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General: Enhance Your Calm
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In The Rant this week, MMORPG.com's Adam Janovyak takes on the bigots, haters, and just plain idiots that inhabit MMOs that we all play from time to time. They spam their nonsense in chat channels and subject us all to a dose of stuff we'd just as soon not deal with when gaming. Check out Adam's thoughts about these folks and then tell us of your experiences in the comments below.
Something has been bothering me recently and I feel like it is my duty (notice the spelling - serious) as an average gamer that enjoys playing MMOs, to use this column as a soapbox. The MMO gaming community really needs to check the attitude. I’m not talking about the commenters on this site so take it easy. I’m not even singling out any game in particular. I’m just talking about MMOs in general. The super douche-bag meter is off the charts on an epic level in almost every single game. For some reason there is an epidemic of bigotry, hate, and overall stupidity muddying the waters of MMOs and it needs to stop.
Read more of Adam Janovyak's The Rant: Enhance Your Calm.
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Comments
Hey last time *I* used that Dogbert pic I was banned.
So much for calm, eh? But seriously. This was preached time and again. I really just started to ignore certain threads and certain posts. Like the speculation from EA investors about the success of SWTOR. What good can come from chiming into THAT debate? Zilch.
I refer to Mr. Cipollas educating writeup about "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity"; a really enlightning text.
http://www.searchlores.org/realicra/basiclawsofhumanstupidity.htm
To highlight the theoremes:
- Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
- The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
- A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
- Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
- A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
Thank me not.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
The irony of calling people who use racial slurs and other insults "pee holes" wasn't lost on me. No, it wasn't! I LoL'd.
But seriously... I see where you're coming from, and I share your disgust.
I'll refer to my adopted father, George Carlin, in quoting the following:
"Think about how stupid the average person you meet is. Then realize that half of the people out there are dumber than that!"
(if you understand how "averages" work, then you'll get that joke. If you don't I have another joke for you:
There are 2 kinds of people in this world: those who understand math, and those who don't.
No godless person can comprehend those minute distinctions
in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem.
-Glen Cook
If moderators actually had a presence in game these days it would calm it.
Talking on chat, talking to players etc... being involved like they used to be.
It is more then just the gaming community.
The entire internet is full of people complaining, arguing, and just generally not being happy people...
Justify or blame it on whatever you want people just learn how to happier with what life IS not what they expect it to OR try and find ways of improving it without hurting someone else in the process.
1. Play subbed games to avoid a large percentage of the very young "purposely annoying people is fun" crowd.
2. play on rp servers (if any): always a much more mature population of which only a minority are vicious roleplayers, the rest just enjoy eachother's mature company.
3. play EVE online, or any other game where you have the freedom to actually get back with furious anger and ruthless destruction on anyone who twarthed your gaming enjoyment with silly crap like that. Most people who play games like Eve KNOW that they can be hunted by mercs, ganked by suicide gankers and even singled out and persecuted by the community itself if there is enough reason, so they tend to think before talking a little more than in games which don't let the community police itself.
My brand new bloggity blog.
I've come to the conclusion, apathy is the best way. It's not worth the time, effort or wasted emotion to react to or acknowledge asshats. Maybe it's age, maybe cynism, perhaps a bit of both. After awhile though even with the best intentions to ignore said asshats, eventually it kills the enthusiasm for whatever game it is.
Hard to imagine to wake up in the morning with the main goal in mind to either cheat, be an asshat, a troll or all three. Lots of better ways to focus that energy.
AH TROLLS!
No matter what you think or do they appear and do their thing, best to either ignore or report them. Now-a-days people are getting more picky about what they like or dislike about a game and will post it for the internet to see.
Hell why waste time with these people and ruin your fun for their enjoyment.
This is true. Everytime on the internet people complain and argue about even silly things. And when they play MMO they are the same way.
If the option is available, I disable global chats. If I don't have that option, *eventually* the BS gets to me and I lose interest in the game, ultimately quitting, cancelling subscription, etc. It was one of the several reasons I stopped playing WoW 9 weeks after I subbed to it (and that was years ago - first year it was out). Frankly, I haven't missed it - or any of the other MMOs that I've stopped playing.
An MMO isn't much different than a single-player game if you have to turn off chat to enjoy it. As a result, I mostly play single-player games now. Sad but true.
The community is typically the worst thing about any MMO I've played. I've also thrown in the towel on this issue and no longer even try to fight it. My method for stomaching the pond scum inhabiting the games I play?:
1) Roll on an RP server if possible, even when I have no intention of RPing (agreed, DarkPony)
2) Disable General chat
3) Liberal application of the /ignore feature
It's not perfect but it helps. The biggest drawback is when there is a miniscule cap on your ignore list though -- I'm looking at YOU WoW. Sometimes, placing half the server on it is the only answer if you don't want to spend more time /reporting than playing.
Enhance my calm when wesley snipes is loose? Theres just no way.
