Jul 25
You Have Been Slain By Mangina
So, I’m in the WAR Beta. And there is one! That’s about all I can say specifically.
However, I don’t think I’d be breaking any NDAs to say that Warhammer Online has PvP in it. I was playing earlier today, enjoying the chance to not think about RL, and I was slain. (OMG spoilerz you can die in WAR RvR.)
So I’m killed, and as I bow my head in shame and failure I notice the following message from the system: “You have been slain by Mangina.” I sighed. Deeply.
As it happens, I was listening at the time to Shut Up We’re Talking and the fearsome crew was chatting about the texture of online communities. They argue that there’s been a migration of asshattery from locales like the Barrens and the WoW forums to places like AoC and (they fear) Warhammer Online. They contrasted this with the youth-focused initiatives from other firms – Wizard 101 in specific. I also immediately thought of Free Realms, my personal E3 game-o-the-show.
What do you think the odds are that a guy like “Mangina” is actually a dad with a kid? Probably pretty low. My frustration with the community tone of WoW and AoC is that they’re offputting to guys like me. Since I know, via the blogosphere, that there are a lot of MMO players like me out there that makes me concerned. Thoughtful guys with the ability to control their language are completely disengaged from the in-game community because of the tone. By the same token, the in-game community in a game like Wizards101 and Free Realms is going to be inappropriate for the thoughtful MMO player for different reasons.
Playing those games with their kids is going to be a special joy for the massive-playing dads out there, but the community itself is going to be unapproachable. The chat system itself is a big hurdle, requiring the stringing together of pre-canned words. The average player, most likely is also going to be a long way away from 30+ dads. Ideally these games would have some sort of ‘parent’ tag, so that they could identify each other. Trading parenting tips and generally making friends with fellow older Free Realms players sounds like a great thing indeed.
For the most part, though, I feel like guys like me are on the outside looking in. Unless we’re lucky enough to find just the right guild (I’m looking at you GWJ), we become – by default – loners. A lot of folks argue for 18 and up servers, and there may be something to that.
I think more helpful would be a way to self-tag in a way that would mark you as worth talking to. Say the chat client tracks your words input and gives you a badge if you go a week of realtime without swearing. Or the client tracks your Flesh Kincaid Readability or Grade level. I’m not saying asshats can never type well, but the quality of communication a person outputs (I’ve found) often correlates to their level of asshaberdashery.
My hope is that as MMOs continue to become more mainstream, the ability to pick and choose the type of gamer you want to play with - as well as character class or race – becomes a priority.
20 Comments so far
Leave a comment
That Mangina sounds like a real asshole!
Actually despite my hilarious comment above, I have the exact same problem with the Kongregate chat window. I’ve been lobbying for an 18+ chat room for a while now.
Saying ’stuff should be 18+’ doesn’t work too well in practice, as the kids who are acting like idiots to start with will lie, and, being college age myself I can safely say that because one is 18, one is mature.
I think for a game’s community to develop in a way that the more mature gamer would like would require the game to be designed that way; for example that there isn’t an easy way to grief people. Of course, keeping the game interesting then probably isn’t easy: my example immediately leads to the question of how to implement pvp without ganking. I think its a question thats worth trying to answer though.
Hmm. Interesting thoughts. It’s a shame you’ve just excluded yourself from my Society of People Worth Talking To by using the word “ass” three times in this post. Better luck next week!
Welcome to the wonderful world of RP servers. Generally free of asshattery they are.
Too bad you have to trade relief from asshattery to suffering roleplayers, lesser of two evils?
Personally I don’t think there is a solution. It’s not an issue that 18+ servers can solve, there’s plenty of mid twenties or older players that can’t or won’t control their behavior in game. Sure alot of it is kids, not not nearly as much or all as you’d think.
The only real solution a player can do is surround themselves with like minded mature players, at least that you can do on your own and not worry about game companies setting up customer servers or some pie in the sky verification system that’ll never happen due to cost, difficulty of implementation, and negligble effect on the problem.
