Jump to content

Possible Rise in Harassment/Grief of RPers?


Kage

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 121
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The blacklist button exists for a reason, and to be honest it doesn't bother me in the slightest to actually go ahead and play along with them. I tend not to do my serious RP in the middle of Ul'dah anyway. It's too cliquey.

 

The problem with the blacklist button is it doesn't make the troublemakers invisible.  Sure, you can shut them up, but they can still do things to piss you off.  This is why I don't do many IC shows as a bard.

Link to comment

This has come up amongst my FC, because of a bit of trolling that happened a few days ago.  My answer to trolling has always been one of two responses:

 

1) Joke and laugh it off.  Kill the troll with kindness.  

 

Most trolls, if they're not just goofing off and trying to get some laughs, are trying to get a rise out of you and piss you off.  This is why ignoring doesn't always work because somewhere in their minds, they're either imagining you stewing angrily in your computer chair or are holding out to see how long it takes for you to break.  It's also why getting angry, telling them you're going to report them, or slipping in any kind of insult is like tossing blood in shark-infested waters.  They want to get you mad, and you are giving them the attention they're craving.

 

By laughing it off and joking around with them, or engaging in funny 'mock RP' like LastCandle mentioned, you give them the opposite of what they're looking for.  If on top of that, you stay as friendly and kind as possible while dealing with them, some trolls will actually start to feel a little bad about trolling you because you'll seem like a pretty cool person who isn't getting their panties in a twist over a few pelvic thrust emotes.

 

It's just like how Kendha'to wound up with his new lalafell buddy - trolls are people too.  If you respond to their vinegar with sugar, they might laugh and decide you're pretty neat.  Besides - laughing at your problem is probably much healthier than stewing angrily over it, yeah?

 

2) If you can't joke/laugh it off - ignore them.  

 

Just like everyone says, ignore'em, blacklist'em, do what you need to do to get them out of your mind.  Just don't rise to their bait or try to be the internet tough guy.  You'll get them to just redouble their efforts.

 

I'd like to vouch for Tiergan's method. I've seen Tiergan use this method before on trolls and it actually worked. It does take some perseverance but it ended up being really effective. If you ignore the trolls and find yourself irritated at how long they are still hanging around, I'd give it a try.

Link to comment

This whole discussion started when I was out of game for a little while, so I've been staying out of it. That said, I honestly don't see any real rise in harassment or "RPer griefing" in the game. Sure, I've noticed the crowds outside of the Quicksand, but they really just seem to keep to themselves, enjoying the fact that they can now do the Manderville or whatever. Actual harassment? It's pretty damn low.

 

I've been playing FF 14 for almost a year now, I've been RPing (on Balmung) around Ul'dah for most of that time. I remember seeing random people in the Quicksand dancing in their underwear on tables then, just as I see them now. There doesn't really seem to be more of them. At least not per capita.

 

And that's the interesting bit. When I first started RPing in Ul'dah, there didn't seem to be a ton of RPers there. Unlike most MMOs, where the RP scene starts out very strong and then slowly tapers off over time, the RP scene here (again, on Balmung) seems to be growing. The MRPIQ* and MTBRP** factors have gone waaaaaay up. I think that with that we're seeing more trolls, but I don't think we're seeing proportionately more trolls.

 

Now the last games I played seriously before Final Fantasy were Eve Online (which I still love), and Star Trek Online. Both are incredibly RP-hostile games. CCP does acknowledge roleplay in Eve, but there's a strong history of people meta-ing the system*** to penalize people for RP. Star Trek Online, on the other hand, despite what you'd imagine basically throws RPers to the sharks. And sharks there are. In one popular RP hotspot, one particularly anti-RP fleet kept a near-permanent presence of people in spacesuits carrying fire extinguishers and glitter shooters (both of which exist in the game) in order to completely obscure the screen for any roleplayers who were RPing in public. For months on end. That is what harassment and griefing looks like. The occasional overloud interrupting troll or dancing underwear jockey is a far cry from that.

 

So yeah. In conclusion? I tend to deal with most trolls (such as they are) in a completely in-character manner: They're obviously crazy, or had too much to drink, so C'kayah will laugh at them or ignore them at his convenience. OOCly, there's always the blacklist, though I think I can count the number of non-gold farmers on my list on one hand.

 

*Mean RolePlayers In Quicksand

**Mean Time Between RolePlay. Don't try to calculate these at home, kids. I'm a professional!

***During an early 0.0 war, the spokeswoman for one side was banned(!) from posting on the official forums by repeated complaints by people from the other side that her RP persona constituted harassment.

