tl-dr

I’m serious. Gamers LOVE to draw penises. There are many opportunities to do so, what with the amount of creative games around.

Let’s take exhibit A from Penny Arcade. Quoth the Tycho:

You almost certainly know about Draw Something already – like Words With Friends or Hanging With Friends or Inadvertent Castration With Friends, it is an asymmetrical nod to some absolutely commonplace entertainment which modern life has made difficult.

“Photoshop Hero” may not exist as such, but the prevalence of touch displays means that more games may leverage its noble spirit.  Gabriel’s ChatRoulette mod “The Game” provided hours of entertainment, for example.  Draw Something Else, his newest release, may reach a wider audience.

And here are the mentioned/accompanied comics from Gabe.

 

I know what you may be thinking: This isn’t that big of a problem. It’s an isolated incident and doesn’t happen very often.

Oh, how I wish that were true.

Miiverse actually had to hold a contest to find the best “penis detection” software it could, so that people wouldn’t be drawing them all over the place. It’s endemic.

Side note: this quote from the above article is pretty funny.

Kurisu-san suggested we study different types of penises in order to create figure out the relative shape and size people would draw. We spent a week doing that before we realized that we should have been looking at drawings of penises rather than real-life pictures. (laughs) We were very embarrassed about that.

Personally, when done in a mature setting, with the right people, and in the right context, drawing wangs can be hilarious.

Hell, even just talking about drawing wangs is pretty funny.

 Also, why penises and not a vagina?

tl-dr

Gamers (and probably others as well) love drawing penises. Good/bad?

Ding! You’ve Leveled Up! Please see your local librarian for training.

P.S.

You really don’t want to see the meta tags I put on this post. Seriously. I feel kind of dirty now.

The use of the word “rape” [...] is getting used more and more and I’m sure I’ve caught myself using the word although I prefer the word “gank” and the same to have similar meanings except “gank” doesn’t have that real word connection, at least not that I’m aware of.

– Orkela, commenting on Jacob’s post about griefing and trolling and all that other shit

OK, people. Yes, we’ve had posts about corpse camping (and how to handle it) and how Riot is handling these things. But it seems like no matter how much we post about it all, we find more to say about it. Today, I need to talk about “rape.”

It feels empowering to know this will be posted publicly on the Internet: I was raped. It was a long time ago, but it changed the direction of my life in ways I can’t even begin to explain. I became a stronger person for it, but that took many years to achieve. It didn’t turn me into a militant feminist. I don’t believe all men are bad. I think candlelight vigils and marches to observe the horror of rape are kind of pointless because I don’t know that they really fix the problem. I still have occasional horrific anxiety attacks; these only started after it happened. But I’ve had no choice but to move on, and my strength impresses people who know me well.

A couple of nights ago, I was in a battleground, and it was clear we were losing. This prompted one of my team members to say “we’re getting raped” in bg chat. I had decided a while ago that anytime I saw that word used in game, I wasn’t going to let it go. Ignoring casual use of that word is almost as bad as pretending rape itself doesn’t exist, or isn’t as bad as it is. So I replied with something like this: “please don’t use that word – I was raped irl and it bothers me to see it here.” When I do this, typically they stop, or at least don’t reply to me.

But, that night, that person did reply. He said things, horrible things, in response, such as “I’m re-raping you” and “I like rape” and some other things I have blocked out of my mind. Out of shock, I called him an “asshole” and some other things I shouldn’t have said, but he continued. I started sweating, shaking, and crying. I certainly couldn’t concentrate on the bg anymore. I /ragequit.

The amazing man sitting next to me on the couch asked the troll what was wrong with him (peppered with all kinds of great language, of course!), but the room was spinning too much for me to see the response, or to see if the disgusting talk continued. I sat there, in shock and devastation and anger at the mean people we share this world with, my hands covering my eyes. I heard him typing furiously next to me. Eventually I looked up, and saw him sending a ticket to a GM about the troll. After he finished, he said he told Blizz that if they didn’t do something, we’d stop our subscriptions. Then he held me and reminded me of this very essential truth: frequently, on the Internet, people don’t remember that there are real people at the other end of the line. I knew he was right, but that didn’t stop my flashback or my disappointment about humanity’s meanness. I went to bed and slept fitfully, and in the morning wondered if I’d had a nightmare. Maybe I had a few nightmares, I’m not sure. But I remembered the incident was real, and then wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about starting the day.