I have to say I would have sighed only because I was beaten. Fighting names like that always makes me laugh. Like in Ultima Online getting attacked by a sewer rat or a fly is always funny to see pop up on your screen.
I find it funny that everyone thinks the childish behavior we see in MMO’s comes from 12 yrs. Trust me, I know a lot of 25+. single people, that play and they are just as immature as a 12 yr. Hell I know several people that read and participate in general chat just to annoy others and they are well into their 40’s.
I think we all hope its a kid, and not an adult, but how do we know for sure?
@oak- you are correct!!
Perhaps if players were forced to undergo some psychological profiling before they began playing the game. Those who failed to meet certain criteria would still be allowed to play. Those who passed… would be given the ability to permanently ban anyone who didn’t pass. ;)
Sorry to let you know, but it was most likely someone in their mid-twenties to early thirties. The constant fallacy that all the gaming worlds ills are child related is just stupid. How many studies and fact finding missions will it take for us to stand up and finally realize the MAJORITY of the players are adults and more often than not, the asshats are as well.
It just makes us feel better to blame the kids, because “they don’t know any better”. Its a lot harder to swallow when it is someone that should know better.
Having played with my younger brother and his friends for a period of time, in their teens, it always amazed me the level of respect they got in game. They didn’t swear, were always available to help, and played fairly honorably. However, the “adult” of the group that hosted the LAN Cafe, was a complete jerk.
I have a pretty foul mouth in games at times, but I strongly believe there are content filters for a reason and no one should be punished unless they specifically attempt to bypass the system. And guess what, I’m and adult! Though, I tend not to name my characters something that will get me banned/reprimanded -_-
Sheesh. Nobody actually reads the crap I write.
Nowhere in there did I blame ‘Mangina’ on a teenager. I think 18+ servers are losing propositions too. I tend to think Dads will be less inclined to do shit like this because of the ‘kid looking over your shoulder’ factor, but otherwise I’m fully cognizant that 20+ folks can be just as much of an asshat as a 15 year old.
That’s why I think communication should be the metric judged. If you can convey your thoughts in full sentences, with a minimum of cursing, I’m far more likely to want to talk to you than if ur speling liek dis all the time. Same if every fourth word is ‘fuck’ - I don’t care if you curse every once in a while, but part of what I enjoy about my RL friends is that they recognize there is a time and a context for ‘the F bomb’.
This all kind of reminds me of the “Gamerzone” system featured on XBL with the launch of the Xbox 360. Originally, Microsoft touted the different settings (Underground, Pro, Recreation and Family)were supposed to keep you playing with the type of people you wanted to be playing with, but failed for the obvious reasons.
I think 18+ (or even 21+) servers are worth trying, but I also like your idea of a tagging system too, Z.
I have to second the RP server comment. The DAOC RP servers only had a couple of rules - No innapropriate names and No OOC chat in world channels.
I was pretty impressed at how well those two little rules worked. They were just enough to alter the tone of the community without turning it into Ren-Faire Online. ;)
Unfortunately, I think you’re just hitting human nature. It’s almost impossible (short draconian oversight) to regulate player speech and behavior. And game companies likely prefer subscriber revenue to enforcing stringent behavior rules.
As a WoW player — and a dad whose son looks over his shoulder regularly — I’ve left the profanity filters on and found a great guild whose policy is to keep profanity, explicit, derogatory, and insulting language out of guild chat. We have lots of players from the low teens into the late 40s and no one has ever been bothered by that limit on self-expression.
Age-restricted servers are NOT the answer either. I’d even argue they might be *worse* — because for some people 18+ will equal “adult themed.” So rather than being more mature, you may find players coming to them expecting to be more explicit now that the kids are “out of the room.” Another drawback with adult-only servers is that they get in the way of parents and their children playing together.
Just my 2 cents.
The solution is to stop segmenting the community - the power and draw of an MMO is inherent in the people you interact with. Creating multiple servers for sub-communities is not the solution.
Instead, the game world should be engineered so that the player interaction is always an enjoyable experience. I know I mention EVE Online a ton, but they’ve created a one-server world in which all players of all styles can interact without their gameplay being disrupted; in fact, you are forced to interact with them, as the entire economy and world is driven by the player action.
