MMOs — “Hated-filled Miasmas”?
I spent a few hours in MMOs over the weekend, re-attaching myself to my poor neglected avatars and completing a few quests that I had been avoiding like the plague. I came out of my game stupor with more mixed feelings than anything else, having been exposed to comments and messages with more expletives than I can manage, even in my worst fits of road rage.
I resolved that I would write up an exploratory article on the sad state of civility in the MMO community, which has become far less a case of ‘a few bad apples’ and much more a challenge to find the few good apples that make the game worth playing. The problem with these socially oriented games is that it means you have to…socialize, and the vast majority of people available aren’t even the type that I would bother raising a disapproving eyebrow at in real life.
I know that Ingrid has repeatedly pointed out incidences that have made her gaming days less than stellar, and it’s a far-reaching phenomenon of annoyance; so much so that one MMOGer at Gamers With Jobs is just plain pissed. In an article called Cleaning Up Thunder Bluff, the author has a look at how bad things have gotten, possible causes, possible fixes, and, in my opinion, a genuine personal befuddlement over why anyone would act that way in what is essentially a public forum.
It’s an excellent read, even if I don’t particularly agree with some of the points made. It does address burgeoning concern about the explosion of online worlds and potential for manipulation, exploitation and general stupidity that can occur.
Via | Slashdot
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POSTED IN: Culture, Links, MMORPG, Online Gaming
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