bullies
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How SOE deals with bad seeds, in-game and out
At this year's GDC Europe, SOE's director of global community relations, Linda Carlson, talked about her management philosophy for a community infected by trolls and bullies. GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Carlson after the panel to further discuss this growing issue. Interestingly enough, Carlson also commented on how SOE monitors player behavior -- even outside of its games. "If we know who you are and you're abusing somebody on Twitter, we will ban your game account and we will not accept you as a customer ever again. It's not always possible to identify people [in that way], but we take that seriously." Carlson goes on to say, "A very influential player, high up in a huge guild -- we'll still ban them... In our games, if you are an exploiter we don't care who you are, how big your guild is, how many people you threaten to take with you when you go." Take a look at the entire interview for more on how SOE plans to deal with levels of negativity in its community.
Drama Mamas: Bullying is not welcome here
Mishandled humor is one thing. But stereotyping, disdain, and bullying? The WoW community has no room for players who've made those a part of their rotation. Dear Drama Mamas, Starting things off; I'm a Moonguard player. Hear that sound? I know you do, because the mere word Moonguard invokes it in so many players now; words like "obscene" or "immature" or "inappropriate" jump to mind. And it drives me absolutely crazy. Let's get the obvious out of the way; Moonguard has a bad reputation because of Goldshire. And Silvermoon City. Okay, fine, yes, we get the point. But every single time I get into a group, every single time I enter a Battleground, or an Arena, the moment I even say anything (or sometimes when I haven't said anything yet), it begins. The more polite chuckleheads spew it into the public chat, every possible Moonguard joke and comment they can think of, and a couple of personal attacks against anyone who would dare to touch the place with a ten foot pole. The less polite ones start whispering, telling you to get out of the group, or to disconnect, to stop being a child or stop being a freak of nature. Heaven help you if ANYONE in that dungeon group turns out to be bad, because it can and will get blamed on you. If your team ends up down 0/2 and you mention it's because so-and-so is dancing on the roof not attacking or defending, you could be in the enemy flag room, with the flag, having downed half of the other team solo, and it's your fault because you're a filthy Moonguard player (this is also about the time you get the wonderful suggestion that you should kill yourself).
The Mittani gets hit with ban and resigns in wake of EVE Online controversy
Alexander "The Mittani" Gianturco has been a fairly notorious figure in EVE Online for years now, but his recent notoriety has been all about some rather untoward remarks from the EVE Online Fanfest. Following harsh remarks in which he advocated finding and harassing a player who had expressed suicidal thoughts, Gianturco issued an official apology for his actions. But that isn't the end of it -- Gianturco has also been hit with a 30-day ban from EVE Online due to actions that violate the game's terms of service. He's also resigned from his position as chairman of the current Council of Stellar Management and forfeited the right to serve on the next CSM. CCP Games has been following the whole issue and has put together an official post detailing what happened at the panel, what went wrong, and what steps will be taken to ensure that this incident is not repeated. According the official response, the format for the panel was entirely wrong and went far beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable for an official event hosted by the company. Offhand remark or no, it looks like a few careless words have caused some major disruptions to the life of EVE Online players.
Shocker: Geeks more likely to be bullied
Sadly, a review of scientific literature shows things don't quite play out as per the picture above. Analyzing 153 studies, researchers at two universities noted that bullies and their victims actually have a few things in common -- namely, poor social coping skills and negative attitudes -- it was the children with poor academic performance who were more likely to beat up on their nerdy brethren down the road. Still, we suppose it never hurts to double-check your firewall, eh?
Bullies Move Out of the Schooyard into MMO's
As much as I spend most of my life trying to recapture my childhood, I always forget that there are some things about being a kid that really sucked. And now, it looks as if dealing with the local bully shaking you down for your milk money might not be the only thing kids have to worry about; according to this article in the Sydney Morning Herald, the bullies have now gotten computers & gotten wise, as kids are now apparently having to face harrassment from peers in virtual worlds such as WoW. So much for video games being a way to escape your problems...The article doesn't go into much depth, but it does bring up an interesting problem that game companies face nowadays; how to make their virtual communities 'safe' for kids to play in. WoW & other games, of course, carry a warning sticker for parents, but that wont' change the fact that as we speak, there is probably some poor 11-year-old, level 22 Rogue being shaken down right now for all his gold by a player named 'L33tballz1990'. I don't know how prevalent this problem really is, but I'm pretty sure that if it were around in my day, my parents would have made me pick up my sword & shield and go face down my bully...only back then I wouldn't have had the sword & shield, so maybe I shouldn't really be talking....
