Boy what an eventful week this has been so far. There seems to be an increase in epic stories happening across the WoW blogosphere. I’ve got an interesting story of my own to share.
There’s this Guild that I have vested interest in. Let’s refer to them as "Raised Villains".
The other day, one of their members was having a lively discussion with another player within the Guild. A miniature exchange broke out and everyone had a big giant hissy fit. Words were said, insults were flung, until eventually one member called the other member a "British cigarette".
He huffed and oh did he puff. He got so angry he wanted to tell mommy that Tommy called him a word that rhymes with "sag".
Unfortunately, mommy Guildleader wasn’t around to discipline Tommy. So Steve McQueen decided to take it upon himself and go past mommy and straight to daddy GM.
Sure enough, daddy GM came flying into the room and banned Tommy for 2 days without video games.
I don’t know about you, but I found that absolutely outrageous. Sure calling someone "jet lag without the jet or the lag" goes against the TOS. But there’s an unwritten code out there somewhere that says you don’t tattle on people like that to GM. However, I do have a twisted sense of ethics. Most guys I know would take their lumps and fight back. Going straight to a GM would be an unfair advantage. Personally I think it’s quite cowardly.
Yeesh. Kids these days. If everyone got banned for saying things against the TOS, there would be no one to play with. Quite frankly, that’s why the ESRB gave this game a variable rating (Game experience may change with online play).
So here’s the lesson: If you’re going to diss someone, diss someone over a medium where it can’t be tracked like on vent.
Oh man.
I can kind of understand why Steve McQueen turned in Tommy. No one likes to be insulted, and we’ve all had that moment when we wish we could get back at someone but can’t.
However, it was a very dumb and shortsighted move in my opinion. The reason is simple. If you want to continue playing with this guild then you have to do what is best for the guild and your reputation within the guild. Getting a guildie a 2 day ban doesn’t help you on either account. He may have won this round of the fight but he is going to pay for it in the long run because people aren’t going to trust him, invite him to instances, or generally want to be around him. Doing what he did isn’t just bad for tommy, its bad for the guild as a whole.
P.S. Bad choice of names for the tattle tale. The realy Steve McQueen wouldn’t tattle
People get way too sensitive over words. Back in the 80’s people used that word all the time. In fact, I’m not even sure when it became taboo to use it.
That’s it! From now on, I will get extremely offended if you call me “white”. I’m Caucasian, and if you even say the word “white”, I will be outraged. When referring to the color, you must now say “snow-colored”, or I will sue.
Seriously… what is this world coming to?
Graylo: It was the first name that popped into mind. I like to write on a whim.
Makes me wonder when people will ever stick up for themselves with their own abilities and words instead of going to a higher power.
Those are the kinds of people that I love to imagine when killing them in GTA 4 😀
there are just some things you don’t do…
/gkick “Steve McQueen”
….he no longer gets to be a casual “Raised Villains”
Aww Mattikun..I know in my guild the guy would have been gone. I bring people in telling them its an adult guild and have a thick skin, usually enough warning to keep out the 8 year olds. If you have a problem go to an officer and we will deal with it.
I dunno, Matticus. This is one of those chicken/egg questions, as in “Who is more childish? The name caller or the nark?” Both are at fault for letting it escalate to a level beyond themselves, and for knowing full well what kind of behavior they were getting into.
Also, I’m not sure guild officers or leaders should be compared to Game Masters. To me, they are on two very different levels of the law. The guild leader is more of a guardian figure, whereas the Game Masters are more like cops. It makes sense to go to a Game Master in a case where someone feels they are truly wronged via behavior that is “against the law.”
That said, I’m not sure I’d want someone so easily offended playing in my guild…
Yeah, but I’m sure we can agree the incident’s pretty stupid. I would’ve gone to the lead first and then up to the GM if it went down hill any further.
I habitually report people who use derogatory terms in trade and general.
But not GC.
Meh, anything that stamps on the incidious homophobia in WoW is fine by me. I left the playground behind a long time ago and have no desire to go back.
Both would be gone as fast as I could type /gkick both having gone out of their way to treat guildies badly.
Tommy should never have gotten insulting in g chat, if you absoultely must argue use a whisper.
Steve, well if no officers are on to handle the situation at the moment and tommy won’t shut up you have several choices
/ignore tommy is one, logging out for a bit is another, going and playing on an alt tommy dosen’t know while waiting for an officer to come online is another.
Worst case you have nothing else you could be doing, and no alts at all. then start one, cross faction if possible. That way you can eventually hunt down a$$hats of either faction. Trust me having a 70 on both sides of the fence is nice.
Agreed, the real Steve McQueen would kick some ass, not tattle.
While there is no excuse for using guild chat as a place to fling insults and argue (that should be done in whispers if there is such a problem), going to the GM is absolutely ridiculous. That guy needs to grow a thicker skin, and learn to trust the officers and guild leads…if you don’t have the patience to wait for one to come online, log off and cool down a bit, come back and check later. I agree that no one is going to want a guy like that in their groups…all the better reason to g-kick him.
The question here is what is the guild for. If this is a serious guild working on progression then it is the guild/class leader responsiblity to screen out the people who are going to be disruptive to the guild. I was in a serious raiding guild that had a very experienced/geared hunter that would spew the worst bile in guild chat and vent, sex, race, religion was not out of bounds. They would mute him in Vent and people would /ignore him but the guild kept him around. I always wondered why? Was it because he was geared and they needed him? My feeling is if you keep that type of element around eventually you will have a problem in your guild. People will not want to be in a group with a person like that, they wont want to listen to or have to tailor their game play around someone who is spewing hate and bile. Worst case scenario is that you start breeding people like that within the guild (cough SI cough), and then you have 5 or 6 people online being offensive just to be offensive. I can understand why Steve McQueen did what he did (the real SM would have kicked his ass) I don’t agree with it though. I don’t know if I would necessarily kick one without kicking the other but I think this situation needs to be nipped in the bud immediatley or it will get out of control.
I once got a three hour suspension for typing the letters “fuâ€Â. I didn’t even capitalize them. Just whispered “fu†to him. It was my only communication to him and I sent it right after he ninja’d something when I had obviously cleared the area to it. I still get pissed thinking about it. He not only got the quest node, but he got me suspended for 3 hours.
Funny, I remember a coward running to the GM’s trying to get me banned one day…what guild was he from again…..*cough* FH *cough*, because he couldn’t take what he dished out….guess a guild can breed that kind of person…..
There are many gay gamers, including myself, who like to take a less extreme approach to dealing with people who like to sling the words “gay”, “fag”, and “homo” around like they don’t mean anything (which, BTW, they do … maybe some of your readers would realize this if they had people scream at them on the street and threaten their physical well-being for being straight).
But this doesn’t mean that Steve McQueen was out of line. All of us have to be remember that we are accountable for everything we say, regardless of whether it is in trade chat, guild chat, or tells.
PERIOD.