punishment
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Google Walkout leader leaves the company over alleged retaliation
One of the leading organizers of last year's mass walkout of Google employees protesting the company's handling of sexual harassment cases has left the company, according to The Guardian. Claire Stapleton, a marketing manager who spent 12 years at Google and YouTube, resigned over alleged retaliation carried out against her by the company.
Google employees will sit-in to protest retaliation culture
Google employees will hold a sit-in tomorrow at 11am to protest what they call a "culture of retaliation." The group Google Walkout For Real Change announced the event on Twitter, saying they've encountered everything from being told to take sick leave when they're not sick to losing reports as punishment for actions Google doesn't approve.
Google Walkout leaders accuse company of retaliation culture
Two of the seven Google employees who organized a massive walkout last November say they've since faced retaliation. After leading the protest, which sought to change Google's handling of sexual misconduct, Meredith Whittaker says she was told her role would be "changed dramatically." Claire Stapleton was told she would be demoted. The two claim they're not alone, and they plan to gather more stories and strategize with colleagues.
MapleStory 2 begins closed beta signups next week, will include a jail system
Another day, another game we can't have yet. This one's MapleStory 2, the sequel to Nexon's MapleStory, which in spite of its cuteness is still one of the biggest MMORPGs in the world. Steparu reports that MS2 is set to enter its first closed beta phase on January 21st; signups go live for Korean players on Christmas eve. Over on the official site (in Korean), Nexon further discusses the MMO's jail system, something fans of games like Ultima Online and ArcheAge know well. This particular jail is meant to hold those who make wreckage of chat channels, though Nexon says will punish counter-abuse "severely." What could possibly go wrong? We don't yet know whether the game will come here, but since classic MapleStory has a global version that's earned Nexon boatloads of money, it's pretty darn likely. We've embedded Steparu's MapleStory 2 customization video below.
The Daily Grind: Should MMO studios punish out-of-game behavior?
Recently we reported on an interview in which SOE's Linda Carlson said that the studio is not above monitoring player behavior outside of the game and taking steps to punish or ban that player if they're being a bully or a troll. This in turn sparked a lot of discussion over whether that's a good move or not for SOE, but today I'd like to take the discussion beyond that particular studio to address it in general. Is it a good idea for MMO studios to pay attention to player behavior outside of the games and take action on that? Does this -- or the threat of it, at least -- foster accountability and community growth, or usher in a weird digital police state where kobolds might come and arrest you and your family for a Twitter expletive? We're sure you have an opinion on it, so let 'er rip! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Officers' Quarters: Gnome and punishment
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Like any group that runs an organized activity, raiding guilds need rules. Rules define expectations, set boundaries for behavior that might cause problems, and establish consequences when a member hurts the team. The latter part is often tricky. The week's email asks, What do you do when someone breaks the rules? Hello, I have a question about guild management. Coming into MoP raiding we have afew new people and we've written up our rules on the forums such as being on time, gemmed/enchanted/flasked, etc to make it clear to everyone what we expect from our raiders. One challenge that we currently have is coming up with consequences for breaking these rules. Our guild roster isn't large enough to always bench someone from coming to raid and while we're all gearing up denying someone gear seems to just make things harder for everyone else overall. If occurrences are excessive we will recruit to replace the person, but otherwise we need some good consequences for rule infractions.
League of Legends tournament cheaters fined $30,000
With $2,000,000 US in prize money up for grabs in the League of Legends World Championship tournament, last week's accusations of cheating by several teams threw the e-sports scene into chaos. Several teams were accused of looking across the room at the enemy team's minimap, which was on display for audience members. Riot Games initially announced that nobody had looked at the minimap, but as viewers at home dug through the recorded streams, the evidence of cheating mounted. This week Riot carried out a full review of each match that was called into question, investigating both the incidents of players peeking at the opposing team's map and the impact on the match. One team was cleared of all misconduct, three were issued warnings for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Korean team Azubu Frost was fined 20% of its winnings. The $30,000 fine will be donated to Riot Games' charity programme in Korea.
Crime and punishment in Salem, New World-style
With all of the open world sandboxy goodness going on in Salem, one might wonder if Paradox Interactive is prepared for the level of griefing that can come with such games. Interestingly enough, the team has given this some serious thought and come up with an elegant system of crime and punishment in the game world. Player villages are protected by claims that set these areas apart from the rest of the world, and these claims can be expanded by building certain structures. Griefers who set out to do harm or mischief against villages within these claims will leave a "scent" behind that can be used to track them. There are certain skills, such as ranging and tracking, that players need to have to follow the scent to the perpetrator, however. This opens the door for players to specialize in becoming bounty hunters who protect the village by rooting out enemies. As for punishment, well, Creative Director Björn Johannessen expects players will take justice into their own hands -- and more than one perpetrator will pay the ultimate price for violating a peaceful sanctuary. You can watch the full discussion of Salem's crime and punishment system after the jump.
