-The following is my opinion, and does not represent the the thoughts of the PlaneShift Devs, GMS, or players that were not directly involved in the events..Greetings fellow members of PlaneShift (no, we don't call ourselves PlaneShifters). I would also like to extend a greeting to Somethingawful's 'Goonsquad', who have been visiting us for the past two weeks.
For those of you who are not familiar with Somethingawful (SA), they are a web site dedicated to making fun of everything on the web that they can. In this case, PlaneShift has been selected for the MMO Roulette. Here is an explanation of the 'game':
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2677443And the result:
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/mmo-roulette/index.phpBasically, they take a game and make fun of what makes it what it is, and the community that supports it. Think of it like a Celebrity Roast, if you would, or more like getting 'punked'. This has made for some very amusing articles. I particularly liked the 'Moooooo'ing in Endless Forest. Classic. I was expecting an equally amusing set of pranks and article for PlaneShift, but it seems as if the goon squad has run into some problems.
First off, they picked a very bad time to troll PlaneShift. We just released a new update, as most of you know, and some of the new code is causing some unforeseen and hefty problems with installing and running the game. Sorry, SA, but such is the case when you let people play a game you are still making. Khad, buddy, your articles are funny as hell most of the time, but you should have done a bit more research on the stability of the game so that more of your people could actually get it up and running.
A second problem has cropped up for the SA trolls. I think Khad himself puts it best.
Khad- Oh christ after taking 20 minutes to make a drat character and his entire past, you go to the tutorial area where you have to communicate with NPCs ala Everquest 1 and actually try to figure out what they want to you type to them.
What Khad and Co. have discovered is what I have started calling the troll firewall. It tends to quickly weed out those people with ill intentions who have little patience, short attention spans, or -well- less than average intelligence who tend to think 'quality' trolling is hopping into a game for five minutes and tossing about some lowbrow humor until they get banned. I believe that is what the crack about Khad's short attention span was about. I am glad at least some of the folks have endured the 'tutorial hell' and a few quality trolls have made it in. Really, you just have to read what the NPCs are telling you, or use the walkthrough.
Ok, to those brave souls who have made it into the game, bravo! You are one dedicated bunch of trolls. You have passed the Trials of the Updater, leaped the Pit of Bugs, survived the depths of the Cruel Creation, and defeated the Tutorial Chamber of Terror. Welcome to... the middle of nowhere. Not a soul is in sight. Where are you? What are you doing? A read of the Settings would give you the basic idea, but not much more. Well, since you are a troll, I guess that does not matter much. On to the trolling... if you can find someone to troll, that is. Most people are off in the more interesting spots, and your personal middle of nowhere is not one of them.
The trolling I have seen so far has been... lackluster at best. Maybe the folks are just worn out from their encounter with the Quest of Actually Getting into the Game. I have personally met two trolls, and got the best of both of them. One was actually proud of his "Give me QUEST" routine, but I had a better "I r a n00b" to counter.
Shredded says: Hi.
Kunevie says: Heya.
Shredded says: give me quest
Shredded then tried to trade with me. Wrong move, SA troll. Let me show you how it is done.
Kunevie says: Sory. i hit wrong button. can you tr4de me agin?
Shredded says: how to TRADE
Kunevie says: i jus start. how you go sideways?
Shredded says: how to START GAME
Kunevie says: how start guild? u know?
Shredded says: How to UNSTICK
>Shredded Wheats thanks Kunevie Luenew!
-He then ran off. But you can not escape so easy...
You tell Shredded: i find pm! we can talk far now.
You tell Shredded: u know how 2 start guild like Wow? my mom wont buy wow 4 my no more.
You tell Shredded: were u go? we cn buddy up an kill mobs?
You tell Shredded: u can here me?
Shredded tells you: give me a quest
Asiliy shouts: Who loves beer? I do I do!
You tell Shredded: ok i give you 1 when i find 1
You tell Shredded: how u talk 2 npcs in this game? abut stuff dont work.
Shredded tells you: 011010100011110100101
You tell Shredded: i dont no biari
You tell Shredded: i know a littel java.
Well, he stopped responding to me, so I handed him off to a GM, informing him that the guy was a troll from SA. It did not take long for him to get a namechange and talk himself into a ban. I'd like to quote Khad again at this point.
Khad- Thank you so much for doing some of the best trolling I have ever seen in the MMO Roulette.
The best? Come now. That was average at best. You need to raise the bar on your sense of humor. Both myself and the GM knew the guy was a troll, and were just toying with him. He was way too obvious. Next there was 'The King' (name removed), who I was not sure was a troll at first, but suspected it. Having found the first encounter amusing, I moved in on this new guy, once again playing the complete noob. In doing so, I not only gained his trust, but our entire group led him around by the nose for a few hours, keeping his trolling within our 'unsuspecting' group. We did kill him once in a funny "The king is dead. Long live the King!" act. I killed my own character as well to follow him into the Deathrealm to keep up the newbie act. Once he got back out of the Death Realm (about half an hour later, with me hinting the way) the group was going to kill him once more, but I finally let him in on the joke after he tried to warn me that the group was going to kill him again. I am not without mercy.
You tell 'The King': Ready for this?
Kunevie bows to 'The King'.
'The King' tells you: Yeah.
'The King' says: We do not want something awful to happen here.
You tell 'The King': You have been played.
'The King' tells you: No $@!$. It was fun though.
You tell 'The King': We knew you were SA from the moment you spoke to me yesterday.
You tell 'The King': I have been playing PlaneShift for four years now.
'The King' tells you: Really? Good for you. As I said though, it's been fun. I didn't suspect you, though, because you're so small.
Fun indeed. We had a fun time with 'The King', and welcome him to return to the game whenever he wishes. Khad did not seem all that happy about one of his own getting played, though.
Khad- Anyhow, any community will get together to kill someone who annoys them so its not that surprising.
Annoy us? So far the trolls have been pretty amusing, actually. Like watching rats run in a maze, then removing their cheese just as they get to the finish. There is a down side to this (or an up side to some folks). Some of the trolls have given up and made new characters after being sent to the Death Realm. Others never made it in the game at all. Most of those that do make it are quickly snatched up by GMs. Most players have not even noticed the trolling being done, and some of us were actually looking for it. To bad we don't have 'mooo'ing.
All said, PlaneShift is a pretty hard nut to crack. You have to have patience to play, I'll be the first to admit that. My advice to players who find themselves being trolled is simple. Don't get upset or argue. That is what they want. Have an amused moment at the attempt, send a report to your friendly neighborhood GM, and move on. Unless you want to toy with them a bit first. Personally, I have enjoyed pitting myself against the trolls of SA, and making them play our game, not theirs. And always remember...
Don't feed the trolls. Feed them to me.
ps: Looking forward to the article, Khad. Should be amusing. We know our flaws, and have the ability to laugh at them. For a game built on a $0 budget in our free (and not so free) time, we are doing a hellova job so far, bugs, borks, difficulties, missing features, and all. There is no other project like PlaneShift out there.