By the next evening, Blizz had replied and said they’d do something about the troll, but they didn’t say what they would do. I didn’t want to play that night. I still don’t want to play. I will face it eventually and create new fun times in game, but I’m not ready right now. And that is ok. If I had truly faced my pain over the rape years ago instead of stuffing it down with too many antidepressants and food and general withdrawal from life, maybe I would have recovered sooner. It’s taken me almost 20 years to realize that if you shed a few tears on occasion about something horrible, it is healthier for you and the people who surround you.

Yes, don’t forget that entire communities (including our gaming communities) surround us rape survivors. Rape is everyone’s issue. Talk with my mother or that awesome man next to me on the couch about their thoughts on my rape if you don’t believe me. It’s also not just a woman’s issue. The questions like “What was she wearing?” and “Where was she?” that are typically asked of female rape survivors make us think we should have done something different to prevent it. But we would never ask these questions of a man who was raped, would we? Read this post from a male gamer who survived rape as a child for a powerful perspective.

But the question becomes: how do we stop it? I think a lot of these comments – not just the word “rape,” but anything nasty that any troll says – are due to ignorance. I wonder whether that person would have pushed it with me as far as he did if his mother or sister had been raped. Simple policing such as reporting the player, or self-preservation acts like putting the player on our ignore list, is sometimes all we can do, but it doesn’t solve the bigger problem: these people, and their shitty attitudes, exist. People frequently lack knowledge about other categories of things and people that they are mean about, which is odd because we’ve all got defining characteristics that set us apart from others. Perhaps the troll’s father died when he was 4 years old, or he hates his red hair, or whatever… something would set him off if I pushed enough buttons, I’m sure.

I’d like to end this post on a positive note, and say “it will all get better after librarians know how to give people all the knowledge they need for achieving personal intellectual enlightenment” or proclaim “Google will save us all” or give some other Infogameristic words of wisdom… but I don’t have any of those words right now. To fix a lack of education, or to open your mind up and sense the broader world, you have to want it intrinsically. The existence of information, professional educators, Internet content providers… none of it can force your brain into recognizing how your words and actions affect the people with whom you share the world. Including the World of Warcraft, it seems.

Thank you for sharing in my catharsis. And if you write hateful comments in response to this post, I will approve them. You know why? Your words speak for who you are. Including these people.

tl-dr

it was me and a gun
and a man on my back
and I sang “holy holy”
as he buttoned down his pants
you can laugh
it’s kind of funny
things you think
at times like these
like I haven’t seen Barbados
so I must get out of this

–Tori Amos, “Me and a Gun,” singing about her own rape

Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.

I would love to not write about harassment, trolling, griefing, and racism anymore. It would be grand.

The good news is that, today, I get to write about a positive spin for it! This isn’t another “u fuked up” post, but a post giving kudos to a specific game: League of Legends.

There are two things they have implemented recently that have shown a positive affect on the community (both from a statistics perspective, and also from my personal perspective): Honor System, and ranked judging (or whatever they’re calling it officially).

The Honor System

Quick Overview.

And it works! Kind of crazy, but it does!

The Mary Sue did a write up about the honor system that says exactly what I want to, so I’ll just link you to over there. I’ll also throw in this quote to show why the honor initiative is so awesome:

I initially thought it would be a disaster. No rewards? Ha! Like that’s going to work!

This is where things get serious. Isn’t this what Scott has been talking about the whole time? The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. People don’t need rewards to stop acting like assholes. They just need some intrinsic motivation to do so. In this case, it’s the honor system. Sure, you could argue that receiving honor is in itself a reward, but I see it as an almost intrinsic reward given from the community. It’s a recognition of “yeah, you do have the correct intrinsic motivation, keep it up big guy/gal!”

It sure works too. Before, when playing LoL, I would try and tune out all chat during a game. Now I actively try and participate because of the change to be a positive voice in the community. Before, chat only had the consequence of being trolled, harassed, or yelled at. Now, there’s an opportunity for honest to god human interaction! (inorite?)

So, Kudos to you Riot.

Justice Review

So it’s officially called Justice Review, and it’s basically a meta-game add on to the justice system that LoL has. Where the honor system is for those players that “done good”, the Justice Review is for the asshats, but it’s player run. Players (of a certain level), vote whether to “punish” or “pardon” an offender, then Riot hands out the final punishment. Pretty straightforward.

Now, they’ve added stats for the reviewers, % of cases judged the same as the majority (I won’t say correctly because I don’t think that’s always the case), # of Toxic Days prevented, # of players PermaBanned, and the coolest, in my mind, an honest to god ELO ranking system that mirrors the LoL in game (ranked) ranking system. It has definitely motivated me to participate more often (even though I was doing it quite often anyway).