Link to comment

MY FC was having an event in the FC house and someone advertised it in an LS.

 

Griefers came and trashed the event and due to housing controls we couldn't get them out without tossing out the people we wanted there as well. Ruined the event in my opinion.

 

I see it in Ul'dah too. I can Blist someone all day and not see their spam but when a gigantic Roe is sitting on my character so I can't even see her model...

 

Yeah. It's been happening more and more unfortunately.

Link to comment

Downside of there not being an official rp server.. but besides the point. 

 

I have noticed the sudden influx of strange folk around Ul'dah.. I tend to stay away from that place myself so it's not really effecting me. 

 

Did have a table dancer in Limsa try and grief us .. all the way till my buddy started clapping and was emoting that he was tossing gil and talking about ale and entertainment. The guy didn't seem to want to stick around too long after that.

 

On the note of the event being disrupted... maybe stick to advertising the event in the forums here or make sure that the LS is rp friendly. Past that I don't really want to suggest hiding information an requiring people to prove they are rp'er in order to get event details/locations. But it is a option i things start to spiral down that far.

Link to comment

If they're a majority from the /vg/ threads... it's for ERP. Or so.

 

They see Ul'dah is a hotspot for it and go to it is my guess.

 

That or they still just want to troll those who want to RP.

I myself am from /vg/ and really, we sort of just mind our own business. Sure we've had one or two black sheep be dickheads around Ul'dah, though don't misjudge us for a bunch of trolls. I personally enjoy RP myself, and some others at the bench may not indulge in it themselves, each to their own, but I think we all have a respect for Roleplayers do and we leave them be, as far as I know. Some have even expressed interest in it after some time

Link to comment

Is this the kind of thing you guys are talking about? I've been tabbed out today in Ul'dah while I did various things and a bunch of people from She Looked Legal were purposely dancing naked on tables, cussing at people, and being pretty much rude to everyone. I mean, I may have missed something? But all of this looked pretty assholish to me.

 

Rushis Godly, suffice to say, is definitely someone on my blacklist now and he didn't even talk to me x.x... I don't really appreciate people popping into the middle of anyone's RP and asking for blowjobs and the like.

 

RSQMZ5N.jpg

a6wqLoI.jpg

sA9x9ar.jpg

Link to comment

This whole discussion started when I was out of game for a little while, so I've been staying out of it. That said, I honestly don't see any real rise in harassment or "RPer griefing" in the game. Sure, I've noticed the crowds outside of the Quicksand, but they really just seem to keep to themselves, enjoying the fact that they can now do the Manderville or whatever. Actual harassment? It's pretty damn low.

 

I've been playing FF 14 for almost a year now, I've been RPing (on Balmung) around Ul'dah for most of that time. I remember seeing random people in the Quicksand dancing in their underwear on tables then, just as I see them now. There doesn't really seem to be more of them. At least not per capita.

 

And that's the interesting bit. When I first started RPing in Ul'dah, there didn't seem to be a ton of RPers there. Unlike most MMOs, where the RP scene starts out very strong and then slowly tapers off over time, the RP scene here (again, on Balmung) seems to be growing. The MRPIQ* and MTBRP** factors have gone waaaaaay up. I think that with that we're seeing more trolls, but I don't think we're seeing proportionately more trolls.

 

Now the last games I played seriously before Final Fantasy were Eve Online (which I still love), and Star Trek Online. Both are incredibly RP-hostile games. CCP does acknowledge roleplay in Eve, but there's a strong history of people meta-ing the system*** to penalize people for RP. Star Trek Online, on the other hand, despite what you'd imagine basically throws RPers to the sharks. And sharks there are. In one popular RP hotspot, one particularly anti-RP fleet kept a near-permanent presence of people in spacesuits carrying fire extinguishers and glitter shooters (both of which exist in the game) in order to completely obscure the screen for any roleplayers who were RPing in public. For months on end. That is what harassment and griefing looks like. The occasional overloud interrupting troll or dancing underwear jockey is a far cry from that.

 

So yeah. In conclusion? I tend to deal with most trolls (such as they are) in a completely in-character manner: They're obviously crazy, or had too much to drink, so C'kayah will laugh at them or ignore them at his convenience. OOCly, there's always the blacklist, though I think I can count the number of non-gold farmers on my list on one hand.

 

*Mean RolePlayers In Quicksand

**Mean Time Between RolePlay. Don't try to calculate these at home, kids. I'm a professional!

***During an early 0.0 war, the spokeswoman for one side was banned(!) from posting on the official forums by repeated complaints by people from the other side that her RP persona constituted harassment.

