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Professor griefs City of Heroes, writes report on response
When you try to imagine the real-life personas behind online gaming scoundrels, you probably wouldn't picture the wizened face of a collegiate scholar as the responsible party. However, griefing seems to be the cup of tea of Loyola University media professor David Myers -- he's been bothering folks for a while now with his mauve-tinted crimefighter in City of Heroes as part of a behavioral study on the people controlling the game's power-endowed inhabitants.The study's findings are predictably grim: players' reactions to Myers' (or rather, his character Twixt's) dirty fighting styles have been pretty volatile, ranging from character defamation, cursing, rumor-mongering and even death threats. That seems a little overboard -- if only four kids from a small-town in Colorado could have teamed up to teach him a lesson the old fashioned way.
Loyola University professor drives City of Heroes/Villains players crazy, all for sociology
Twixt was one of those names on the Freedom server of City of Heroes that would just drive everyone nuts. He was a PvPer who would find some of the craziest ways to annoy the heck out of his opponents, such as teleporting them right in front of the Longbow agents at the hero base in PvP zones. A year ago, however, the man behind the keyboard finally drew back his mask to reveal a sociology professor from Loyola University outside New Orleans.Now his study on City of Heroes/Villains is finally coming forward, revealing a controversial look at how defying the cultural rules of a population can turn a person into a social outcast. The study's goal was to play only by the developer's rules, ignoring any extra rules that might be created by the population. For example, the concept of "kill stealing" and "fair fights" are thrown out the window as they are created by the population, not the game. Think of it like EVE Online -- if the game allows it, he does it. While the study is intriguing in the fact that it covers the "new frontiers" of virtual worlds, it also brings into question some of the ethics involved with working undercover in a population, such as causing undue stress via what we consider to be griefing.For a full report, check out the story as reported by The Times-Picayune.[Thanks Petterm, Scopique!]