Officers' Quarters: Not an officer
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press. Who deserves to be an officer? Guild leaders struggle with this question quite a bit. It comes down to this question: In your guild, does the officer rank exist to reward players or to give them responsibilities? In other words, what is the purpose of the officer rank? Later, I'll talk about the two most common purposes. But first, this week's e-mail comes from a player who feels he deserves a promotion to officer. Hey Scott, I've been playing with a group of people for five years now. We've stuck together as a guild for most that time, though we've moved from tag to tag over the duration. I left WoW for a short period while I moved across the country and upon my return found the guild I had been in was disbanded and we had merged with another guild. No big deal, we've done it before. I was an officer in the old guild, but was not promoted to officer status in the new (too many officers, not enough members, etc.). Again, no big deal.
Wii-playing police receive slap on the wrist, strict talking to
Look, if people are going to eschew their work day in favor of having a gaming tournament, we're the first to sympathize. In the case of those in the business of protecting our lives from murderers and financial institutions though, we find it hard to offer much solace. So when eleven officials from several Florida agencies were caught on videotape playing games a couple months back and the story caught on internationally, we were hopeful that those found guilty would maybe, you know, actually receive some form of punishment. Instead, the Lakeland Ledger reports that the offending officers will suffer such retribution as ... a few hours of retraining? The names of the officers are even being withheld due to their "undercover" status at the time. Lakeland sheriff chief of staff Gary Hester goes as far as to say, "We are learning from our mistakes ... I think we handled [the investigation] properly." He then hurriedly rushed back to a game of Street Fighter IV in progress against a competing police department. ... Okay, we made up that last part.
Drama Mamas: Of crime and crossdressing
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com. Pictured above is just some of the torture devices on the prison ship Success. The writer of our first letter is not looking to send a guild "criminal" on a tortuous journey across the globe to a penal colony, but he is looking to exact a harsher punishment than the one already meted out. Our second petitioner is tortured about being considered weird for playing the opposite gender. We won't torture you with any further delays before letting you at the drama.
Anti-Aliased: When you can't hack it legitimately, cheat instead pt. 2
It's all the company's fault Yes, it's all their fault that they didn't notice that they misplaced that one period in thousands upon thousands of lines of code. It's their fault that they don't run Salvage 40,000 times a week and check every rock and pebble in Vana'diel. People who make this rationale probably never looked at the innards of a program -- especially an MMO. You have lines of programming being done by multiple authors and you have logs that extend miles long. Even with specialized programs, it takes time to sift through all of that information. Case in point: Square-Enix fixed this glitch in November and banned people in late January. The delay wasn't because they were playing ping-pong in the basement and drinking beer. It was the double-edged decision of first finding who stood to gain on all of their servers, and then deciding an appropriate punishment. That takes time. You know, this probably would have been caught sooner if more people would have stood up and reported it, instead of, you know, trying to conceal it. Then, when they get caught concealing it, they blame the company for not knowing about it. That's just poor form. The game owes me The game owes you what? It owes you for all the time you spent playing it, enjoying the challenges with your friends and engaging in an ever-changing world? Certainly I'm horribly opinionated, but I like to play games for fun. Whenever a game ceases to be fun to me, I stop playing and stop paying. I play because I enjoy it, and I hope other people are out there doing the same. FFXI may be an exercise in sadistic game design, but every player has the chance to walk away from Vana'diel. I did because I didn't have the time and I ended up enjoying the lore of World of Warcraft. If you are at the point that you hate the game so much that you believe it owes you something for your time spent playing it, then perhaps it's time to take a step back from it. There are plenty of other options in the game world. But Square-Enix isn't without fault The voices of the banned are right about one thing though -- Square-Enix has been inconsistent. Some people are getting banned for being in one of these cheating Salvage runs, and others are getting slaps on the wrists. There doesn't seem to be any clear consistency to how they slapped down the punishments. The first part of a reliable punishment is to make sure it's handed out consistently and with appropriate measure. Without that, people second guess if the punishment is truly necessary. It's like if a professor gave you a D on a test just because he didn't like your hand writing. Your answers never mattered, and that's what makes you angry -- it didn't feel justifyable. What it all comes down to Even with Square-Enix messing up like that, it doesn't change the facts. Players knew about the exploit, players attempted to hide the exploit, Square-Enix found the exploit, and players got what they should have known was coming. All of these people had the chance to stand up, call a GM, and say what was going on. If they had and this problem would have been caught earlier, bans probably wouldn't have been mentioned. These people would still have had their accounts. Certainly they would have less gear on those accounts, but it's really hard to use virtual weaponry when you can't log in. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who can still log into Final Fantasy XI when he wants to. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane friends. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com, or follow him on Twitter.
