Community downslide?

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:59 pm

I have been speaking to a close friend of mine, and it seems that not long joining Universal, has she heard sexist comments, received abuse, and generaly been treated like crap.

There seems to be a serious lack of knights around, I will post details to follow, re: the worlds/players, this isn't a flame post, she's a good friend of mine, and upsetting things have been said to her, she's a newbie, and has had a serious lack of help, but she has had SOME.

Have things changed so much? or are these isolated incidents? it's a shame players are being scared away by other members who enjoy making sexist comments and upsetting people. this isn't the community I remember.

This post is by no means any form of slanging match, I am generaly concerned for my friend, and the welfare of universal.

(This Post may be moved to wherever neccisary )

Post by **Fooli** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:14 pm

Well, to start with: sexist, abusive and similar (racist etc) comments are illegal in the game as per the code of conduct everyone agrees to by downloading and installing the files. There's an "official" way of complaining about anything untoward that happens while in game - mail abuse@theuniversal.net. But yeh, a better way is to use ops, knights etc in-game to do that. If there haven't been many around recently, I can only apologise - after the mad rush of the announcement most of the staff have been really busy with life, Xmas and that. So, sorry :) If you or she'd like to contact me directly I'll try to sort it out for you - fooli@ the same address above.

Secondly: the mad rush is probably what's causing the apparent "lack of help" perceived. I'm generalising of course, but in essence what's happened is we've got a shedload of new players in - quadruple (or more) the number we had a month or so ago (getting on for 8,000 now) and with any increase in players we're always going to see a corresponding increase in feckwits who think it's funny to give people a hard time. I don't think it's funny, and anyone found breaking the code of conduct will be either warned first, then banned, or simply banned, according to the severity of the offence.

There's also a slightly worrying trend of having lots of people in-game at the moment who just can't be bothered to help newbies. Quite a few veterans are guilty of that too. Again, it's kinda a consequence of the sheer volume of new people we've had around lately - with a small team of unpaid staff, and a relatively small number of vet players, we can't support everyone all the time - but I'd stress for all experienced players the importance of encouraging, not just dismissing, anyone asking basic questions and looking for simple guidance and advice. Help em out if you can - this is a community, not just a "ooh I'm so l337" fest :) We're trying hard to improve the help files etc to reduce the need for that, but help people out in the meantime if you can.

Hope that helps - and hope your friend isn't put off by her bad experiences.

Happy Xmas :)
f

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:20 pm

Thanks for the reply Fooli, appreciated, I will have her mail you when she's back online.

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:26 pm

what islands has this happened on? and who was saying the stuff?
would be good to tell the island owners about it.

has any of it happened on zoric at all?
if so it is a direct violation of the zoric rule #1:

any that have violated this will get banned for a day. any future occurences will result in a ban till the island resets. i have 0 tolerance for prejiducism.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 6:33 am

Personally I havn't seen much of the sexist comments, but have seen the chat in battlezone become little more than a swearfest, in addition to the countless number of people who get frustrated, and start scrolling in caps. I think part of the problem is that you have several 12-14 year olds (studies indicate that most people online at any given time are of this age (mentally or physically)) who don't care to read what limited help files there are, so get frustrated and look for other means of entertainment. They might ask for help, but since 8/10 people are new, it isn't available.

One solution I would suggest is to setup a tutorial world somewhere that goes through the basics step by step. And make it so that people can't leave for more complicated worlds until they learn the basics there. This would make more and more sense later since people will know where they can go for help, and more seasoned players can go somewhere to help others. Think of it as greatly improving the chances that both a new and old player will be on the same world at the same time. Biplane world might fit this, but since it isn't on the main server, can occasionally go down durring breaks.

And while battlezone can illustrate how buildings and movement work, since people are usually more concerned in pinning new players in neutral ground, than helping them, don't see how they can learn anything other than how fast a person dies.

P.S. Mit, I havn't had the chance to meet you, but can understand how you put more importance on family than on a game, not pointing the finger at you like some, just suggesting that something be available should we all be in this same situation later.

