I feel that it would be a great idea, maybe even change up the server a lil bit by offering faster xp and scaled down dungeons due to a smaller player base and less available playing time.
I am about to do my first tour in the middle east, and believe me Vrika, playing WoW is going to do nothing to increase my desire to kill anyone at any time. If anything it will decrease my desire to kill because it will be a stress relief and I will not be running around as full of nervous energy as I might otherwise be. Why would you be against regular people with regular lifes having access to a game made more readily available. Supporting me is not support the war. I am not some professional killer, I am a 23 year old recently married IT Tech who signed up with the National Guard almost 7 years ago to protect and serve my country not any where else, but my president said I was needed in Iraq and I will not break an oath (that and the brig doesnt sound like much fun).
What "our" country are you talking about? What "our" troops? Get a perspective man.
you obviously must be one of the third world countries "we" havent invaded yet.
(sorry, just a dripping, sarcastic joke for the unobvious)
OP, bad idea, your over there to do a job not play games, in your offtime, thats when your not in the motorpool, servicing or helping to service your vehicle or on patrol or on guard duty you train or sleep, if you have to much spare time then your obviously not doing all you could be doing such as training your subordinates or studying for your proficiency exams for your next rank/paygrade. when you come back to the states you can play games.
(damn, did i go there or what?!)
can you smell that?!!...............there is nothing quite like it.....................the smell of troll in the morning............i love that smell.
What "our" country are you talking about? What "our" troops? Get a perspective man.
you obviously must be one of the third world countries "we" havent invaded yet.
(sorry, just a dripping, sarcastic joke for the unobvious)
OP, bad idea, your over there to do a job not play games, in your offtime, thats when your not in the motorpool, servicing or helping to service your vehicle or on patrol or on guard duty you train or sleep, if you have to much spare time then your obviously not doing all you could be doing such as training your subordinates or studying for your proficiency exams for your next rank/paygrade. when you come back to the states you can play games.
(damn, did i go there or what?!)
Have you served?
I have 3 buddies in Iraq at the moment and 1 in afghanistan. They work INSANELY long shifts and most 6 -7 day work weeks, when they get time off, they cant exactly go into town and get a beer. Gaming lets some of them have a break.
My buddy was in Iraq for over a year, came home for 9 months and shipped off to Afghanistan in december. He gets maybe 2 hours online a week, but he cherishes it. Why? Well, he gets to temporarily feel like he is out of the warzone. He gets to have a little fun with his old buddies, and he gets news about whats going on at home.
So... while training, sleeping, and proficiency exams may be what you did/would do. The human body does need downtime, and if they are over there fighting and dying for us, I damn well dont have a problem with them gaming a bit in what little off time they do have.
What "our" country are you talking about? What "our" troops? Get a perspective man.
you obviously must be one of the third world countries "we" havent invaded yet.
(sorry, just a dripping, sarcastic joke for the unobvious)
OP, bad idea, your over there to do a job not play games, in your offtime, thats when your not in the motorpool, servicing or helping to service your vehicle or on patrol or on guard duty you train or sleep, if you have to much spare time then your obviously not doing all you could be doing such as training your subordinates or studying for your proficiency exams for your next rank/paygrade. when you come back to the states you can play games.
(damn, did i go there or what?!)
studies have shown that having no diversions while on extending tours of duty i.e. deployment to Iraq is a leading cause of PTSD, troops who regularly play games, lift weights, draw, write, w/e.... are more productive, less stressed, and have a lower risk of developing serious cases of PTSD, so while it maybe alright for SGT Highspeed to never tend to anything but his soldiering duties the rest of us need diversions from the fact that we are in a shit hole that we have no desire being in, and possibly having to kill people who are only trying to kill us because it is a meal ticket for their family (I know that probably just opened up a whole nother can o' worms, and I know some belief in the whole death to American thing, but alot of the attacks are carried out by people just looking for a paycheck. and having to possibly kill someone who is just trying to feed his three year old and doing so by attacking foreigners in his country might mess with the ol noodle a bit.)
Oh and If I was guessing graill you probably are around E-6?
It's sad to see how quickly this devolved into a poor political debate. Seriously people, this man is simply asking whether or not it'd be a good idea to get a game server up for serving troops, not what you think about the war. That really has nothing to do with the current topic on hand.
To respond to the OP, I think it would be a great idea to have a server for oversea Americans. It could be confined by country (Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea) or simply have one server for all troops.
The idea that Blizzard providing a server to troops that want to play is somehow supporting the war need to re-examine the context of "support". Boeing makes aircraft that is flown by soldiers, and used to engage in warfare; however, the only way Blizzard will contribute to "supporting the war" by providing troops with a server would be in the battlegrounds of Azeroth.
I don't think it's a good idea, and it's got nothing to do with patriotism or politics.
Video games get a bad rap. They make people fat and lazy. WoW gets a bad rap. People get addicted and play themselves to death or neglect their kids. Blizz going out of it's way to set up a server just for armed forces serving overseas, even with the best of intentions, would end up as bad press for anyone involved. I can just see the headlines now:
"Video game company promotes war"
"GIs fight elves instead of insurgents"
And so on. The bottom line is that outside the immediate theatre of battle, the war is being fought more with PR than it is with bullets, and something like this is just too likely to blow up in someone's face.
But I think, that if a company like Blizzard provides soldiers with entertainment like WoW,it increases the morale of the soldiers, and thus makes them more eager to fight the war. And if Blizzard makes soldiers more eager to fight in the war, then that means Blizzard is supporting the war.
