A common complaint that many have about MMOs is that there are just too many, well, asshats in the game and that the experience is tainted by their presence. In today's column, MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy looks at growing game communities and the effect that larger numbers have on our beloved MMOs. Check it out!

We all know that a great game is truly made to shine by its community, and that said community doesn’t need to be large to be vibrant. But what’s becoming increasingly apparent in this industry is that these games continue to cost more and more money to make and maintain and therefore need to attract a larger player-base than games such as Asheron’s Call do. If we want new? If we want the genre to continue to evolve, we must put up with these new folks coming in and making things a little more… difficult to endure. The beauty of most games is that wonderful and saving /ignore feature studios put in for us. Use it. Love it. It’s your friend.

Read more of Bill Murphy's The Double-Edged Sword of More Players.

Survival TIPs:

/ignore

/leave LFG

/leave General Chat

/leave Chat

/join Mature Guild

... and god protect us all brothers :/

Well said Bill. The biggest problem we face is that until the non-asshat part of the community stops feeding these trolls and instead muzzles them so they give up and go away, they'll keep coming to around to entertain themselves by picking fights with people who should know better.

What about the other side of the fence?  The elitist players who can't stand anyone saying one negative thing about their game?  I experienced that this week on the EQ progression server and it was literally a horrible community experience.  You say one question like, where are the quests? (I mean it IS called Ever QUEST right?) and you get about 10 responses 9 of which are calling you names, saying go back to WoW, if you don't like it leave, etc.  Only 1 response was polite and helpful, saying "oh, this is the way the game was back then, come join our party and we'll show you how the game is meant to be played."

That 1 great response was drowned out by the screaming elitist "old timers" that permeated the chat channels.  I promptly logged off and went back to Vanguard.

So, while there are numerous "jerks" coming from the new crowd of folks, there are just as many who have been there since the beginning.  I think they are worse personally, but that's just me.

The solution to "too many asshats" is for games to allow cross-server moves without a fee to do so. Allow people of a certain type to find each other and allow them to come together. Just because when they first joined, they ended up on an "asshat" server.

There are more than a few games that I played that I might still be playing if I had been allowed to move servers a time or two.

Sad as it is, one of Runescape's big appeals is that you're not forced to play on a single server/shard, and as such a player's potential friends and clan mates are in the millions, not a couple of thousand. That makes a huge difference in building communities.

We need a Survivor voting tool.  We should be able to vote to kick them off of the island to the all asshat server.

Originally posted by elocke

So, while there are numerous "jerks" coming from the new crowd of folks, there are just as many who have been there since the beginning.  I think they are worse personally, but that's just me.

Excuse me? Just as many who have been there since the beginning?

Think real hard about that.      There are simply not as many 'old timers' in the genre as there are new players, and within those two groups, how can you reasonably assume that they have the same amount of jerks? 

I know both groups (new players and old players) both potentially have jerks within, but the amount of jerks in the new player group is staggering if for no other reason than there's vastly more people in the 'new players' group.    

I agree with you about the response you got when asking a question. That's unfortunate, considering they assumed the worst about you right off the bat.  Sounds like a community of mmovets that are on the defensive about the 'new player' crowd coming in and ruining their old school experience.  Not too hard to fathom.   I mean, they went back to get away from the new crowd, so it's to be expected that they won't welcome the "hey this game sux let's make it faster and funner" point of view coming in and screwing it all up again. 

And for the record, it's called EverQuest not Ever"Quests" so maybe that's what confused you?     

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Originally posted by elocke
What about the other side of the fence?  The elitist players who can't stand anyone saying one negative thing about their game?  I experienced that this week on the EQ progression server and it was literally a horrible community experience.  You say one question like, where are the quests? (I mean it IS called Ever QUEST right?) and you get about 10 responses 9 of which are calling you names, saying go back to WoW, if you don't like it leave, etc.  Only 1 response was polite and helpful, saying "oh, this is the way the game was back then, come join our party and we'll show you how the game is meant to be played."
That 1 great response was drowned out by the screaming elitist "old timers" that permeated the chat channels.  I promptly logged off and went back to Vanguard.
So, while there are numerous "jerks" coming from the new crowd of folks, there are just as many who have been there since the beginning.  I think they are worse personally, but that's just me.

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Well spoken elocke.

I use /ignore and leave chat channels much more now than I would prefer to, for many reasons.

Chat ingame is still important I believe. This became very obvious to me when I tried out EQ 2 X recently... if you are a "bronze" Player you have very few chat options... no zone chat or OOC. As much of a loner as I am now in MMO gaming even I felt lonely.