 

I agree. I see *waaaaaay* more RP activity than I used to. As Kayah said, the general community is actually pretty chill with RP. They'll bug you and such occasionally, but I think most of them actually think it's kind of cool.

Link to comment

Gilgamesh had some pretty rough moments for harassment, but I view whatever is happening in a number of ways.

 

Bottom line, someone is trying to have fun. Sometimes their fun is trying to ruin your fun but there are plenty of ways in game to combat this. Turning off power animations, temporary blisting ( I say temporary because they could be a very cool person, but they may be getting carried away with emote spam at the moment ), and when someone is standing on my face I generally just focus my attention on the chat and less at the Miqo'te shaped tumour jutting out of my side.

 

Generally when you don't react they get bored and move away.

 

Tolerance is my best friend with this issue. When Arc moved into their house we were right beside a raiding guild. They were naturally curious about their neighbors and lo, they came by and did some crazy things. Many people at the time asked me if they were trolling, turns out they weren't, and now some of them are good friends of mine.

 

If they think one of their members is bothering us I get a tell of apology even before anyone has time to complain. ( Not that we would anyways ) 

Several of them are even curious about RP, one that wanted to stop by from time to time for it said something along the lines of "I want to try it, but roleplay has more mechanics than T5." This was back before the second coil came out, so T5 was arguably the most difficult thing in game.

 

Cool people be everywhere.

Link to comment

*puts on Magic Admin Hat*

 

So, I'd really prefer people not do the "name and shame" thing. In general, posts that name and shame are likely to be edited or removed. I've been pretty lenient about it here (as I really have no tolerance for griefers and trolls), but I'm going to have to crack down if that continues here. I don't want to be mean. :cry: Please keep the discussion to the topic at hand and don't use this thread to call out specific instances of bad behavior.

Link to comment

Not everyone is going to tolerate people who are just trolling their important RP sessions with their friends. Trying to play with them is going to make things a lot worse. Just don't even PM. Blacklist, and ignore it completely and they will go bother someone else.

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...

I have a question

 

Is TGCid still Saint?

 

Some griefers/ "RPers" have been using the "this is just IC interaction" while they stand over people I know. Run around them. Wear snowman heads as they follow them around and sit over their character model when they're stopped.

 

Would an FC such as Saint allow this? Is their policy still the same to just let RPers be?

Link to comment

I have a question

 

Is TGCid still Saint?

 

Some griefers/ "RPers" have been using the "this is just IC interaction" while they stand over people I know. Run around them. Wear snowman heads as they follow them around and sit over their character model when they're stopped.

 

Would an FC such as Saint allow this? Is their policy still the same to just let RPers be?

 

Just do a player search then view the FC to check if it's the same FC. Either way, no one here can really provide you with an accurate answer. Just contact the leader of the FC and let them know what happened. They'll either do something about it, or they won't.

 

At any rate, having recently been trolled by a member of a large and respected RP FC on here and hence even a fellow role-player (who I actually knew and thought I was on friendly terms with--but I suppose he didn't recognize my alt). Just because an FC has good policies doesn't mean every member follows them.

Link to comment

I always find situations such as that to be rather fascinating. I've long since been a bit of an 'outsider' within the role-playing communities that I've been a part of simply because I'm very careful about who exactly I approach and associate with.

 

Interestingly enough I've found that many of the role-players who are praised to the heavens as being friendly and welcoming happen to be far from that when dealing with anybody other than their close friends or those willing to fawn over them. What's even more interesting is that many of those with a terrible reputation have in fact turned out to be incredibly misunderstood and friendly, eager to go out of their way to help people they don't even know.

Link to comment

I always find situations such as that to be rather fascinating. I've long since been a bit of an 'outsider' within the role-playing communities that I've been a part of simply because I'm very careful about who exactly I approach and associate with.

 

Interestingly enough I've found that many of the role-players who are praised to the heavens as being friendly and welcoming happen to be far from that when dealing with anybody other than their close friends or those willing to fawn over them. What's even more interesting is that many of those with a terrible reputation have in fact turned out to be incredibly misunderstood and friendly, eager to go out of their way to help people they don't even know.

 

As it stands, I think people in the RP community are more often praised for their writing prowess and role-play skill rather than their OOC friendliness. And those who are more talented are more likely to have an elitist attitude or be a bit more exclusive, and those who are newer or more uncertain of their skill tend to be more friendly and inclusive. (Not saying that goes for everyone, or even the majority, by any means--just a general personal observation.) Or maybe it's just the high school drama mentality that the popular people are "bitchy" yet everyone praises them to be in their good graces and be considered part of the cool kids' club. :P

Link to comment

Yeah, that's a very valid possibility as well. Then there's other factors such as differences in culture, speech and so on. I've had a lot of people - usually Americans - claim that my manner of speech can be seen as very blunt. In reality it's nothing personal, I'm just very...British!