Im sorry what? They just want to play a damn game. It doesn't mean they are EAGERLY wanting to fight a war. No one in the right mind wants to eagerly fight a war. Especially American soldiers in Iraq, I doubt very much they support this war. Fighting a war which the government just sent them into. But much respect to the American soldiers that CONTINUALLY put their lives on the line even if the cause is a little fuzzy. Don't turn this into some dumb political debate. YOU WILL LOSE.
If the soldiers have no entertainment at all when it's their freetime, and get bored, then they want more just to leave the war and go home.
Whereas if they are provided with something fun to do once in a while, they are a bit happier to be there, and won't be so eager to leave.
So, providing the troops with entertainment increases their morale. And I think that increasing the morale of the troops is supporting the war.
And I know I can't ever win this debate, because I belief that what each of us counts as "supporting the troops" is based on our own values and beliefs and is subjective. But, I don't think that you can win this either.
Or can you prove that providing entertainment to soldiers won't have any effect on their will to stay there and fight instead of just going home? Or can you prove that there is some other fault in my logic?
So if we let the troops play WoW they will want to stay in Iraq???? You have no clue!
Your going to have to explain yourself a bit more. Supporting the moral of the troops is supporting the war?!?! Your high.
The other thing that guy is missing, troops wanting to stay or leave is irrelevant. My buddy in Iraq thats coming home in May has been wanting to come home since about 3 weeks after he went in.
Doesnt mean he gets to come home, contracts a contract and he is in till they say otherwise.
There are probably very few who actually "enjoy" deployment. Its a job just like any other, you do what your told. Im just thankful they are willing to serve.
The other thing that guy is missing, troops wanting to stay or leave is irrelevant. My buddy in Iraq thats coming home in May has been wanting to come home since about 3 weeks after he went in. Doesnt mean he gets to come home, contracts a contract and he is in till they say otherwise. There are probably very few who actually "enjoy" deployment. Its a job just like any other, you do what your told. Im just thankful they are willing to serve.
GOOD POINT^^
USA could always do what they did to elvis and bob hope draught blizzard in..
I beleive soldiers need R&R and if they like to play WoW let them who cares about press headlines as said before these people put their lives on the line for a cause. whether you agree or not .
look at this from a business point of view. FOR WoW to turn down those subs would be insanity.
moneys, money no matter where it comes from.
thats a potential of
Army 507,158 Navy 347,693 Air Force 347,352 Marines 179,762 Total DOD 1,381,965 new users blizz would be silly to overlook this NICHE
i dont care about wars or that other rubbish a soldiers there to what he has to do and deserves to be able to rest in the way he wants to..
Currently, I'm working overseas for our country and we have limited access back to the states in various areas. Many troops are pushing for more Internet access and bandwith here, but even if they max'd out on bandwith it would not be enough to overcome the lag for us to hit servers back in the states. Now, I don't know if WoW could make it profitable given the fact we actually do put a lot of hours in overhere (think of working 2 fulltime jobs with no days off), but if Blizzard was to contact the USO and investigate the possibility of setting up a WoW USO server here, I think the publicity alone would be such a great marketing tool! Think about it, the first company to offer MMO services to military serving abroad! Now that would be cool! And they could even provide military personnel free character move services to and from the server. Anyhow, just a though, but I think it would be awesome!!!
It is your job, not that it should grant you servers on base or in that region. Blizzard doesn't support the war but maybe the troops. It would mean Blizzard needs to install the server and have tech support there to keep it running which nobody from Blizzard is ever going to do. Work in a War Zone to keep a WOW server going?? Imagine if the Blizzard employee got PK'd while he was working on that server, then what? LOL maybe not but hey I know for a fact Blizzard would never do this, makes no sense at all.
This opinion is coming from a former Marine who served in the "actual" war against Sadam in 2003.
If you are working so many hours, as you say you do, then you won't have time for WoW. MMORPG's are a complete waste of time and would interfere with the vigilience a person must have while in Iraq and would be counterproductive to training. Instead of training, such as hip-pocket classes, cleaning your weapons, anual training, and training to keep you on your toes and read for combat, plus training to keep all the details of your MOS fresh in your brain, a person would be playing WoW or thinking more about WoW than his job over there.
WoW is an addictive game, so many people in Iraq would abuse the privilage. I just don't think a person needs any distraction while serving in Iraq. Hell, when I was in Iraq, I spent the entire time in a tent or fighting hole and couldn't shower for over 2 months eating MRE's. War is not supposed to be easy or fun, so why should our soldiers, who should be disciplined be distracted by a game!
Anyhow, that is my opinion on the matter. Just wait until you get back to the states to play games. Hell, you could always play Hearts or Spades or read a book. I think I played a lot of Hearts and Spades while over there and read the New Testament that was given to us.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Providing too actively services to military wouldn't be a good idea. Currently WoW and Blizzard are considered to be politically quite neutral, working too actively to aid US soldiers would be considered by many as supporting the war. They wouldn't be neutral any more.
But maybe they could arrange character transfers for servers from one region to another for soldiers serving abroad. They have servers in NA, EU and Asia, one of them is bound to be close enough that you wouldn't experience too much lag while playing.
This kind of talk really is upsetting. Regardless of whether you are for the war or against, making such comments and decisions I would be considered on the same playing field as being racist or sexist. We put our lives on the line each and everyday so people can have freedom. We are the ones who stand up and fight for freedom and know what it is to live in environments without such freedom. This would NOT be an act to support or condemn the war. It would be an act to support the troops that serve each and everyday!
I hear many of stories of soldiers returning home and being laid off, fired, etc.. for unjust reasons because employers fear they will have to hold a position for them or those who politically oppose the war. It's really sad that people treat our soldiers like leapors and I see many troops compare such treatment as those Vietnam vets that returned from war. We are the country that should be setting the standard for freedom and democracy so others around the word can aspire to have it for themselves. When you treat the very people that serve our nation as such, you are fowling what are nation stands for.