Here’s a taste:

Again, pretty solid work on the part of Riot. I think my Accuracy is a bit lower than most people because I’m fast with the “punish” button for almost any offense.

Side note: I hope there’s a way for them to make sure no one is gaming this system to just get ranking points. I would like to see people voting how they think someone should be dealt with instead of “oh, this person is a dick, but everyone else will pardon him, so I will too.” 

tl-dr

Good on ya Riot, you’re implementing systems to get rid of trolling, griefing, harassment, racism, and many other bad things in your game. Keep it up.

Ding! You’ve Leveled Up! Please see your local librarian for training.

Maine is not a state I typically associate with controversy, but there is a current controversy in Maine politics that has made international news. Are you ready for it? Wait for it… Wait for it…

A Democratic candidate for Maine’s state Senate, Colleen Lachowicz, plays World of Warcraft.

Maine Republicans are arguing that because of this abominable pastime, she is in no way fit to be a politican, and they have set up this ridiculous website, called Colleen’s World, meant to prove her status as a horrible person. Their argument goes: a woman who plays an orc rogue – and, therefore, spends her free time stabbing everyone in the back – shouldn’t hold office.

This exemplifies so many things that make me really angry. I hate the negative political campaigns that Americans have grown accustomed to. In a way, maybe her mad virtual backstabbing skillz help her campaign because that’s all so many candidates do irl. American politics have become like a train wreck of a reality show that we can’t seem to look away from, such as Honey Boo Boo, or a bad song we can’t stop listening to, like “Call Me Maybe.” But I digress.

The negativity in the Maine Republicans’ attack plan is rooted in that famous media myth so many gamers love to hate: people who play video games are violent. They think they can prove Colleen is unfit for the Senate by highlighting things she’s posted on discussion forums – “crude, vicious and violent comments” as they call them on the website. They clearly have no understanding of gamer culture (nor do they want to); they highlight comments she makes about WoW play and jump to the conclusion that these comments can be somehow correlated to rl? What??? If people took seriously everything I’ve ever posted on gaming forums, I’d never land a full-time faculty position at a highly respected research university… oh wait… I already have one.

We’ve covered the “video games are violent” thing in previous posts on this blog, such as “Taking Aim at the Issue: Real World Guns and Games”, “Violence vs. Conflict in Video Games”, and “Violence and Video Games: Looking beyond the obvious”, so I’m not going to get into that discussion in too much detail in this post. But one part I’m alternatively annoyed with – and I want to explore this some more – is the idea that we have to hide our identities as gamers to be taken seriously in the world. Here is a quote from the BBC article I cited at the beginning in which a games researcher named Ladan Cockshut discusses gamers’ place in the world (I’ve never heard of this woman, and I couldn’t find her on Google Scholar, but whatever):

“In my work, I’ve spoken with many people who in their regular lives have roles of significant responsibility (as doctors, managers, or educators) but who choose carefully with whom they disclose their gaming activity,” she told the BBC. “And disclosing their gaming activity is often accompanied by a degree of apology or embarrassment.”

But, she added, having a gamer run for office was a “heartening” development.

“This would seem to run contrary to the other stereotypes that we love to assign to gamers: that they are lazy, antisocial people who don’t have a ‘real life’,” she said. “Maybe this will trigger some dialogue about our perceptions of gamers and the role that games can and should play in modern society.”

If us gamers do have to hide the fact that we’re gamers, then it’s no wonder why we want to hide from the real world! Seriously though, why is it that our society thinks some free time activities are acceptable and others are not? Have you ever heard of a person who hides the fact that they like watching football or baseball so others will respect them? Hell no – and, guess what people, football and baseball are games too!!!! And as for gamers wasting away all our free time on games… we’ve all known people who spend hours memorizing the RBIs or the ERAs or whatever of their favorite baseball players, and nobody thinks twice about it. But, obviously, if WoW players like Colleen are focused on improving their rogue’s Agility, they’re violent, lazy time-wasters.

I went to high school in Texas, in an area known for political and religious conservatism. (hint: America’s most recent past president lives there now). At our football games, they always said a (Christian) prayer before the game, right alongside the national anthem. I questioned how they could do that given potential separation of church and state issues. I also remember other people pointing out that it was odd how they could say a prayer before they went out on the field to kick the other team’s ass. It was ***real life game violence*** somehow made softer with pre-game prayer and the school’s participation in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I remember so many players getting hit so hard they couldn’t get off the field. There were even rituals in place for it: for example, the cheerleaders would get down on one knee until the player either stood up or was carried off the field. But would any of these football players, or the coaches and parents who directed them, ever have to answer questions about their participation in football before they could do something visible or important? No, and at least in Texas, this involvement would be a highlight of their qualifications.

