Wildfire Riders

Chryste - fuck yeah.

OH GOD IT'S SPREADING.

http://kotaku.com/5571411/all-square-en ... yer-gaming

I really wish Squenix wouldn't end credibility to this by latching on. Hell.

I don't understand this. What is this apparent need to inject everyone communicating with everyone else into so many aspects of our life now?

Is "Me time" going to become a completely alien concept?

I do know at this rate, though, I am well on my way to becoming an enraged old man ranting about where technology is going.

You can hang out with Uthas!

I don't think this is going live. The backlash is astounding.

I'm going to wait and see, but I'm highly doubtful, with the tenor of the blue posts, that anything will change.

Also, the fact that it's spreading isn't surprising. At least not the "games + social media" thing. Farmville is huge, and now Blizzard is jumping on the train. Other games are likely to at least consider the idea, especially if they think they can make dollars.

Fells wrote:I really wish Squenix wouldn't end credibility to this by latching on. Hell.

The hell with that, I want to digitally insert myself into the next Final Fantasy. I will have to endure being bishy, spiky, and belt-overendowed, but there is a somewhat reasonable chance that I get to make out with Tifa Lockhart. I'll take the risks.

The Squenix thing isn't surprising or comparable to this, really. DS games like Dragonquest will have means of linking with friends with the games for data sharing or optional joined battles. You'll have the option to play the card game distractions or chocobo racing in console-based FF games against others online and have your progress announced to Facebook (like some console games already do). Added features that can be safely ignored, and additions that they've been discussing for a while now.

Suggesting that their direction is on the same level as Blizzard's announcement is, well, a discredit to the severity of Blizzard's announcement.

I'm with Aely on this. I get the impression that the forums are going Real ID regardless of how unpopular it may be. Despite the backlash, Blizzard has enough forumgoers that if even 3/4ths of them cease using the forums, the forums will still be active and lively enough for Blizzard to be able to at least save face by saying "see, it works!". The forums that are going to be biggest hit are the slowest (but most valuable) forums, like realm forums and Guild Relations, which are mostly ignored by Blizzard anyway.

At the end of the day, I do think the change will succeed at the stated goals—the forums will probably become a nicer place to read threads, but only because the decreased posting will mean faster moderation times. The trade-off is that it will absolutely suck to post there.

THIS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l1_8wefR7c

THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN