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General: MMOWTF: Feel The <3
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Dan Fortier returns this week to talk about the way that your gaming life can affect your real life and vice versa.
It's Monday morning an you stroll into work, late as usual, greet your fellow co-workers and head to your desk. Out of nowhere some guy from a different department you've never seen before runs up and starts punching you and is quickly joined by two of his buddies. You've been working at your job a lot longer so none of the punches land and you easily kill two of them before the other runs off cursing about how you cheated. You squat over your assailants and do the running man dance and throw in a bit of 'the Robot' for good measure to insure that they are suitably humiliated. Before heading off you loot them for whatever office supplies they had on them to sell to some of the new guys.
Read the rest of Dan's Column here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
For one thing I have always viewed my virtual persona as an extension of myself. Philosophically speaking pretty much every religion the face of this planet believes in some sort of soul or spirit that resides either within or around our physical selves. While environment etc has something to do with the way we turn out, there is still something within, something seperate from the joys or horrors of our upbringing that makes each of us who we are. Personally my actions in game etc are precisely the same actions I would take if through some great cosmic joke I were physically moved to an alternate plane of existence where cars were replaced with some fantastic critter and people went from wearing levis to wearing robes wielding swords or blaster rifles.
I have always felt that games are a great way to get to know other people precisely because of the anonymity that exists because people show their true colors when they think you wont find out about em.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
>_>
<_<
no flames for Dan today?
Nutz to Dan
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
LOL. I work in a very small setting, so there was no need to make it a memo. We have, however, taken to heart the deeper meaning of Feeling the
... and have declared Mondays double XP day and Fridays for naked-newbie-begging. Now, if only I could find an item to boost my grant writing skills so I could kill off this Boss RFP.
LOL, Dan, you obviously play games where peoples are jerks and unkind.
Personnally, when I play a game, I seldom suffer PK, even in an open PvP zone, 99% of the players are nice with me and asking for a fight, rather than attacking.
But again, maybe this has something to do with your vision on raiding-enforcement and the type of players the games you play will attract.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
No, he just plays mmo's, and they happen to be on the inter-tubes, so, yeah...all kinds. I have seen what he describes in every game I have played, and there isn’t a game on the list here that i have not tried.
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Amazing that yet again Dan brings pvp into a discussion. He always finds a way to wiggle pvp into his commentary.
Some of his comments were either a tad extreme or sounded like the exception to the rule. In any game where there is pvp of any kind you will always find PK'ers, gankers and/or griefing. This is nothing new, some people have RL "issues" that they can't express out in the world but they can ingame. Maybe they were bullied as a child or were a bully themselves and now they find they can "pwn" other people with little or no reprocussions. I knew a guy in DAoC that was proud of the fact that of his 1 mil+ realm points probably 99% were from ganking people level 30 or lower (he was 50 Infiltrator).
I was hoping that when blizzard announced dishonorable kills this would finally be a first step to truly discouraging PK'ers and the like, but their "DK's" were rather a half-hearted attempt at any sort of ganking penalty. Now, they've removed them altogether, so I've had friends already telling me that almost daily the smaller towns with lvl 40ish guards are getting slaughtered down to the last NPC. Blizzard's officialy response to this? "Well they are flagged so you can do something about it" Riiiiight, a bunch of lvl 15's at the Crossroads are sure gonna teach that 70 to not mess with them.
From my own experience the only impact a game has had on my real life is typically a bit of lost sleep on occasion. I have enough willpower to turn off a game when I need to. Sometimes for a certain raid, an ingame event, etc I'll stay up a bit later to experience it.
well fellows thats truth come ppl forget the real world and get inside of his character all day thats the problem at the schools if the kid play CS or WOW he might be a terrorist all day or A DAWRF? xD my brother its a power ranger all day.
this games are not a problem the problem is that no one can control the children or grown up people is the same thing the man its always a little child xD i Am .
in the college im a dwarf all day and at night im a night elf, all gamers knows what im talikng about.
we must know what is righht and what is wrong. being an elf its not wrong the problem came when you buy a bow in amazon and start pking all ppl in office thats a damm fking problem.
so lets send this link to every one to comment this problem of the society. well bye fellows
i think today im a dwarf XD i will teleport to giran in my car and buy some food at the grocery .
No, he just plays mmo's, and they happen to be on the inter-tubes, so, yeah...all kinds. I have seen what he describes in every game I have played, and there isn’t a game on the list here that i have not tried.
Well, in playing CoV for a long time...I have been "random attacked" by 2 groups of player....in a VERY long time. It is always the same few players, it is easy to walk around them or to ward them off.
Twice doesn't exactly fit in that, especially that the peoples attacking where cold, efficient, not talktative, which mean they may be working for other MMOs and enjoying playing in competitors MMOs, even if they are themselves below the level of player courtesy...and hunting them back is always great pleasure. These players are efficient, but easy to distract.
So again, the symptoms he describes, come from harsh environment. If you come to CoV, you bring your background and you may be harsh yourself, until teached otherwise, assuming this is possible.
Again, the MMOs he plays and his choices to support an aspect or not in the design of the MMO, such as the raid-enforcement trash he is supporting, leads to what he describe. If I am been "ganked" and ask for help, the poor gankers are pwned soo bad it isn't funny, so I don't ask for that but once, when I see the results, I find it is funnier to play with the gankers and find other alternatives then call my buddies.
See, if you ignore someone attacking you, 95% of the time he will stop. Some players think that because you are in an open PvP zone you want to PvP, which is not always the case...so if they understand you don't want to, they almost always leave you alone...a test I like to do, is put my AFK tag and wait. Then pwns whoever is the clown to attack me...again these are players who doesn't talk, nor chat, nor anything...peoples I never meet or doesn't even know...they live in their bubbles...which seem to be peoples working for a competitor. If Brad is playing CoV, he is going to be a jerk, you can't change him!
But you can pwns him! 
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
A great article! although i must say that the major part of the MMO community (if you exclude WoW and Runescape) isn't made up of the people the author describes in this article.
Obviously this is an extreme case of an Everquestor warriror gone wild but I thought it had some bearing at the topic at hand. It is not the 1st case of such a thing happening as well. For example the death of the kid over the weapon in WOW. Again, extreme cases but these happen and are happening more frequently lately. Granted, these people all have dillusional physcoitc problems already but it doesn't take much for the 2 worlds to merge as it did in these cases. What Dan brought up about talking around the water cooler and how you pwn some noob mage in a gankfest over the weekend is nowadays a common conversation which can be heard in scuttlebutt at work.
http://www.forceofarms.com/index.php
I enjoyed the article. I do understand a lot of what was written. My main problem this time is it needed to be proofread. I know at least 3 instanances that it had the wrong word and normally it does not bother me or I really catch it, this time it actually made me stop and go back to see if I misread something.
Loved the start of the article. Then talking about what people do was interesting. I am one that just plays for fun so I pick my class based on what sounds fun to me. Generally speaking it has been different for almost every game.
LOL. Great article. I especially enjoyed it, and I must say I agree with you on a number of points. I personally make the polar opposite of my persona (a benevolent, frail, yet silver-tongued healer) and I agree that whether due to the stress of retaining my composure during daily life, talks with girls, talks with teachers, talks with prinicples, etc., I tend to sometimes be a bit of a jackass online, but that's only if the reverse is true. In this respect, I think WoW has the rudest community ever. I was shocked that less than half the people I PSTed (for various things such as joining groups or proclaiming that I had an item they needed) never whispered back. I at least always whispered "no, sorry" and gave them the reason. It could be that alliance is gay, or that that server was gay, but people do tend to act more like selfish asses online, but since they're taking a break from RL, I guess that's ok.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
No, he just plays mmo's, and they happen to be on the inter-tubes, so, yeah...all kinds. I have seen what he describes in every game I have played, and there isn’t a game on the list here that i have not tried.
Well, in playing CoV for a long time...I have been "random attacked" by 2 groups of player....in a VERY long time. It is always the same few players, it is easy to walk around them or to ward them off.
Twice doesn't exactly fit in that, especially that the peoples attacking where cold, efficient, not talktative, which mean they may be working for other MMOs and enjoying playing in competitors MMOs, even if they are themselves below the level of player courtesy...and hunting them back is always great pleasure. These players are efficient, but easy to distract.
So again, the symptoms he describes, come from harsh environment. If you come to CoV, you bring your background and you may be harsh yourself, until teached otherwise, assuming this is possible.
Again, the MMOs he plays and his choices to support an aspect or not in the design of the MMO, such as the raid-enforcement trash he is supporting, leads to what he describe. If I am been "ganked" and ask for help, the poor gankers are pwned soo bad it isn't funny, so I don't ask for that but once, when I see the results, I find it is funnier to play with the gankers and find other alternatives then call my buddies.
See, if you ignore someone attacking you, 95% of the time he will stop. Some players think that because you are in an open PvP zone you want to PvP, which is not always the case...so if they understand you don't want to, they almost always leave you alone...a test I like to do, is put my AFK tag and wait. Then pwns whoever is the clown to attack me...again these are players who doesn't talk, nor chat, nor anything...peoples I never meet or doesn't even know...they live in their bubbles...which seem to be peoples working for a competitor. If Brad is playing CoV, he is going to be a jerk, you can't change him!
But you can pwns him! 