So… why the split? Why does the media, and the people who are brainwashed by it, differentiate between “this kind of game is great” and “this kind of game is bad”? Virtual violence is more dangerous, and more telling about our characters, than rl violence? I’ve played video games since 1981, and I’ve blown up a lot of aliens and monsters and even a few rogues, but I’ve never hit a person in reality. Honestly, the most I’ve ever done wrong is park in the wrong space on campus – but I paid for the ticket. I might have said a few bad words when I found the ticket on my car, and it might have relieved my stress to run some bgs with my frost mage… but in reality, the ice stayed in my freezer. Throwing ice at campus police won’t get me tenure, but Frostbolting a freakin’ orc in Arathi Basin certainly makes me feel better. And I’ll proudly tell everyone that I did it.

tl-dr

Gamers are everywhere, and we do everything. Just like you muggles.

Ding! You’ve leveled up! Please see your local librarian for training.

Guilds within games are a very funny thing, and running them is even stranger. They are a weird conglomeration of people, and come in so many shapes and sizes no one has time to describe any of that. Karen over at Massively does a regular column that attempts to bring order to the guild chaos (and does well), but I think there is always more to add to the pot.

I help run a multi-game guild that spans WoW, League of Legends, and Guild Wars 2 (and a few others, but those are the main ones right now).  I find leading a guild to be a very fickle thing, but mainly, it’s all about the morale of the guild.

The game doesn’t matter.

The people can change.

Keeping the morale of the guild up is the most important aspect of being a guild leader. Even if people are hating the game they’re playing, if they are happy with the people they are playing with and having a good time in the community, people will keep playing the game.

To quote Felandis, who also helps lead the guild, (from another statement he made, not that post)

When it comes to running a guild, it is my belief the most important thing is to truly understand the morale of the guild, from the ground up, and to understand what has to be tweaked to keep that morale high (often easier said than done).

So what keeps the morale of your guild high? Raid clears? PvP wins? Community forums?

tl-dr

Make sure to keep the morale of your guild high, it will keep all of the people together and having a good time.

Ding! You’ve Leveled Up! Please see your local librarian for training.

How do you become a gamer? What constitutes one?

Hardcore/casual gamer aside, what really makes someone a gamer? Just playing games? Or participating in the community? Or just saying “Hi! I’m a gamer!”

What about those people who play video games a lot, but still think they aren’t gamers? I’m talking about the people that play WoW 30 hours a week. They love playing Zelda. But those are the only two games that they play. Are they gamers?

Then there’s the other side of the coin: does someone just like the “gamer” culture, but not play games, and calls themselves a gamer? Maybe this person goes to a ton of cons, watches friends play games, reads all the blogs, and is an in-depth member of the community! Are they a gamer?

Or, how about the people who are everything that a gamer is, but they don’t want to bear the label “gamer”?

I think there are two different ways to think about it:

Individual perspective

I think there’s a point where it is up to an individual to choose “who” or “what” he/she is.

“I am a gamer”

“I am a tennis player”

“I am a painter”

Or all of the above. That’s the great part about individual choice.

Cultural grouping

This is where it gets murky, because having individual reasons for why you want to be (or not be) labeled a certain way is great, but it goes against the grain of humans as social creatures. Pretty much everything humans do is as a group: Countries, states, hobbies, politics, sports, the list goes on and on.

Because of that, belonging to a certain group (e.g. “gamers”) brings with it certain baggage. Good baggage or bad, it’s still there. It’s up to the group to make a determination of whether that baggage should remain within the group or not. Because, even though you made an individual choice to “be a gamer” because “I play this game all the time and participate in the community, and other gamers should only play MMOs to be called gamers!” …not all gamers will think that way.

I don’t have much of an answer for how to describe this, or even think about it. I will need to do more research on it.

This is kind of my first foray into the concept. Any links would be appreciated!

tl-dr

We should call people who read “bookers.” Since those of us who play games are called “gamers.”

Before we dive in, I think a lot of you might assume where this might go; i.e. along the lines of BLIZZARD RUINED EVERYTHING QQQ MY DEAR SWEET AZEROTH CAUGHT THE PANDA BUG AND IT’S A TERMINAL ONE WAY SELL OUT TRIP TO CHINA WHY YOU NO LOVE ME BLIZZARD WHY.