That is the danger of shutting down too many chat features... my MMO stops being a MMO.

Anyone notice that when an MMORPG.com writer makes a thread about this, they get positive feedback and constructive replies, but when one of us posts about the exact same thing, we get labelled as "haters" or "old timers" or "red goggles" and such? 

Almost feels like we're not allowed to post anything but happy happy joy joy rainbows and sparkles without being flamed to hell by the gamers that act like it's illegal to be dissatisfied.

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Originally posted by mm0wiggins
Anyone notice that when an MMORPG.com writer makes a thread about this, they get positive feedback and constructive replies, but when one of us posts about the exact same thing, we get labelled as "haters" or "old timers" or "red goggles" and such? 
 
Almost feels like we're not allowed to post anything but happy happy joy joy rainbows and sparkles without being flamed to hell by the gamers that act like it's illegal to be dissatisfied.

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My guess is they went to dinner. We can only hope.

Originally posted by mm0wiggins

Originally posted by elocke

So, while there are numerous "jerks" coming from the new crowd of folks, there are just as many who have been there since the beginning.  I think they are worse personally, but that's just me.

Excuse me? Just as many who have been there since the beginning?

Think real hard about that.      There are simply not as many 'old timers' in the genre as there are new players, and within those two groups, how can you reasonably assume that they have the same amount of jerks? 

I know both groups (new players and old players) both potentially have jerks within, but the amount of jerks in the new player group is staggering if for no other reason than there's vastly more people in the 'new players' group.    

I agree with you about the response you got when asking a question. That's unfortunate, considering they assumed the worst about you right off the bat.  Sounds like a community of mmovets that are on the defensive about the 'new player' crowd coming in and ruining their old school experience.  Not too hard to fathom.   I mean, they went back to get away from the new crowd, so it's to be expected that they won't welcome the "hey this game sux let's make it faster and funner" point of view coming in and screwing it all up again. 

And for the record, it's called EverQuest not Ever"Quests" so maybe that's what confused you?     

Do you always take things so literally?  sheesh, its a forum post, there is ALWAYS hyperbole and exaggeration.  The truth still remains though.  Jerks are everywhere.  

Originally posted by elocke

 

Do you always take things so literally?  sheesh, its a forum post, there is ALWAYS hyperbole and exaggeration.  The truth still remains though.  Jerks are everywhere.  

True enough.  Jerks are indeed everywhere, and I'm pretty certain now, that such a statement was generally the point you were trying to get across. 

As for my literal take on your first reply, I apologize.      I personally get irritated with people who take my posts too literal without seeing the obvious exaggerations.    I feel bad about being one of those jerks  ;-)

BUT that being said, I still shiver at the notion that the 'old school mmo' group has anywhere near the amount of jerks that are in the 'new mmo player' group...   I'm sure my issue stems from personal experiences mostly, considering I am one of those people that believes the genre has been turned to utter $h1+ now that it's so mainstream and marketted towards new players of any style, rather than the tried and true geeky mmo player that loves the elements of MMORPGs before they were turned into something else, not deserving of the same title.

I think I hurt someone's feeling last night while playing the free LOTRO. I was there just outside of Bree fishing on the bridge and someone invited me to join their club, guild, whatever. And as I was trying to respond when I accidently hit the enter button and it accepted the invite.

So I felt out of respect I should kinda explain that I wasn't really interested because I can't really commit because I don't play often enough.

They turned around and said "Lookin' at too much porn?"

I just shook my head and responded "Yeah, sumtin' like that"

That's in part why games need to be better, because it's not just Woodstock. Although, having Woodstocks in the game would be cool:)

As a friend of mine pointed out, when games were more group oriented, we didn't have as much problem with idiots. The word soon got around about the a$$hats and they weren't invited to groups.

As we've all noticed, the idiots are more prevalent now since WoW pulled in more of them. and they've branched out to more games. I'm guessing they are mostly younger teenagers, and God knows kids today are rarely taught to be civil or taught consequences. And then many players have discovered what they can get away with because they are autonomous. I don't see this problem on Facebook where you have to give your real name.

Beyond those situations, I also see that more people are "in your face" today. Rudeness is becoming common in discussions, and in any public place there is more. I have my own idea on that; I believe it's largely due to increasing population. As people lose more of their peronal space, other people become more irritating. Large cities are much more prone to rudeness, overall.

I might also add, rudeness seems to be catching. People pick it up from others and they think it's cool. Dumb is as dumb does.

All this selective wholesome memory when it comes to community and small tight knit groups is odd. It wasn't all sparklies and rainbows for everyone as many would have you believe. There were draconian rules that kept the less experienced, less experienced and the ass kissers plugged. It was all about getting into top guilds and making the right connections, just like it is now. Only thing different is, the top dogs of yester-year are the bottom feeders now. And they don't like it one bit.

