Daniel Brusilovsky is a 17-year old entrepreneur and student residing in the Silicon Valley. Daniel has been producing media content online since February 2007, and has hosted numerous podcasts along the way.

Daniel is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Teens in Tech Networks, a company that provides a suite of products to enable the youth to post their content online, as well as collaborate and interact with others. Teens in Tech Networks was founded in February 2008, and currently has 16 employees worldwide.

Sounds like Daniel has a good start going for him, doesn’t it? Matter of fact, the Teens in Tech conference starts today. Unfortunately, for Daniel, he made a big mistake:

On Monday evening I received a phone call from someone I trust who told me that one of our interns had asked for compensation in exchange for a blog post. Specifically, this intern had allegedly asked for a Macbook Air in exchange for a post about a startup.

After an investigation we determined that the allegation was true. In fact, on at least one other occasion this intern was almost certainly given a computer in exchange for a post.

The intern in question has admitted to some of the allegations, and has denied others. We suspended this person while we were sorting through exactly what happened. When it became clear yesterday that there was no question that this person had requested, and in one case taken, compensation for a post, the intern was terminated.

Daniel potentially blew his career for a Macbook Air. You’d think, since his business employs 16 people, he could easily afford a Macbook Air. You’d also think he’d know better than to use his valuable TechCrunch connection to receive goods in exchange for entries. You’d think his ethics would be stronger than that. I know, he’s a kid right? Kids make mistakes. This “kid” is an entrepreneur holding conferences and employing people. Step into the adult ring with his actions, he doesn’t get to pull the “I’m a kid” card. If he’s a “kid” he shouldn’t be CEO, should he? That is an adult position and he was punished as an adult. He was terminated, all this entries were deleted, and although not named in the entry initially, people figured out who the intern was, and the entry was edited to include a link to Daniel’s apology. I’m not buying the apology.

In some way or another, a line was crossed that should have never been. At this time, I do not want to go into details, but I will publicly say that I am truly sorry to my family, friends, TechCrunch, and especially the tech community.

He did not take responsibility for what he did. He did not admit what he did. How can someone be sincerely sorry without owning up for what they did? Sorry he was busted…no doubt. Sorry for what he did? It’s not showing in his apology entry. I wonder if the people at TechCrunch believes his apology. The timing of the exposure is perfect. TechCrunch could have waited until after the conference to expose Daniel. Let me be clear, I’m glad they didn’t, because this is part of the learning experience. Daniel betrayed people who trusted him and misused his authority. It is fitting he has to deal with his betrayal during his tech conference, just as an adult would, but what about after the conference? How does one recover from a big screw up like this?

The Recovery

Personally, I think Daniel needs to leave tech alone. His ethics do not match what is needed in the industry for success. People don’t change overnight. If he tried to receive a Macbook Air, there are probably other areas where he crossed the line ethically. Getting caught doesn’t change the way a person thinks, often it just makes them smarter in how they break the rules.

Let’s say the goal is to stay in technology, how does one recover? It’s a lengthy process. One Google search will always bring up what Daniel did, which is why he has to own up to it to atone. Talking about what he did, using himself as an example on how easy it can be to cross the line, and showing his process of moving forward will slowly gain respect from his readers. Honestly, many teens and adults would cross the line. Just because an opportunity for success arises does not mean the person is ready to maintain the success. Daniel had an opportunity, he blew it, and would have to earn it back by rebuilding the trust he broke. Talking about the situation over time would eventually over-shadow the news about his mistake. There is one caveat.

He can never screw up like this again.

If he makes another ethical mistake, it would be much worse as the previous mistake would arise along with the current one. Doing nothing means the mistake will always follow him. Atoning means his ethics changed, and that takes time to prove. If he thinks he can “be a kid” and come back later to the industry, he’s mistaken. This will always follow him and will be like a thorn in his side unless he deals with it.

The inconsistencies with James’ explanation

James (which is a woman – remember that) starts with a heart breaking story of a woman that is unable to make ends meet for her family (single parent). Struggling as an author under her real name, she picked a male name to write under and instantly (her word, not mine) noticed a difference.

I was still bringing in work with the other business, the one I ran under my real name. I was still marketing it. I was still applying for jobs — sometimes for the same jobs that I applied for using my pen name.

I landed clients and got work under both names. But it was much easier to do when I used my pen name.

Next, the explanation that is okay using a male pseudonym citing others who did it because of discrimination. I have experienced discrimination and had opportunities disappear because of my gender so I’m not saying that discrimination does not exist. Inevitably, someone linked to her site and she received more exposure. Then the reason for the confession: someone threatened to tell her secret.

For three years, I’ve kept my true name and gender pretty tightly under wraps and only confided in a tiny handful of people I trusted.

In the United States, you can write under a pseudonym but you have to provide accurate information to the employer and report the income properly. When a writer picks a pen name for a book, the book is published with the pen name is on the cover but the publisher knows the real identity of the author. Many make a corporation around the identity so they can legally use it. Using an agent would also provide a layer of protection (the agent would collect income but that is an expensive option). James’ situation is different. The scenario she presented was being unable to get good gigs, meaning she’d have to present herself as a man to the people hiring her. Her audience, according to her entry, had little to do with her situation and why she decided to write as a man. Reading this on Brian’s site, I find it very hard to believe he was one that would have treated her differently as a female. Of course, there are communities like BlogHer that cater to women.

Then my real WTF moment came:

Oh, my real name? Well, I never really wanted that revealed, totally apart from the gender issue. I know better than most how quickly and profoundly revealing just a tiny bit of personal information can affect (and even destroy) people’s lives.

I have kids. I’m not interested in making myself vulnerable in that way.

If you scroll up, didn’t she just say she was initially marketing under her real name? She was doing this yet she NEVER wanted to reveal her real name? Which one is it? Seriously?

The comments: unreal

Overall people supported her decision. No one questioned who these unscrupulous companies were that treated her unfairly. Few were angry that she lied to her audience. At first I was puzzled because with my audience, if I said, “guess what, I’m a man” they would be pissed off. Of course, I can’t say that because I’ve had pictures online, done video streams, did voice chats, podcasts, videos, and met many of the people I interact with. These are things James cannot do because she has to maintain the lie (even though she’s told the truth – note she said to continue to call her James). Real-time activities are things to avoid when lying because of the extra care needed to maintain the lies.

Essentially, she has cockblocked her own growth. The more popular one becomes, the more people want to see and interact with the person. That’s when the invitations to speak, go to conferences, etc. come up. She’d have to reject them all. She also has to shy away from most social interactions because honestly, it would be idiotic to set up social network profiles (having friends) for “James Chartrand”. That’s asking to be busted, especially if there are other James Chartrands around.

The timing for her admission comes at an ironic time as, in the US, we have two high profiles situations going on around immoral acts. Tiger Woods cheating/lying to his wife and Facebook changing their privacy policies. In both cases, the actions are not illegal, they are immoral. However, people expressed their disgust, anger, frustration, etc. over these situations. They felt betrayed and misled. Tiger has this squeaky clean image that was a lie and Facebook changed features that attracted users. Why is James Chartrand getting no flack what-so-ever?

People don’t seriously care one way or the other.

Think about it. If someone you’ve come to respect lied to you, how would you take it? Especially if they continued the lie unnecessarily. James no longer needs to lie. People were more upset that Tiger lied/cheated and Facebook changed their policies. To me, that says a lot.

I am blessed to have an audience that cares about me. They’ve watched me grow communities, hung out with me online, trusted me enough to ask me for advice, drove me crazy (let’s not forget that – /hugs), prayed for me and my family, supported my projects…there is a bond with my readers. I know they want comments opened here and I’ve explained they will be once I finish getting the site in order (until I am sure I can import them, I don’t want to lose the data) but I make an effort to hurry up because I care that they care enough to want to interact with me and each other. I am wonderfully blessed to have people that love, trust and respect me (even if they never met me). If I betrayed their trust, it would hurt…as it should. Because they care.

There are too many successful female writers for this to be about gender alone. I am not saying there isn’t discrimination because there is, but I question why I’ve been able to over come it, other women overcame it, and she can’t? Who are these unscrupulous companies doing this? Let’s kick some ass and stop this once and for all. Don’t hold your breath for names to be exposed. It won’t happen.

Men With Pens…

I browsed Men With Pens and let’s just say I raised an eyebrow at some of the things said because, with the new knowledge of her using a fake identity, the meaning of her words change. Sometimes dramatically.

I cannot say, in all honesty, that I know what it’s like to be a work-at-home mother, though. But I’m a dad, and that’s close.

…Those blogs don’t make me feel like an outsider because I’m male. I’m not afraid to comment. I know my comments are read. I feel like if I toddle over to visit the blog, my balls won’t be lopped off and tossed to the wolves.
Online Personality: Avoiding the Mommy Blogger Stereotype

Of course she doesn’t feel afraid to comment because she’s a female single parent. As a male, she doesn’t know a damn thing.

My local community doesn’t make me feel guilty if I don’t contribute. No one comes to ask for my money or my time, either. They put an ad in the paper. Contribute or not, if you like the cause. I don’t have an obligation to fork out because I live in this town. I could ignore the whole idea completely, if I wanted.

And I’d still be seen as a fine, upstanding member of the community.Screw Community

Or, maybe she can’t contribute to a community because her alias would be busted. And as far as partnering with people to help build a community…can you say 9rules? I was accepted as a member, volunteered my time as Community Director, was offered partnership, and sold the company. So yeah, sometimes it work and with all things, sometimes it doesn’t.

Posting a photo is one way to achieve some credibility, and many people recommend putting your face up on your site. But posting a photo is an action that I don’t necessarily agree with, even though it’s highly recommended.Building Credibility with Personal Photos

Or, the real reason, James can’t post a photo without blowing her identity. See what I mean? These articles take on a completely different meaning when you know the facts. To me, they come off as excuses as to why she is not doing what everyone else does naturally. I never put a picture for credibility. The thought never crossed my mind to put up a picture for credibility. Do people really do that? What about a picture makes you credible?

In the end…

I strongly suggest not taking her path and faking your identity if you live in the US. Not only does it cripple you legally, let alone the issue of copyright, it is challenging to become popular and maintain the identity. Look at all the people who tried and failed as they became popular. Being on the internet alone leaves a trail people can follow to find out pseudonym. Become popular enough, someone will become curious enough, and you will suffer the fate of the others…busted. Fortunately for those people, they didn’t have a secret.

If you do write with a pseudonym, make sure legally you have all the bases covered. The legal hassles aren’t worth it.

Good luck James…or whatever your name is. Hopefully many people will learn from your story.

Written by: Tyme White | Follow Tyme on Twitter | Be Friends on Facebook

• Stealing your idea and calling it their own.
• Trying to make you look bad.
• Attempting to get your help/experience without giving you the job (ie: extra work, no promotion).
• Unfair treatment of women in the workplace.
• Someone making a promise and not coming through.
• People saying negative (or untrue) things behind your back to suit their own agenda.
• Knowing someone is purposely trying to stop you from being hired or promoted.

I could add to the list all day long. Of course these things happen in small businesses too. Actually, the opportunity for these things to happen can be higher in small business because the appropriate measures to attempt to prevent these things from happening are not in place. There is a larger opportunity for people to let their agendas, egos, fears and insecurities creep into business.

Be realistic: it will happen to you eventually

No matter what you do, how loyal you are, or how hard you work, someone will purposely betray you eventually. When I say purposely, the person is aware of what they are doing, perform the actions to make it happen, and will most likely attempt to be goody-goody and friendly to you while they are stabbing you in the back. If they are caught, they will give some sort of weak excuse for their behavior. Do not be surprised if the person ends up being someone you thought was a friend or trusted. It is easier for the people close to you to betray you because they know you well.

There are people who think they are exempt from malicious behavior and they pay a high price for it. They never let their guard down, they are always suspicious, and watchful. The only way to be “exempt” is to notice it and stop it before it happens. There are also people who are very trusting and naive and feel being a “good” person stops purposely malicious behavior from happening. Both theories are inaccurate. Eventually, you will be betrayed and usually, it is by someone you thought you could trust. As humans, we have different personalities and traits. Unfortunately, even if there are rules in place, there are people who, driven by those negative emotions, make horrible decisions. In small businesses, this happens often because many small businesses have no rules in place to ward off this type of behavior.

The betrayal and the lovely stab in the back will happen eventually.

What do you do if you realize you are being played?

Unfortunately, there is not a right answer for this due to the many scenarios it can take place. Sometimes it is best to nip the situation in the bud and avoid the person as much as possible. There are other situations where you can flip the situation to your advantage, which I’ve done in the past. Dealing with betrayal is very similar to the playground fights we experienced as kids. When another kid snatched your toy did you let them or did you stand up for yourself? Are you one to avoid confrontations or do you deal with issues straight on as they happen? The optimal solution is to tactically do what is necessary to spin the situation in your favor. Unfortunately, some people are literally unable to do that. They don’t have the personality to do it. This is why it is hard to give blanket advice on this issue.

The important thing is for people to realize when they are being taken advantage of and to not think there is an exemption to malicious behavior. Your intuition will often give you a sign that something is wrong. You’ll feel it in your gut and just “know” you’re being screwed over. This is where the ability to detach business and personal feelings come in handy. Do not allow your personal feelings (ie: hurt) to get in the way. This is business. It might be your friend stabbing you in the back but don’t let their betrayal of you personally take you out of the game. Realize what is happening, try to find out as much information as you can (is the person working alone or is the situation more dire with multiple people working together?), then make an informed decision that will hopefully lead to an optimal solution.

If you play someone, you will eventually get caught

Just as people think malicious behavior won’t happen to them there are people who believe they can do malicious acts and they are so smooth and skilled, they will not get caught. The stupidity in this mode of thinking is that the more the person does it, the higher the chances of getting caught. The odds decrease for being able to get away with it. Ego can be damning because their ego causes them to think they can get away with it, especially if they have gotten away with it previously. An amusing situation to me is when someone knows they are busted and continue to perform the malicious behavior. I find that fascinating and amusing when I notice it because it is a cat and mouse game.

Realize that if you are one to take advantage of others the more popular you become, the higher the odds you’ll be busted, publicly. We see examples of this all the time and those people initially thought they would not get caught. They also, at some point, knew they were busted and continued the malicious behavior (or increased it trying to fix the mess).

In the end

It is what it is. One of the keys to having a successful life is being able to jump over the hurdles that come up. Some hurdles are good, for example having to upgrade your servers because of an increase in traffic. Some are bad, for example, unexpected illness. In the end, one has to deal with them all in one form or another. People treat you the way you allow them.

If you allow yourself to be played, you will continue to be played until you make it stop.

The Leaper’s skill lay in his ability to detect bullshit. Being bright, a former engineer, and familiar with the problem space, he could tell when he was being spun. He knew when he was hearing less than the truth. Generally he was understanding when he sampled ambiguity, but there was one sure way to get him to leap: answer a question with an excuse.

The Leaper attacked excuses as a personal affront. He wouldn’t let anyone leave the room until it was painfully clear that the excuse card had been played, that it was unacceptable, and that the proper steps were taken to make sure it would never happen again.

The article is a good read. It is an honest entry on how often he uses excuses and why he used them. This made me wonder…

How often do we realize we are receiving excuses?

When someone says, “they are swamped” many times that is the truth? They are busy juggling things and missed doing something; don’t have the time to do something, etc. That does not change the fact that “something” isn’t getting done. When you receive an excuse what makes you madder? The fact you are getting an excuse or something not being done when it should be? Of course, there are people who say they are swamped when they aren’t. They are procrastinating on doing what is supposed to be done.

I’m not above making excuses

I may as well bring this up because I know some of my readers will be thinking about it. World of Warcraft. Not running instances/raids. I know, excuse after excuse. Here’s the real blunt deal:

• I don’t like being told how to play a game I am paying for. That happens a lot in WoW. “You’re playing a BM Hunter? They don’t deal out maximum DPS and shouldn’t because they are so easy to play…”, “Death Knights are overpowered! Whine whine whine!” “Feral Druids as DPS? No my dear…”. I hate that but unfortunately, that is what happens.
• I really don’t like running an instance praying for my gear to drop and if it does, I might not get it. Add to that the gear is needed to progress. Very time-consuming.
• I love PVP but I don’t want to play in arenas to do it. Battlegrounds were cool until they killed them with arenas (and they admit they screwed up with arenas).
• I missed my friends. That was what made the game fun. I made some friends in game but it wasn’t the same as my homies (the dynamics change because I don’t mind not getting gear because it isn’t about gear anymore).

I made every excuse in the book not to run them because I felt guilty not doing what everyone else was doing. I never adapted to what was fun to me…running a business within WoW. I might not have the best gear but I would have had fun maxing out my bank account and buying everything in game. If I log back in, I’ll explore that.

Anyway, instead of just admitting it and moving on I tried to do something I didn’t want to do and made excuses. Which I am sure all you very smart people saw through.

Ironically, in business I am the opposite. I don’t make excuses and I don’t put myself in a position for someone to call me out on an excuse (hence I don’t make them). I prefer someone just give me the real deal. I prefer to be mad for a minute than lied to. Excuses backfire in the long run.

How to improve on the excuse front

In business excuses are damaging. When something goes wrong or someone messes up the first (instinctual) response is to excuse yourself from blame or justify why it happened. Instead, just be honest. The truth will eventually come out anyway. Say something of value, turn things around. Instead of making excuses I should have said, “Without my peeps, instances aren’t my thing. This is what I do…” and leave it at that. Look how many maxed out bank accounts I could have had by now?

Read The Leaper. Then stop making excuses.

Written by: Tyme White | Follow Tyme on Twitter | Be Friends on Facebook

“Give up keeping relationships with people you don’t really like.

Ever dated or fell in love with a person who had someone in their life close to them that didn’t like you? How realistic is it to believe that the situation will succeed when someone close to the one you love does not like you? The only way the situation can work is for the person you love to put their foot down. The problem isn’t you or the one you are trying to have a relationship with. It is a third person interfering in an area they do not belong, as relationships are between two people. How realistic is it to believe a situation will work if a third person is allowed to disturb your relationship?”

What does one do in situations like this, in both business and personal relationships? When does it become apparent the situation is unrealistic? In an attempt to answer these questions, I wanted something visual to demonstrate the problem. Luckily, the answer fell right into my lap.

Let’s look at a video…

I came across a new World of Warcraft video maker called Ashe. I never heard of him before so I took a little while to familiarize myself with his videos while making the decision whether I wanted to subscribe to his content. While looking at his videos I found the one below. It is a Warsong Gulch battlegrounds match, which is basically capture the flag. He plays an Alliance Retribution Paladin. You do not have to play World of Warcraft to understand the main point I am making about the video. He is the one that captures all of the flags and returns them to the base for Alliance.

I watched the video and thought, “what the hell??????????” Do you see what went wrong?

So much for team work…

I can honestly say I’ve never experienced what I saw in the video when I played Warsong Gulch. I have never been able to just pick up a flag and not have someone attack me while doing it or not have a skirmish in the middle of the field. I have successfully captured/returned the flag but it took way more effort than what I viewed in this video. Where were the Horde? Sitting on their asses drinking coffee or something? The Horde was not working as a team at all and the Alliance had such a strong player it was a cake walk. That wasn’t challenging at all. Yet I wouldn’t be surprised if, on that server, Horde complained about never winning in battlegrounds. Isn’t it an unrealistic expectation to win with sorry ass team work like that? You bet it is.

Unless a pre-made team is created in World of Warcraft, you are going to be teamed with a bunch of strangers. Together, the team needs to work out how to achieve the goal. In business, especially online businesses, this happens too. People with similar or complimentary skills think, “Hey, let’s form a business together!” without really knowing each other or knowing if they work well together. Another common situation is friends going into business without knowing if they work well together. On the personal side, you’ll see situations where guy meets girl (or vice versa) and the friends/family do not like the person (even though the couple gets along well without the interference) or when two friends are cool and a third person befriends one of the friends and wants to enter the mix.

There are many possible situations as to why the dislike is there from someone outside the relationship. Jealousy, lack of trust, insecurity, putting their wants over the person in the relationship…it is endless really. So what does one do if you find yourself in that situation? When did it become an unrealistic situation to win on the Horde side? Right from the beginning. So much easier to leave a battleground than deal with people we care about, isn’t it?

Bad dynamics

In the video, the Horde did not work as a team to attempt to win against the Alliance. In a relationship where two people get along and a third person or family causes havoc, the “team” is not working together to get along. If two people are friends and another enters the mix, as a team they have to work together to balance it out. In each case, everyone needs to be working together to reach the same goal. It’s very simple:

• Horde: We are a team, if we want to win we need a strategy. Are you willing to work to win the match? No? Time to leave.
• Relationship: We get along but this third person or family is causing us to not get along. Do you want to stay in this relationship? Yes? The third person or the family has to chill or bounce.
• Friends: Look, we’ve been friends and X is cool, but something is a miss if X is causing us to fight. Do we want to still be friends? Yes? Then we have to come up with a solution for X.

Yes, I know. Easier said than done, right? Well, in personal relationships it becomes sticky because of personal feelings. In business, it should be cut and dry. Have you ever experienced the bad manager who causes the entire department to stop functioning as well as it did? Or the person appointed as CEO and the company starts losing money? As a team, there is dysfunction on achieving the goals. Sort of like trying to put together a puzzle with pieces that do not fit. One “bad” piece will stop the puzzle from being complete. Thinking bad dynamics will work is unrealistic.

So quick tips

Here are some quick tips for these kinds of issues. I will definitely talk about these more in depth in future articles.

• Most friends can’t work well together. The traits that cause the friendship to work break down in business. However, when two friends can work together, it is an awesome thing. Usually it is a problem of role placement or lack of the same work ethics that cause friends not to get along.
• In ownership situations, couples working together is fine. Other partners coming into the equation have to respect the relationship and not have unrealistic expectations. I suggest the couple hire the people needed to avoid trouble.
• With friends, realize if jealousy or insecurity is the issue, it is unrealistic that a person with those issues can bring “good” into the friendships. Instead of trying to make a bad situation work, the person with the jealousy or insecurities should resolve their jealousy or insecurity issues, then see if everyone is on the same page.
• In situations regarding family, live your life. Especially if you found happiness. Those that truly love you want you to be happy, even if they don’t agree. If they can’t be on your side, distance is the only realistic solution.

I hope this helps to answer some of those questions. Again, the solution is usually a very simple one (get with the program or get out). Unfortunately, sometimes the solution is scary, especially when feelings can be hurt. Just remember that you can tell someone’s true intentions by their actions. Their goal should be to want the best for the company, the person they care about, etc. If their actions are causing disturbance or pain, he or she should have to fix that ASAP.

Written by: Tyme White | Follow Tyme on Twitter | Be Friends on Facebook

For example, Alistar in the above image is a member of my party. He is a fellow Grey Warden. He is “my” type of guy (sense of humor, made mistakes (he used to hunt mages!) so doesn’t judge others too harshly, doesn’t necessarily open up easily but talking he slowly lets the walls down, loyal, etc.) so when I found out that there are love scenes in the game I decided he is the one my character will have the love scene with, and hopefully fall in love. Here is where my ethics kicked in:

Once I made up my mind that I wanted the Alistar pairing, I wanted to see who else I might have fits and giggles pairing my character with before starting up with Alistar because he is long-term. I don’t cheat…I mean my character doesn’t cheat. Allegedly, there is a possibility to have a threesome in the game. If my character does the threesome (because um, when will that happen again? A threesome in a RPG?) it again has to be before Alistar and not with Alistar. Notice the half-naked bitch to the left. She is a powerful mage so I need her but damn, put some clothes on around my man. My character’s man. Bitch. I don’t like her because allegedly Alistar will have to have sex with her (to procreate) to save the world or some shit. Yeah, I know, my character doesn’t know shit and I don’t like it but not enough to stop my character from pairing up with Alistar. My toon will be a powerful mage. Maybe I can change that storyline….

Or another example: As a mage we have to go through a test called the Harrowing. I passed but not all mages do. To be a mage there has to be a strong sense of right and wrong, not to use magic for bad purposes. Blood mages are bad in the game. A fellow mage confided in me that he was seeing an initiate – which is forbidden. He said he thought he was being denied the Harrowing because he was being made Tranquil – stripped of emotion and feeling. He wanted to destroy his vial of blood in the tower so that the process could not happen and he could not be tracked down when he escaped.

While the story unfolded I felt he was lying, even before the clues gently pointed in that direction. When the option came up to tell our superior what he was up to, I told but felt uncomfortable doing it, especially being asked to deceive him by helping him get his blood (I prefer confrontation over lies). I did as I was told (which is often what happens in business – you find out someone is screwing up but no matter how good of a friend that person is, the situation must be corrected) and he eventually revealed himself as being a blood made. His girlfriend was devastated because she trusted him and was going to pay a heavy price for it (prison). I hoped his cowardly ass (he ran away and escaped) comes back up in the game so I can kill him. Or feed him to the darkspawn.

What’s so different about this game?

I looked forward to playing a Death Knight in World of Warcraft. I happily killed up innocents without giving it a second thought. In Dragon Age: Origins, I am careful and I match my choices with my own ethics. What is the difference?