I want to own property too
Just how do you buy groceries!
I want to own property too
I only disagree on one point. The assholes do not have the good people out numbered it's that the good people have made friends and tend to stick to their group to ply with. i have a core group that I play with and I ignore almost all chat channels.
So true. As well as the mention of it being the whole internet, not just games.
I must admit I feel it must be because people are free to say WHATEVER they WANT to. This I also feel is... wait for it... A problem in... America!
Jeebus I hate hating but it does make that single polite individual so much more special.
Fallen Earth had the right idea. Having a moderator peak into the chat and mercilessly ban did wonders and most behaved even when the authority was not present.
Spam does take much less effort to eliminate then it does to create, and i think MMOs could spare one or two people to skip between servers/channels and keep an eye on everyone.
People need to lighten up
Game companies need to more closely moderate public chat channels
I definitely agree with this. I see a much smaller amount of d__kheads in EVE chats and I think that's because people don't last long once they've made themselves out to be ridiculous. It's nice to know that if someone is clogging up system chat with insults or annoyances, I have the option of going out there and blowing them away, literally removing them from the solar system and the chat channel... with my guns, not a petition.
This is not a troll, flame, or anything else worth banning me over. It is simply my pure opinion, and I have a right to share it.
Welcome to the Internet, where sociopaths show their true selves.
My gaming blog
This pretty much sums it up. However, there is no way the writer of this article can be so young and naive. Then again...
"Farts."
Nevermind.
Well, when I buy groceries I have Lydia who might be partially autistic and who gives me attitude if I don't have a purchasing card and some young high school and college age kids as well as some older people who needed a job, ringing me up.
Other than that I don't encounter the level of racism, sexism, profanity and general nonsense that I see in some of these games.
And to give some background, I worked for a construction company when I was saving money for college and at one point had one of "the" most foul mouths that you can imagine.
Until I woke up and actually listened to what I sounded like.
I agree with unlight, you have to use the tools involved if you don't want to see the nonsense.
I dont' want to see obese people dancing while dressed in yarn, hairy people shaving their bodies with mustard and mmo people who can't understand what it's like to be in public view.
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
Yeah, you can have the most wonderful game in the world, but if the community is garbage then nothing can save it. Rudeness... elitism... petty bickering... this is what killed Star Quest Online for me. Things like the grind, having a lack of a set goal, I can roll with that for a bit. But the community, the one part the developer has relatively little control over in an MMO, is the keystone.
Other then that, I can agree with the general sentiment. Use the tools you are given to improve your experience and find places that demand a certain level of majority from its players.... That's really all you can do.
Another reason why I no longer play World of Warcraft. The community there (Well at least the majority of the community) is obnoxious and rude. I liked to consider myself one of the nice people that never lorded anything over others and tended to occasionally help people as well as always answering any questions inexperienced players had in a helpful manner. As for spewing out obscenities? Wouldn't even consider it. Even if I was angry. That kind of stuff you keep to yourself or else you get the always (not) clever "U mad bro?" shtick.
You can pretty much thank the generation that grew up communicating from behind a screen for that, be it a texting, im'ing, forums, or mmo's.. they have no social skills whatsoever and feel safe barraging everyone with their stupidity, arrogance and ignorance. Most of these 'children' regardless of age wouldnt have the guts to say anything remotely like what they spew to someone in real life.
" Besides bickering racist idiots, I’ve also noticed an increase of arrogant elitists. These people like to use their vast knowledge of the game for evil instead of good. Maybe they don’t even know that much about the game in question, they just know that they know more than you. I can’t understand how someone with an immense knowledge that I know is worthless in real life, can make me feel like the biggest moron just for asking a question. It could even be a question so incredibly complex that it could only be answered by someone who clearly dedicated their life to the subject, but they will answer it in the most condescending way they can so you feel like a loser. It’s really not that hard to help people out. I know because I’ve helped people before and people have helped me in the past, without being a "D" about it, and if I remember clearly it didn’t hurt or anything. As I recall the feeling of helping another person actually felt kind of good " Quote by (SBFord)
I find that statement to cause me to respond to it. I play alot of mmo's in my time and I come across people who either are to lazy to grasp the concept of the game they are playing at hand or end up becoming angry at the game. People always take for grant that because your new that you that players must take the time to help you at all costs and listen to the hours of drooling question because you the new player are to lazy to read the forums. If this makes me (evil) so be it but not everyday do I have my bottle of aspirin beside me that can dull the numbness created by the1000000 questions that some people have.
Then some guilds or players don't have the time to help or want to help . " As I recall the feeling of helping another person actually felt kind of good " As that should be fine because when people pay a sub to play they are not required to help anyone with the understand that they themselves may not be giving help in return when needed.
Just the same can be said when mmorp sends a warning mail with accusation of hate or trolling and your post may not have been defaming in anyway. As people and players we need the time to sit and read and listen and to have a debate on game not at a whim snap your fingers and let the words of people go only one way.