Hence the reason why they think it was better in the old days (When my guild and I were more productive). I swear it's like those old white guys that long for the good old days when jim crow was in full force and women knew their place (Not that they recall those things or associate them to the good old days themselves). Selective wholesome memory...

Well that's a strange reply. Let's see, how long ago was it I played DAoC, hmmm..... guess that makes me some kind of old fuddy duddy. LOL

FYI, I had no pull with anyone. I was in a great guild I helped found. And our group was steady. Sounds like you ate some sour grapes.

The main reason I don't play WoW is because of the people and because of the implication. Play WoW and let some employers find out and simply put you wont be hired or you will be cast as a second rate employee.

In fact today an employer will judge you based on your presence on the Internet including places like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc...and even online games. In fact in all of these places you have no protection because although within the US you have Freedom of Speech and Assembly, your account is not "owned" by yourself and any administrator can go against your wishes and allow the information to be used against you in the open.

its true communities have people, but work has its people too as well as the real world. You put people in a world of anonimity and you find in general some of the most messed up individuals who use anonimity as an excuse to be jerks. This happens practically everywhere online...Specially these forums...where degree-less fools claiming the world of experience love to give advice as "professionals" justified by their "level of trust" and "post count" rather than their actual credentials.

We professionals avoid the internet like the plague and only use MMORPGs to analize how the fitting masses waste their time. People ask me about Homosexuals and I say "why should I care? It means more of the opposite gender exist for me...why should I be against it?" The same is true about people and MMORPGs...Why should I care? More people wasting their time and energy means higher chances of me finding a job and less threats coming from people considering they are throwing their best years away and ruining their futures in the process...

I have seen exactly one a$$hat in about 4 years of mmorpg play time. I have played a variety of games and spent time both in and out of guilds. The vast majority of the a$$hattery I've witnessed has been on the various game forums, not in the games.

Bear with me here as I try to describe what I think is going on. In the "good old days" there were fewer people playing mmorpg, and the content was much more gated in favor of groups and guilds. A group of players could literally blacklist another player from access to content. This is no longer the case. What the people missing the 'good old days' are lamenting isn't a lack of socialization in their games or the total number of a$$hats. It's the loss of power that's come with the increased populations in the games. They can't punish people for doing things they don't like anymore. I don't think this is the whole things that's going on, but I think it's part of it.

Originally posted by lizardbones

I have seen exactly one a$$hat in about 4 years of mmorpg play time. I have played a variety of games and spent time both in and out of guilds. The vast majority of the a$$hattery I've witnessed has been on the various game forums, not in the games.

Bear with me here as I try to describe what I think is going on. In the "good old days" there were fewer people playing mmorpg, and the content was much more gated in favor of groups and guilds. A group of players could literally blacklist another player from access to content. This is no longer the case. What the people missing the 'good old days' are lamenting isn't a lack of socialization in their games or the total number of a$$hats. It's the loss of power that's come with the increased populations in the games. They can't punish people for doing things they don't like anymore. I don't think this is the whole things that's going on, but I think it's part of it.

Really? I been playing since 96 and I can't say the same. Sure, Meridian 59 had a really great community at the time but in 2001 I started with beta testing Lineage and it was as bad as any game I played since (a really huge percentage of the morons were Korean, probably 75% but I dunno if it was a coincident, a cultural thing or something else).

If you put a large group together you will always get a few rotten apples and you usually only remember the nicest and worst people in a group. It is like buying a large pack of crackers and finding something disgusting in one of them, you will not remember the ones you ate before that and you will throw away the rest of the bag just to be sure.

It doesn't take many jerks to destroy a good gaming experience.

But I also feel that some games mechanics reward jerks. Even in Lineage you recognized the worst griefers pretty soon (and I got my revenge on number one and two, muahahahaha) and no one would be dumb enough to join them for a dungeon or something. Stuff like multi server dungeons makes that a lot harder and the increased focus on gear doesn't help either, ninja looting is gettiong worse and worse today.

"It astonishes really the way in which so many drop World of Warcraft for some new game, get tired of said new game, and then go back to WoW to await the next messiah.  I just don’t get it.  Why even leave Azeroth in the first place, then?  Or if you’re sick of WoW to be looking for something else, why go back to it when the “new shiny” doesn’t deliver?  Why not just play nothing until something else comes along? "

What you have problem to understand? That if somebody love pizza and eat pizza every day 5 per times and for years and years ... is problem with him if he does some detour to other food from time to time?