Random Musings About Software

Here is the current (unofficial) patch notes for the
next major patch for World of Warcraft.

- Mages have had the fire and arcane talent trees removed due to having the ability to actually killing something.
We have replaced these trees with something similar to the paladin holy tree.

- We got a bit tired of guilds 'farming' Molten Core so we removed it.

- Ragnaros has been relocated to Goldshire.

- In order to bring back some world pvp in to the game we have decided to remove all the battlegrounds, who really cares they gave too much bonus honor anyway.

- Cross Faction trade windows have been added.

- We decided to remove ironforge from the game due to a large amount of players complaining about lagg issues while inside.

- Divine Shield cooldown has been extended to 1 hour.

- The name "Fangtooth" is no longer available for selection on any paladin character across all realms.
Variations of this name may be considered as exploiting game mechanics.

- We have been receiving a lot of complaints about people being mind controlled in to the lava at blackrock mountain, to counter this we have removed priests and blackrock mountain from the game.

- Players will no longer be allowed to cancel their accounts, blizzard4lyfe.

- Monthly fees have doubled due to inflation of international oil prices
If you wish to cancel your account because of this please read the point above.

- PvP server changes: everywhere is now contested territory. If you don't like it, learn2play or roll pve you stupid newb.

- "Master Looter" has been removed from the game because we deem it is unfair to all those whole hearted ninja looters out there.

- A new class has been added called "carebears"
These are a race of bears that run around the lands of azeroth spamming /spit emotes and yelling "cry more newb" we feel this is a great way to entice a larger player base.

- Drakefire Amulet has been removed from the game.
It has been replaced with "The Hand Of Hogger"
Subsequently due to players camping hogger and farming him we have removed him from the game.

- Tauren war stomp racial has been improved to 12 seconds and the diminishing returns have been removed.

- We have added a new horde only end game raid instance to Northshire Abby.

So I logon this morning and read over at Wired that there's been a settlement between SAG Actors and video game developers.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hollywood actors unions have reached a contract deal with video game publishers, accepting higher pay instead of the profit-sharing they had demanded, the unions said Wednesday, removing the threat of a strike.

The three-and-a-half-year agreements with game companies came as the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were preparing to announce the results of a strike vote.

Unions had sought to win profit-sharing, known as residual payments, from game publishers.

While I'm happy that the Actors are getting a pay raise I still don't agree that they should get a residual payment from every game sold. I do however love the quote from Laura Ingalls.

"We will spend the next three-and-a-half years devoting resources to further organize this industry, and return to the bargaining table with renewed strength and vigor to establish a fair participation in the enormous profits generated by video games," said Melissa Gilbert, SAG president.

I mean for gods sakes woman...this isn't Little House on the Prairie. At least Wil Wheaton has the right idea when he says

"Developers: We're on the same side, guys, and by playing into "Actors vs. Developers," you've let the game producers divide and conquer us. If you're getting screwed, why not organize a union? I seriously doubt they could replace programmers, designers, and developers with Becky and Don from ad sales. You've got to believe in yourself, and not undervalue the importance of your contribution to the final product. We should be talking about the common goals we have, and how we can reach then, rather than arguing about who is more important."