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:05 am

yea, i've seen a bit of swearing on battlezone.
i can't say i've seen it anywhere else though. maybe a curse here or there, but i haven't seen a sexist comment on planitia, gyruss, or zoric. atleast don't remember it, i would have kicked the person for it.

i had a hands-on tutorial island in the works a while ago. you had to follow a path and do what the signs said to do with the buildings to pass the tutorial and get a stardrive or something, it pretty much taught the economy side of the game. mit diden't seem interested in it though so it for the most part got deleted. could easily be remade though.

VDZ · Post by **VDZ** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:18 am

Vagrant, please stop the age discrimination, especially when you're complaining about discrimination.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 6:37 am

No offense was intended, was merely stating an observation from my own experiences in the virtual world over the last 8 or 9 years. The vast majority of players are in their low teens. The comment about some being mentally 12-14 years old is because anyone who sits in chat swearing, calling people names, and gennerally being a problem to others just isn't mature enough to be considdered as anything more. There are certainly a number of people within this age range that can act like civilized persons, but unfortunately it is the ones who are most visible that get notices. The only person who should feel offended are those that act in a manner that is disruptive to everyone else, and quite honestly, I think they should feel some pressure to change. Once again, I am sorry if my comments were misunderstood.

VDZ · Post by **VDZ** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:19 am

Idiots are of all ages, not just 12-14.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 8:00 am

And again you fail to understand what I am saying. I made the distinction between being physically 12-14 years old, and mentally 12-14 years old. Unfortunately I can't explain this any way other than what I have, so if you don't get it, just ignore the comment entirely.

the thibz · Post by **the thibz** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:39 pm

btw zaroba, the first time i saw the welcome bmp with the rules, i satarted to read but was gone before i could finish (like 1 or 2sec)

but anyway its the same rules in the whole internet

Mattizme · Post by **Mattizme** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:58 pm

VDZ wrote:Idiots are of all ages, not just 12-14.

While I agree that not all 12-14 year-olds are idiots, it's that age group thet are the ones that seem to cause most of the trouble, that was the point Vagrant was making.

Maybe a help channel is in order - maybe csome of the better players could give up some of their time to help others?

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:24 pm

I find battlezone to have the worst language, and having witnessed much of it, I now know who has the worst mouth for it also.

It would be nice to see some knights around, and I, being a long lived a-tractor member (lol

) would be more than happy to lend a hand in keeping the game fun and productive.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 12:31 am

Well, part of the problem with battlezone is that it's the first area that anyone finds, and since theres rarely anyone seasoned enough to answer questions or curb bad behavior, it will continue to be a problem.

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:16 pm

*Raises hand for Knight position*

be more than happy to kick sexist/abusive/voilent sorts where it hurts *salutes*

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:22 pm

zaroba wrote:what islands has this happened on? and who was saying the stuff?
would be good to tell the island owners about it.

has any of it happened on zoric at all?
if so it is a direct violation of the zoric rule #1:

any that have violated this will get banned for a day. any future occurences will result in a ban till the island resets. i have 0 tolerance for prejiducism.

two n's in annoying isn't there?

Mattizme · Post by **Mattizme** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 8:42 pm

If you want to get really pedantic you could say there's no apostrophe after the n in your post and that you should use a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence, but there we go.

Morli · Post by **Morli** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:06 pm

Good point, Mattizme. Zoric Island rules do not capitalise sentences 1, 2, 4, 7. *grin*

Also, typos:

makeing = making
changce = chance
isen't = isn't
obay = obey
'some a few' = some
anoying = annoying
also, 'their are 2 penalties' = 'there are two penalties'

*insane grin* Sorry, not being pedantic, just butting in where me likely not wanted

.

Your rules, you word them as you feel fit, just could be very embarrassing if they were called to law.

zaroba · Post by **zaroba** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:09 pm

erm....its supposed to be that way...its the...umm....zoric pronunciation

not gonna make fun of an accent are you?

besides, i rarly capitolize sentences. nor do i care at all about spelling. why? simple, as long as you know what i mean and am trying to say, screw what it looks like, not like the words are going to a fancy writing conest.

VDZ · Post by **VDZ** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 11:31 am

I never capitolize anything either XD