Link to comment

The British--and a lot of Europeans in general--can come off as rather blunt to us. I think it comes with the territory. xD

 

Across Europe also there is a wide range of culture. There is also many that are having to translate and often the words translate but the intent does not.

Link to comment

*puts on Magic Admin Hat*

 

So, I'd really prefer people not do the "name and shame" thing. In general, posts that name and shame are likely to be edited or removed. I've been pretty lenient about it here (as I really have no tolerance for griefers and trolls), but I'm going to have to crack down if that continues here. I don't want to be mean. :cry: Please keep the discussion to the topic at hand and don't use this thread to call out specific instances of bad behavior.

 

I think it's important to at least  give a hint to -certain- people who to avoid. We had to report three people multiple times because their behavior is affecting not just  me, but a lot of RPC members.  It's hard to RP and they would keep spamming private messages. If we blacklist them they'd stand on top of us or follow us to the end of the map trying to find us when we do our session.

 

These three individuals claim that they know about the lores, but they grief in ICly and when you are trying to talk to them, they walk  away ignoring your talks. Then they come back snapping at you. They walk around in groups too.

 

I think it's unfair for people in here to not at least mention names in here when they dont even want to come to this site since they call it "cancer and shame" to "true roleplaying" in Final Fantasy XIV. Otherwise more people will be hurt by this.

Link to comment

*puts on Magic Admin Hat*

 

So, I'd really prefer people not do the "name and shame" thing. In general, posts that name and shame are likely to be edited or removed. I've been pretty lenient about it here (as I really have no tolerance for griefers and trolls), but I'm going to have to crack down if that continues here. I don't want to be mean. :cry: Please keep the discussion to the topic at hand and don't use this thread to call out specific instances of bad behavior.

 

I think it's important to at least  give a hint to -certain- people who to avoid. We had to report three people multiple times because their behavior is affecting not just  me, but a lot of RPC members.  It's hard to RP and they would keep spamming private messages. If we blacklist them they'd stand on top of us or follow us to the end of the map trying to find us when we do our session.

 

These three individuals claim that they know about the lores, but they grief in ICly and when you are trying to talk to them, they walk  away ignoring your talks. Then they come back snapping at you. They walk around in groups too.

 

I think it's unfair for people in here to not at least mention names in here when they dont even want to come to this site since they call it "cancer and shame" to "true roleplaying" in Final Fantasy XIV. Otherwise more people will be hurt by this.

 

This is why we communicate on linkshells. Specific names are known to be trolls, and you beat them by not feeding them. They stand on you? Ignore them. You won't get any screenshots, but by acknowledging them you're giving them a return on their investment.

 

If anyone wants names, they can PM to person posting about the incident. No need for it to be public.

Link to comment

I always find situations such as that to be rather fascinating. I've long since been a bit of an 'outsider' within the role-playing communities that I've been a part of simply because I'm very careful about who exactly I approach and associate with.

 

Interestingly enough I've found that many of the role-players who are praised to the heavens as being friendly and welcoming happen to be far from that when dealing with anybody other than their close friends or those willing to fawn over them. What's even more interesting is that many of those with a terrible reputation have in fact turned out to be incredibly misunderstood and friendly, eager to go out of their way to help people they don't even know.

 

As it stands, I think people in the RP community are more often praised for their writing prowess and role-play skill rather than their OOC friendliness. And those who are more talented are more likely to have an elitist attitude or be a bit more exclusive, and those who are newer or more uncertain of their skill tend to be more friendly and inclusive. (Not saying that goes for everyone, or even the majority, by any means--just a general personal observation.) Or maybe it's just the high school drama mentality that the popular people are "bitchy" yet everyone praises them to be in their good graces and be considered part of the cool kids' club. :P

 

I can only agree with that, I'd like to add a bit of my personal view aswell. 

 

I've often heard 'elitism' mentioned as something atrocious, something to stay clear from. Fact is however, what most people consider elitism, isn't even elitism. Most people confuse discrimination with elitism, which tends to bring about alot of issues.