Unfortunately you CAN’T engineer the game so that the player interaction is always enjoyable.
Not without engineering new Players. ;)
The best you CAN do is provide for the NATURALLY segmented audience that your game will attract.
In the case of DAOC’s RP servers, the players themselves provided the oversight… and the rules were just enough to attract mature-minded players whether they were role-players or not.
Well, any attempt to weed through different gamer types really needs to be accomplished by the gamers themselves, not by some test of age/maturity that the system creates. Within a network of games, similar to ijji or NCsoft where they have multiple games and activities, a simple fame system is all that is necessary. Sure players can cheat the system and trade game currency for points of honor, but overall it should do most of the weeding. Basically all the game accounts are linked through the one main host, so if you act out in any one game it reflects upon all of them. The thing is, don’t give the players ingame benefits for having more reputation, simply make a server for the players that are worth something, for the players that WANT to play with mature individuals. Then if an asshat gets himself up to that level on his own, he quickly loses his points when all of the legits discover his faggotry.
I’ve been in a community called The Older Gamers for a few years now, and joining them is one of the best things I’ve done in gaming. Here’s a snippet from the FAQ (http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/tog-policies-manuals-guidelines/152664-frequently-asked-questions-faq.html)
“The Older Gamers are members of a community for people that still enjoy playing computer games, but are in a bit of an older age bracket than the ’stereotypical’ gamer. TOG is for gamers who don’t go out boozing every weekend, who have have partners, and families. TOG is for busy workers who need to de-stress from their busy jobs and for people who have retired and find themselves with plenty of time to indulge a hobby of online gaming.”
I think we have over 25k members now and have MMOG and FPS gaming divisions that cover most of the games that are available in each genre.
While any age can be an asshat, “older” gamers seem to be much better at policing their own community and it’s been very rare for me to actually have an issue with anyone in any of the divisions I’ve been in. When I did have a problem, it’s always been dealt with in a mature way.
Playing in a good guild with like minded folks makes all the difference…
Face it – the internet went mainstream and what once was the domain of civilized educated types is now infested with the ‘rest’ of society.
I am thrilled and delighted in your proposals but you must not be short sighted or fail to take the necessary steps to achieve your goal of only associating with those you consider to be an equal.
Do not loose hart though; this is the same problem that has plagued mankind since the formation of the first societies.
Gauging fellow players in our virtual world’s worth as another human based solely on their writing skills is not sufficient for your goal. The possibility for exploitation and deceit is too great. Players might simply download a UI mod that crafts their text into something that one would expect of a player such as you or for that matter a member of the blogosphere to create.
Therefore I feel you need to consider what other factors are desirable in the type of players you would like to associate with. Perhaps education level is a factor that should be considered. Income is often a quality indicator of people’s behavior and therefore should not be overlooked. The numbers of factors are endless. Much as gated communities, private schools, congressional districts and standardized tests are created to segregate those considered undesirable it stands to reason that this should be fully embraced in the virtual world.
“My hope is that as MMOs continue to become more mainstream, the ability to pick and choose the type of gamer you want to play with - as well as character class or race – becomes a priority”
Don’t worry the internet is still young, give it time and it will become segregated just like the rest of the world and you will be able to only enter virtual worlds that are filled with people just like you.
Sorry for the over the top sarcasm but your post reeks of elitism and the insidious undertones of some bizarre virtual fascism.
I understand where you are coming from I honestly do and this post is not an attack it is just sarcasm pointing out the extremes of what ideals like yours can (and do in RL) lead to. Just like in RL you never should judge a book by its cover. Your killer from WAR might be a great guy with just a lame ass sense of humor who actually thinks his name is funny or clever.
I think you honestly need to spend some time finding a good guild that fits your needs. It is not hard, it just takes some effort. You seem like a decent enough fellow and if you plan on playing WAR Destruction side, hell I’ll get you into my guild. Of course you will need to submit a writing sample as this post of yours is only at an 8th grade level according to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level;)