Global Chat: December 4-10, 2011
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat!
Our readers have been giving plenty of attention to the impending launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic and the impending shutdown of Star Wars Galaxies, but that doesn't mean they had blinders on. This week's Global Chat features some great insight into other topics from the MMO world, so follow along after the break and let's see what our readers had to say this week.
MJ chatted about PvP in Aion during last week's Wings Over Atreia column. Of course, it led to a discussion of PvP in general in our comments section. Zyrusticae took a close look at one of the downsides of PvP communities:
Really, when it comes down to it, it's just a complete lack of honor or empathy that drives open-world PvP to the inevitable sorry state seen in every MMORPG ever made.
I think it is just a symptom of greater issues in our society when there is a large contingent of players who make sport out of griefing and nothing but. It's pure sadism. Sure, it's a relatively mild manifestation of it, but it's still just plain sociopathic sadism.
These people hang onto the negative emotions of others, using shadenfreude to elevate themselves because attaining positive emotions is just so much more difficult for them. Or because they don't even fathom the idea of trying to improve the play and lives of others.
It is just a game, sure! But it is also a social game, hence the massively multiplayer part. And when someone decides to completely ignore the fact that there is another real human being on the other end being massively inconvenienced by their actions, or rather, when the perpetrator actively attempts to attain someone else's ire, he is being subhuman. I have absolutely no respect for such individuals. None whatsoever. They are leeches, pure and simple. Parasites. Quite frankly, I think they are badly in need of some sensitivity training.
When I think about how much better MMOs in general would be if people just conducted themselves with proper respect and even honor, it just makes me so, so very sad. I know I will never get to see it happen, unless something is done to seriously turn around how our society thinks as a whole. There are just far too many people who subscribe to cynicism, sociopathy, and schadenfreude.
On a happier note, players received some good news from SOE regarding EverQuest II: All characters created before Age of Discovery will be grandfathered into the game for free. Seffrid was one of those pleased fans:
SOE comes in for a lot of flack, mainly from hardliners with a chip on their shoulder from years ago, but in truth it's no different to any other company -- some things it gets right; some things it gets wrong.
What sets a good company apart from a bad one is when it is able to step up to the line and admit it got something wrong and then do the right thing by way of fixing it. SOE has gotten a lot better at that in recent times.
This is a very good move, both for the returning players and for the company. I'd have to admit, however, that this issue ought to have been foreseeable and therefore sorted in advance of the F2P/P2P merger.
Now it's your turn! Hit the comment button and pitch in on the discussion below!
Global Chat is the weekly feature that's all about you, our readers. Every Sunday we collect the best, funniest, and most thought-provoking comments from the Massively readers and round them up into Global Chat for discussion. Read over them for yourself, hit the comment button, and add your own thoughts!