The decisions I make in Dragon Age: Origins have consequences. Without knowing what they are, I tread lightly. If I play through the game again, knowing what happens, I will have more of a WoW play style. It won’t matter. People say they play wild and crazy to escape their life but I wonder if they make similar choices in real life, maybe without even realizing it?

I love that the game has choices. You can play good or more belligerent and smart mouthed. There is a guy who has already played through the entire game and uploaded it on YouTube. A very cool concept and a lot of work. I enjoy his commentary and watching him make choices that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. He sides with good choices. He opted to have his male warrior pair with Morrigan, by viewer request.

I guess, in the end, I am always one to be aware of how what I do today may impact me tomorrow. Sometimes I’ll care, sometimes I won’t but I’ll always be aware.

Written by: Tyme White | Follow Tyme on Twitter | Be Friends on Facebook

Here’s how you could sell the guide and not put up a single ad: Create a post about gold guides and how you hate them. Give examples of guides and then at the very end start talking about my gold guide and use my blog as credibility for the guide. Perhaps you can mention that this guide is the only one you will even consider tolerating. Leave a link to the 20kleveling.com site with your clickbank hoplink encrypted inside of it. I can guarantee that if you did this you would make $500-$1000 the first day it was posted. You’d maintain your ‘street credibility’ and at the same time make some great money. What’s more that post will continue making you money for as long as it exists because it will always have traffic hitting it and users clicking on the link. Just think about it, if you need help setting up the clickbank id and the link let me know.Markco’s email to Gevlon from Greedy Goblin

That’s the words of someone desperate to make money. Marcko claims he makes good money but his actions (and persistence of shoving his gold guide down people’s throats even when they say they are not interested) does not match his words. You can read some of his responses in the comments here (ironically it is the one year anniversary of his blog).

Because he approached the wrong person…a person who, if one took two seconds to think about it, would obviously say no. Gevlon.

Gevlon, the Greedy Goblin

Gevlon has a gold making blog as well. He posts all of his tips for free (disclaimer: he hasn’t been posting any recently but there is a wealth of information there on how to make gold). He has a unique personality and some strong opinions. He also regularly calls out morons on his blog (his word, not mine). Every Friday, he highlights people making unwise hustling type decisions. So you can see, it was really stupid (for lack of another word) for Markco to approach Gevlon. The risk was way too high that Gevlon would publish his email just like he does everyone else, ruining Markco’s credibility (which implies strong motives on why Markco would do this *cough – needs money* to take a stupid risk of approaching Gevlon twice). Why would Markco be an exception to being a “moron” if he was acting just like everyone else? Gevlon is taking some heat from some about posting Markco’s emails. Funny how two-faced people are. It was fine for Gevlon to post “moron” emails from in the game but let Gevlon post a real-life example and it is called a “bitch move”. That’s bullshit.

And then there were none…

You notice that there is always one that will spoil it for the bunch? An example, addon developers were able to make some money until someone decided to get greedy and push the envelope, causing Blizzard to take action. This is the exact same scenario. While addon developers were restricted from making an income, gold selling guide makers were doing okay.

Until now…maybe.

The problem is that Markco used shady tactics to sell his guide, which happens to be about playing World of Warcraft. Again, this proves an act of desperation because Blizzard has proved, many times, they will protect their IP. When bloggers are harassed about linking to a guide, Blizzard will step in a make a standard. All because someone got greedy.

And since a couple people told me they were so turned off by Markco’s actions they reported it to Blizzard, wouldn’t be surprised if all gold guides had to be free. If you read the highlighted lines in the image above, you’ll notice Blizzard makes their intent very clear: the game is to be used for non-commercial purposes. Do sites make money from WoW content? Sure they do, but that right can be taken away at any time in a two-fold way: a cease/desist and a more long-term solution by making gold easy to come by rendering gold guides obsolete.

Of course, it doesn’t end there…

For fun, I decided to ask Sassafrass, someone who reviewed the gold guide, how he got the guide:

Sassafrass has approved comments but has not answered my question. If you read the comments (and this is happening where people notice a review/ad for the gold guide), people are disgusted the blogger has the review or ad on the site. The trust is broken for many people and the only way to win it back is for Markco to permanently chill out of marketing the guide. If it sells it sells, if it doesn’t it doesn’t. The need to push it this much implies it is not selling well. Accept it and move on.

Update: It was Sassafrass not Triv that had not responded but there is a response now:

thanks for some support. the comments on the review are getting out of hand. I refuse to partake in any more drama. I conclude most wow players live in a One Tree Hill Ville. Geez.

No response to my question. Gold guide ad still up. Busted…IMO.

Update 2: There is an update below. Also, I received a couple of emails that they reported this issue to Google as well. As we all know, Google has a very clear policy about paid links within content…they don’t stand for it.

My point….

When people do things for the money, eventually their true intentions will show. In this case, one could argue Markco made the site to draw traffic so he could sell the guide. Let’s see if Markco learns his lesson and chills out (permanently) with pushing his guide. If he doesn’t, his actions will speak loud and clear.

Don’t be stupid.

Update 3: I seem to have attracted a troll. Luckily for me (which I kind of had to prove with my last edit), the person impersonated his/herself as someone else. My readers, being very smart people, know what that means .

