Lurker Trolls

[Roled]

 

RR blows a whistle.
Fight called on account of love...

[Illysia]

@Roled: Nice try, but this is still the PS forum.

@Irishman: If you are trully tired then don't read their posts. Creating something to put more attention on the troll makes matters worse. The advice was to warn you, don't stick troll bait around your neck if you are sick of them. And I pity you if you have yet to figure out that this forum does nothing for the community, nothing positive anyway, and your post is not exempt... Why do you think so many gave up and why others turned to trolling? Trolling and asking why X bug is happening is mostly what's keeping this forum alive.


@Derula: The problem is not that people have mental issues but that the game was close to their heart... so close that issue with the game stabbed them at the heart very easily... I'm as guilty of it as anyone.

I would bet that all the vehement trollers and malcontents out there not only loved this game at one time but deep down they still do and that's what drives them to act the way they do. Like for instance, for awhile after I left, I was so bitter about the state of PS that it almost made me sick to even think about it... but if you spend 3 years devoting more time to trying to make a game doomed to futilty work than you devote even to your own self promotion, you end up there...

The problem is, people wanted this game to succeed. They wanted it to succeed because it had the potential to be epic, and everybody that put in too much time was trying to at least do what they could to prop it up and help it live up to its potential. Unfortunately, it meant nothing as the person at the top of the food chain, as it were, thinks he's owed this kind of help, doesn't really appreciate it, and worse yet doesn't understand that the game is going down the toilet much faster than coming out of it. People attached to this game because it was epicness they could have a part in and have fun contributing to but then it disappointed... badly.

That is what the trolling is... It's some people's coping mechanism for a let down that is equal to the percieved epicness quotient that PS could have had. The more a person struggled to make that epic reality a true reality, the harder they splatted when reality set in. This is why I have been more or less harping on the need to change deal... The game is beyond not living up to its potential and the worse it falters the worse the trolling, various malcontents, PR, and development progress will be. This is why the people that are the safest are the people that could care less if the game succeeds, regardless of the point at which they gained this attitude.

No amount of mounts and reflections will change this.



keep this in mind: People still play old DOS games with simple to no graphics and only so much detail. Why do people play old and out dated games? Because they are still fun, good games. Success does not depend on graphics or how fast you can turn out updates. The foundation of PS need to be shored up or anything else is "polishing a turd" to steal Rigwyn's expression.

[Tessra]

Ok... I'm confused about one thing.  Maybe it's because I didn't come from a gaming background, and this is my first MMORPG, but something is very weird to me.

This is a free game.  The developers take suggestions and hints and actually try to implement them.  People's concerns are taken seriously.  And yet... some people have nothing better to do than come onto the forum and whine and complain about how it isn't perfect. 

I have a lot of experience modding and admining on forums, and honestly...behavior like that isn't always tolerated.  One would suppose that the trolls might learn to be grateful for being allowed trolldom here... but then again... that doesn't seem fitting with the excellent quality of snarking displayed by some of them and is probably too much to ask. 

That being said, I don't spend enough time on the forum to consider anyone in particular to be an actual troll, so this isn't addressed to anyone in particular. 

[Geoni]

There is a difference between lurkers and trolls. Some here are both, and many here are just one or the other.

[Illysia]

This is a free game.  The developers take suggestions and hints and actually try to implement them.  People's concerns are taken seriously.  And yet... some people have nothing better to do than come onto the forum and whine and complain about how it isn't perfect. 

It's not quite that open ended. I don't think anyone that complains, aside from the 5 minute player, comes to complain at how generally "imperfect" it is. There is generally some pet issue. For many it's the roleplay enforcement thing but anywhere you have RP this issue is sure to follow. Secondly, all MMOs are like this and PS actually gets off fairly easily as the stuff the average MMO player does amounts to "U SUX!!! Wai dun I have teh epic stuffz!"

