Official MMORPG forums and those who abuse it |
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Ok, before you skip to the bottom of this article and post a comment, please read the post since I know that a lot of people who play MMORPGs will immediately have a knee jerk reaction to this rather touchy topic. Now that that's out of the way, I've always wanted to talk about how depressing the forums can be to a player. For the record, I know that it is pretty much the same in all popular MMORPGs like Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures or even World of Warcraft, but that doesn't make me or any of the other players who agree with what I have to say happy about it.
Simple fact, there are people who feel that they can post whatever the hell they want on the forums, confident that their anonymity will protect them. For those of you who will protect these people's actions by saying that they have the right to their opinion, yes they do have a right to their opinion.
However, stating one's opinion by politely disagreeing with someone is not what some posters have been doing. Sense of decency? Who cares about that, I'm hidden behind my avatar!
I've heard people defend these individuals who are antagonistic by saying they are simply "passionate" about the game or what they are saying. Well, to be honest, being passionate about something doesn't give anyone the right to act like a total jerk the moment someone disagrees with them.
Now moving on to trolls. These guys post things just to get a reaction from the community. Why? They give out different reasons but one of the more common answers you get from these individuals is they do it to "get a laugh."
So if you hate these guys as much as I do, please ignore their posts and don't reply. Let them have their brand of "fun" on their own. Hey, maybe they'll start flaming themselves out of boredom, or even better, leave and never return.
Now, I've always been an advocate of the whole "don't post if you've got nothing to say" school of thought but that's just me. What do you guys think?
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Comments [refresh]
But you're going to get mega-flamed yourself for posting this probably O_O
I've run across the type of people you mention in game forums, messageboards, and the like. Ultimately, they do have the right to express their opinion though what constitutes being a jerk is highly subjective. Or rather one person's jerk will simply be another person's impassioned enthusiast on whatever is the topic of the moment.
Avoidance is key, at least in my experience. Yes, some people are emboldened by internet anonymity to mouth off where they'd likely not do the same face to face. Like it or not it's just going to happen much in the same way that there are people who would mouth off to your face. The internet is no great haven preserved for the kind and/or thoughtful... it's open to all comers.
Just as we find ways to distance ourselves from certain people in the real world, the same needs to be done online. It's a different medium out here but a jerk is a jerk online or off. Sure it would be nice to not have them but that's a bit too utopian in scope and unrealistic. Avoid, ignore and report where applicable but know that it's a condition that won't soon go away.
Most likely the best feature on a forum for this is the IGNORE feature. I rarely use it, I know. But It is probably the best advice that there is for dealing with those people on the net.
As soon as you see something that you do not want to see, click ignore by that person's name. Problem solved.
Just like in real life you get jerks. Making fun of them or just straight flaming them is part of life. So is ignoring them.
Forum software allows for the 'simulation' of all of this human interaction.
Human interaction is what makes MMORPG's and their related forums fun.
I admit though, when you have more of these members than decent folk then threads can get pretty difficult to read.
This though is a failing of the forum model, not the members.
I for one wouldn't want to lose the jerks from my MMORPG forum eu-chronicle.com (shameless plug!)
THEBESTTHEBESTT HEBESTTHEBEST
THEBESTTHEBESTT HEBESTTHEBEST
THEBESTTHEBESTT HEBESTTHEBEST
THEBESTTHEBESTT HEBESTTHEBEST
I did it for the lulz.
(And I agree with you, OP.)
I just thought I'd throw out a couple of my thoughts on this and see how other people are handling it, some take these problems in stride while other just go all "roid-rage" and start going crazy. (which while amusing, is really not a good way to handle the problem)
I'd also like to point out that you made some pretty good points on using report feature as well.
Good point on the ignore feature. When a forum supports it I use it on a regular basis. However, the forums of my latest obsession (AoC) doesn't have that feature yet so I'm still forced to go over the posts of those who have proven to be just Trolling the forums. Still, that's some really good advice for newcomers to the forum scene
i was on a skateboarding forum and there was a meet up years ago.. hundreds of people came together to skate.. it was beautiful..but right before it got started a fight broke out between two guys.. i thought they were fighting over a girl or a broken board..something passionate..lol we separated them and i was holding one of them back and i was like " yo man let it go, its not worth it..he said" nah man he was talking Sh** on the message boards" i just let him go and walked away. pure nonsense. a topic that really needs to be addressed is Racism on Xbox live , its starting to spill over to psn too but not as much. thats a topic of which id love to hear peoples remarks and encounters .