WoW felt much more like a job to me than Eve

pixel

@RilgonArcsinh Cataclysm hasn't had 9 major content patches.

Koviko

2:28 PM

@Jin wot

Jin

I raided WoW hardcore for 3 years, 5 nights a week

pixel

@Jin lol, 5 nights?

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel My point precisely. (Rift has, was my point.)

pixel

Jin

@pixel gotta have server first!

pixel

2:29 PM

@Jin I've never had to raid 5 nights as week to get server first

Jin

@pixel 4 nights for main raids. 1 night for 10man

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh Yeah, but they gave me Beta access so I was okay with it.

pixel

@Jin Ah, that's not "have to raid", that's "choose to raid"

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Koviko They gave everyone willing to forego their ability to quit beta access :P

Jin

@pixel ok 4 nights a week, required.

pixel

2:30 PM

4 nights / 4 hours is something that will impact your life but I wouldn't call it hardcore :P

Rilgon Arcsinh

Also I don't wanna hear anything about "raiding is a job" unless you're citing consumable farming for Naxxramas 60. shudder

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh You mean people who didn't see a reason to quit? Sure.

pixel

If you're in a less than great guild where you're doing that for several months then I can see it would get tedious

Rilgon Arcsinh

I still cringe when I hear someone say the phrase "whipper root tuber".

Koviko

WoW hate is like a religion.

People are always trying to convert you.

pixel

2:31 PM

It's like being an ex-smoker

They always seem to act holier than thou

Koviko

Yeah. Except WoW doesn't give you cancer.

Jin

@pixel with raiding like that, also comes farming for gold, potions etc. it was pretty time consuming

Koviko

At least, it isn't a known cause.

pixel

yes it does

people die from playing WoW

Rilgon Arcsinh

I don't "hate" World of Warcraft, I "hate" their refusal to adapt agile development, their attempt to make everything as painful to the player as possible, and the sneering egotism of Ghostcrawler, Bashiok, and Zarhym.

Koviko

2:32 PM

When your game has millions of players

Some of them are bound to die.

Rilgon Arcsinh

But I guess that's a niche following. :P

/s/their/Blizzard's

Jin

I enjoyed my time with WoW. like any other MMOs you play, the game itself gets boring eventually, but you keep playing because of the people you meet.

pixel

@Jin I know, the whole of Cataclysm I've had 3 chars raid ready for the first month of each tier, primarily for farming VP for BOEs and mats

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh Considering it's casual direction, I'm not sure how it's "as painful to the player as possible"

I consider it to be fairly easy and relaxing.

pixel

@Jin yes, I agree with this, it's pretty much the reason I'm playing now - not because "I want to" but because "9 people I know quite well want me to play"

Rilgon Arcsinh

2:33 PM

@Koviko Compare transmogrification to the cosmetic armor implementation of any other MMO with one (Rift, LOTRO, EQ2)

@Koviko None of them charge currency to use; none of them have such suffocating restrictions on what you can use.

Jin

@pixel yeah I kept my WoW sub open after a year I quit. just so i could log on to chat with people.

pixel

@Koviko WoW is painful to players who push for fast clears, because its paced in a way that doesn't prevent it but makes it /wrists boring to hell

user2334

Hey @AnnaLear what's SE's current guidance on plagiarized answers? Thought it was delete on sight, but the latest occurrence was resolved by the mod just adding in the sources the answer plagiarized

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh They did it so that Mages couldn't look like Warriors. I actually agree with the restrictions.

pixel

I agree with the transmog restrictions

I don't agree with the void storage ones though

Rilgon Arcsinh

2:35 PM

@Koviko Okay, but where's the rationale for things like forbidding "silly" items, forbidding whites, etc.?

Martin Sojka

@Koviko I don't. I think mages should be able to look like warriors anytime they like, simply by wearing a warrior-typical outfit (and getting warrior bonuses from it, obviously).

Koviko

@pixel lol screw Void Storage.

The one thing I want to put in it

pixel

@RilgonArcsinh stops people from running around with a fish for a weapon

Rilgon Arcsinh

(To wit, Rift has similar 'your class's armor type unless it's a costume' restrictions.)

