I did research on the net, and found an article in which the lotro bigwig said, “We have no plans for introducing at this time, any microtransactions nor do we feel that the microtransaction model suits lotro, the way it does DDO.”

What I want to point to are three little words: “AT THIS TIME”

I have seen this lately, time and again, – look, the net is changeable, these aren’t the old days with box games that came complete, you bought the game you owned it. These are the days when people forget, their attention spans are short. Today they appease you, tomorrow they sneak it in. It’s already happened many times – but people just don’t want to see it.

So while of course you’re free to do whatever you wish, I hope that you and others will remember that reading -carefully- may provide you with more insight. Because the more people that just go along with it so they can keep playing, the more these companies will take and take and take from all of us. It is not just their fault for being greedy, it is OUR faults for enabling them and burying our heads.

Here is a quote from the announcement that blizz gave about changing their minds about the forum ids:

“We’ve been constantly monitoring the feedback you’ve given us, as well as internally discussing your concerns about the use of real names on our forums,” Mike Mourhaime, founder and chief executive of Blizzard wrote in an open letter on the company’s forum page.

“As a result of those discussions, we’ve decided at this time that real names will not be needed for posting on official Blizzard forums.”

…. “at this time”

Just remember that. And I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but – as your blog says, I am brutally honest, and I would rather be honest with myself. When someone shows all the signs of going bad, and has been dishonest in the past about other things, it is folly to continue trusting them. Cheers and good luck….

Let’s give you some credit though. I’m going to guess you’re probably in the young white male demographic who’d likely not be internet stalked. Maybe your last name is Smith or Jones, so there’s like, forty billion of you who all look and sound the same. You’re probably going to be one of those people who caps out /at best/ in middle management when you’re slightly fat and possibly going bald, and you might think back to your glory days of internet trolling, when you got to do real digital chicks by having them worship your pixelated dong. I’m sure you’re certainly glad you unzipped now! Woo ha! I can tell you I am just creaming myself over the great reveal of your ethical and moral prick waving!

The trolling technique of wasting your time telling an OP exactly why their fury doesn’t matter, all the while holding REAL ISSUES above their heads makes zero sense. I mean, you took the time to be enraged over her rage. You took long enough to post that piece of shit disguised as motivational commentary. So really you’re as guilty as she is. Shouldn’t you be down in the gulf licking a fucking pelican clean, taking pictures of yourself as you saw at your wrists with a butter knife? Pro tip: Pull the blade vertical, not horizontal. You bleed better.

I’m thinking that in the time it took for Ryan to read your post and type up his oh-so-scathing response, he could have written a letter to his congresspersons regarding the issues he’s so very passionate about. But, y’know, berating people on the internet is more important than solving real problems.

Really, to be Blizzard last week would’ve sucked. If they didn’t back down, they were corporate schmucks who didn’t listen. If they did, they were whiny pushovers who let the mob tell them what to do (or worse – in some kind of corporate conspiracy). Do I trust them? No, not really, but I do appreciate and thank them for changing this. While I really don’t like some of the things in the letter (what exactly does “for right now” mean?), I will support them for now, because I want them to see that I appreciate their listening to me (and so many others). So I’ll just remain vigilant (as Linedan says – trackback on this post “YubYub” by Achtung Panzercow), but enjoy the game as well.