Six Degrees of 2017: Alternative Chat
This is an installment of my Six Degrees 2017 series in which I take a look at the wonderful blogs that surround Beyond Tannhauser Gate. The blogosphere is large but there are so many friends to be found within Six Degrees.
Alternative Chat
Alternative Chat has moved around a bit in the blogospgere ( previously at http://alternative-blog.net which goes nowhere, and now here, but it’s always been a site I come to for writings about World of Warcraft, and the posts I took a look at for this six degrees post fulfill that purpose quite well.
Warcraft has always had tons of news and Activision/Blizzard, or as Alterntive Chat calls them…ActiBlizz, always seems to be changing things up so Alternative Chat is a good place to see what’s up. In the latest post, My Life, the Facebook connection is explored and I totally agree with the conclusions – I have no need of ActiBlizz to know or connect with my Facebook friends. The few people I have on my Facebook list know me for who I am, not for the fact that I’m an advertiser for Facebook or ActiBlizz – neither company needs to know I use the other or who my friends are in either space.
In a similar but different vein, the post Money Money Money takes a look at the expanded use of WoW tokens and gold across the spectrum of ActiBlizz games and how this may effect items in and out of them. For me, this is more of a theoretical post since I’ve never earned enough gold in WoW for anything much less to sell to get skins in Overwatch or cards in Hearthstone – I can see the problem though as I’ve seen how real money changes things in Eve Online, and not in a good way.
But then, real money makes the world go around and the post Barbie Girl looks at the hiring of someone to head the new consumer products division in ActiBlizz. You’d think with the last 3 posts on Alternative Chat, ActiBlizz wanted to make money off their games. I think it’s a good sign that there a bunch of financial movement around the games, but it starts to sound like there is a focus on monetizing things opposed to making the games better. I’d much rather have a good game with plenty of content than a plush doll of a crappy money-grabbing game.
Stepping back another post sees a regular series on Alternative Chat…the Azeroth in 5 series – Azeroth in 5 :: Feruary 6th, 2017. This series covers all things Azeroth, and in this edition covers world firsts, events during the month of February, and PvP changes coming to the game. It’s a nice way to get a quick fix of what’s happening and something I look forward to.
Finally, the post that I really like in the few I explored for Six Degrees today was the one from Groundhog Day, February 2nd called Only Life I Know. This post talks about a life created through years of Warcraft and writing down thoughts about the game, guilds, and life. Friends have come and gone, the MMO has been updated, changed, and returned to it’s roots, trolls had to hate and true friends provided support. It’s a good look at where Alternative Chat came from, where she’s at, and thoughts about how WoW has been a companion through many experiences. Definitely a good read for anyone interested in blogging, Warcraft, life, or pretty much just people.
While this is the 2nd of my Six Degrees posts in this first trip of 2017, Alternative Chat is actually a 1st Degree member of site and a place I often come to visit. For my next installment, I looked at her blog roll and found a site I don’t think I’ve visited before (as far as I know)…Feckless Leader. We’ll see what they’ve been up to next time.