Jump to content

MMO Community against bullying.


Carambole

Recommended Posts

I decided to write this post due to something close to heart. Namely online bullying.

 

According to the news yet another teenager has been taken care of (with lack of better words) due to playing world of warcraft. Apparently he played 9 hours a day, became a-social and developed abnormal speeling patterns. It became so bad they had to take care of him.

 

What pisses me of is that I was in a similar position 3 years ago. I played world of warcraft but it was an addiction and very very bad for my health. It wasn't uncommon to see people ingame run around named *****roth etc. There was also alot of sexist ******** back then. Alot of people were getting away with harassing whoever saw them. If you were in the line of fire then too bad for you. This was doubly bad for myself due to the fact of me being over sensitive. I had had a nervous breakdown 10 years ago.

 

SwtoR has so far an excellent community. Obviously there are still trolls no matter where you are but I want to make sure the community takes it's responsibility and tries to counter any kind of online bullying wherever it may surface.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

/hug

I know where you're coming from, I can relate.

 

But now that you mention it... The community for this game is the most mature game I've seen so far (except there is always Taris, where the low-levels just don't understand yet how the community behaves)

The main problem is, in this game, there are less trolls, but these are worse. Quality versus quantity and whatnot.

Death to the trolls. :csw_bluesaber:

Edited by Anysao
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This MMO does have a pretty mature player set, thankfully - for every night I'm wandering around Dromund Kaas while General Chat is filled with jokes about mothers and necrophilia, there's one where people are comparing the KOTOR games, or chatting about the best burger joints in Amarillo.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

i don't like bullies on- or offline. occasionally, i get stuck in groups with them, and always try to be extra nice to those who are the brunt of their bullying. i do agree though, this this community has the most mature crowd i've seen in games, which does a lot for one's game experience. here's hoping that the maturity level doesn't plummet too far when F2P hits.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can totally relate to this OP :)

 

However, I'll have to disagree with you on the community. Maybe it's just my experiences or server, but I find the community to be pretty bad. For me, Lord of the Rings Online had the most mature community.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't care about online bullying. Especially how people jumped on the Amanda Todd bandwagon.

 

Kind of an oxymoron coming from someone who has the words " If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." in his/her signature.

So what DO you stand for, Urtani?

Care to elaborate on why we as members of an online community shouldn't stand up to bullying of any kind and especially online bullying?

The fact that we can't make a difference individually doesn't give us a free pass to not even try to make a difference.

 

Careful where you "stand", dude. You might "fall for anything".

 

As for Amanda Todd, no matter what she did, she was above everything else a teenage girl (not even 16 yet) who took her own life because she was being made fun of. "Jumping on the bandwagon" of someone who was bullied to that extent, is perfectly OK. You don't have to sanctify one's actions to feel compassion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have noticed a lot of antisocial behavior and bullying in mmo's and have always tried if it's offered to roll a character on a role playing server.

I don't role play myself but find I don't get felt left out and come across a lot of nice players.

I find the role playing folks to be a much better community than some pve servers and most pvp servers.

So if you ever feel like needing an escape from immaturity you should check out Ebon Hawk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As long as SWtor doesn't do something brainless like make a dps counter for this game, cyber bullying should be kept to a minimum.

 

I'd like to share a story about this incident myself and a HM Maelstrom Prison group went through. My smuggler and a few others were putting up with this elitist JC equipment checking us and going on about how we were too low geared. He immediately tried to vote kick the healer. It didn't go through. Still, he would not shut up. So I vote kicked him. Regardless of the fact that are group was now tankless, we managed to 3 man the trash up to first boss and by that time our replacement tank came and we continued through smoothly.

 

I might have sympathized with him if it was Lost island or an Ops. Some people forget how easy mode some HMs are but I guess he either takes stuff too seriously or maybe he was exposed to the same stuff and was venting bitterness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I would really like SWTOR to have a note on the client login screen to address that: cyber bullying won't be tolerated. It is hard enough to see people get pushed around and treated like garbage and then you can't do anything about it. I feel this environment is fostering cyber bullies to get away with anything they want.

 

It would also be great if there were in game moderators for at least fleet general chat to enforce this. Fleet general chat is where I have heard most of the put downs, insults, racism, sexism, bullying to the Nth degree. I see it every time I'm logged in.

 

I'm not asking for perfection. Just want to see people (even me) to not have to avoid logging in because they are going to get completely turned off by the behaviour of some people in game.

Edited by Huntaar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think people need to toughen up and get over it. But that's just me.

 

There might be individual cases where that is true, but especially when talking about kids, I think we need to solve this issue. People do not need to feel threatened in order for others to have their freedom.

 

Also, many people who are bullied have problems. That's how they get noticed in the first place. Maybe they don't have a supportive family. Maybe they have physical limitations, or mental or emotional issues. They often lack the ability to "get over it." Bullying serves no valuable purpose, and causes harm to people. So let's end it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would really like SWTOR to have a note on the client login screen to address that: cyber bullying won't be tolerated. It is hard enough to see people get pushed around and treated like garbage and then you can't do anything about it. I feel this environment is fostering cyber bullies to get away with anything they want.

