Trolls, troll away, flamers burn as hard as you can. But please read and think first!

Allow me to put in my two cents..

Recently I have seen that VO is becoming more and more hostile, with players calling other players names, mute fiestas, constant mispronunciation of names to annoy and the like. This is not in the spirit of the post the dev's made about
1. playing nice, or 2. behaving especially as we near 2.0

I can mention the Whore calling episode, the insta muting of several characters (whether they deserved it or not is not for me to judge, but it should never be an auto response to certain characters as I think it has become), and the Panis/(exchange a with e) and Cloak/Clock episode. None of them really any fun...

And that leads me to what is probably the real problem. The fact that it is immensely difficult to do an online roleplaying game when only some participate in the RP part. Calling people names like whore, slut etc., can be very hurting. When it is said in a context it can however be merely a correct response to a roleplay that has been made before. Calling Azumi, Keria and Jasmine for sluts when they play their babyoil and gagball thing is nothing but fun, and probably adds to their enjoyment of the game (they seem to relish calls like that...).

Some people do not roleplay, or roleplay with themselves at stake, and they get hurt pretty badly when they are called crap. Calling people names when you are targeting them as person is NEVER fun. And that is a line that has been crossed repeatedly by some.

Remember that the game is a MMORPG, and that means that instead of digging for the person behind the character, take the character at face value until said person makes the game crap for others. I have found out that one of the favourite pastimes of the players is alt-guessing. Why do players do this? Not very conducive to the last three letters of the gametype, remember RPG?. That is where the real problem is IMHO, because that kills the RP. Tumble should be able to log in with an alt that is best buddy to Tohasandra Chi, and opposite.

I am not innocent in this at all, it is easy to run along with the pack and the mood. But it ends today for me at least.

I for one am getting mightily tired of not being allowed to play my character(s) as simple RP characters. Maybe that is why I am online less and less these days.....

Hortan
aka WhyTee

Oh, and I put it here and not in RP for obvious reasons. Remember not all go there!

I doubt you can be proven wrong, Hort.
Even while I wasn't playing, I was reading the forums quite regularly.
There surely were some incidents in the deep past, but I suppose it all intensified after the so-called 'manharu' event... Since then, I could always spot some bad name calling, moldy being more rude than ever (you just catched my eye man, no offense) and such.
We are a small community that has been always holding together... think if you want this to continue or degenerate into n00bish horde like in WoW...

Mike-L

Respect.
Honor.
Understanding.

Respect your opponent. Respect your fellow player.
Honor your victims and those that call you their victims alike.
Understand your fellow players point of view, even if you do not agree with it.

Respect, honor, and understand the rules.

Basic rules for everyone to get along, especially required in small communities like this one. Everyone you kill, that kills you, or annoys you in chat helps pay for the game that we all love.

This isn't WoW, where it's almost acceptable to be rude for a multitude of reasons.
This isn't EVE-Online, where it's borderline acceptable to be crass, since the developers WANT a universe filled with conflict.
This is Vendetta Online. No reason to powerplay. No reason to be especially ticked if you get cheesed to death. No reason to propagate flame wars.

-passes soapbox on-

This is Vendetta, and in Vendetta, vendetta's happen. Occasionally it happens more often then not.

Stop whining. Leave 100 or turn off chat if you don't like it.

Good post Hortan.
First of all, I have no problem with the usual small-scale trolling, flaming and the likes - after a couple of times getting sucked into it I've learned to let it pass me by. I do think it's sad though when personal attacks and issues btw people become so bitter and serious that there's no room for pure enjoyment of the game anymore. And no, leaving 100 is not enough, stuff like that affects the whole game experience. There are set rules of conduct in this game and although those rules seem pretty bendable, which is good, they are something we are agreeing to by playing the game.
If your way of having fun is ape-style throwing shit on people, then go play somewhere else. Or at least do it with a kind of humor that the one you're throwing at understands.

I'd reply at length, but this sort of idiotcy rears its noobish head a couple times each year, and every time the appropriate response is the same. So, I'll just summarize:

Awww, boo-flippin'-hoo. Yaaaaaaaaaaaawn.

On a different note, we have people "RPing" baby oil and ballgags on 100? And you're thinking that some rudeness is going to turn off most paying customers?! Hint: normal people may enjoy one or both of those activities, either separately or at the same time, but they prefer to enjoy them in the private company of actual people, not see them on public chat of their space sim. If you want to RP that, find an out of the way station's bar. Eesh.

And Mike-L, we've been calling U-R-A-HIM--correctly or incorrectly, I don't think it really matters anymore--"manharu" for a long time. So that's probably not an escalation event of much note.

Good to see that you didn't get the point of the post zamzx.

This has nothing to do with whining, it has everything to do with playing. If you ever were to shut all communications in VO off, you would in fact have a mediocre game that is outperformed in almost all ways by something else on the market today. What makes VO so cool is the fact that it has other players that actually play along, and mostly do so in a way that is enjoyable by others. And that is what I am asking for, enjoyable play.

Remember that this is a GAME!!

Hort, who hopes he will eventually be proven wrong

What I mean is, ignore the offenders, turn of chat until they go away, or blow them up. If they're being really annoying, /vote mute them.

People are assholes, they have been assholes, and they will continue to be assholes. Insert generic birds and the bee's talk and a kindly explanation about how people are assholes.

I'm a bit tired, so I might not be getting this across properly, but, people are assholes .

Learn who the moderators are, and use the /ignore that god gave you. Because people are assholes.

I actually expected better from you Lecter. Please read what it says before flaming me to high hell. Otherwise you are just what most people here seems to think you are (myself excluded I might add), a nuisance at best.

What I am trying to bring across, is that people start treating this as a game, and not a personal feud. If you log in as Dr. Lecter, you will have a lot of enemies from the start and that is probably the way you like it. But this should NOT preclude you from making another alt who is a carebear (I assume it will not happen anytime soon) and be accepted as that character. Regardless of who the person behind is. If you roleplay a carebear, VO should treat you like one!

I am not complaining about the language that is used in the game nor the content, I am not advocating that we ban people for using certain language. Quite the opposite. What I am complaining about is when the game is being used to make attacks on individuals on a personal level. Babyoil away and swear for all I care, as long as it is in context, but repeatedly calling someone a whore because of boredom or whatnot is not good enough. Same as muting people because of them appearing, not good enough.

And I get it zamzx, people are assholes. These posts are not meant for them, they are probably not able to change. But it doesn't mean that I nor anybody else have to strive to become one ourselves. Just because THEY do it doesn't excuse me or anybody else.....

Hort the n00b apparently

Nah, I was being a bit pissy. You're right, Whytee.

If you roleplay a carebear, VO should treat you like one!

See, the problem with that is that "VO characters" don't role-play this game. People's characters do--sometimes that works the way you describe, other times not (see, e.g., myself, Impavid, and of course BORB). For example, Dr. Lecter/Trakus Shar has been a forum-only creature for going on 9 months now. It's been long enough that I can safely say that account's hiatus hasn't eliminated my presence in VO. Far from it.

However, if I had made a publically known alt and then rolled into Guild X's HQ and said "sign me up!", they'd have said No Way! And they'd be right to do so--because in the end, that now accepted character's task is not the one he's been playing along at for so long now. It's something quite different... something Dr. Lecter or Trakus Shar would do. Is it just me, being a dick and breaking the game? Or am I RPing Dr. Lecter, playing _______?

You can see how the personal/character feud lines can become blurred amongst most vets, who have no real interest in limiting their character's existance to one VO account slot. When done right, things are interesting and surprising--but feathers also get ruffled, and it's because of a player, rather than a character.

Might as well toss in my 2¢. -WARNING- Excessive talk of psychology and physiology follows!

One of the base issues I see here is that an attack upon a character gets mixed up with an attack upon the person playing that character. This is often due to an inability to separate one's in-game character from one's own identity. This is a very common problem, mostly because the creation of a separate persona within oneself is such an abstract task that, until late puberty, people simply can't do it. The brain can't process abstract concepts until late in its development.

Sure, anyone can pretend to be someone or something else, simply by changing their own definition of their self. This is not roleplaying. No independent character has been created, it's simply the same person in different clothes. All statements, actions, and thoughts directed to/from this character are also directed to/from the person playing the character, because they are one and the same.

The ability to disassociate one's self from an imaginary character is not easy to learn, nor can it be learned by all people. Indeed, it may actually be a small minority of the population that can do it, but the minority gets massive exposure because every single good actor on stage, screen, or radio must have this ability to be a good actor. Thus, to get back to the start of the debate, the reason we can't all get along is because we're operating under two fundamentally different systems of thought and identity.

And that's my 2¢.

While it is not entirely impossible for me to actually role-play, it does require a lot of concentration and preparation on my part, which is why I do not usually do it (I'm just that lazy, and I'm already engaged in another RPG, not to mention life v2.6).

In my opinion, RP should be clearly separated from general chat, so that those interested can engage in it at leisure and without undue disturbances. While moving to a different channel might not be the ideal protection from people intent on destroying the gameplay experience and enjoyment for others, I believe it would be sufficient.

Moi? Rude? No wai...

I left because the roleplay died off. And frankly, without roleplay, this game isn't too interesting to me. Beyond that, people pretty much became hostile to it or preferred to stay ignorant and mock.

As for me being rude, I guess you could call it that. I've learned that subtlety and niceness get abused far too often for my liking.

And <3 I get mentioned above Lecter, genka and all the others.

Thanks for proving that you are indeed worth listening to Dr. Lecter. I agree completely, I just hope that the vets of the game will hear your point.

IRS: yeah, and that may in the end be a cause of the problem. This does not, however excuse the vets of the game that are actually able to roleplay but choose to piss territory off instead

Tosh: Very good idea. In the olden days of SSC, we used <<blah blah>> to show that we were NOT in character. Maybe something like it could be implemented? Or create the roleplay chat on channel 101?

/me hands Blacknet a box of chocolates. You never know what you get:)

solution to all of this would be to have a general non-rp channel and a rp ONLY channel. So lets make a post in the rp forum as to what channel everyone can agree on to use.

Done. Good idea, maybe the chocolate helped:)

Moldy, you were mentioned because neither Trakus nor Dr. Lecter have been in game to mouth off ;)

Huh, there's already a RP channel listed in the "New to Vendetta? Look in this thread for Help!" sticky. I guess that stickies really are the best way to hide information :Þ