Koviko

And it says "nothx"

Rilgon Arcsinh

2:35 PM

@pixel And that's a problem... why?

pixel

@Koviko yeah, doesn't allow you to store uniques

@RilgonArcsinh It looks awfully silly.

Anna Lear

@MarkTrapp Last I heard it's still "delete on sight".

I doubt it's strictly enforced, though, just because in most cases it won't even be a mod who will come across a plagiarized post.

Anecdata, etc.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel I fail to see how wielding a fish is "too silly" in a game where there are literally anthropomorphic fish. :P

pixel

@RilgonArcsinh you could transmog into a largely unsuitable bikini and then go to holiday resort Madness of Deathwing Heroic - would also be silly

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh But those anthropomorphic fish aren't silly.

They are vry srs.

Anna Lear

2:38 PM

@RilgonArcsinh That's a bit weird then. Kinda like wielding a human? :)

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel Yes, but the second instance of "silly" is allowed, which is the disconnect and the problem, haha.

Koviko

Murlocs cause logged out corpses to scatter Elwynn Forest.

Very serious.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@AnnaLear Well the anthropomorphic fish aren't playable (sadly)

pixel

santa's little blood elf has no place on Deathwing's spine.

Rilgon Arcsinh

(seriously blizzard just fire Ghostcrawler and make playable Ethereals and I'll be back)

user2334

2:39 PM

@AnnaLear this was the answer. We confirmed in chat that the answer was lifted entirely from other sources and fbueckert left a comment to that effect too

Martin Sojka

The other related thing which gets on my nerves in MMOs is one and the same item looking differently depending on the race and sex of the character. What ... the ... hell? The guys already designed the different looks, give us the chance to use them too, for greater variety!

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh Ethereals don't really have enough backstory to be playable, IMO.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Koviko They have more canonical lore than Gnomes. (Not that I have a problem with Gnomes, but merely as a point of order)

pixel

I have a problem with gnomes

Koviko

Everyone has a problem with gnomes.

Rilgon Arcsinh

2:40 PM

Well then I think we have a problem. ;)

user2334

@pixel @Koviko That's it, it's go time

pixel

@MarkTrapp gnomicide begins NOW

Rilgon Arcsinh

@MarkTrapp Oh thank god, I have backup on this.

user2334

GNOMES4LYFE

Rilgon Arcsinh

(seriously the only characters I had were male Draenei and female Gnomes)

pixel

2:41 PM

@MarkTrapp Do you know how many gnomes I killed while we were raiding stormwind lastnight?

Koviko

@MarkTrapp Let me know when you guys can handle killing the level 1-30 mobs in your home.

pixel

@MarkTrapp somewhere in the region of OVER NINE THOUSAND.

user2334

My fallen comrades will be avenged

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Koviko Blizzard allowing meaningful story development? For an Alliance race? Surely you jest.

LessPop_MoreFizz

I sure do love sitting in parking lots.

Koviko

2:42 PM

@RilgonArcsinh Now, I have the Alliance blues.

Thanks.

pixel

Well the Draenei have been rebuilding the Exodar for 5 years now

Talk about story progression

Rilgon Arcsinh

@LessPop_MoreFizz I'm sure you could find better places to AFK in TSW.

user2334

@Koviko @RilgonArcsinh we totally took back (the entrance of) Gnomergran last expansion! The foyer will be secured in less than 6 years time

Koviko

Deathwing ravaged the entire world. The Horde responded by completely rebuilding and rearranging Orgrimmar. The Alliance responded by putting a couple Dwarves on the front gate of Stormwind and completely abandoning a section of the city.

pixel

@MarkTrapp I did that event, on literally 5 characters, and nothing happened.

Rilgon Arcsinh

2:44 PM

@Koviko It's almost as if the main storywriter has a bias or something. :P

pixel

@Koviko that's because I changed from alliance to horde, when I told Blizzard of this Chris Metzen told me that it was a good move and saves them from doing any further Alliance design work

Koviko

@RilgonArcsinh Imagine that.