 

It would also be great if there were in game moderators for at least fleet general chat to enforce this. Fleet general chat is where I have heard most of the put downs, insults, racism, sexism, bullying to the Nth degree. I see it every time I'm logged in.

 

I'm not asking for perfection. Just want to see people (even me) to not have to avoid logging in because they are going to get completely turned off by the behaviour of some people in game.

 

I said this in another thread: if enough people actually REPORT unacceptable behavior when it happens, there will start to be a change. But it will not happen overnight. It'll take TIME. Unfortunately, everyone believes their actions don't matter, what GOOD will it do to report the jerks, so most don't bother. What's even worse are the cynical malcontents who insist "IT'S THE INTERNET, IT WILL NEVER CHANGE, GET A THICKER SKIN, ETC...."

 

It's almost as if those type of people don't WANT a nicer, more civilized community....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People will be people.

 

Unlike real life we have an ignore button here. Nothing else will be done unless you report them in game.

 

I don't understand the point of this thread. Is it just to ***** or do you have some suggestion for bioware to work towards? Please note I will report this thread for deletion like I am expected to do if it is the former just like any other rage thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People will be people.

 

Unlike real life we have an ignore button here. Nothing else will be done unless you report them in game.

 

I don't understand the point of this thread. Is it just to ***** or do you have some suggestion for bioware to work towards? Please note I will report this thread for deletion like I am expected to do if it is the former just like any other rage thread.

 

I didn't take it as a rage thread at all. This is exactly the sort of attitude I was talking about: "Get over it...you are too easily offended....nothing will ever change and you are a crybaby for daring to be upset over it..." I really don't understand why anyone would actually report someone for expressing dismay over Internet abuse. It's a really big, bad problem. Claiming that the 'ignore' feature is the answer doesn't actually address the problem. All it does is give carte blanche for the offenders to continue.

 

There needs to be repercussions for abusive behavior. Only way that will happen is if it's reported by other players when it happens.

 

I happen to agree with you that trolls can and should be ignored. But abuse, gratuitous foul language, and intentional and ongoing harassment, especially when it happens in public (general chat) should be punished.

 

For the record, I keep the chat filter on and for the most part I am not bothered by most general chat conversations that contain bad language. Many times these conversations are never intended to hurt others...they just go beyond the limits of talk I deem acceptable speech. It's why I have enabled the handy chat filter. I can still be a part of the general population and not isolate myself. It's when the discussion digresses into obvious hate speech and abuse to others that I take it upon myself to report offenders. That's the cyber bullying and unnecessary bad behavior the OP was talking about and I think needs to stop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, I wanted to know how you report bad behavior in chat like SEXISM and RACISM.

 

Lately I've witness several episodes of that crap, like this time on Korriban "women go to the kitchen".

 

Those ones really get me. On the other hand, when some insecure teenager insults out of the blue ... that's just hilarious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've played WoW for many years(Vanilla -> Cataclysm).

I can definately say that Swtor has a more manture community,people are willing to help,explain tactcs,have more patience etc.

I think that's because the overall age of the players here is a lot higher than WoW.There are many people 25 or 30+ here and while it's not necessary that maturity comes with age,age remains a pretty solid indication.

There will always be trolls and people harrassing others,but at the moment this whole thing is pretty bearable and has nothing,absolutely nothing to do with what was happening in WoW.

Bad news is that ,the WoW community was better in vanilla and declined over the years and i can already see a decline since the F2P launched(Racists/Sexism conversations never took place when i was lvling at launch-at least on my server).

I guess its natural and if that could be the bottom of the barrel for Swtor,it would satisfactory(for me at least).

For the OP:

Since you got a condition history,find a good friendly guild and make friendships in there.It helped me a lot in WoW,couldn't have stayed all these years without my friendly guildies offering a lot of hilarious moments in raids and hcs :)

 

For the new people playing the game :

1)Be polite

2)Whisper before randomly inviting people

3)Don't be afraid to tell to your group or guild that you are new to the game and don't know tacts or stuff.

There are always people willing to help you if you stick to n1 rule.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've played WoW for many years(Vanilla -> Cataclysm).

I can definately say that Swtor has a more manture community,.

 

Simple math. WoW has more subscribers so there is simply a greater chance of running into trolls ((and not just the race :-) ))

 

I remember recently I ran an SM EV. Someone made a small mistake on the final boss that eventually led to a wipe. Now if the group had retried again there was no doubt victory was assured since the mistake was easily corrected and the group was certainly strong enough to win. But nope, someone had to take the loss so sorely and troll everyone that the group fell apart one small step away from a successful run.

 

That kind of behavior is definitely as bad as any of the raidrage I have witnessed in all my 6 years of WoW playing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...