Post by Morreion on Aug 6, 2010 9:05:24 GMT -5
World of Warcraft : Enforcing the Harassment Policy (MMORPG.com)
This is fascinating to me. I think everyone who has played WoW knows about the Goldshire scene, which is often easy to laugh about, but apparently things have gotten out of hand sometimes.
I get the impression that this kind of thing- edgy/provocative/lousy behavior & chat- is happening more and more in games. One of the first things I noticed when trying F2P games was that, as bad as subscription game chat can be, F2P chat was typically abominable. It is easy to see how this happens- it requires lots of staff time & effort to deal with. Game companies typically want to minimize this to save money. IMHO this is why we rarely see official RP servers anymore- RP servers required more customer service in the form of name & harassment/behavioral complaints (people not following RP rulesets). It was easier to simply stop making RP servers to save money & avoid the issue altogether because a minority of players are RPers to begin with.
I'm to the point where I will turn off global chat channels if I have that option. You know it's a bad sign when your ignore list fills up. Gold spammers have a lot to do with this.
Now, with this kind of behavior becoming more prominent, it will be interesting to see how game companies handle the issue. Let's face it, Blizzard can afford to hire more GMs to patrol for this kind of thing, but most games probably cannot. I wonder if global chat channels will become less prevalent; or perhaps there will be a 'play at your own risk' expectation that players will have to deal with. I can't see this type of thing getting any better with the rush to the F2P model, either.
This is another byproduct of the mainstreaming of MMOs that I don't particularly care for.
World of Warcraft GMs will be working known hot spots in the game on a more regular basis to ensure that the Harassment Policy instituted by Blizzard is being accurately enforced. The stepped up 'GM patrols' come as a result of a father's complaint about Moon Guard's Goldshire Inn and the somewhat racy commentary and activities that take place within. Subsequently, he cancelled his WoW account
According to this parent's complaint, he found his son and friends inside the Goldshire Inn laughing at the activities within. The parent scrolled up the chat log and found:
Line after line, having absolutely NOTHING to do with RP: sexual emotes, gay bashing, racial comments....I sat there speechless.
And please don't tell me about the ignore button, I am well aware of that feature. The fact that this behavior goes on CONSTANTLY on this server is disgusting, and I will not allow my son to "discover" any more servers such as this.
According to this parent's complaint, he found his son and friends inside the Goldshire Inn laughing at the activities within. The parent scrolled up the chat log and found:
Line after line, having absolutely NOTHING to do with RP: sexual emotes, gay bashing, racial comments....I sat there speechless.
And please don't tell me about the ignore button, I am well aware of that feature. The fact that this behavior goes on CONSTANTLY on this server is disgusting, and I will not allow my son to "discover" any more servers such as this.
This is fascinating to me. I think everyone who has played WoW knows about the Goldshire scene, which is often easy to laugh about, but apparently things have gotten out of hand sometimes.
I get the impression that this kind of thing- edgy/provocative/lousy behavior & chat- is happening more and more in games. One of the first things I noticed when trying F2P games was that, as bad as subscription game chat can be, F2P chat was typically abominable. It is easy to see how this happens- it requires lots of staff time & effort to deal with. Game companies typically want to minimize this to save money. IMHO this is why we rarely see official RP servers anymore- RP servers required more customer service in the form of name & harassment/behavioral complaints (people not following RP rulesets). It was easier to simply stop making RP servers to save money & avoid the issue altogether because a minority of players are RPers to begin with.
I'm to the point where I will turn off global chat channels if I have that option. You know it's a bad sign when your ignore list fills up. Gold spammers have a lot to do with this.
Now, with this kind of behavior becoming more prominent, it will be interesting to see how game companies handle the issue. Let's face it, Blizzard can afford to hire more GMs to patrol for this kind of thing, but most games probably cannot. I wonder if global chat channels will become less prevalent; or perhaps there will be a 'play at your own risk' expectation that players will have to deal with. I can't see this type of thing getting any better with the rush to the F2P model, either.
This is another byproduct of the mainstreaming of MMOs that I don't particularly care for.
I HATE when classic games are made to be like every other game out there. Seriously, if I wanted to play a 'more modern game', I'd certainly play a more modern game and not UO. When I go back and play UO, I like it precisely because it isn't like the dime-a-dozen current MMOs out there. Ahh well, rant off 