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stupid MMORPG in-game drama
Jxb1a
Member Posts: 41
Hi everyone, been here a while, decided I'd try to give my a first post. Hopefully somewhat interesting :P
Is in-game mmorpg drama avoidable or is it part of the game? I'm sure almost 90% of you have been caught in in-game drama because of people trying so hard to get in virtual relationships or try to suck up to that special virtual someone. Especially leaders of kins or guilds that think that being a leader in-game translates to being a good leader out of game or some sick ego run they get on. Kudos and hats off to those who truly are good leaders, not just some person who thinks that they have power in virtual worlds means they're some sort of great leader.
Anyways, I'm sure we have our stories. And to be honest, I think it's unavoidable but I do believe there are ways to stay away from it as far as possible. Anyone want to rant about in-game drama they got involved in because other people couldn't deal with their drama?
That's another good point I just stated haha! Some people just can't control their own drama, they bring other people in to try and clean up their mess. Well to those who do that ,,!,, you.
Comments
It's very avoidable. run with like minded people and you won't have any in game drama.
though group I was with when I played LOTRO? No drama at all. Complete relaxed family type guild.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I have a question though, the kinship you were in, were they a raid heavy group? I'm not going to make rash generalizations, but what I've seen is that raiding heavy groups are slightly more prone to having drama due to looting rules.
Nope, not at all, they were a casual group that, though they did do raids, in the end it was more about the experience and fun and less about doing it on a regular basis.
Personally my whole life is about mititgating drama. Had enough of that when I was younger and ever since I made the decision to cut poisonous people out of my life I've lived quite a fun and enjoyable life.
You can't cut it out all together as people are people but nothing says you have to stay with people that aren't enjoybable.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I think a certain amount of drama is unavoidable but, with good leadership, or personal choices, you can avoid extended drama. If your leadership reinforces or accepts dramatic behaviors then you need to find yourself a new group of people to play with, if the leadership doesn't support it, they will remove the drama (person/people) and be done with it.
I avoid drama in my game time as well as my real life and find that your life will only be dramatic if you are surrounded by dramatic people.
Skaroth
See the violence inherent in the system!
I think personally alot of it could be avoided.. However anytime you bring alot of people together who spend alot of time together there is going to be people that have differences in opinions along the way somewhere.
A good leader can only do so much. More casual friendly guilds are usually less drama oriented but it can happen there as well. Someone in the guild wants to do somethig but cant due to the guild being unable to do it or whatever the reason. So they leave to join a guild that can. Then suddenly 3 or 4 of their friends leave along with them is a classic example.
Raiding guilds sometimes expect to much or think they are the military and that the guild comes before all else. I personally believe that there are followers and leaders in every crowd. However even followers will only put up with so much BS before they follow their feet right out the door (guild). And to many chiefs, not enough indians is never a good thing.
I'm never involved with in-game drama, because I'm a well adjusted human being who seperates a game from reality.
It's also why a lot of people just solo in MMOs now, they don't want to deal with all the freaks who get bent out of shape over pixels. Years ago in the early days of WoW, I was in a guild which came about by a bunch of real life friends. That guild did get dramatic over stupid things and so I just left it. Haven't had pixel drama since.
I honestly hardly ever read the chat when I'm in MMOs because I know how crappy it will all be. The exception being LotRO. I've seen very little drama in that chat and there are a lot of helpful people, in turn when I played LotRO I answer people's questions in the Advice channel whenever I have the answer. Basically I think the players of a particular MMO drive the direction the players of the MMO take. In WoW there's a lot of obnoxious children, so in return people ignore each other and don't help strangers. In LotRO there's a lot of helpful adults and so people start helping each other.
But no I don't participate in any in-game drama, but I also don't deal with much real life drama. I think people making a fuss out of little things, no matter what the situation, is ridiculous and I don't put up with it.
I am glad to hear that LoTRO has a good community, just started playing the trial version last night... seemed fun (reminds me a lot of WoW in early game play... though I spent a lot of years in WoW so that's not necessarily a bad thing). I was getting to the stage on my loremaster that I needed some help... didn't find any in the social panel... I'll look in chat tonight
Skaroth
See the violence inherent in the system!
My husband and I have run two guilds in WoW. One was a PvP-centric guild (pre-cross realm BGs and whatnot) and the other was a raiding guild. While my husband dealt with all the internal workings of the guild, I was the recruitment queen. With the raiding guild, I advertised in the game, proactively looked at unguilded players, and interviewed every person who was interested in the guild. My gut was never wrong, even when I thought "No way." There was one guy I recruited who constantly made chauvinistic jokes that pissed me off. He turned out to be a great guy, and we made him an officer of the guild and became "FB Friends."
The one time we had major drama was when someone was interested in merging guilds. We had an "alliance" with the guild, ran with them frequently, etc. Everyone wanted our guild to acquire theirs. At the time, we were a 60+ person guild, they were about 10-12 with many alts. So we did. Problem is, when you acquire a guild, they have their own rules and ideas, and even though they were so much smaller, their old guild leader caused quite a bit of drama. Couple this with the fact my husband and I were busy because we were getting married in a month, the guild began to split. People who were really close to my husband and me began to resent us and have problems. The guild mostly split apart--we were 85+ people before the split and went back down to about 50-something. It was absurd.
I think a very important thing with guilds is vetting your recruits VERY well. My PvP guild had no issues. I got to interview everyone, did trial periods, etc. If you mass recruit, you're asking for drama. I firmly believe in reaping what you sow--meaning that, for the time you put in, you will get equal results. If you vet them well early on, you will know who's worth it.
In game drama frequently seems to be directly related to a couple key factors.
1) How serious the members take the game. PVE or PVP doesn't seem to matter, whenever players start thinking that its important to be the "best" in the game that you create an environment for severe drama and I've experienced it first hand.
2) How many women are in the guild. Yeah, I know, its sexist to say this, but once you have women in the guild, you either get men falling all over themselves to impress them or the women by themselves do their best to stir up drama by constantly feeling offended, left out or excluded in some way. I have had long term guilds shatter over this sort of conflict and now that I play EVE with fewer women I've actually yet to see it happen in the past 2.5 years of playing in 7 different corporations. (EVE corps blow up for other reasons, but not this sort of drama)
3) How personal you get with people regarding your "real" life. I've found if you keep it all about the game, and never delve into your personal life you can keep most drama out of the game. I learned this the hard way over the years after dealing with stalkers, death threats against me and my family (for real) so now I keep myself detached and impersonal and never have any issues.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I think everyone had good points.
I also like to add that to some people, mmorpgs ARE their social life. So I guess it's important to see it from that aspect to. I've only known one instance of an in-game virtual relationship working that they end up being married with a family (In real life). All other cases seen to end up with either very bad breakups or kins/guilds/legions breaking up because of a sour relationship in-game.