Gosh, that felt probably a little too much like the actual emotion I have on this subject than it should have.. but then, that’s also sorta the point!  We care!  Like, a lot!  (you are a member of “we” if you, too, care)  And, frankly, Pandas aren’t really the reason we’re upset with Blizzard. Pandas are awesome animals and the Pandaren race, before this whole “let’s take them seriously” Blizzard shenanigans kicked off, were an alright concept.  Maybe from a distance.  To be handled with care.  Unlike what happened.

 

 

Now, this topic has already been beaten to death months ago around the internet, but while there has been plenty of ”Pandas suck!” or “Leave Pandas Alone!” talk, there wasn’t a lot saying why we freaking care!

Mists Of Pandaria is the fourth expansion to the World of Warcraft MMORPG, and Blizzard’s first experience in what could be real financial humility.. if we’re calling 9.1 million subscribers down from 13 million “humility” these days (hint: we are).   They’ve had to tuck their tail a bit about some other stuff before, but that’s all behind us, and nothing Big Brother Blizz ever did really hurt them much.  Until now.

And OK, to be fair, the meme above isn’t totally on mark because WoW is an old game, Guild Wars 2 is better anyway, mmos are finally progressing, blah blah blah, but look at the likes and dislikes for the announcement World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Preview Trailer.

Something definitely caused some serious ire in the hands of WoW fans to click “dislike” so very very much.  That’s not a “I don’t care about WoW anymore” attitude you’re seeing reflected in 30,000 dislikes, that’s a public denouncement.

To understand what we’re seeing here, let’s back up.

The actual World of Warcraft, the fictional universe the game takes place in, is truly one of the largest fictional creations in history.  Blizzard has been building on this universe for decades, and building on it intensely.  Believe me, I spent a good part of my wow experience in charge of my guild’s Roleplay (directing the story of the guild), a single event could take a few hours to map together, because WoW is SO FREAKING HUGE (second biggest wiki for it in the world, just after wikipedia).  And it’s wonderful.

If there is one thing Blizzard did right with WoW, above all else perhaps, I would give it to the lore and worldbuilding put into the game.  There are countless characters that show up and disappear with unexpected plot twists, powerful emotional stories and relationships spanning different planets, mysteries only hinted at like the orgin of the Old Gods and the Titans, and tragic plotlines unfolded such as that of Arthas, the Lich King.  And every single one of them ties into the others in some way, ever carrying the epic tale of Azeroth forward.  Pardon my language here, but all together, it’s a mindfuck of lore.  Really really good lore (something I’ve written about before!).  And it’s that connectivity that makes it amazing.  It’s that sense of “too much to comprehend”, it’s having multiple perspectives from different factions, its feeling pride and pain for other characters (player and non-player alike), it’s all of that together and more that creates a sense of fictional realism.   

After all that, I guess it really goes without saying, we the players become emotionally attached.  So what the hell happened?

 

 

Specifically, something called “Worldbreaking” (it would seem Deathwing had his way after all!) <–that’s a lore joke folks.  You see, before MoP (Mists of Pandaria) was announced, there was tons of speculation about what the next chapter of Azeroth would be.  Would we chase after the Burning Legion again?  After all, we only banished their ruler in the Burning Crusade expansion.  Would we uncover the real mystery of the Titans?  After all, we only glimpsed their power in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.  Would we see the Horde and Alliance succumb to infighting?  After all, the Undead, Dwarves, Trolls, and others come to think of it.. all of them crossed boundaries and dabbled in backstabbery in this last expansion, and we saw many the leader’s stories developed to show their “human sides” consequently.  Or maybe we would explore the Emerald Dream, an alternate universe we’ve known about that’s been central to WoW since the beginning, but a place we’ve never been able to set foot in!  After all, we just stopped Deathwing from breaking the whole world, now would be a perfect time to check on the Dream since it’s supposed to be our back up!  OR-

Wait.

Wait, what?

There’s… a continent on this planet.. we’ve never heard of… at all for the past hundred thousand years..  full of drunk panda monks?  Wasn’t that the race Blizzard used for an April fool’s joke once?  And.. part of said continent is a giant floating turtle.. and wait wait, this peaceful race of pandas.. can join the Horde OR Alliance.. and will thus kill their own kind.. because they need to unite with the other races to.. heal the world.  Even though the other races have turned to all out war.

MoP is literally the great awkward turtle of WoW lore.  And THAT’S why we’re upset.

