Here are some of the posts and threads that caught my eye over the last couple of weeks.
- Kurt Vonnegut explains why people become drama queens
- tankspot dares to ask, “Has tanking made you mean?” Obviously not in my case, and I’ll boot anyone who disagrees.
- Tobold has an interesting theory about the different players who are attracted to different payment models. If all the players who really want games to be free go with free to play then how can that model make money? Similarly, if all the hardcore 40 hours a week guys flock to subscription models which depend on having lots of casual players, can those thrive too?
- Cassandri at HoTs and DoTs wants to know how much you’d pay for a battered hilt (leads to a quest which results in the best non raiding weapon in WoW). Does knowing that it has a high value affect whether you’d roll need on it?
- We get a lot of gaming genre blending in CRPGs. Some puzzle solving, squad based combat, exploring, maybe even FPS segments. Rampant Coypte wonders if players enjoy the mix of genres. For me, only if I like BOTH genres. I never forgave Prince of Persia for including stupid fighty bits when I just wanted a platform game.
- Mike Schramm has an intriguing post on wow.com asking whether Facebook might count as an MMO. After all, ‘players’ have avatars, homes, and can interact with others virtually. This is also his last week on wow.com so good luck to him in the future, I know I’ve enjoyed his writing.
- Larisa has some thoughts on how to take command over the random PUG. I’m hoping she will later address the question of whether or not anyone should be taking command.
- Hawley loves healers and says we’ll all miss them when they’re gone. He also wonders about Blizzard’s decision not to have a crowd control class; funnily enough I remember at the time thinking that it was inspired to spread the crowd control between different classes, but it’s true that in practice they weren’t all treated as equal.
- Jason Henniger writes the ultimate dear john letter, “Nyarlahotep, I’m breaking up with you.”
- Megan at Forbearance and the Drama Mammas (sorry but that column name makes me want to spit nails) at wow.com both think that everyone should chill and welcome the poorly performing players into PUGs.
Welcome to Spinksville! 
Warning: The tanking mean thread has high levels of elitism in it.
When I was a teen a was in love with Kurt Vonnegut. I thought he was cool and manly and an awesome writer. Now I think he was a jerk and who had a great deal of fun being a total jackass. Those little charts are just his idea of a joke. He reminds me in some ways of people like George Carlin; people who think cruelty is fun.
I can’t speak for whether he was a jackass or a misanthrope but I do think he was an awesome writer. In this particular case, I think he’s right that people do flirt with drama to make a more interesting narrative out of their lives. Even if they really hate it after they’ve let it out of the box. I think it’s something you grow out of (or at least you realise the huge bonuses involved in keeping the drama for fiction and leading a full but undramatic life.)
George Carlin was the last and greatest humanist on this world. He just wanted to show us the swamp of stupidity and hypocrisy the world has involved into.