So please, put aside the so-called "neutral" aspect. We don't create wars; we serve our country. If you have an issue with us being over here, take that to your politicians and leave us out of it. We're here to do our job and we do it quite well thank you!
By the way, Your Welcome for the freedom you enjoy.
Peace.
That's a pretty crappy attitude you have. "Gimmee attention, I am in Iraq and my life sucks!. You should be thanking me for protecting your freedoms and should call me a HERO!" Listen man, if you have the time to play WoW in Iraq, you definitely have it easy and shouldn't be begging people to grant you hero status for being over there. Welcome to the crowd of Americans that have SERVED their country. Service doesn't ask for thanks or for special favors, which is what you are doing.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Originally posted by Irish_Red Being in the military is a job. They are only doing what they are being told to do. Period. Don't tell me I can't support the troops without supporting the war. Unless you have some facts to back it up. Like the OP mentioned, we have our "freedom" because of good men and women that have the balls to do what most of us don't.
I'm not blaming individual soldiers for the wars, as I think that the blame lies ultimately on goverment wich gives the soldiers orders. And the people who allow their government to do such a thing.
But I think, that if a company like Blizzard provides soldiers with entertainment like WoW, it increases the morale of the soldiers, and thus makes them more eager to fight the war. And if Blizzard makes soldiers more eager to fight in the war, then that means Blizzard is supporting the war.
I don't think that Blizzard should refuse to give the soldiers services, any more than I think they should refuse to give whole USA services, because of the war. I just think that they, nor anyone else, should do anything to specifically support the troops. I think that any such action is taking a side in the war, and any such action makes the one doing it a valid military target.
I don't except you to think as I do, but please, unless you can provide a proof that my logic is flawed, don't go telling me that I'm wrong.
And are you sure that you have your freedom because of US soldiers who are now abroad? I think that US soldiers who fought against Japan in WW2 are heroes who defended the freedom of USA. But so far the only thing caused by USA's war on Iraq has been that many Iraqians have lost their freedom to live peacefully, or their freedom to live at all. Or is "right to stay alive" not part of the definiton of that glorious freedom you are fighing for?
EDIT: Before I foget to mention, ofc if you support US troops only in locations where USA has not engaged in any war, then you are supporting the troops but not the war /EDIT
Honestly, you obviously know nothing about freedom. If you honestly feel that America took freedom away from Iraq than you are gravely mistaken. Do you know anything of Saddam and his regime? Do you honestly think things are worse now than they were before we came to Iraq? Do you think we kill innocent civilians for the hell of it? Maybe you should do some research before making such comments about people in Iraq being able to live free and peacefully with us in the region. The big difference is that the torture, rape, etc.. that occurred under Saddam's regime was not on the front page news of your local paper! It was hidden, away from the rest of the world to see and you lived happily in your nice little house with your nice family and pets oblivious to how things are in other less fortunate areas of the world. Many who live under tyrants in the region are poorly educated, there families held hostage, and told to fight America and free nations lest they and there families die horribly, never to enter paradise. Religion is a tool used as a form of control for radicals and when that fails, they resort to such attacks you see on the news. Yet you still side with them, calling American's killing the innocent and holding Iraqi's hostage. Whether or not you feel the war was justified or not, we are here upholding the ideals of America. We are in the region fighting for the freedom of Iraq to have their own government. If you think otherwise, than maybe you should go read the Constitution of the USA!
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.",
That's the difference between those of us who serve; we believe in those words and put our lives on the line to uphold what they mean! We don't hide behind a desk or a podium spouting out obscenities about others doing good things for those less fortunate.
Whatever your feelings are regarding how we got here you can keep to yourself because it's in the past. What matters now is where do we go from here? Do we leave and allow terrorist to take over this country? Or do we fight to allow the Iraqi's to have their own free government! Things aren't perfect in our world, but at least I can say the men and women who serve are working to make this a better world for tomorrow. If you have beef with how we got here, take that to your politicians that bring us to such situation. Just don't blame us for trying to clean up the mess!
As I said in a previous post, I served in Iraq in 2003 when Sadam's forces was fighting us. So I believe I've earned my right to have a strong opinion. I AM AGAINST this war. I've always believed that the U.S. should worry about their own affairs and let others fight their own wars. The reason Iraq is having such a hard time right now is because democracy is not the natural order of things in the Middle East YET, but it will eventually. You can't tear down a countries form of government, which has been imbedded into their personalities like democracy and personal rights have been imbedded in American's. I think that if Iraqi's want their freedom bad enough and their country, then they should muster up the forces to do so. American's have already spilled enough of their own blood giving Iraq the opportunity to be free. It should be up to Iraq now to keep that freedom, not the American's. American's are dying senselessly to terrorist attacks that are only happening because we are there. I believe we created those terrorists, because some people just hate the American's and what we stand for. Introduce something into their country that they hate and people go from being ordinary people for that culture into fighters of a cause (terrorists). I don't condone terrorism obviously, but the U.S. really should be worrying about the U.S., not the middle east. My loyalty is to America, not to any other country or its people. The better other American's adopt this principle, the sooner we stop fighting wars we have no business fighting.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
What "our" country are you talking about? What "our" troops? Get a perspective man.
you obviously must be one of the third world countries "we" havent invaded yet.
(sorry, just a dripping, sarcastic joke for the unobvious)
OP, bad idea, your over there to do a job not play games, in your offtime, thats when your not in the motorpool, servicing or helping to service your vehicle or on patrol or on guard duty you train or sleep, if you have to much spare time then your obviously not doing all you could be doing such as training your subordinates or studying for your proficiency exams for your next rank/paygrade. when you come back to the states you can play games.