As far as comments being closed – I easily receive between 200-500 comments on my entries, which makes it very hard to follow (for readers).

Written by: Tyme White | Follow Tyme on Twitter | Be Friends on Facebook

Reality vs Dream vs Desire

House, a long time vicodin abuser, has been having problems hallucinating, thinking clearly…the drugs have finally caught up with him. To make a long story short:

House enters Cuddy’s office as she is prepping for a presentation. He asks her about the other night, yet they are talking about two different things. Cuddy is angry that House had said for her to “Go suckle the little bastard child who makes you feel good about yourself.” House’s version had them coming together to detox him. In reality, she had just walked out of her office for the night. House is confused. None of what he remembers happened — no detox, no sex with Cuddy. He shows her the tube of her lipstick, but when he uncoils his hand it is really a bottle of vicodin. Concerned, Cuddy leans in to House. House thinks it is Amber and Kutner speaking to him. He admits that he is not OK. Cuddy brings House to Wilson’s office.

Most of the team is in attendance at Chase and Cameron’s wedding. Yet Wilson drives House to a mental institution. House enters the hospital on his own.

Nothing House remembered actually happened. He really wants Cuddy, he wants to detox and he thought he had. He has been struggling with an inner turmoil along with the constant pain. The vicodin was his escape not only from the pain but the things he couldn’t have.

That is what reminded me of how people struggle with deeply wanting one thing and existing, living a life without what they really want.

Reality vs. Dreams vs. Desire

On the news this morning they talked about a study that said men lie about their age (saying they are younger) to have a shot with younger women. Women lie about their age (saying they are younger) to get a shot at being with men their own age. That’s messed up, beyond messed up.

In life there are things we, as people, have no control over. We are born male or female (I guess one could change that), we cannot change when we were born and we cannot change the color of our skin. To me, I’m concerned more about the things people have control over (their morals, ethics, etc.) than what they cannot control (their age, their skin color, etc.).

There are people that seem “old” to me regardless of age. If a guy sleeps eight hours at night, doesn’t have to stay up late the next night and takes a nap during the day, he can’t hang with me. I don’t care if he’s 20 or 50 – he’s “old” to me. I look at what people “do” and try not to focus on the things they cannot control. They cannot control when they were born but they can control what they do with their lives. They cannot change their race but they can control letting life’s opportunities slip through their fingers or grabbing the brass rings as they come.

People are lying, denying themselves and creating false realities in an attempt to find happiness when, in many cases, what they want is right in front of them. They have to reach out and grab the brass ring.

House wants Cuddy and a drug-free life but the cost is high: unknown amounts of pain, suffering through withdrawal and the risk of caring/loving someone. Wait, he already does….

And that is the pitfall I realize many people fall into last night. They already have one foot in the water but their fear to put both feet in leads them down the wrong path. Away from what they really want. Away from what would really make them happy.

Because the false reality seems easier to maintain than reaching out (working, sacrificing, etc.) for the real deal.

Friends…are we really?

As I said I met a lot of people online and some of my closest friends (I don’t have many) I met online. Two people who follow each other aren’t friends. Two people who chat aren’t friends. They are acquaintances. You aren’t friends until you’ve been through situations together and survived.

I met Bill Cammack online over a year ago. I can say he’s a good friend. We talk online but we talk via other methods as well. More important than that we “grow” in the same direction. We have similar interests. I taught him some things. He taught me some things. We have a blast learning things together and we have each others backs. We have differences of opinion but that ends up working well because seeing things from different perspectives “works”. The fact that we chat doesn’t make us friends, our consistent actions does.

Most online interactions do not end up like that. You can chat with someone everyday and not be their friend. You work with people and talk to them everyday but do you consider all your co-workers your friends? Of course not. It’s the same thing.

Drunks….

I receive drunk sexual advances all the time. I usually get this more Friday-Monday than the rest of the week. I understand people get lonely some times and when I see this happen, I don’t respond. I certainly don’t engage them in behavior they don’t do when they are sober.

See, to me it boils down to trust, morals, ethics. Trust is very important to me. That’s how you know your true friends (or good people): when you are vulnerable they won’t take advantage of it.

I had that happen to me. A guy called me drunk, I didn’t realize he was drunk (he sounded like he always did) and some things were said (non-sexual). The next day when I realized he was drunk, I backed up. It was like it never happened. I didn’t mention it. If I had known was drunk I would have talked about sports or something. And he knows this…he can trust that I won’t take advantage of him.

That’s the reputation I want to have. There is a difference between your significant other or someone you are dating reaching out to you intoxicated and what essentially is a stranger. Some people can get sexual with people they don’t really know. I’m not one of those people. I won’t let just anyone get a piece of me.

If you are one to engage in this type of behavior see it for what it is. Once you’ve gone sexual with someone deep down the person will probably want you to run off and play elsewhere (in other words leave them alone). Especially if he/she was drunk when he/she approached you. Catch the “go away” hint early. Don’t be one of those pathetic people that try to make something more than what it was.

