Real ID Firestorm's Aftermath UPDATED AGAIN

Echoes of Blizzard's decision to expose players' real names on the forums are reverberating still.

Gordon summaries the most interesting posts on this issue.
http://blog.weflyspitfires.com/2010/07/11/the-best-of-the-rest-real-id-forum-fiasco-edition/

Gazimoff's looking at Blizzard with a changed perspective now and starting to look for alternative MMOs that have casters such as those he likes to play.  If you want to see what's in the near future, check out his list of possibilities.
http://www.manaobscura.com/?p=949

Finally, Gnomeaggedon has made plans for life after WOW.   He has come to some hilarious conclusions about Blizzard, what he might like to do in Real Life, and what gamers can look forward to in WOW.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2010/07/12/my-life-after-wow/

July 6, 2010 is the date the Real ID on the forums policy was announced.  It was rescinded (for now) on July 9.  During this time, many serious players' views of Blizzard and its parent companies changed forever.

UPDATE:  Some folks about Blizzard's privacy breech complained to the ESRB which has something called a Privacy Online policy.  When the ESRB emailed these folks all back with one email pointing out Blizzard had rescinded the policy, they used Reply All, which exposed all the complainers' email addresses to each other.  Sigh.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/12/esrb-unintentionally-exposes-email-addresses-of-people-who-filed/#continued

UPDATE:  The ESRB has apologized.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/13/esrb-issues-apology-over-email-leak/

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Guide to Holy and Discipline Priests Plus Shadow

WOW Insider has started a guide to playing as holy or discipline priests.  Ignore the verbage at the front of each article.
http://www.wow.com/2010/06/27/spiritual-guidance-so-you-wanna-play-a-priest/

http://www.wow.com/2010/07/11/spiritual-guidance-so-you-wanna-play-a-priest-part-2/#continued

http://www.wow.com/2010/07/18/spiritual-guidance-so-you-wanna-play-a-priest-part-3-levels-1/

They also have a series on leveling a Shadow Priest.
http://www.wow.com/2010/06/16/spiritual-guidance-starting-a-shadow-priest-from-scratch/

http://www.wow.com/2010/06/23/spiritual-guidance-a-shadowy-work-in-progress/

http://www.wow.com/2010/07/07/spiritual-guidance-the-dawn-of-the-age-of-shadow/

http://www.wow.com/2010/07/25/spiritual-guidance-so-you-wanna-play-a-priest-part-4-levels-4/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Hunter Gems and Enchants

Garwulf has posted two articles, one on hunter gems and the other on enchants for hunters.  The enchants link is first.
http://huntsmanslodge.com/garsnotes-hunter-enchants

http://huntsmanslodge.com/garsnotes-hunter-gems

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Why Blizzard is Likely To Win Any Privacy Lawsuit

Cleric's opinion is that because players sign the Terms of Service and the End User License Agreement, any suit due to damages from privacy violations have to go to arbitration and the cap on damages is $90.  He also points out the corporate responsibility Blizzard and its parent corporations have and how any such lawsuit is likely to damage these corporations heavily in terms of their reputation.
http://ferarro.blogspot.com/2010/07/nope-some-changes-gotta-be-made-because.html

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Datamining Feral Druids UPDATED AGAIN

Zardoz's last two postings on his blog (July 9-10, 2010) look at feral druids.  He took on the challenge of finding feral druid popularity figures and is displaying his results, asking for input in interpreting the data particularly for the cats.
http://armorydatamine.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/feral-druid-forms-yet-again/

http://armorydatamine.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/practical-cats/

http://armorydatamine.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/the-truth-is-in-there/

http://armorydatamine.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/the-talented-mr-druid/

http://armorydatamine.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/druid-forms-at-last/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Interested in Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta?

Here's how to sign up for the limited beta testing that has just started.
http://kotaku.com/5583374/star-wars-the-old-republic-testing-begins

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Call of Cuty Founders Versus Activision Lawsuit Date Set

Kotaku has the details of the three lawsuits that are pending.
http://kotaku.com/5583678/trial-date-set-in-activision+infinity-ward-suit

Some of the alligations are listed in a later posting.
http://kotaku.com/5583710/lawsuit-activision-created-modern-warfare-police-state

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Blizzard Reverses Mandatory Use of Real Names in Forum Real ID Postings

The blue posting is here.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1

I think Blizzard was wise to reverse this policy.  I also think they have damaged relations with the WOW player community.  I'm starting to see posts like these--Escape Hatch says Blizzard's customers are advertisers, not game players, so their games will be made to please advertisers instead of gamers.
http://esc-hatch.blogspot.com/2010/07/who-is-activisionblizzards-customer.html

And Gordon is looking to the future when Bioware eats Blizzard's lunch.
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2010/07/blizzard-backpaddles.html


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Auctioneer and the Snatch Function

How to use the Snatch function in Auctioneer.  Read the comments as this seems to be buggy for some folks.
http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2010/07/snatch.html

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Guide to Halion (Ruby Sanctum)

A guide for healers doing the Halion raid.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/08/raid-rx-healing-halion-in-ruby-sanctum/

One for paladins.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/11/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-healing-through-halion-and-friend/

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