Anna Lear

@Koviko Getting around Orgrimmar wasn't nearly annoying enough. It had to change.

fbueckert

Blargh. So much WoW talk.

Koviko

@AnnaLear Especially the part where they put the Warchief in between the main bank and AH.

pixel

2:45 PM

@fbueckert likes WoW

Rilgon Arcsinh

@fbueckert I could talk about Bahmi nipples if this is more conducive to your interests?

fbueckert

@pixel I haven't played it for almost three years. I do not miss it at all.

pixel

Surely the easiest form of advertising would be to make a WoW guild called Arqade and take world first

user2334

Let's talk about Diablo III instead. So… how about that 8210th run through Act II?

Koviko

@pixel That sounds... Awesome.

Anna Lear

2:46 PM

@pixel sounded easy up until that "world first" part.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel As long as we don't exploit anything. (Or do we exploit for the extra notoriety and name-power?)

Jin

@MarkTrapp I've been watching Kripp's live stream of him playing Path of Exile. looks pretty neat

Koviko

@AnnaLear We need more Koreans.

fbueckert

@MarkTrapp STILL no legendaries. I swear, @spugsley must be taking my luck or something.

Martin Sojka

@AnnaLear Some MMO city layouts make me indeed miss a diamond pick axe, flint & steel and a stack of TNT from Minecraft ...

pixel

2:46 PM

@RilgonArcsinh no we just don't tell anybody, and definitely don't use any poor excuses like "everybody else was doing it boo hoo"

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel And "well it's part of our rotation". Don't forget that. /sagenod

pixel

@RilgonArcsinh rofl

but but, Ensidia doesn't exist anymore

well, they do, they're just not called Ensidia

user2334

@Jin I saw TotalBiscuit's videos on it: looks interesting, but eh… Torchlight II is coming. I like the over-the-top skill grid, though.

Koviko

@pixel Zynga should do this. Just change the name to avoid the connotations.

@MarkTrapp Too bad TL2 wasn't ready when D3 came out. They really could have made bank.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@Koviko @pixel Didn't really work for Ensidia since people still zinged them for stuff when they were Nihilum.

pixel

2:48 PM

oh they're Envy now

Jin

►

^ i'll play that

OrigamiRobot

HI @Jin!

user2334

@Koviko I dunno, I think they might still do that: the rage people have for Diablo III is getting to be pretty high, what with no info on when 1.0.4 or 1.1 is coming

user2334

And TL2 is supposed to be released by the end of September

Rilgon Arcsinh

@MarkTrapp Christ I hope so. I've had a baaaaaad hankering since the beta.

err, beta weekend

pixel

2:50 PM

It would be nice to see a Blizzard game fail

LessPop_MoreFizz

@Rilgon I am sitting in an irl parking lot waiting for my tech team to return my phone calls. :(

pixel

It might wake them up

Ronan Forman

fbueckert

Legends of Pegasus in about a week!

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel I think they have too much name recognition for that, though.

OrigamiRobot

2:50 PM

@RonanForman I'm famous!

pixel

I think so too

The Stack Exchange Blog

Blog - Stack Exchange: Stack Exchange: now 60 Valued Associates strong!

Shog9 on August 02, 2012

Holy smokes… It’s been over three and a half years since Jeff recruited Valued Associate #00002 to work full-time on building Stack Overflow. In that time, a lot has changed. Jeff’s moved on to teasing us with his next project, Jarrod’s gone from spending his days knee-deep in code to managing the Core dev team and being big in Japan. And there are now 60 full-time employees of Stack Exchange, many hired from within the communities on our sites.

It’s been far too many months since we last introduced any of them, which is a real shame – these folks work hard k …

Jin

@OrigamiRobot greetings

OrigamiRobot

Jul 24 at 17:08, by OrigamiRobot

@Jin I love you glorious hair.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@pixel Like, they've basically immolated any brand loyalty they had with me, but I'm one customer out of $DEITY-knows-how-many, so.

Jin

2:51 PM

@OrigamiRobot I love it too

@OrigamiRobot wanna know my secret?