unpleasant-players
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Sphere of Jerkitude: That's it, I'm outta here
One of our readers, Bowzer, wrote in the other night about dropping a group instantly on seeing a homophobic slur in party chat. As he observed, running across questionable-to-cruel comments in the Dungeon Finder is certainly nothing new, but he asked, "Am I wrong for being sick of the 'It's the internet, have a tough skin and get over it argument?' Is it so wrong to be a decent person?" I'd be lying if I said I hadn't had similar thoughts. Thankfully, running into a genuine jerk is uncommon, but each one can ruin your day. I think what bothers me most is the sure knowledge that the offending player is not only entirely unrepentant, but may also be getting a kick out of making the group uncomfortable. Worse still, there's no surefire way to deal with it. Try to address a nasty or bigoted comment in party chat? You're just giving them the opportunity to troll you further. Kick them? You may not have the votes. (If it's a guild group, you definitely won't.) Stay silent? Drop group? Submit a ticket? Or maybe just hope that the Loot God smites the offender at some point in the near future?
Breakfast Topic: Dealing with unpleasant players
I'm usually pretty lucky with my dungeon finder groups, but every so often you run into some real stinkers. And by that, I don't mean incompetent players -- just mean ones. This was brought home to me on a recent Halls of Stone run I was healing when one of our DPS, a moonkin, got mind-controlled by a Dark Rune Controller and then killed by our mage and rogue. He or she very politely asked the other two DPS if they could interrupt the Domination cast next time to avoid that happening, and in return got an avalanche of abuse. The tank took their side while I was resurrecting the moonkin, and it was then that I noticed that all three were from the same realm. They were still making snide comments about it while we were pulling trash to the Maiden of Grief, and I finally snapped, "He's right. You can spare a second to interrupt the cast, and if you won't do that, the least you can do is avoid killing a mind-controlled player." The abuse rerouted in my direction for a few minutes, but one of the nice things about working here is that after you've been a target of the professional trolling class, their amateur counterparts don't have that much effect. It leaves me wondering how you deal with unpleasant players without causing a blow-up or turning into a bit of an ass yourself (as I admit I probably was while coming to the defense of the moonkin). We all run into them eventually, and I don't know whether it's better to speak up on behalf of a bullied player who may not want the help, simply drop group or spend the run in silence, not rising to the bait.
