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Dominus: Message Board Warts
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Message boards are both bane and boon to gamers everywhere. In today's Developer Perspectives, we take a look at some of the forum denizens in their natural habitats and offer some thoughts. See what you think then leave your comments.
I love message boards. (One moment while I get out my Metamucil/dentures/cane.) Some of you may not remember a time where you couldn't chat with people from all over the world who shared your particular interests. Me, I was chronologically an adult before such things were possible for anyone but the technically competent, so I remember quite clearly the rush I felt when I realized there was a place where I got all the jokes, where I was not alone in my interests, and where status wasn't based on looks or money. Where I... belonged.
Read more of Sanya Weathers' Developer Perspectives: Message Board Warts.
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Comments
Hehe nice list. I wonder what category I would fall under? I'm rather blunt but fairly objective. However, I can be a prick at times. Hmmm....
The Blunt Prick? Meh...got me
Nice article though. Lot of truth to it and I got a chuckle.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
you cant say anything about anyone these days without getting a huge backlash from all these acronym happy social groups.
Even if its the truth
The rutting ram archetype is the one that bugs me (likely because on some level I fear I behave this way), This sort of poster is trying to carve out a territory on the boards and makes runs at any perceived alpha male intruding on their turf. They may have opinions, but they aren't really thinking about the content, they are reacting instinctively to the social dynamic of the boards, so there's no reasoning with them, no debating them. If you could put a mirror up to the message board, they'd furiously crash into their own reflection.
QFT.
Wish I'd included that one.
Sanya M. Weathers
Director of Community
Undead Labs
One sort that I had a love-hate relationship with in my MUD imm days was the tattletale. They'd constantly send me tells/notes of other players' wrongdoings, whether real or imagined. On an imm level, I was glad for any source of information that could lead us to legitimate exploits, but, on a human level, it also really made me wrinkle my nose in disapproval.
Yes, it's good to be a law-abiding citizen. Yes, it's even good to join the neighborhood watch. No, it's not good to tell the Germans where your Jewish neighbors are hiding, which I started to believe a few of these players might have done just to curry favor with power. At the end of the day, I would've much preferred to miss an exploit until it came to us through other means than to have the community turning on itself.
Fixed it for you
Good stuff. I really wish moderators would start moderating the fanbois. Its out of control on all message boards.
Lol...I bet if you talked to them they would say just the opposite that moderators need to crush the haters because they're out of control.
All a matter of perspective really.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
You can say whatever you want. So can they. That's free speech. Free speech isn't you can say what you want and everyone else has to STFU.
You should probably the Fanboi part of the article again, I think you got the wrong end of the stick. Good job on proving the point, though.
I don't think freedom of speech means what you think it means.
Free speech also doesn't mean you can say whatever you want without facing consequences. A lot of people seem to forget that part of it as well.
Free speech isn't free. People spilled blood so you could have the illusion. If you are capable of speaking you can say whatever you want whenever you want but the consequences mean you will pay and thus it isn't really free because money is only one kind of currency in this world. Whew...run on....
Message boards are usually more entertaining than mmos. It's still massively multiplayer but just in a different way.
Sometimes when I am in a humorous mood I will pick one of the gold standard forum board topics 'why do men play female avatars' or 'why no boob slider' and read them aloud. Holy shit people take things seriously in the game world, lol. We are a very intense group. Even I have been guilty of typing up a page or two now and again. I like the read the posts with different accents: it's completely random. You have the genius accent, the drunk accent, the geek accent, etc.
I found this article both interesting and enlightening.
Message boards today are all about marketing not about truth. We all know this now days and see it on game forums all the time. You can't give your true opinion if it is negitive in any way, they just delete it but the blind faithful can post lies all day long and it stays up.
Games are all about large number sales and short life spans until games are judged by gameplay again this will continue.
It really is all in the presentation. I rarely get modded even when I say my opinion on the official game's message boards and most times when I post there it is pointing out deficiencies or areas the game needs work.
I don't post there much unless it is relating to an issue. Unless someone brings up a good topic worth discussing in general terms. I feel no need to. My continuing sub should be enough for them to know I am satisfied with the product. The boards to me are a way to voice concerns or issues. Besides, I'm more than happy to debate when I feel a person is being unfair or unreasonable in their claim or assertion.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
With all her MANY articles you can find on the site, elsewhere through google, and forum posts it's clear that she is EXACTLY what she's satirizing..
Don't take this so seriously guys, lol...
Well, er, yeah, offical game forums tend to be heavily biased towards the positive, why would you expect them to be any other way. (after all, they pay for them)
Which is why I spend most of my time here instead, where the moderation balance is a little more even (still a bit too heavy handed for my tastes, call me one of those free speech freaks I guess)
As far as I'm concerned, fanbois are just other side of the mirror from the troll. Where one can see no evil, the other can find no good. Both are equally fanatical in their belief, usually just as irrational in their defenses, aren't are almost never willing to concede any other viewpoint.
But a couple of things I'd like to see vanish from message boards include:
1) The intentionally obtuse - They know what point you are trying to make, (i.e. game X is a WOW clone) but they will go out of their way to show how they just can't understand the issue and usually try to circumvent the discussion with some sort of ad hominim attack.
2) The "I don't read forums, only post in them" person - You know them, won't take a couple of minutes to read the replies in a forum before posting themselves. Heck, don't even read the entire OP and its hilarious to see some of their totally incorrect responses based on the title of the thread while the OP might have been tongue in cheek going in another direction.4)
3) Grammer nazis- I confess, sometimes I'm a bit like this myself, but no reason to berate someone for not having a complete grasp of the english language, especially if from a non-native speaker or people from Arkansas.
In most cases you understand exactly what point they trying to communicate and you are coming across too much like item 1 above
4) Walls of Text - Look I know you all have some great points, and the information is really helpful, but even when properly formatted (and you should be lashed soundly if its not)
is just a bit too much to take when stopping in for some light forum PVP. Consider saving your epic novellas for your next blog and keep it down to at least 4 or 5 solid paragraphs. Yes, I know, it's my ADD kicking in, but hey, I want to get a chance to speak in this conversation too you know.
At the risk of breaking my own rule #4 I'll stop now but have to say this is a fun topic for discussion and look forward to more replies.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
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
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
That is such a drastic over-simplification. Like many others I manage to post my thoughts (whether they be positive OR negative) politely and intelligently. I've been 'modded' ONCE in my 24 years of posting on message boards (and oddly enough - that once was here - but we'll leave THAT discussion for another day)
It's "GrammAr nazis", not "GrammEr nazis".
Well I really think you missed one Sanya, "The critic". The person who is always holding a game to a higher standard.
Never understood why DAoC never had it's own message board. It might have saved the game by exposing major mistakes made by the developers like the Trials of Atlantis disaster.
I would add the serial cynical to the list. This seems to be the most common form of message board personality. I have seen it over and over and in my opinion it is also the worst. These guys simply cannot say anything positive and live to complain. Anyone who disagrees that the world is about to end is dismissed as a fanboy.
Currently playing:
Rift
Played:
SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot
World of Warcraft, AoC
ROFL, I stand corrected.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
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
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
Weeell, no wrong-doing but they scare the hell out of me with their inalienable logic: Harbinger
rofl.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
Only if you're into PvP
I'm a big ol' fluffy carewolf. Be afraid. Be very afraid.