CoV/CoH is not a real PvP game. It was added into CoH and there are no true PvP servers. I have played both CoH and CoV for a couple years,so I know what I am talking about. There are raids btw, remember Hamidon?. And you forget to mention that the servers are pretty much desolate anymore. Fans of superhero games also tend not to want to PvP but be a Hero. CoH/CoV is a bad example, even if the game was hardcore raiding at the endgame, the players would still most likely not PK etc.
I played Shadowbane for over a year and got PKed a ton. Guess what? SB has ZERO raiding in it, just pure PVP. I am not a fan of raiding, but it is not the cause of every problem in the MMORPG universe like you always claim. Give it a rest, please.
For good or ill, I tend to be the person I am, on and offline. If I make a character that appears different from my real life persona (which almost always happens, since I envision myself being an ideal weight rather than the overweight version of myself I currently am), I still behave basically as who I am. In CoH/V, I make about 50/50 male/female characters, of all different shapes and sizes. I don't attempt to roleplay a girl, mainly because I don't think I'd do it well, or that if I really did roleplay it well, it would lead to too many awkward moments. Happily, men playing women and vice versa has become pretty common and accepted in the MMOG community, so when it matters to a person what gender you are in real life, they will usually ask you.
I have to disagree with the idea that people will tend to act out their darker tendencies online where there is anonymity, however. I believe people who treat you poorly in-game will do the same in any situation where they think they can get away with it. In other words, I don't come online and post in forums or on chatrooms to vent the frustrations of what I can't get away with in real life. I do, however, believe there are plenty of closet sociopaths out there that experience a strong disconnect from any unifying institutions or cohesive and respectable cultural models, at least in my country (the United States). There are a lot of factors that contribute to this, but ultimately one factor is the individual simply gives up trying to find a sense of belonging in some facet or facets of the human race. MMOGs provide a perfect element for us to see such things.
As to the article in its totality, I found it quite entertaining and a very good read. Nice work, Dan.
I really felt that I should offer my appreciation here.
I'd also like to say something about my experiences in mmorpgs and how it reflects my real-life personality;
My favorite aspect of these kind of games is playing in groups with other players. For that reason, I am able to have mostly good social experiences in every game that I get into. I know that I'm not really making a great point here but the(perhaps vague) truth is that the reason why I have such kind experiences in games is because I extend kindness to others in the game as a pre emptive measure. "be good to her and she will be good to you" - a Hal Hartley quote.
Of course there are those negative experiences and I would accredit those instances to the fact that I sometimes say insulting comments to other people whilst pretending that the receiver of these comments won't take them personally. Like Dan said in his article, this is not something that I would do outside of a game environment. However, this does make me think of how my friends, as well as strangers, that I play 4-player console games with will trash talk each-other during game-play. Sometimes those pseudo-insults are taken personally and sometimes they aren't.
cheers
LOL good read! The visions were awesome LOL
I dont have that "must be uber" kind of feeling in games, I just like to play. I dont care too much about how many kills I have. I do care that the kills I do have come with a sense of "honor" in playing though. I am generally nice. A real b**** though if someone tries to pull their sociopathic junior high bs on me. And I have been attacked both verbally, emoted and ganked/griefed for no other reason than my kills were spammed too many times for someones personal epeen meter. Even had someone tell my nonactive buffer that he had more solo kills than him. 0.0
I can say I have been happy as a clam when my character finally got the prized item he wanted or yes, finally showed that azzhat just how good my character is and pwnd his azz.(and ayup, got him without his buddies or his strap on healer - making it a fair fight and yes I win! ) Ok, maybe a bit elated in real life. But for a short time only. Real life steps in and its back to reality.....the increase in insurance was received in the mail today,,,the dog chewed your toddler niece's favorite bunny.....you spilled the pepsi you were drinking during the item raid and welp, a new keyboard is needed. But for those few minutes, pure happiness
I do believe however that most who act like total jerks to any one else for the simple reason of epeen enhancement has serious issues in real life. I believe also that most are in the age group of high school with the mentality of an elementary school playground bully. I do understand that the supposed "average age" of a mmo player is , gulp, 29! and this saddens me. Scary to think that many 29 or older epeeners are loose in the world in real life, sad they are loose in the mmo world.
Ah well. Guess dealing with the epeeners is just about present in any game. Unfortunate for the majority. Sad for the bad lot.
** As a side note, I also envision the griefer as being well fat and sloppy, a mug that would scare a mob, bad haircut, bites his/her nails, lives in a trailer , works at Dennys, has no friends outside the game and probably has many perverted "secret moments" with his/her imaginary bf/gf. This does bring a sense of pleasure during the azzhat routine they pull.
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=The best bash.org quote ever=
Curt teh Juggler: our graduation ceremony was today, and right when some gamer nerd got his diploma, someone in the audience played the zelda "get item" music and he did the zelda spin-hold-out-item stance
Curt teh Juggler: it was quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Bleakmage