(damn, did i go there or what?!)
That is exactly what I am saying! The OP needs to learn to prioritize. There are more important things a soldier can do with his spare time than playing games, all of them include ensuring he doesn't or his subordinates don't die the next time they go on patrol.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Oh my gentle Jesus.... Why.... I have nothing against you boys over there getting spare time to do what you want, i was just explaining the issues blizzard would have with it. Now then. How many posters here have actually served in military. I am talking real military, not boyscout reserves so they pay for your post secondary. I know I have. Corporal James Mahoney, Canadian armed forces. Served as a peacekeeper in bosnia and did 2 runs in afganistan. It's hard. I don't want to do it again. My best friend took a goddamn bullet in the head over there. So before you start flaming this boy's idea. Think. Do I have the balls to do what he's doing. The answer will almost definately be no. Why? Because military is hard, and dangerous. Y'all get home from school or the office or the plant or whatever, and you hop on your computers and play videogames. Not the same fighting a war. You get out of your patrol vehicle after being shot at and hated by half the population of the country you're trying to help, and you are dead tired. The few hours you have to yourself are very precious, and if you want to play WoW with those precious hours, be my guest. I hope you boys get WoW, and if you do, tell me what server, and by god i'll play with you. You boys deserve a whole helluva lot more respect than what these folks are giving you.
Y'all remember. These boys didn't start the war, they are just serving their country, protection all you folks so you can play your games, go for a walk without getting gunned down, and keep all the rights and freedoms you got. So godbless and good luck my friend, and remember, there are still some who have respect for you.
I can't for the life of me figure out why you are arguing with a person who thinks the country is called "Iraqi" and the people there "Iraqians"? At first I thought it was a typo, but after reading the other posts by the person I realised that they are just clueless.
I'm not really saying Blizz should or should not do it, but I played CoX, a game known for substandard performance at times, with a guy in my SG who was in Afghanistan. Maybe you need to talk to someone in communications over there about getting a better connection.
... You boys deserve a whole helluva lot more respect than what these folks are giving you. Y'all remember. These boys didn't start the war, they are just serving their country, protection all you folks so you can play your games, go for a walk without getting gunned down, and keep all the rights and freedoms you got. So godbless and good luck my friend, and remember, there are still some who have respect for you.
I could not have said it better myself.
_____________________________ *This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
I can't for the life of me figure out why you are arguing with a person who thinks the country is called "Iraqi" and the people there "Iraqians"?
Thanks for poiting out my mistake, I tried to correct those words now.
But do you really think that not speaking english as my mother tongue makes me somehow less intelligent?Why didn't I think to check that before. You aren't even an american and are not even in the US according to your MMORPG.com profile. Does Finland even have troops helping in Iraq?
Go accuse your own troops of being evil killers and leave the american troops alone. Most people in america support our troops. Thats our right, thats our choice.
Providing too actively services to military wouldn't be a good idea. Currently WoW and Blizzard are considered to be politically quite neutral, working too actively to aid US soldiers would be considered by many as supporting the war. They wouldn't be neutral any more.
But maybe they could arrange character transfers for servers from one region to another for soldiers serving abroad. They have servers in NA, EU and Asia, one of them is bound to be close enough that you wouldn't experience too much lag while playing.
This kind of talk really is upsetting. Regardless of whether you are for the war or against, making such comments and decisions I would be considered on the same playing field as being racist or sexist. We put our lives on the line each and everyday so people can have freedom. We are the ones who stand up and fight for freedom and know what it is to live in environments without such freedom. This would NOT be an act to support or condemn the war. It would be an act to support the troops that serve each and everyday!
I hear many of stories of soldiers returning home and being laid off, fired, etc.. for unjust reasons because employers fear they will have to hold a position for them or those who politically oppose the war. It's really sad that people treat our soldiers like leapors and I see many troops compare such treatment as those Vietnam vets that returned from war. We are the country that should be setting the standard for freedom and democracy so others around the word can aspire to have it for themselves. When you treat the very people that serve our nation as such, you are fowling what are nation stands for.
So please, put aside the so-called "neutral" aspect. We don't create wars; we serve our country. If you have an issue with us being over here, take that to your politicians and leave us out of it. We're here to do our job and we do it quite well thank you!
By the way, Your Welcome for the freedom you enjoy.
Peace.
I don't enjoy your freedom. Try bringing some of that freedom round here and we will kill you.
Blizzards most profitable market isn't the U.S.
A lot of people enjoy their freedom in spite of American efforts to prevent it. A lot of people do have democracy and freedom for themselves and are not looking to you to set any standards for them. A lot of people don't have democracy or the same freedom as you, and are still not looking for you to set any standards for them. Please stop with your flag waving, it wins no prizes. WoW is not on sale in any country that looks to America for moral or political guidance.
I think a local server for forces types would be a great addition. Perhaps on a secure closed net so information leak can be averted. (Trying to monitor or censor private comms over a public server for operational theatres would be a bit more work than any one needs). You could set up a private server perhaps, It would be a PR disaster for Blizzard to shut that down.
The whole good PR business?
I can't see it myself. The majority of WoW players don't support you. Get over yourself. The majority of WoW players were traditionally Pro Saddam, and the most profitable while not exactly pro Saddam are all massively anti Iraq war and all reasonably anti U.S. stormtroopers. If this was a U.S. only game or a primarily U.S. or even coalition game, you might have a point, but we're the monority market in this game.
Please stop harping on about fighting for everyone's freedom. The KKK said exactly the same thing. Mentioning to troops that they have been in a vastly unpopular war is not akin to racism. No one owes you anything. You do it for pay. Leave you out of the politics of your job? You're part of the political system. The part that inflicts it on unwilling participants at gun point or kills them. You chose that job."I vas just following ze orders" isn't going to cut it with anyone. You volunteered. You looked at your great nation, you looked at it's freedoms and it's democratic system of government and you said "I believe". "I'm willing to kill for that".
You don't get to wave your flag and harp on about how you are the key to all that is politically great about your job but then it all be strangely the politicians fault when you do something unpopular.
Just so you understand where I am coming from, I'm pro war, pro invading Iraq, pro american, pro soldiers, pro killing. If you have the balls to kill, you better grow the balls to live with what you do. You won't get charity from your enemies and you don't deserve any.
The support I offer my troops is money. Money for the best guns. Money for the best training. Money for body amour, money for their childrens schools. Money for their holidays.
This whole " support our troops" in every stream of media opportunity gets real tired, real quick.
They are doing a tough job (that they signed up for). Its a mentally difficult and stressful task ( which they signed up for). They are fighting for our freedom and the liberties to play MMO's ( debatable at the least).
I hope they all come home soon and safely to their families but this over-riding uber-patriotism can blind people to reality and posions fair debate.
Police, firefighters, etc all face daily life threatening danger in their jobs but yuo hardly see the same endorsement for them.
Just get on on and play the game. Look after your own families and endorse them. If you wanna help the soldiers and ease their burden, either join them in the fighting on the front line or become a politician and lobby for them to come home.
This post has been derailed completely. Hopefully a forum moderator will lock this soon. Please, there is no point in posting anymore, so just don't. People are being offended, threatened, and mocked, so just stop. Leave it to the tweens to do this type of thing, not grown people. And if you are a tween derailing threads, go play with your legos or your dolls please.
Comments
I feel that it would be a great idea, maybe even change up the server a lil bit by offering faster xp and scaled down dungeons due to a smaller player base and less available playing time.
I am about to do my first tour in the middle east, and believe me Vrika, playing WoW is going to do nothing to increase my desire to kill anyone at any time. If anything it will decrease my desire to kill because it will be a stress relief and I will not be running around as full of nervous energy as I might otherwise be. Why would you be against regular people with regular lifes having access to a game made more readily available. Supporting me is not support the war. I am not some professional killer, I am a 23 year old recently married IT Tech who signed up with the National Guard almost 7 years ago to protect and serve my country not any where else, but my president said I was needed in Iraq and I will not break an oath (that and the brig doesnt sound like much fun).
... - ..-. ..-
(sorry, just a dripping, sarcastic joke for the unobvious)
OP, bad idea, your over there to do a job not play games, in your offtime, thats when your not in the motorpool, servicing or helping to service your vehicle or on patrol or on guard duty you train or sleep, if you have to much spare time then your obviously not doing all you could be doing such as training your subordinates or studying for your proficiency exams for your next rank/paygrade. when you come back to the states you can play games.
(damn, did i go there or what?!)
can you smell that?!!...............there is nothing quite like it.....................the smell of troll in the morning............i love that smell.
Ahh no more crazy PR stunts by Blizzard please. They already have people thinking they have 10 mill active.
(sorry, just a dripping, sarcastic joke for the unobvious)
OP, bad idea, your over there to do a job not play games, in your offtime, thats when your not in the motorpool, servicing or helping to service your vehicle or on patrol or on guard duty you train or sleep, if you have to much spare time then your obviously not doing all you could be doing such as training your subordinates or studying for your proficiency exams for your next rank/paygrade. when you come back to the states you can play games.
(damn, did i go there or what?!)
Have you served?I have 3 buddies in Iraq at the moment and 1 in afghanistan. They work INSANELY long shifts and most 6 -7 day work weeks, when they get time off, they cant exactly go into town and get a beer. Gaming lets some of them have a break.
My buddy was in Iraq for over a year, came home for 9 months and shipped off to Afghanistan in december. He gets maybe 2 hours online a week, but he cherishes it. Why? Well, he gets to temporarily feel like he is out of the warzone. He gets to have a little fun with his old buddies, and he gets news about whats going on at home.
So... while training, sleeping, and proficiency exams may be what you did/would do. The human body does need downtime, and if they are over there fighting and dying for us, I damn well dont have a problem with them gaming a bit in what little off time they do have.
(sorry, just a dripping, sarcastic joke for the unobvious)
OP, bad idea, your over there to do a job not play games, in your offtime, thats when your not in the motorpool, servicing or helping to service your vehicle or on patrol or on guard duty you train or sleep, if you have to much spare time then your obviously not doing all you could be doing such as training your subordinates or studying for your proficiency exams for your next rank/paygrade. when you come back to the states you can play games.
(damn, did i go there or what?!)
studies have shown that having no diversions while on extending tours of duty i.e. deployment to Iraq is a leading cause of PTSD, troops who regularly play games, lift weights, draw, write, w/e.... are more productive, less stressed, and have a lower risk of developing serious cases of PTSD, so while it maybe alright for SGT Highspeed to never tend to anything but his soldiering duties the rest of us need diversions from the fact that we are in a shit hole that we have no desire being in, and possibly having to kill people who are only trying to kill us because it is a meal ticket for their family (I know that probably just opened up a whole nother can o' worms, and I know some belief in the whole death to American thing, but alot of the attacks are carried out by people just looking for a paycheck. and having to possibly kill someone who is just trying to feed his three year old and doing so by attacking foreigners in his country might mess with the ol noodle a bit.)
Oh and If I was guessing graill you probably are around E-6?
... - ..-. ..-
It's sad to see how quickly this devolved into a poor political debate. Seriously people, this man is simply asking whether or not it'd be a good idea to get a game server up for serving troops, not what you think about the war. That really has nothing to do with the current topic on hand.
To respond to the OP, I think it would be a great idea to have a server for oversea Americans. It could be confined by country (Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea) or simply have one server for all troops.
The idea that Blizzard providing a server to troops that want to play is somehow supporting the war need to re-examine the context of "support". Boeing makes aircraft that is flown by soldiers, and used to engage in warfare; however, the only way Blizzard will contribute to "supporting the war" by providing troops with a server would be in the battlegrounds of Azeroth.
I don't think it's a good idea, and it's got nothing to do with patriotism or politics.
Video games get a bad rap. They make people fat and lazy. WoW gets a bad rap. People get addicted and play themselves to death or neglect their kids. Blizz going out of it's way to set up a server just for armed forces serving overseas, even with the best of intentions, would end up as bad press for anyone involved. I can just see the headlines now:
"Video game company promotes war"
"GIs fight elves instead of insurgents"
And so on. The bottom line is that outside the immediate theatre of battle, the war is being fought more with PR than it is with bullets, and something like this is just too likely to blow up in someone's face.
Evil will always win, because Good is dumb.
Im sorry what? They just want to play a damn game. It doesn't mean they are EAGERLY wanting to fight a war. No one in the right mind wants to eagerly fight a war. Especially American soldiers in Iraq, I doubt very much they support this war. Fighting a war which the government just sent them into. But much respect to the American soldiers that CONTINUALLY put their lives on the line even if the cause is a little fuzzy. Don't turn this into some dumb political debate. YOU WILL LOSE.
If the soldiers have no entertainment at all when it's their freetime, and get bored, then they want more just to leave the war and go home.
Whereas if they are provided with something fun to do once in a while, they are a bit happier to be there, and won't be so eager to leave.
So, providing the troops with entertainment increases their morale. And I think that increasing the morale of the troops is supporting the war.
And I know I can't ever win this debate, because I belief that what each of us counts as "supporting the troops" is based on our own values and beliefs and is subjective. But, I don't think that you can win this either.
Or can you prove that providing entertainment to soldiers won't have any effect on their will to stay there and fight instead of just going home? Or can you prove that there is some other fault in my logic?
So if we let the troops play WoW they will want to stay in Iraq???? You have no clue!
Your going to have to explain yourself a bit more. Supporting the moral of the troops is supporting the war?!?! Your high.
The other thing that guy is missing, troops wanting to stay or leave is irrelevant. My buddy in Iraq thats coming home in May has been wanting to come home since about 3 weeks after he went in.
Doesnt mean he gets to come home, contracts a contract and he is in till they say otherwise.
There are probably very few who actually "enjoy" deployment. Its a job just like any other, you do what your told. Im just thankful they are willing to serve.
USA could always do what they did to elvis and bob hope draught blizzard in..
I beleive soldiers need R&R and if they like to play WoW let them who cares about press headlines as said before these people put their lives on the line for a cause. whether you agree or not .
look at this from a business point of view. FOR WoW to turn down those subs would be insanity.
moneys, money no matter where it comes from.
thats a potential of
Army 507,158 Navy 347,693 Air Force 347,352 Marines 179,762 Total DOD 1,381,965 new users
blizz would be silly to overlook this NICHE
i dont care about wars or that other rubbish a soldiers there to what he has to do and deserves to be able to rest in the way he wants to..
It's all Lies...
It is your job, not that it should grant you servers on base or in that region. Blizzard doesn't support the war but maybe the troops. It would mean Blizzard needs to install the server and have tech support there to keep it running which nobody from Blizzard is ever going to do. Work in a War Zone to keep a WOW server going?? Imagine if the Blizzard employee got PK'd while he was working on that server, then what? LOL maybe not but hey I know for a fact Blizzard would never do this, makes no sense at all.
This opinion is coming from a former Marine who served in the "actual" war against Sadam in 2003.
If you are working so many hours, as you say you do, then you won't have time for WoW. MMORPG's are a complete waste of time and would interfere with the vigilience a person must have while in Iraq and would be counterproductive to training. Instead of training, such as hip-pocket classes, cleaning your weapons, anual training, and training to keep you on your toes and read for combat, plus training to keep all the details of your MOS fresh in your brain, a person would be playing WoW or thinking more about WoW than his job over there.
WoW is an addictive game, so many people in Iraq would abuse the privilage. I just don't think a person needs any distraction while serving in Iraq. Hell, when I was in Iraq, I spent the entire time in a tent or fighting hole and couldn't shower for over 2 months eating MRE's. War is not supposed to be easy or fun, so why should our soldiers, who should be disciplined be distracted by a game!
Anyhow, that is my opinion on the matter. Just wait until you get back to the states to play games. Hell, you could always play Hearts or Spades or read a book. I think I played a lot of Hearts and Spades while over there and read the New Testament that was given to us.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I hear many of stories of soldiers returning home and being laid off, fired, etc.. for unjust reasons because employers fear they will have to hold a position for them or those who politically oppose the war. It's really sad that people treat our soldiers like leapors and I see many troops compare such treatment as those Vietnam vets that returned from war. We are the country that should be setting the standard for freedom and democracy so others around the word can aspire to have it for themselves. When you treat the very people that serve our nation as such, you are fowling what are nation stands for.
So please, put aside the so-called "neutral" aspect. We don't create wars; we serve our country. If you have an issue with us being over here, take that to your politicians and leave us out of it. We're here to do our job and we do it quite well thank you!
By the way, Your Welcome for the freedom you enjoy.
Peace.
That's a pretty crappy attitude you have. "Gimmee attention, I am in Iraq and my life sucks!. You should be thanking me for protecting your freedoms and should call me a HERO!" Listen man, if you have the time to play WoW in Iraq, you definitely have it easy and shouldn't be begging people to grant you hero status for being over there. Welcome to the crowd of Americans that have SERVED their country. Service doesn't ask for thanks or for special favors, which is what you are doing.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
But I think, that if a company like Blizzard provides soldiers with entertainment like WoW, it increases the morale of the soldiers, and thus makes them more eager to fight the war. And if Blizzard makes soldiers more eager to fight in the war, then that means Blizzard is supporting the war.
I don't think that Blizzard should refuse to give the soldiers services, any more than I think they should refuse to give whole USA services, because of the war. I just think that they, nor anyone else, should do anything to specifically support the troops. I think that any such action is taking a side in the war, and any such action makes the one doing it a valid military target.
I don't except you to think as I do, but please, unless you can provide a proof that my logic is flawed, don't go telling me that I'm wrong.
And are you sure that you have your freedom because of US soldiers who are now abroad? I think that US soldiers who fought against Japan in WW2 are heroes who defended the freedom of USA. But so far the only thing caused by USA's war on Iraq has been that many Iraqians have lost their freedom to live peacefully, or their freedom to live at all. Or is "right to stay alive" not part of the definiton of that glorious freedom you are fighing for?
EDIT: Before I foget to mention, ofc if you support US troops only in locations where USA has not engaged in any war, then you are supporting the troops but not the war /EDIT
Honestly, you obviously know nothing about freedom. If you honestly feel that America took freedom away from Iraq than you are gravely mistaken. Do you know anything of Saddam and his regime? Do you honestly think things are worse now than they were before we came to Iraq? Do you think we kill innocent civilians for the hell of it? Maybe you should do some research before making such comments about people in Iraq being able to live free and peacefully with us in the region. The big difference is that the torture, rape, etc.. that occurred under Saddam's regime was not on the front page news of your local paper! It was hidden, away from the rest of the world to see and you lived happily in your nice little house with your nice family and pets oblivious to how things are in other less fortunate areas of the world. Many who live under tyrants in the region are poorly educated, there families held hostage, and told to fight America and free nations lest they and there families die horribly, never to enter paradise. Religion is a tool used as a form of control for radicals and when that fails, they resort to such attacks you see on the news. Yet you still side with them, calling American's killing the innocent and holding Iraqi's hostage. Whether or not you feel the war was justified or not, we are here upholding the ideals of America. We are in the region fighting for the freedom of Iraq to have their own government. If you think otherwise, than maybe you should go read the Constitution of the USA!
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.",
That's the difference between those of us who serve; we believe in those words and put our lives on the line to uphold what they mean! We don't hide behind a desk or a podium spouting out obscenities about others doing good things for those less fortunate.
Whatever your feelings are regarding how we got here you can keep to yourself because it's in the past. What matters now is where do we go from here? Do we leave and allow terrorist to take over this country? Or do we fight to allow the Iraqi's to have their own free government! Things aren't perfect in our world, but at least I can say the men and women who serve are working to make this a better world for tomorrow. If you have beef with how we got here, take that to your politicians that bring us to such situation. Just don't blame us for trying to clean up the mess!
As I said in a previous post, I served in Iraq in 2003 when Sadam's forces was fighting us. So I believe I've earned my right to have a strong opinion. I AM AGAINST this war. I've always believed that the U.S. should worry about their own affairs and let others fight their own wars. The reason Iraq is having such a hard time right now is because democracy is not the natural order of things in the Middle East YET, but it will eventually. You can't tear down a countries form of government, which has been imbedded into their personalities like democracy and personal rights have been imbedded in American's. I think that if Iraqi's want their freedom bad enough and their country, then they should muster up the forces to do so. American's have already spilled enough of their own blood giving Iraq the opportunity to be free. It should be up to Iraq now to keep that freedom, not the American's. American's are dying senselessly to terrorist attacks that are only happening because we are there. I believe we created those terrorists, because some people just hate the American's and what we stand for. Introduce something into their country that they hate and people go from being ordinary people for that culture into fighters of a cause (terrorists). I don't condone terrorism obviously, but the U.S. really should be worrying about the U.S., not the middle east. My loyalty is to America, not to any other country or its people. The better other American's adopt this principle, the sooner we stop fighting wars we have no business fighting.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
(sorry, just a dripping, sarcastic joke for the unobvious)
OP, bad idea, your over there to do a job not play games, in your offtime, thats when your not in the motorpool, servicing or helping to service your vehicle or on patrol or on guard duty you train or sleep, if you have to much spare time then your obviously not doing all you could be doing such as training your subordinates or studying for your proficiency exams for your next rank/paygrade. when you come back to the states you can play games.
(damn, did i go there or what?!)
That is exactly what I am saying! The OP needs to learn to prioritize. There are more important things a soldier can do with his spare time than playing games, all of them include ensuring he doesn't or his subordinates don't die the next time they go on patrol.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
Hmm long gone are the days of being hanged for traitorous opinions
but hey thats what comes with democracey.
It's all Lies...
Oh my gentle Jesus.... Why.... I have nothing against you boys over there getting spare time to do what you want, i was just explaining the issues blizzard would have with it. Now then. How many posters here have actually served in military. I am talking real military, not boyscout reserves so they pay for your post secondary. I know I have. Corporal James Mahoney, Canadian armed forces. Served as a peacekeeper in bosnia and did 2 runs in afganistan. It's hard. I don't want to do it again. My best friend took a goddamn bullet in the head over there. So before you start flaming this boy's idea. Think. Do I have the balls to do what he's doing. The answer will almost definately be no. Why? Because military is hard, and dangerous. Y'all get home from school or the office or the plant or whatever, and you hop on your computers and play videogames. Not the same fighting a war. You get out of your patrol vehicle after being shot at and hated by half the population of the country you're trying to help, and you are dead tired. The few hours you have to yourself are very precious, and if you want to play WoW with those precious hours, be my guest. I hope you boys get WoW, and if you do, tell me what server, and by god i'll play with you. You boys deserve a whole helluva lot more respect than what these folks are giving you.