This universe we’ve become emotionally invested into, whether it was simply “FOR THE [insert chosen faction here]” loyalty most WoW players feel, or a much deeper connection to the grand story of Azeroth, has been rudely pushed aside, and gone south.. to Pandaria (it’s South on the map..)<– More lore jokes!

Note, while we’re here, Guild Wars 2 has it’s own Polar Bear race, and the Devs have even written about the race in depth, because ArenaNet is proving it rocks at worldbuilding (more on this in future posts).  And you know what? The Kodan race is totally badass, no one has a problem with them, and I fully anticipate the Kodan to be a playable race down the road (along wih the Tengu). For a game like WoW, a race of Drunken Panda Monks could totally fly high and proud (we have space goats after all) if they had simply been introduced and implemented differently (not as an April Fool’s joke for one!), as an integrated part of the overarching story that is World of Warcraft.

tl-dr

Powerful worldbuilding is about creating complex connections and relationships in a fictional world.  The player becomes part of those connections, becomes emotionally invested in them, and when those  connections are, well, ignored.. we get upset.  ”Upset” is also an understatement.

p.s.  Watch This

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License 

Today we’re gonna take another trip on the fanboy interstate, and like before, GuildMag will be driving with their fourth Blog Carnival!  ”Five years of waiting for Guild Wars 2” is the topic at hand… five years is a little over one fourth of my existence.

So…

yeaaaaaaahhh.

Naturally I jumped on this opportunity to talk about the greatest game to ever saunter towards existence (you know, cuz it’s not actually released yet and all), but five years ago I was a 7th grader battling my way through the great awkward hell known as middle school.  I wasn’t one of the people who saw the press release from ArenaNet announcing GW2 minutes after it happened singing hallelujah, I wasn’t one of the people that caught sight of it in the corner of their eye on some video game news site.  I wasn’t even a semi-logical functioning adult yet!

(note: the above pic is also why I’m NOT doing the tl-dr artistic redesign (pst pst we still need someone! Email us! Help us!))

I had no clue Guild Wars 2 existed five years back.  Or the original Guild Wars.  Or World of Warcraft.  I think I played Game Cube stuff mostly…

Point is, we’re gonna have to fast forward here a bit if we actually want to talk about Guild Wars 2.  Except that’s exactly what they expect me to do!  (“They” is Jacob, resident slaver around here) So let’s talk about why nearly five years of Guild Wars 2 ignorance makes GW2 even more beautiful.

So where exactly was I five years ago?  My friend MDSRocker (his gamer name) who went to school with me way back when (btw go read his blog, it’s pretty great), reminded me that I was, um, trying to create a “holiday” at the time.  Specifically an “Innocent Victims of War Memorial Day” or “IVM Day” for short. Evidently, I wasn’t exactly a cut and paste kinda kid.  I gave speeches, pinned up flyers, and sent the whole package off to the United Nations with some 300 signatures gathered by my little team and I (here’s the online petition I created from way back when).  Annnnnnnd the UN sent back a thank you note.  It was more than a little discouraging, and when the school year ended momentum for the whole thing kinda fell apart.

Well, subsequently, I got pretty darn depressed.  I know I know, blogging about emotions is so 2011!  But really, the simple fact was I tried really hard to do something I believed in, and I fell short.  13 year old me learned a hard truth; the world isn’t on anyone’s side, and sometimes we still fail no matter how good our intentions.  Two long years later, however, it was World of Warcraft that got me back on my feet.  Two years of banging my head against a wall trying to convince myself to keep trying, but not actually feeling like trying to do anything at all; two years of feeling stuck.  It was WoW that made me resilient, made me finally feel like trying again, and if you don’t believe me go watch this recent TEDTalk by Jane McGonigal.  This is also where I give another big sappy love-you-thank-you to my guild since it was them as much as anything that helped me

That brings us up to about a year and a half ago when everything took another exciting turn; I began to honestly question if I was gay.  I also started to get excited about Guild Wars 2.  Course, they had nothing to do with each other, but they will!  …sorta.. just keep reading.

At this point I was working in the U.S. Congress as a page and had said farewell to WoW, and I believed my future was probably directed down the political path (read this post to see how that plan has changed).  But, frankly, I was desperately trying to convince myself I didn’t have feelings for guys that I was “supposed” to have for girls, how could I aspire to anything great as a gay man (ridiculous I know now), and it just wasn’t at all who I wanted to be, or even who my family wanted me to be.  To derail a bit here, my parents have done an incredible job overcoming that hurtle with me, it was a bit messy at times, yet ultimately, it was another lesson in resilience for all of us.