Officers' Quarters: /annoyed
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.All the great new content in Wrath has brought a number of my guild members back to the game. It's great to see their names lit up in the roster again. But I imagine that, in some guilds, players have come back that no one is particularly happy to see logging in again. This week, one reader wants to know how to handle a member that annoys just about everybody. Hey Scott!I'm an officer in a pretty big, casual guild (roughly 100 people). One issue that [. . .] has caused quite a lot of discussion in officer chat and forums alike is a few of our members. These members are disliked by many people in guild, due to their overall behavior, as in repeatedly asking for the same things in chat, and complaining during raids (among other small things, that over time drives people crazy). Now, this have gone on for a fairly long time, and we have come to the place where most officers just want to get rid of them. Problem is, they have not actually broken any of the rules. They are close to at many times, but they never actually cross that line and do something that is clearly against the rules. We don't have a "no annoying people rule."
Potpourrii scent to WiiWare next week
Look people, we don't really have a lot to work whiff here. As readers, we realize you may be incense-itive to these issues, but sometimes we bloggers aren't all a factory of witticisms and scintillating content. Sometimes you have to sigh, press on and accept that the news can be boring. Sometimes all we have to say is that a puzzle game called "Potpourrii" is coming out on WiiWare next Monday, September 15th (video after the break).While this quiet period passes, like a few drops of rain in hail, we can only ask that you laugh, endure and forgive us for all the ill-advised puns.
Season three: The reckoning
We have now experienced three full seasons of Arenas in World of Warcraft. The numbers are being crunched and we shall see the winners of end of season rewards shortly. Most of this season has been plagued, like others with dishonesty among some of the players. Blizzard took action a few weeks ago to combat win-trading and point selling with temporary account bans, personal rating requirements for match-ups, and penalties for queue dodging. It seems Blizzard is not quite done meeting out their punishment. On an alt named Wtfkalgan, a player noted:A team recently got reset to 1500 (questioning the judgment of the GM involved isn't the purpose of this thread). The email states, "Note: This also disqualifies the above player from any end of season rewards." Does this mean the player involved is completely ineligible for any end of season rewards, or just from the end of season rewards for the team that received the action? Belfaire, a CM , clarified that this does exclude the character from receiving all end-of-season rewards. This may be an isolated incident, or it may be the beginning of another wide-spread crackdown on arena cheating. This may also include stripping honor from battleground afkers. I can't wait to see how this plays out tomorrow and when rewards are handed out. I'm thinking it's going to be epic. Thanks for the tip, Feller.
Dumb and dumber: truck drivers replace iPhones with paper
Sometimes I wonder if the frequent use of the terms "unlock" and "jailbreak" in conversations about the iPhone has caused a cognitive break for people who would otherwise keep to the straight and narrow. Case in point: two New York truckdrivers and an accomplice decided the best way to easy money was to crack open a shipment of 300 iPhones bound for Hong Kong, pull the phones out of the bottom of the shipping crate, throw in some reams of paper for weight and then re-shrinkwrap the package for delivery. Genius!Unfortunately for the three men, the package didn't look quite right to an airline worker in Hong Kong, who alerted cops. The investigation led back to the Baldwin, LI shipping company that had transferred the iPhone crate, and the drivers who had sold the illicit phones (some on Craigslist) for an $80,000 windfall. The men were arrested in possession of $23,000 (quite a bit of cash already gone on luxury splurges) and just about to move to Florida. Per the NY Daily News:When he was asked about them last week, the truck drivers' boss said, "It's funny you should be asking about them. They just resigned."No kidding. I think we've all learned something today... first, if you're going to replace packaged iPhones with something, rock beats paper. Second, 300 iPhones in a crate going to Hong Kong, where they aren't officially on sale? Maybe those 30% unlock estimates aren't so wacky after all.