Y'all remember. These boys didn't start the war, they are just serving their country, protection all you folks so you can play your games, go for a walk without getting gunned down, and keep all the rights and freedoms you got. So godbless and good luck my friend, and remember, there are still some who have respect for you.
I can't for the life of me figure out why you are arguing with a person who thinks the country is called "Iraqi" and the people there "Iraqians"? At first I thought it was a typo, but after reading the other posts by the person I realised that they are just clueless.
I'm not really saying Blizz should or should not do it, but I played CoX, a game known for substandard performance at times, with a guy in my SG who was in Afghanistan. Maybe you need to talk to someone in communications over there about getting a better connection.
The OP was not suggesting playing WoW RATHER then killing people. He is suggesting playing WoW IN-BETWEEN killing people. At bit of a difference.
Thanks for poiting out my mistake, I tried to correct those words now.
But do you really think that not speaking english as my mother tongue makes me somehow less intelligent?
I could not have said it better myself.
_____________________________
*This thread contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages.
But do you really think that not speaking english as my mother tongue makes me somehow less intelligent?Why didn't I think to check that before. You aren't even an american and are not even in the US according to your MMORPG.com profile. Does Finland even have troops helping in Iraq?
Go accuse your own troops of being evil killers and leave the american troops alone. Most people in america support our troops. Thats our right, thats our choice.
I hear many of stories of soldiers returning home and being laid off, fired, etc.. for unjust reasons because employers fear they will have to hold a position for them or those who politically oppose the war. It's really sad that people treat our soldiers like leapors and I see many troops compare such treatment as those Vietnam vets that returned from war. We are the country that should be setting the standard for freedom and democracy so others around the word can aspire to have it for themselves. When you treat the very people that serve our nation as such, you are fowling what are nation stands for.
So please, put aside the so-called "neutral" aspect. We don't create wars; we serve our country. If you have an issue with us being over here, take that to your politicians and leave us out of it. We're here to do our job and we do it quite well thank you!
By the way, Your Welcome for the freedom you enjoy.
Peace.
I don't enjoy your freedom. Try bringing some of that freedom round here and we will kill you.
Blizzards most profitable market isn't the U.S.
A lot of people enjoy their freedom in spite of American efforts to prevent it. A lot of people do have democracy and freedom for themselves and are not looking to you to set any standards for them. A lot of people don't have democracy or the same freedom as you, and are still not looking for you to set any standards for them. Please stop with your flag waving, it wins no prizes. WoW is not on sale in any country that looks to America for moral or political guidance.
I think a local server for forces types would be a great addition. Perhaps on a secure closed net so information leak can be averted. (Trying to monitor or censor private comms over a public server for operational theatres would be a bit more work than any one needs). You could set up a private server perhaps, It would be a PR disaster for Blizzard to shut that down.
The whole good PR business?
I can't see it myself. The majority of WoW players don't support you. Get over yourself. The majority of WoW players were traditionally Pro Saddam, and the most profitable while not exactly pro Saddam are all massively anti Iraq war and all reasonably anti U.S. stormtroopers. If this was a U.S. only game or a primarily U.S. or even coalition game, you might have a point, but we're the monority market in this game.
Please stop harping on about fighting for everyone's freedom. The KKK said exactly the same thing. Mentioning to troops that they have been in a vastly unpopular war is not akin to racism. No one owes you anything. You do it for pay. Leave you out of the politics of your job? You're part of the political system. The part that inflicts it on unwilling participants at gun point or kills them. You chose that job."I vas just following ze orders" isn't going to cut it with anyone. You volunteered. You looked at your great nation, you looked at it's freedoms and it's democratic system of government and you said "I believe". "I'm willing to kill for that".
You don't get to wave your flag and harp on about how you are the key to all that is politically great about your job but then it all be strangely the politicians fault when you do something unpopular.
Just so you understand where I am coming from, I'm pro war, pro invading Iraq, pro american, pro soldiers, pro killing. If you have the balls to kill, you better grow the balls to live with what you do. You won't get charity from your enemies and you don't deserve any.
The support I offer my troops is money. Money for the best guns. Money for the best training. Money for body amour, money for their childrens schools. Money for their holidays.
Get a private server mate. Use it on your VPN.
What nonsense.
This whole " support our troops" in every stream of media opportunity gets real tired, real quick.
They are doing a tough job (that they signed up for). Its a mentally difficult and stressful task ( which they signed up for). They are fighting for our freedom and the liberties to play MMO's ( debatable at the least).
I hope they all come home soon and safely to their families but this over-riding uber-patriotism can blind people to reality and posions fair debate.
Police, firefighters, etc all face daily life threatening danger in their jobs but yuo hardly see the same endorsement for them.
Just get on on and play the game. Look after your own families and endorse them. If you wanna help the soldiers and ease their burden, either join them in the fighting on the front line or become a politician and lobby for them to come home.
To err is human....to play is divine
This post has been derailed completely. Hopefully a forum moderator will lock this soon. Please, there is no point in posting anymore, so just don't. People are being offended, threatened, and mocked, so just stop. Leave it to the tweens to do this type of thing, not grown people. And if you are a tween derailing threads, go play with your legos or your dolls please.
Thank you all, and have a good time