Allowing myself to accept my sexuality was a matter of understanding that I don’t have to be like anyone else.  Period.  All my life I’ve watched movies and played games where male protagonists and heroes were off trying to save some girl, or fighting alongside some girl, or girls girls girls girls.  Ridiculous as it may seem, Kurt Hummel, the gay kid played by Chris Colffer in Glee (A show that is now truly a foray into painful screenwriting fallen from it’s glory days) was one of the first anythings to make me feel ok for how I felt, because of how widely beloved the character became, how accepted.

I’ve talked before about the importance of sexual diversity in games, but here it is again: if gay is ever going to be normal, not better, not worse, but truly normal, we need it to exist in media as normal.  Media inspires and propagates ideas for better or worse.  When I heard that the GW2 race of Sylvari have no judgement on sexuality, that they simply love whomever they love, and that ArenaNet deliberately didn’t try to prop up the issue and kept it normal, I fell in love with the game and the company making it.  An entire society that puts less emphasis on sexuality than they do hair color, to be explored in a world filled with millions of real people; that’s some powerful stuff.

It hasn’t even been a full year since I really came out, so it feels kinda strange reflecting on it, along with all the other stuff I talked about.  But here I am, all “grown up”-ish, right next to Guild Wars 2.  My life is really incredible at this point, and I’m wildly thankful for all parts of it, and everything yet to come.  I haven’t really talked a whole lot about all the parts that make GW2 great here, but I don’t think that’s the point.  More and more about GW2 has been revealed over the last few years, and really I feel kinda similar about myself. Sure it’s kinda silly, but that’s what “Five Years of Waiting For Guild Wars 2″ has been for me; learning more about who “me” is too.

tl-dr

I know first hand the power of video games, MMOs in particular for me, and we’re about to witness the next great step in MMO history to be released later this month.  I’m ready to set foot in an epic world full of epic people again, and grow even more as a person with it.

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[Editor's note (Yes, I'm the editor and the author, shut it)] I’m having trouble getting the full emotion of this post out into the writing. I may be writing in a pretty technical way and presenting facts of why this is bad, and saying it is bad, but I really hate bullying, racism, or harassment in games. So much so that I have a hard time dealing with it when it happens to me or others because I feel like I start to rage when I talk about it. Carry on.

I’m referring specifically to the actions of people in online games to other players, and how they treat other players. A good example of it is from tl-dr’s own Diane, on camping and griefing. I think camping and griefing are a small form of harassment and bullying, and there are many ways around it.

It becomes more difficult when the griefing is written or verbal. There are two different varieties that I want to point out and talk about; both are equally bad, just very different.

1) The Rager

This one is easy to see, but hard to combat. Easy to see because it’s the person that screams “OMFG you NOOB! That isn’t how it’s SUPPOSED TO BE DONE!”* Nothing said will calm this person down, as they are either 1) so angry they won’t see reason, or 2) trolling you and looking for you to get all worked up.

*Sprinkle this sentence liberally with the terms: asshole, noob, fag, faggot, rape, raped, nig, or nigger depending on the severity.

^That’s another problem. How do you deal with blatant, overt racism, homophobia, or hate speech while gaming? This isn’t subtle racism perpetuated by a society, it’s in your face hate that there is no way of combating. (Or so it feels)

2) The Trolls

These are the people in games who do almost the exact same things as the rager, but they do it for attention or to get a reaction. It’s hard to differentiate them, and in practice, there’s really no reason to do so. It’s how they react to being combated that changes.

Bullying for competition

I’m no stranger to competition. And one of the tenets of competition is sportsmanship. Learn it, love it, stick with it. It will make gaming for you and everyone around you better in the long run.

“It helps me win, it’s the other guy’s fault they can’t deal with it.” This is a cop out, and people who bully, rage, or troll to gain a competitive advantage are just applying gamesmanship to the game. Yes, it’s within the rules of the game. Does that mean you should still do it? No.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Trash talking, harrassment, or bullying to get an edge up on the competition means you just can’t handle the competition anyway. Play within the rules and leave the gamesmanship out of it. There’s no place for it in multiplayer video games.

GTFO Man, I can do what I want. Besides, you can’t change the way things are.

Bullshit, I can change things. That’s what I’m trying to do right here. People WANT the change. People WANT to see this type of harassment and bullying go away. So let’s do it.

They’re Just Trolls! Don’t Feed Them!

In small doses, sure, not feeding the trolls works. Like that asshat in trade chat who says “Zelda was so cool in his game when he killed Ganon!” That’s a harmless troll trying to get someone to rage and say “Zelda was the princess, Link was the guy with the sword!”

