There’s so much seething and bile… Angry Jeg is angry! As we were in pre-show prep, our chatroom goaded Fen from Ventchat to pop in (even though he was planning on listening and editing his own show)

The blizzard real-id system for battle.net: How much do you trust the people you play with? (source)
- When the battle.net changes first launched, with promises of cross-server, cross-faction, and even cross-game communication, I’d wager most people were excited. All this for good reason, it opens doors and makes it that much easier to communicate. So much for that, Blizzard unveiled the “Real-ID” system and to all the features they promised are there, will one dubious addition. Confirming a Real-ID friend will force you to communicate using your actual name. Yes, that’s right, the name from your Battle.net information (and subsequent billing information) will be used. This begs the question, how much do you actually trust the people you play with?

Be still, my beating heart… (source)
- I fully admit to being a bit jaded with 5 months potentially until Cataclysm’s launch, but the screenshots of the “DEVASTATING WORLD CHANGES, LO THE VERY WORLD IS RIPPED APART AT THE SEAMS” are underwhelming to say the least. There are some awesome looking pieces, but let’s be honest. Cataclysm is WoW 2.0, and this redesign quite frankly needs some redesigning. Putting a volcano and a bit of charred earth in the middle of a zone does not a cataclysm make. Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Activision insurgence step 1: Put a ‘suit’ above Mike Morhaime (source)
- Is this the first step in ‘pulling back the curtain’ and admitting that Activision is really running the show? Why else put a COO above Mike Morhaime who reports directly to Bobby Kotick? This could all be hapless arm waving on our part, but is this a move that needed to be made? “Quick! Sales are down this month, whip up another sparkle pony for the cash store now!” …

Activision insurgence step 2: Remove executives resistant to change (source)
- Details aren’t exactly forthcoming from Activision’s side as there are multiple lawsuits pending, but according to Jason West, Vince Zampella have been terminated “weeks before they were to be paid substantial royalty payments as part of their existing contracts for Modern Warfare 2″. Activision has claimed “an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination”. Who to believe? I suppose the information will be coming soon, but it has the look of impropriety on Activision’s part when 35 other members of the Infinity ward team left behind West and Zampella.

Activision insurgence step 3: Give less and less for the same money (source)
- This feels like whining, but it really can’t be ignored. Assuming that cataclysm comes out in September (which may be optimistic at this point) the only content we will see is the Ruby Sanctum. A one boss encounter over 9 months is ludicrou$ … see what I did there? To put it into monetary figures, the 11 million warcraft subscribers will be paying $135 for a one boss encounter. What other MMO can you think of that can survive apathy of that magnitude?

Shameless guild plug
- If you happen to be looking for a guild to raid with that plans on clearing some content, check out our charter, roll an alt on US-Jubei’Thos and look for Jegsus!Draechen! More needed to fillout the 25 man roster!
-Specifically YOU healers!