The spread of negativity and how to combat it

[UnderSeven]

So for those of you who wake up in the morning and ask yourself, man, how can I hate armageddon, here is the answer.

It maybe much easier than anyone thought and a lot of you are probably already doing it.  All it takes is a fair bit of out of character communication with other armageddon players.  You might think, this is innocent and at first sure it is, but the long term affects have been clinically shown to often turn out negative.  Many examples in the past can be brought up, but I will mention only a few.  The blast chat, which has often become the place to go to if you want to complain about how terrible staff are is a breeding ground for ruining your game experience.  Perhaps you didn't have any problems with Armageddon before, but someone there tells you their first hand experience and trust them, this is true and all of a sudden you have a new found hatred seed growing from nothing you personally experienced or encountered.  Perhaps you were on the Armageddon tinychat and soon found out about something behind the scenes staff don't want you to know. Those wily bastards. Man if this game didn't suck before it sure does now.  Though nevermind that it is literally the same game and the only difference is someone told you something that probably isn't true.  Perhaps you've been to am APM with a lot of players who really just end up talking about how much they hate the game.  Yes I've been to one of these too and my mind very politely edited out the parts of negativity. Suffice to say, my memory of that apm is rather short. Or maybe you have aim and someone ims you that this one staffer was totally mean! Of course never mind you're only hearing one side of the story, never actually saw the correspondence yourself and probably never experienced anything of the like.  Nevermind, if you didn't hate the game before you do now.

So what is the problem here?  The problem is the negativity is infectious.  If there are problems, there are constructive ways to talk about these things and staff do tend to make changes for the positive.  The staff are more professional now than ever before and they're also more professional than any other game I've ever seen.  You might say, well on other game I find the staff much nicer, but the fact is you're one person and to get a good idea you need to look more across the board.  Every game has people who hate and love it and feel the need to spread that hatred or love, but if you listen to the hate you're only hurting your own enjoyment and then making it worse for other people.  I think continual improvement of a game is important, but there is a marked difference between trying to get the game to improve and just trying to ruin people's days.  The truly amazing part to me is when people do the latter, the ire is not directed back at them so much as it probably should be.  They're the ones trying to make you feel negative too, not the staff.

So if you want to love armageddon instead of hate it, there are ways of doing that too.  My suggestion is try to limit your ooc communication.  Try to keep a positive and open minded attitude, because despite what people may tell you (see the first three paragraphs) the staff are actually trying to run a game that everyone has fun on.  And last but not least, if you do have a bad experience, take it up with the staff, take a break, but please by no means turn it into the next big thing that makes people think the game is bad.

This game may not be flawless, but it's easily the best on line role play experience you're likely to find anywhere.  This is not just a duty of the staff and nor do I feel it is just their game, but all of our duty and all of our game.  We all help to make it what it is and for it to truly be the game you love, it's time that players too realize that the responsibility lies also in their court.

Thank you.

EDIT: Edited to fix formating.

[Dan]

Group dynamics.

Forming. (We are always partially in this stage due to new members coming to these boards.)

Storming. (Lately we have dipped into this more than usual. It is the process of ironing out the edges coupled with many disagreements over 'how things should be.')

Norming. (The process of people coming to grips with others opinions and how they think things should be, usually a more calm situation where people listen to others before responding.)

Performing. (We'll likely never reach this pinicle of group dynamics, where those of the group work together so well it seems as though no situation is too great to overcome.)

Adjourning. (Where everyone in the group says goodbye and goes their own way.)

Now the obstacle here is bringing everyone closer to the Norming phase of group dynamics, wherin we listen and respond rather than attack. Afterall, this is just a game and getting so heated to personally attack someone else is uncalled for. We are all adults, like it or not, so maybe we should start acting like it.

[Synthesis]

If you are the type of person who is going to go epic crybaby over dumb shit, there's no amount of insulating yourself from other players that is going to forestall that meltdown.  This game is frustrating as hell.  It is also awesome as hell, if you have the intestinal fortitude for it.

[nessalin]

If you are the type of person who is going to go epic crybaby over dumb shit, there's no amount of insulating yourself from other players that is going to forestall that meltdown.  This game is frustrating as hell.  It is also awesome as hell, if you have the intestinal fortitude for it.

And it is entirely up to the staff/moderators to decide when someone is being a overly sensitive to posts by reviewing the posts they report - not up to the players to engage in name calling and telling people to toughen up.

[Synthesis]

If you are the type of person who is going to go epic crybaby over dumb shit, there's no amount of insulating yourself from other players that is going to forestall that meltdown.  This game is frustrating as hell.  It is also awesome as hell, if you have the intestinal fortitude for it.

And it is entirely up to the staff/moderators to decide when someone is being a overly sensitive to posts by reviewing the posts they report - not up to the players to engage in name calling and telling people to toughen up.

I'm just saying that posts like this are generally pointless, because the people who are going to go ballistic and scream, "F U ARMAGEDDON" are going to do it regardless of whether they're in blastchat or tinymuckchat or twittergeddon or whatever the kids are into these days.

[nessalin]

If you are the type of person who is going to go epic crybaby over dumb shit, there's no amount of insulating yourself from other players that is going to forestall that meltdown.  This game is frustrating as hell.  It is also awesome as hell, if you have the intestinal fortitude for it.

And it is entirely up to the staff/moderators to decide when someone is being a overly sensitive to posts by reviewing the posts they report - not up to the players to engage in name calling and telling people to toughen up.

I'm just saying that posts like this are generally pointless, because the people who are going to go ballistic and scream, "F U ARMAGEDDON" are going to do it regardless of whether they're in blastchat or tinymuckchat or twittergeddon or whatever the kids are into these days.

Which they are completely welcome and entitled to do in those places, which are not supported and maintained by the staff.

This space, however, is.

[UnderSeven]

If you are the type of person who is going to go epic crybaby over dumb shit, there's no amount of insulating yourself from other players that is going to forestall that meltdown.  This game is frustrating as hell.  It is also awesome as hell, if you have the intestinal fortitude for it.

That maybe true, but I've seen a lot of good players who also get into a place of disliking armageddon by these conversations of negativity.  I believe negativity breeds and spreads and I'm pretty sure I could find research to back that up.  Regardless of what posts may of been made recently or a long time ago, I think people need to realize that your enjoyment of this game is in your own hands and you can certainly hurt yourself by putting yourself into those situations. 

[jcarter]

How about people just take a step back and act like the adults they are?

Knock off the pedantic posturing in threads just so you can have street cred on the Armageddon text-based roleplaying game general discussion board. Complain somewhere useful. Decide if the game is really worth the ups and downs it offers, and choose to play or don't play. Before you click post, ask yourself, "Am I contributing anything meaningful? Is there a real point to my post? Do I feel that this might assist someone or make a difference?" Instead, we have 200+ page threads where grown men and women spout memes about their favorite GDB personality.

Quit getting upset over things that happen which revolve around Armageddon MUD, the text-based roleplaying game. Say that to yourself and describe your character every time you feel that. "Man, fuck the staff, why shouldn't my bastard-blooded, lone wolf elf warrior that travels the deep sands of the desert planet Zalanthas get the respect he deserve from the staff of this game?"

If you actually put into perspective how completely absurd it is to get upset and complain over trivial matters, it puts things into a way different viewpoint. I have no idea why people want to spend their leisure time picking fights on a text-based roleplaying game forum. I have no idea why people want to spend their leisure time complaining, dealing with, or playing a game that they say they dislike.

To each their own, I guess.

[Lizzie]

Agreed 100% with UnderSeven. For pretty much every reason UnderSeven mentions. I had more to contribute to this discussion, but didn't feel like being told I'm "going epic crybaby over dumb shit."

[Bogre]

Don't poison the well.

[Jenred]

Its curious how people speak of the aberration that is OOC Communication with other players... on a Community Forum. I'd say the forum breeds just as much negativity as anything else associated with the game.

[UnderSeven]

Its curious how people speak of the aberration that is OOC Communication with other players... on a Community Forum. I'd say the forum breeds just as much negativity as anything else associated with the game.

I agree that it can, but the forum has a higher chance of getting a voice of reason I think.  In the unmoderated forums you can be flamed and therefore might not try to say well maybe there is more to it, because the person voicing the complaint can just insult you.  If it is over IM you probably don't want to say to a friend something contrary to what they're talking about.  While I won't say negativity can't be found here, I would argue that the moderated environment with a wide range of possible speakers with varying views can at least offer variety so that a complaint someone may have is viewed from different angles. 

[Delstro]

I used to love Armageddon when I was involved in the social scene as well. When my OOC personality of being very anti-human came through, people started to avoid me IC as well as OOC. Not exactly fair, or pleasant.

Since I have stopped talking to everyone socially, I have finally started to enjoy the game again.

I'd reccomend that if you are involved in an OOC way (Such as IRC, AIM, or any other messenger) with other players, and you also dislike the game, break off contact with those players. It works for me.

[RogueGunslinger]

I used to love Armageddon when I was involved in the social scene as well. When my OOC personality of being very anti-human came through, people started to avoid me IC as well as OOC. Not exactly fair, or pleasant.

Since I have stopped talking to everyone socially, I have finally started to enjoy the game again.

I'd reccomend that if you are involved in an OOC way (Such as IRC, AIM, or any other messenger) with other players, and you also dislike the game, break off contact with those players. It works for me.

Great post, and one of the reasons I hardly ever make any contact with any of you. Except for in these four thousand some odd posts.

[Riev]

I've, lately, actually tried only having contact with people that don't complain about staffers every second of every day. And most of the time, when they do, I just don't respond. Give a dog a biscuit, etc etc.

I find my enjoyment of the game has increased arithmetically. Exponentially if I could just cut off all contact, but its so hard.

[Akaramu]

The last time I talked to someone who complained about staff was some 4-5 years ago.

[Synthesis]

Agreed 100% with UnderSeven. For pretty much every reason UnderSeven mentions. I had more to contribute to this discussion, but didn't feel like being told I'm "going epic crybaby over dumb shit."

Yeah, because I was totally referring to you. 

I'm talking about people who post topics like the recent one:  "fuck the staff, you guys suck, this game sucks, and you can all go to hell. I'mma go play WoW."

How about saving up the angst for when someone is actually attacking you, instead of taking every comment on the boards as if it's attacking you directly?  This is exactly what I was talking about in the other thread:  it's impossible to guess when someone is going to over-react to something, because you never know when people are going to take shit personally when in fact it has nothing to do with them, or when they're going to roll a natural 1 on their Wisdom check when you post a sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek remark.

[Booshay]

or when they're going to roll a natural 1 on their Wisdom check when you post a sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek remark.

Are you calling me stupid? Consider yourself reported, mister.

[Synthesis]

or when they're going to roll a natural 1 on their Wisdom check when you post a sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek remark.

Are you calling me stupid? Consider yourself reported, mister.

p.s. If you're playing with natural 1/natural 20 rules, you can get an epic FAIL on a check even if the governing attribute is at its racial maximum, so it's independent of anyone's intelligence, or lack thereof.

[Spoon]

Idea: Vague and hostile remarks are, as the evidence shows, easily misunderstood.

Answer: STOP TRYING TO SOUND COOL WHEN YOU TYPE!

[Synthesis]

Idea: Vague and hostile remarks are, as the evidence shows, easily misunderstood.

Answer: STOP TRYING TO SOUND COOL WHEN YOU TYPE!

Again:  who's being hostile?  The only way to tell if someone is going to take a disagreement as "hostile" is to wait until they freak out about it, unless you're doing something as blatant as "FYAD," which is almost never the case.

[Dresan]

Ah, good old forum community. Always entertaining.  

I think its gotten 'better' per se, sadly i don't see as much flames and poo slinging as in the past. Still plenty of subtle snarky comments from all who post (both players and staff) at least, thats always funny to read.


Playful trolling aside, let me just say:

I agree that OOC communication ruins the overall game experience. So much in fact that I always thought even having 'helpers' though messengers and other forms of out of game communication was a bad idea. An ingame newbie channel (with on/off toggle) that could be monitored for quaility by the staff would have been a much better solution.

Then again i never understood why the staff allowed people to flame, create drama or simply act like holier then thou elite douches with their forum over inflated alter-ego forum handles and then allow these people to use the same handles to declare their current characters in clan forums.  


Oh well C'est la vie, the mud-sex is still always top-notch.  

[Jdr]

I found myself guilty of this - there's some roles in this game where if you play them long enough you just snap and have to vent at people. But then they vent too, and it festers between both of you, and everyone suffers. Then Nessalin yelled at me and I've not done it since (it was a good wet fish of sobriety). I've been more positive since and it's worked out for me.

[tortall]

Its curious how people speak of the aberration that is OOC Communication with other players... on a Community Forum. I'd say the forum breeds just as much negativity as anything else associated with the game.

See bolded above.


I would like to add that before coming back to Arm after a 4 year break that I was given -lots- of negative info on a certain staffer. I ended up working with said staffer for several months, and over all had a really good experience with this staffer during that time. I've heard other players complaining about other staffers, who I've never had an issue with.

And that is all I will say on that topic.

[RogueGunslinger]

Some people have good days, some have bad.