Not only that, your average MMO player isn't contributing squat, nor do they make any bones about it. They want everything shiny and working when they first open the game. Now some are more reasonable but still not as generous as the PS community has been over the years. This is why you can still find reviews of PS from over ther years with people saying PS sucks for X reason, or it'll be cool once it's actually a game but conversely there will be praise for the community.

If you want to get some perspective on how people typically act in MMO, pack your armor try out some others... Once you get over the shock of the game working when you first open it, without having to learn all sorts of technical facts and tricks, you'll notice that PS's community at its worse is still not that bad, trolls and all.

I’ll try to leave the part about the suggestions and hints, and people’s concerns alone for the most part. Talk about a flame war waiting to happen... But the bulk of that stuff happened in the past. It’s not that good now. However, that kind of mentality and positive policy is what at least got PS to this point. It’s just that changes in policy makers’ MO have reared their heads.

[Overtherainbow]

tl;dr.

But the fact that Illysia is in here posting long messages mean I don't really think you succeeded, Irishman.

[bloodedIrishman]

I know Overtherainbow. But I'm trying to make a community thing. It has to start there.

[Illysia]

@Irishman: If you really want to make a community thing, why not make a more serious post that is an appeal to the community rather than more or less begging Trollers to act up? Especially since this forum's troller population took a numbers hit like everything else... Most of them are just gone now. Speak to the people that would shun said trollers. Saying anything to trollers only gives them a reason to wait for something to troll.

@OTR: This is a long post. The above posts are just typing practice.

[bloodedIrishman]

It is a serious post. I wrote humor in it because that is my style - but it doesn't take away the matter of it being real. I've spoken my mind to those who would hear. Whether or not they do something to begin a community stigma on the behavior of the defined troll is up to them as well. Ignoring, admonishing; including not promoting, these are all methods.

[Tessra]

@Irishman: If you really want to make a community thing, why not make a more serious post that is an appeal to the community rather than more or less begging Trollers to act up? Especially since this forum's troller population took a numbers hit like everything else... Most of them are just gone now. Speak to the people that would shun said trollers. Saying anything to trollers only gives them a reason to wait for something to troll.

Obviously the trollers are not gone, as there is still a need for threads like this in the first place.  And like Irishman says, just because a post was written humorously does not mean that the message it conveys is not serious in and of itself.  

[Illysia]

True, but given your penchant for silliness, the seriousness of the post can be missed due it being too close to your other more satirical but not serious work. People could easily just assume you are merely saying it for saying it sake but don't actually intend for it to be taken seriously at all. Presentation is key.

@ Tessra: "Most of them are gone" I would love to see a laundry list of trollers that are still around. Some shook people up more but there were aren't that many big trollers that people can really undo people... And Xoel and Vaka are not so outrageous that they can't be tolerated. In my opinion, Xoel hasn't changed, he just changed sides. An try writing a serious law funny and see how well that goes over. It's not the funny, it's the need to distingush it from his previous funny works.

[bloodedIrishman]

There was never a long list of malicious trolls. It has always been a key consistent few.

I am not writing a law - I am stating the obvious. It wasn't "presented" well. Yet if they read on that becomes a nevertheless.

[Drey]

There was never a long list of malicious trolls. It has always been a key consistent few.

I am not writing a law - I am stating the obvious. It wasn't "presented" well. Yet if they read on that becomes a nevertheless.

Names please, then we can lol at the incompleteness of the list.

[bloodedIrishman]

The basic list is obvious. But if you want it write it up yourself man.

[Tessra]

Asking for names is simply asking for a flame war.  It's not nice, polite or right to call people out in public and proclaim them as trolls or any other negative term.  Just my opinion, but it's flaming and rude to do so. 

This is a generalized commentary based upon a problem noticed by one forum notable.  However he chose to present it, many people obviously agree that it is a problem, however not everyone agrees on the severity of the problem, or the method in which is should be handled.  I don't see why it matters how it was presented, as long as people correctly read into the serious nature of the issue being discussed.