Drunks…Part 2

This happens A LOT on Twitter. People get drunk and say a bunch of things (non-sexual) that they don’t mean. They are going to start a business. Throw out business ideas. Spill their guts about their lives. Threaten suicide. Threaten their exes. Beg their exes to take them back. A large range of actions. Some of them are really scary, especially those threatening suicide. It can be hard to watch someone in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it.

If you reach out to someone when they are vulnerable remember that doesn’t make you buddies. The person doesn’t owe you anything because you were kind. If you “started” a partnership based on ideas discussed while intoxicated, don’t expect that to pan out because you started a business venture with no foundation. Don’t make it more than it was.

In the end…

Everything you do and say online speaks for who you are as a person. It’s a dot one can connect when determining what you stand for. Are you the poor business person? Are you the hothead that never thinks before acting? Are you the whore that has sexual interactions with strangers? Are you the ultra efficient blogger? Are you the hypocrite where your actions don’t match your words? Are you trustworthy? Are you honest? Are you loyal? Are you pushy? Ignorant? Dominating? Unrealistic? Funny? Fake? Kind-hearted? The comic that isn’t funny?

What do your actions REALLY say about you?

The Situation

To bottom line it for you, the Kirin Tor have a prisoner, they want information… and they want the information tortured out of the prisoner.

But they have no intention of dirtying their own hands to do it, so they want you, the player, to torture the prisoner FOR them. And they give you the tools to do the torturing, which they just happen to have lying around. Go to it!

Big Bear Butt (BBB) summed up the objective of the quest. BBB doesn’t have the normal issue of the quest existing. This is the problem:

Neither of my characters are the “okay, you need some info? Could you hand me that poker from the fireplace and turn around? This’ll only take a minute” kind of lady.

Whether or not *I* am that kind of person is totally beside the point here. THEY aren’t.

And it pisses me off to no end to feel that my only options are to either dump the quest chain completely and miss out on a TON of follow up quests leading all over the place… or direct my character to do something that is totally, jarringly out of character for her.

My point to this rambling rant is to say that it is long past time that Blizzard implement branching quests.

If you look at the quest line the player has to take the information that was tortured out of the individual, get a key…it goes on and on based on torturing the information out of the individual. What BBB wants is an alternate quest line to avoid the torture.

What Is Torture, Exactly?

As a Level 80 Death Knight I am attempting to solo Onyxia, a dragon. For this example, I am role-playing, I go into her lair and attempt to kill her. If I do not succeed, even if she kills me, isn’t that torture? If I keep trying and trying and trying, until I kill her, isn’t that torture?

When a group of people gather together, go into an instance, kill everything in it getting to the main boss, and keep trying and trying and trying until they kill everything in the instance (and obtain the achievement(s)), aren’t those mobs “tortured” until they are killed?

If you play a rogue and you pickpocket mobs prior to killing them, isn’t that stealing? When they pick the lock on a chest that is not theirs, isn’t that stealing?

To earn reputation with different factions, sometimes the player is requested to kill hundreds of mobs. The more people you kill, the more reputation you receive…that’s okay?

Murder is okay, but torture isn’t?

Why There Shouldn’t Be An Alternate Quest Line

The quest line did not bother me. None of the quests I encountered so far bothered me. I respect other peoples opinions, but even to the height of my role-playing, none of them bothered me. If I can kill, I can torture. If I can plot someone’s murder I can torture. If I can group with four other people and beat down on one mob until it dies (and try again if I fail), I can torture. Most important, Let’s not forget the goal of Wrath of the Lich King:

The Lich King Arthas has set in motion events that could lead to the extinction of all life on Azeroth. With the armies of the undead and the necromantic power of the plague threatening to sweep across the land, only the mightiest heroes can oppose the Lich King’s will and end his reign of terror for all time.

Let’s say that again: “…only the mightiest heroes can oppose the Lich King’s will and end his reign of terror for all time.”

Blizzard was honest from the beginning. The people who can torture, kill, and do what is requested to save Azeroth get the reward of continuing the quest line and getting the achievement for completing the quests in the zone. Completing those quests bring the person one step closer to helping beat Arthas. Those that cannot (and everyone isn’t meant to be a hero) do not receive the achievement but can still make it to 80 without issue. It is not the end of the world.

You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It Too

In life there are choices and there are consequences to those choices. Personally, I detest the fact that if I want epic PvP gear I have to team up with someone and PvP in arenas. If I opt not to go the arena route, I don’t receive the PvP gear.

If I don’t want to go into instances with 4+ other people, repetitively, in hopes the gear I want drops AND I win the roll for it, then I won’t receive that gear either, will I?

If you don’t do the torture quest, then you don’t get to complete the quest line, open the other quest lines, and receive the quest achievement for the zone.

There are many choices in the game, many causing a complete stop in progression. Not finishing the Borean Tundra quest line isn’t one of them. My suggestion? Role play as the player who is unable to do what needs to be done to defeat Arthas. It works well.

Again, I don’t have a problem with THEM having a problem with the quest line(s). To each his or her own. A separate quest line shouldn’t be created because their morals veer them in a different direction. When I make moral decisions, I have no regrets because what I am walking away from isn’t worth sacrificing my morals. I do find it interesting they have no problem killing. It’s kind of twisted when you think about it because the kills ARE NOT always humane.