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Ship of Heroes Interview Talks Toxicity and More | MMORPG.com
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Ship of Heroes Interview Talks Toxicity and More | MMORPG.com
A new interview with Casey McGeever, Founder & CEO of Heroic Games - the developers behind Ship of Heroes - has provided us a look behind the curtain in MMO game development, discussing topics like toxicity and more.
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Shouldn't have to do those things, but that is the world we live in. You've gotta take control yourself and use the tools available. Not ideal, but it keeps my aggregation to a minimum.
Hell, in some games, it almost becomes a mini game to see how many people I had to block.
I self identify as a monkey.
Sadly this is indicative of the problem. It's like someone saying "I'll never understand how people are depressed or anxious. I'm not depressed or anxious, they shouldn't be either. Just don't be anxious." It shows a fundamental lack of empathy and understanding of other humans. And it's this very behavior, the "I just ignore it, you should to" that has allowed toxicity to reach the levels it has, the people ignoring how much others are being hurt. It's like watching a person get mugged on the subway and just ignoring it.
Of course the immediate response to that example is "that's different, that's REAL LIFE!!" This is just another example of a lack of empathy. A person typing to someone in a game is just as "real life" as someone talking to them in person. A person threatening to rape or kill someone online is just as terrifying as it is in person...more so in most cases.
And ignoring someone who does it mean they've done it to them at least once, so they had to tolerate it at least once. Then another does it. And another. And another. Even if they ignore each person they've been toxicly harrassed each time. This is why women make up such a small % of MMO populations, the men have made the environments toxic and then sit back and say "why don't they just ignore it? That's what I do."
Here is something else that was said that was not picked up because it seems the gaming industry does not want to talk about it. Indie MMOs take about five years to develop, from the experience of many who have put into indie MMOs that is demonstrably not the case.
Well, unless some AI is implemented into every game that acts both as anti-cheat solution and behavior monitor, nothing will change. No gaming company can pay people to monitor the game 24/7 and keep it clean, just not worth it. I like how in Korea there is a law that if you cheat in online games, you could face jail time. If gaming is taken more seriously across the planet and this is included in the law, then cool, but I can see a lot of countries just not caring about it for at least another 20 years.
So in my opinion the only solution is to have such an AI in the game that automatically bans players or just re-routes them to play with other toxics and cheaters like them. Then this may actually teach them a lesson how awful their behavior is and will provoke them to reform. Sure, cheats can be made to circumvent anti-cheat software, but when it's an AI that is constantly learning, you can't outsmart it that easily.
Based on what I said and you said, it obvious we view this differently. I would like to say that of all things men get blamed for in this world, a small female population in MMOs is a bit of a stretch. No more than women are at fault for there being such a disparity in th population of the sims or those matchmaking games. Believe it or not, there are different interests between males and females in general, although obviously it's not a hard and fast rule.
Unless as a female doesn't advertise that she's a female, there is slight chance that they would be targeted for any particular harassment. It's pretty much an acknowledged fact that most female characters are indeed male players. The trope has even made it into jokes on mainstream tv such as the big bang theory. There are a couple of them instances in tv, but can't think of them at the moment.
I self identify as a monkey.
Back in the early days, these games fostered community. It went to great lengths to force you into cooperative frames of mind. Now, we have cross platform and server connections, dungeon finders, raid finders....they have stripped all of the community out of games is the name of expediency and ease of use, and then blame the user when they feel anonymous and protected enough to act like a jackwagon? Give me a break.
I remember in EQ1, someone on my server ninja looted a Flowing Black Silk Sash. Back then, that was the Cadillac of loot fpr melee dps. He shortly found his transgression not worthwhile because he found himself on a black list. No one would raid with him, group with him, even speak to him. He had to scrap a 6 month character and start over.
If you remove accountability and community, you have to be dumb not to expect toxicity.
I agree mostly, but it didn't always work out that way - but what it turns into can also be fun. I remember AC being just nuts with murder, but a lot of people banded together to protect each other from the griefers. I forget the name of the guild that did this, but they were pretty large.
That's my kind of "emergent" gameplay.