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New armory-feature: a stalkers dream come true?
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Member UncommonPosts: 375
Soooo... I havent played WoW in quite some time now, but i pop by the homepage/forums every now and then anyway... and I spotted a new interesting feature with the armory. Theres discussion about it on both US and Europe forums:
It seems theres now timestamps on the armory telling when a player was logged on and what he achieved at that specific date, and if its recent enough (same day..? a few days ago..?) people can even see the exact time the player did something.
Furthermore, it seems anyone can setup a feed for any player on the armory and actually see him playing the game, there seems to be no need to even have a WoW-account in order to do this. Sadly, I cant remember my friends character names, or I might have been watching them right now. 
Im all for additional "features," but I must agree with some people in those threads; a privacy option might be a good idea. Have anyone tinkered around with these features, and what do you think of it?
Comments
I don't think it's really a problem, as the privacy feature exists already: Don't tell you character's name to anyone. They might be able to stalk your character, but they'd have no way of knowing who is playing it.
Me: Congrats on downing the Lich King, man!
Brother: Thank you...? How did you know?--We just beat him last night, and you don't even have an account anymore...
Me: Oh-- I check your armory daily.
Brother: ...
Um... welcome to social networks, nothing different there though, unless you're worried about the privacy of your anonymous virtual character.
It might become an issue though, if your RL boss from work that plays WoW to find out you missed work to play WoW
But then that's where you should put some kind of barrier between RL and "virtual" life.
This is still going to change though, when they release the new Battle.net, you'll be linking your Battle.net accounts with Facebook accounts (supposedly you'll have some privacy options though).
IMO it's a way to kill a bit of the lack of immersion from instances - when people get to know what you've been doing in "World of Instancecraft".
That's kinda true, and the added caveat is not to share any details through Real ID... that combined with the armory changes is the true death knell of privacy. Most players aren't overly protective of the main's name though, that might change with these new features.
Using Real ID means anyone you've Real ID-friended can see all your toons across all Blizzard games and can (eventually, they say) chat with you even if they're in a different game to you.
I get the idea, along with the facebook linking, but call me anti-social as there are some times I really don't want to chat with anyone when playing. When I played WoW I had a couple of toons across various servers that I played when I felt like a bit of "me" time. If I add my RL friends through Real ID, that option would go bye-byes. Not that I spent a lot of time on those toons, but I did like having the option to.
As far as I'm concerned it's nobody's business but my own how many toons I have and how often I play them, and if I'm playing SCII, I really won't appreciate getting messaged by people asking me to come run a raid in WoW.... I don't know, but it seems like all of this hasn't been terribly well thought through.
Most posts begin like that. Add the usual. .. "... but I still want to have a valid opinion".
Grtz to the guy who answered this:
"... nothing different there though, unless you're worried about the privacy of your anonymous virtual character."
On topic:
Ever since the official WOW forums have a link to the poster's armory, the constructive posts went up by a 1000%. It still is way below anything constructive, but at least whining did stop a little bit as the poster is asked - now and then - to back up his complaints with the things he REALLY did in the game.
"Heroic WOW Raids are too easy", while posting with an avatar that once did down a 3rd grade VOA boss ...
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
The thing is that this used to be a game, now its a game and Facebook 2.0, and theres no way for anyone to say "no thanks" (besides canceling the sub, and some people seem to be doing that). Im pretty sure that some privacy settings will be available soon though, since a bunch of people got kinda upset about it.
Another thing I find strange about all this is the huge amount of work Blizzard seems to put into this, for very little use. I mean what would be the use for any random dude to go into the Armory and see a 3D image of your character, all dressed up in his fancy armor? You can even make the character dance or cry for you!
Wouldnt it be better to put all this effort on the game instead..?
I liked your blue answer, but I think you are dead wrong with "instancecraft" as Blizzard is adding a complete new Azeroth in CATA and backed up with the needed Archeology profession to level in Path of Titans and its end game.
So even IF you get the idea of WOW in its last months of Wotlk is played in its end game in instances, ... this will be gone in CATA as to advance with anything you will need to travel the world even more than you would like in search for artifacts.
And ... with every patch they plan to up this "end game leveling process" based on Archeology/artifacts.
I already wait for the first posts in 6 months "I am fed up with travelling all over Azeroth to search for those needed artfacts and get ganked by level 85's ...".
---This being said and back on topic ---
I do think that the most succesful MMo's of the future will be based on instances (bound by a world) AND linked to face book and other social network applications.
Pepole want to have instanced fun and a great 24/7 playing offer. The "world" behind it is a nice binding tool, but people are NOT going to "wait" 20 minutes before the "fun" can begin and group up.
Sad for some people, but hey that's the market out there.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
Another interesting new feature I wasnt aware of.
According to the FAQ (Battle.net Real ID) about the Real ID, you might end up sharing your full real name with people you dont know, and maybe dont trust. Since your name will show not only to your brother/friend Bob, but also to everyone on Bobs Real ID- friends list, which might contain people you dont know at all.
So far there seems to be no opt-out for this, guess we'll have to wait and see how things turn out.
According to the FAQ (Battle.net Real ID) about the Real ID, you might end up sharing your full real name with people you dont know, and maybe dont trust. Since your name will show not only to your brother/friend Bob, but also to everyone on Bobs Real ID- friends list, which might contain people you dont know at all.
So far there seems to be no opt-out for this, guess we'll have to wait and see how things turn out.
I really hope there is an option to hide our (sur)name from "friends of friends".
"If all you can say is... "It's awful, it's not innovative, it's ugly, it's blah.." Then you're an unimaginative and unpolished excuse for human life" -eburn
ya probably why publicist cant send us spam lol .69 different online id ,any game that required a real life id i just flush it !
It's a good thing you have to opt-in to have any of the communication stuff happen. You can also give layers of access, so that you are in complete control. You have to ALLOW players from another game to be able to contact you before they can.
As far as checking armory.. again, it is YOU who has to tell someone who you are in order for them to know YOUR playing habits, otherwise they just know what your character has done.
But yeah, it is easy to call Blizzard all kind of names before you even test what they are implementing.
I hadn't heard about the Real ID thing... and if it functions the way people are describing then it'll be yet another feature that will soon be abused. I guarantee a lot of guild leaders will start necessitating all their members give them their Real ID so they can track what they're doing and be sure they put all of their play time into the guild. Blizzard really needs to stop giving the elitist types MORE ways to exclude people.
Just another shining example of how people here with complain about anything when it comes to WoW. Blizzard could be selling lemonade and some of the forum posters here will complain the lemons aint fresh enough,
They should give people a chance to choose...not showing the armory without my permission..make it so we can or not show it.
Blizz since the last patch before the first expansion became worst and worst...money talks..