What about the troll that comes into a game (any game) and says, “Hi guys! Glad you’re all here to play today, this going to be fun! As long as there aren’t any faggot niggers here.”

That one statement ruins the game for everyone involved, whether the person saying it is truthful, trolling, or something else. It automatically injects social, cultural, and political conflict into the game.

Should you feed this troll?

No.

Should you ignore this troll?

No.

Being silent empowers this kind of troll, and silence sounds a lot like agreement.

So what should you do? Go watch this video.

So what should we do?

Here’s one idea from the Extra Credits crew. I think it’s a good start.

Another is the justice system that is in place for League of Legends. It may not be great, but it cuts down on a lot of the worst offenders. Gotta start somewhere.

Not just about the completely horrible people

It’s about the middle of the pack people as well. Sure, getting rid of the 10% of people that are THE WORST offenders would be amazing, but that does not stop the trolling. Or the raging. Or people being just assholes in general. Think of that the next time you’re angry in a game, or that you’re angry at a troll. Raging at them, calling them names, or doing anything similar just increases the problem. It’s not even them “bringing you down to their level.” It’s you becoming one of them; just because they started it doesn’t change anything.

Stand up for a healthier, more relaxed multiplayer experience.

Don’t feed the trolls/ragers.

Don’t become a troll/rager yourself.

DO stand up for yourself and your beliefs online in a coherent, calm, fashion.

tl-dr

This. 1000 times this. Read it.

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Social gaming is something I enjoy, and it’s one of the main reasons I game. I like the community aspect of gaming, whether it’s just social, or moves into the competitive realm (which is also social to me). The hard part with this is what The Mighty Viking Hamster (amazing name for a blog amirite?) was talking about:

So, am I the only one who thinks that MMOs should allow players, both current and old ones, to access some chat channels, including guild chat, through a separate IM program, even when they are not subscribed anymore?

Before I break this down, I want to say that I agree completely. Having social systems outside of games that we play is an amazing added benefit to gaming.

Sure, there are other ways that guilds/friends can keep in touch outside of a game, but that’s not really the point here. The point is that keeping touch outside of the game (currently) is dichotomous in nature. If you’re in the game, you’re communicating in game. If you’re out of the game, your’re communicating on forums on an instant messenger or Vent or Mumble or something. What if I want to keep in touch with my friends when they’re playing and I’m unsubscribed from the game? Or at a family get together?

The separation of “in game” and “out of game” communication is what needs to go away.

Because it encourages us to come back to games

Companies may be loathe to say “you can’t communicate in game with your friends when you don’t have the game!” (in a subscription based model), but I think this is incorrect. If I was chatting with guildies and they were doing really cool fun stuff, and I wasn’t playing, it would just want me to play more! A feature like this may not create new revenue, but it sure will bring back old players.

WoW already does this to a certain degree, allowing for mobile armory and chatting in guild chat from a phone, but these are separate services in addition to the game itself. I’ve seen very few people actually using it, but it’s pretty cool when they do. Making it free would only encourage a higher participation rate. It’d be like txting from your phone, but it’d be guild chat instead. Want.

Because it encourages us to stay in the game

A communication system that spans on and offline would also encourage retention of players. Supporting ease of communication between guild members just facilitates keeping a group of people together, which means people play the game longer. This is great for subscription-based business models, but it’s great for any game. Moar players = better.

Imagine a chat room connected to the guild forums, but that chat room is guild chat. Then you can chat in guild on your phone, on a computer that can’t run the game, wherever! Imagine those moments that get quiet when everyone is at work or gone, or just can’t log on… now you can all still talk! Sure, you might be the only person logged into the game, but now you have more people to talk to! I think this would just increase the social abilities of guilds.

Other, similar, programs already exist

Steam does this really well; I just think it’s missing something. Primarily, the ability to do group chat, or a “guild chat” type feature (or maybe I just don’t know about it). 1 to 1 chat/IM on Steam is amazing, but if you added in a group chat feature, it would catapult it from amazing to mind boggling. Steam would turn into a social network (more than it already is).

There are also other programs, such as Raptr, but I know very little about them as I have not really used them. There doesn’t seem to be a huge pick up rate to them (though I see Raptr growing among my friends).

So just build it already!

I’m just kidding. Building something like this would be a monumental programming effort. I’m just spinning some gears over here about the theory of why this could be cool and a good way to implement it. I know it would take a ton of effort. I just hope someone does!

tl-dr

There needs to be a way to communicate with gaming friends both in game, and out of game at the same time. Do not separate the communication into two different spaces.

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