Checking my email, I see a notification that some one replied to my Battle.net forum. I can't wait to read the intelligent, moving posts that will attempt to urge me away from my non-excited stance on Starcraft II. Instead, I am met with ten messages that could be summed up by combining the acronyms 'STFU,' and 'FUUU,': "STFUUUUUUUUU!!!" A response that shouldn't have been surprising in the least bit. It's the Internet after all: This is a common occurrence. Anonymity-available web forums are playgrounds for trolls.
Blizzard attempted to remedy this when they announced that real names would be displayed on the Battle.net forums; However, after an unexpected out-break of back-lash from Blizzard's online community, it was decided to keep the anonymity. An action that will ensure the continued hostile and non-user-friendly nature of this forum board.
A game's community is often times as important as the initial game. If that community is filled with trolls, hiding behind jpegs and user-names (especially when the game is multi-player) l am far from encouraged to play the actual game. Such annoying board members who post needless obscenities and start arguments for no reason would logically point to a game played only by greifers (gamers with the goal of ruining every body else's fun).
It's one thing to be in the middle of a Halo death-match and have your sexuality questioned and ridiculed but another thing entirely for the same thing to happen in a setting meant for intelligent discussion. The Penny Arcade "Internet Dickwad Theory" (Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total Dickwad) is hardly limited to gaming, but gaming communities as well. Blizzard had planned to excise anonymity from that equation, and just like how the equation '2 + 2 = 4' does not feature the same result if '+ 2' is removed, a normal person with an audience is just that: A normal person with an audience.
Defendants of forum board anonymity claim that the inclusion of real names would break the fourth wall and take them out of the experience. Well, if I want to submit my serious opinion under the pseudonym of Doctor_Mind_BendR_38 so that I can more easily believe I do have a PHD in bending minds then I could, but my serious opinion wouldn't be taken seriously with such a name. Because readers can't take my writing seriously and because they can't be held accountable for their words while posting under names such as BieberFan1, comments on my post will be nothing but statements about my mother's weight.
Maybe one day I'll post my thoughts about Starcraft II under my birth name, Jazz English, on Battle.net. It will spur rich, intelligent discussion and responses that will better both the game's community and the game itself. Until then, I think I'll stay away from the anonymous parts of the Internet.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
You make a good point. But even if you take care of the trolls, you know have to deal with pedophiles, weirdo's, stalkers and more and they can all find out where you live.