Posts with tag chat-trolls

Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.

One way or another, this week's letter writer is going to give her biggest fan the slip.

Dear Drama Mamas,

I'm a GM of a casual RP/social guild. As such I do my best to be diplomatic, friendly, and keep things friendly and inviting for my guildies. We've kept it going for years with ups and downs and I'm incredibly proud of how little drama we've had all things considered. I'd hate to be the source of any drama so am considering this a preemptive strike.

There is one particular guildie who isn't breaking any rules, is a wonderfully creative RPer, and annoys the everliving crap out of me. It's not his fault, it's a personality thing. He rubs me the wrong way. We're very different people with different senses of humor and priorities etc and so on. And that'd be fine, I'm an adult perfectly capable of getting along and keeping the peace with people I don't necessarily jive with. Except that he is DEAD SET on becoming my BEST FRIEND FOREVER. To the point where my dislike has steadily grown into a total reluctance to log on.

Having kids in the house keeps it real -- even (especially?) when it comes to PvP. With my 12-year-old daughter and I both plowing through moderate Arathi Basin obsessions, I have to admit that she's got a better handle on the social aspect than I do. How so? I've had to put myself in time out and cool off my knee-jerk reaction to whiny losers.

The background: Leveling my most recent lowbie through her 20s and 30s in AB was absolutely, utterly glorious. My teammates were relaxed, and my opponents didn't spend more time emoting /kek or /spit or making strange gestures at me than they did focusing fire on me (yeah, the healer ... ouch). The 40s flashed by, too, albeit with a little more arguing among my teammates over strategy. But once the 50s hit, the losers (in multiple senses of the word) came out in full force. As soon as a single player declared we might be too far behind to pull off a win, half the team would crumple into an orgy of chat despair. Players would stand dead in the graveyards in order to continue textually bemoaning their fate.

When your team gives up, what should happen next? Is it time to launch a rallying cry? Decry a lack of sportsmanship? Call out culprits? Ignore the whole thing and let the downward spiral continue?

Trade chat on almost all servers is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. But you can advertise items for sale and look for groupmates there as well. Sometimes you can even get answers to your questions -- if you are very lucky and willing to sift through the lies and mockery. General chat in the MoP beta can be just as bad, as it can in any MMO, beta or otherwise. (See SWTOR.) And even if chat isn't full of obscene references and spam, there's the whining. The whining!

Another problem with trade and general chat is the feeding of trolls. Perfectly decent people will get into a rage war because Trollmaster and Trolliscious demeaned a class, profession, race, favorite sports team, etc. Trolls love that. Any attention is good. And then everyone else has to put up with the arguing and insults flying back and forth. I know. It's hard to ignore when the trade chat villains start calling anyone who likes the female pandaren "chubby chasers," but going verbally postal in public chat isn't going to help anyone. I fought the urge and so can you. (Though my Twitter followers heard all about it.)

Guild masters and officers often keep trade chat on to make sure that no guildies are misbehaving in public. This can be a painful experience and usually not worth the time. Personally, I turn public chat off in live and keep it on in beta. Beta general chat often answers questions I have -- in between all the misogyny and malicious pranks.

Do you turn off the public chat channels? If so, do you turn them back on again to conduct legitimate business, or do you just stay away? Do you find chat problems in other MMOs? Or are you one of the ones causing the problem? /glare

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