UK drivers caught texting could get 2 years behind bars
UK Drivers caught texting or operating a range of gadgets behind the wheel -- including MP3 players and GPS systems -- could face a new maximum of two years in prison. Currently the crime is punishable by £2,500 fines or community orders, although the most common offense is using a mobile phone whilst driving, which results in a £60 fine and three points on a license. Shifting to a higher category of dangerous driving from the previous category of careless driving might not solve the problem of people ignoring the current restrictions: if the current problem is poor enforcement, then it's hard to see extra deterrence making a difference. But hey, the cops over there seem to think that hovering drones and unbridled surveillance does the trick in other areas of criminality, so who are we to argue?[Via PocketPCThoughts]
Officers' Quarters: A brand new column about guild leadership
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. "You can punish bad behavior in your guild by having a leader talk to the person causing trouble." -- WorldofWarcraft.com's Game Guide Blizzard's official site can help you do many things. It can help you communicate your grievances to a customer service representative. It can help you figure out when the Darkmoon Faire will be setting up camp in Mulgore. It can even help you spy on the competition. But it is remarkably ill-equipped to help you run a guild. So where do you go for a little advice when drama explodes in your face like a backfiring Goblin trinket? For myself, I've basically had to wing it. But I'm here to make sure you don't have to. I'll discuss some ideas about how to punish guild members in a moment. Since this is my inaugural column, however, allow me to introduce myself first. Hi. My name is Scott and I'm a GL. In fact, I've been a GL of a single WoW guild for longer than just about anybody. My guild was founded in January 2005, about a month after the original game's launch. Because I was the first person of our group of friends who bought the game (and therefore had the highest level character at that time – a mighty level 40 or so), it fell to me to set up the guild. It was my first time running a guild in an MMO. My previous leadership positions included senior patrol leader of a Boy Scout troop and editor-in-chief of my college's literary journal – not exactly good preparation for the sheer insanity that can confront the leader of an online guild.
Create your own miniature electric chair
Sure, we've got plenty of options to sit in when it comes to rewarding yourself, but what if you've got a mischievous trick-or-treater that really needs some payback for stiffing you in the candy department? Enter Lil' Sparky, the miniaturized (albeit potent) electric chair, handcrafted to scare the living daylights out of anything or anyone who dares to place its behind in it. Rob Cruickshank has officially "put the cute in electrocute" by wiring up a wooden electric chair that's powered by a single 9-volt battery and can deliver the juice to the unlucky participant with just the flip of a toggle switch. While we certainly don't condone the act of channeling unabated voltage through anybody's bones, be sure to peep the video of the electrifying chair in all its sizzling glory just in case the need presents itself. [Via BoingBoing]
Video games are a part of prisoner rehabilitation
The issue of video games in prisons has resurfaced; this time the publicity surrounds a private prison in Florida purchasing two PlayStation 2 systems (with inmate commissary, not with tax dollars) as part of an attempt to relax prisoners. This comes after recent debates over the right of prisoners to play video games, with Missouri first removing violent games after a blunder that resulted in prisoners shooting virtual cops in GTA, and then banning the use of games outright after a new Governor took office. Currently the overwhelming majority of prisons in the U.S.A. do not allow prisoners access to games.Hernando County Jail Assistant Warden Russell Washburn told the St. Petersburg Times: "I'd rather them be thinking about race cars than how I'm mad at someone... I don't want it portrayed that all they do is sit around and play PlayStation. I would agree that's not right if that's all you do. But this is just part of the rehabilitation. You can't throw them into a place and not give them anything to do and expect no problems. ... This is not a warehouse."We've previously reported on the positive aspects of allowing prisoners to play video games as part of the rehabilitation process: Oregon's game-friendly jails (1, 2) show how video games can help calm prisoners and reduce violent behavior inside prisons. Shouldn't that be all we need to know? If video games make the jobs of prison staff easier and potentially reduces the rate of prison suicides, then arguments of principle like Maj. Robert Lucas', an administrator with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, statement that jail is "not fun and games" should be irrelevant.I have an inkling that the real reason the "video games in prison" issue has been susceptible to such unwarranted attention (and sensational reporting) is due to inherent controversies with video games themselves. Why is the overall topic of entertainment in prisons being ignored? No one seems to have a problem with prisoners watching TV or DVDs, so it's reasonable to suggest that this particular problem has nothing to do with prisoner rehabilitation. Instead, this entire "controversy" shows all the hallmarks of being a thinly veiled extension of the ongoing resistance to video game media by out of touch (and/or vote grabbing) political figures.[Thanks, Babylonian]