 

For example; I learned to Roleplay in very, very Elitist communities. The difference to what most would describe here however is that these 'Elitist' Roleplayers didn't right out run around being exclusive. Quite on the contrary. Aslong you where honest to yourself, showed the will to improve upon your skill, most of these so called Elitist went to great lengths helping you, including you into plots and so on, and that for a simple reason. New people provide new perspectives and a fresh feeling to roleplay. Always been that way. And the better the quality of each player becomes, the better the overall immersion and world you've created. In the end, if you showed the will to improve (and this has nothing to do with 'sucking up to people', but genuine interest for roleplay itself and playing in a fashion that can be beneficial to many people as opposed to just nurture your own satisfaction), you certainly would've never had 'bad' run ins with elitist. Quite on the contrary, they would help you along the way in any way they could possibly muster.

 

If it wasn't for these so called Elitist players, I would've never learned to speak english as well as I do now, (You would call them grammar nazis, for me they where essential to get a good grasp on the english language) and wouldn't have the grasp on Roleplaying as I do now, I would've never become as interested in literature, movies and many other things as I have. 

 

Moreso, since Roleplaying 'does' require a thick skin when you have to settle an argument and dispute, there was a high emphasis on being able to talk things through to the bitter end. If you showed signs of being easily offended, unwilling to talk things through to a logical conclusion, began to shut down during arguments because "bueheh I'm so annoyed with this don't tell me how to play", In general, any form of not hearing out others, now that could've netted you an exclusion. Not because we where insensitive, but considering that we played very combat oriented plots, war driven storylines and so on, you often ended up in IC conflict, and the resulting arguments 'had' to be settled otherwise the unspoken of animosity would've created even more discord amongst players. I think one my fondest memories from the 'good ol' days' (I know that that is a bias considering you usually see things through rose-tinted glasses when thinking about those 'good old days) was that you could've even hated a person guts OOCly, yet still managed to roleplay with them just fine, if simply because you knew that what you felt as a person was not what your character would feel to another character.

 

Basically, If you could not sit down with a person and discuss your character, his actions, their actions or likewise, and where one of those 'Shut up, I know what I'm doing, it is my character and my RP" type of people, you could bank on a 100 Percent you'd get that shun eventually. There's a clear difference between having a firm opinion and being stubborn because you can't take personal criticism in any shape or form.

 

Which brings me to another point;  I've noticed that there's 'aloooooooooooot' of Gossiping going around players. People being shunned for their characters IC actions out of OOC reactions. "You char insulted my char! I don't want to play with you anymore!" Is one such example. Also, it seems everyone knows what IC/OOC, no bleed through etc mean, and yet there's still a big amount of roleplayers who, while they know how to write and play their role, do not know how to seperate themselves from their fictive character. A certain degree of attachment is okay, since your character is a piece of work you've created, but some people take it really too far. Dare to upset another player through playing a character that isn't as sociable and friendly as the rest, And suddenly you find yourself in a gossip circle where your name gets mentioned in a very negative light. And that being your OOC name. I've never yet heard someone say 'his character is an asshole', when it comes to IC handlings. I only hear people go 'The player is an asshole, his character did A;B;C'. This I say firsthand, happen to various people, Which would lead back to that 'missunderstood' point Faye raised.

 

 

In the end, there's alot of facets to the old 'Elitist vs. Casual' dynamic, there's alot of shapes or forms it can take, and I am certain that I just came off rather brash and abrasive. But I do like to drive the point home that;

 

A; Elitism is 'not' a bad thing, Discrimination however is

B; Your character is 'NEVER' a reflection of your OOC personality. NEVER. A character being an asshole to you in no way means that the player behind the character does not like you.

C; I like to make long posts where I end up wondering if I trialed off to much or stayed on course. Think I missed it this time.

Link to comment

A; Elitism is 'not' a bad thing, Discrimination however is

B; Your character is 'NEVER' a reflection of your OOC personality. NEVER. A character being an asshole to you in no way means that the player behind the character does not like you.

C; I like to make long posts where I end up wondering if I trialed off to much or stayed on course. Think I missed it this time.

 

A huge difference between elitist and obnoxious people are that  when elitists get ignored, elitists shrug off and walk away. -Not- constantly grief them until the others get annoyed to death.

 

It's not discrimination, some elitist who think they are better than others when they aren't just literally making you look bad because they think  it's funny. It leads to trolling and flaming.

Link to comment

If anyone wants names, they can PM to person posting about the incident. No need for it to be public.

 

Ayup, this. Bringing it out in public just starts drama, for even if the person hates the RPC (and who doesn't -- it's very fashionable, I hear), they may have friends who'll come out to defend them. Even more than that, it just looks petty and tacky, especially to RPers new to the community. Private messages are the way to go.

 

The specific site policy is that "name and shame" threads will be moderated, either through redaction of names (most common) or thread locking or removal (less common; depends on the post, when we see it, etc.).

Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...