Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Welcome to "TROLL-LAND"!

#4 - I KNOW WHERE THE "OFF" BUTTON IS ON MY COMPUTER!


As some of you know, I play this "hidden object" game called Gardens of Time...and I play it on www.playdom.com - for the "company" - I have made some really wonderful friends on here in the past few months! (if it wasn't for them, I would have reverted back to the FB version of the game a long time ago!) One of the challenges on this site is to play for "gold" - which you use to "purchase" special items for your garden. You can get this "gold" by winning a gold tournament...

In the past few weeks I have observed a major increase in very "unsocial" behavior during these tournaments. Where I used to chat in the guild I was in, I started just being a "silent clicker" - but I am on the verge of just getting out of there totally! Last night I was playing in a tournament when gold came up for grabs for the second time and although the guild I was in had won the previous hour, (a great battle it was and the win was by the skin of our teeth!) all hell broke loose during the second hour! People were insulting each other, telling others to "SHUT UP!!" in the chat feed and it was just general mayhem! After 20 minutes I just clicked on the "X" button in my browser and went to bed! TG I know where THAT is (The button AND my bed!)

This morning I visited the forum and saw that there has been 86 posts since I logged off - on the bad behavior in the tournament! The general consensus are that the behavior can be attributed to the "trolls"

This was not true troll behavior, it was just plain common rudeness and lack of netiquette!

A true troll is "a disruptive person" that sets out to derail the discussion. Most trolls don't use subtlety but go straight out to insult. 

The trolls that seem to be the most puzzling are those who have no personal agenda or vendetta against anyone. For them, trolling is an end unto itself. The goal is just to frustrate people and to build the troll's reputation as a troublemaker.

It would be more appropriate to class these people in the tournament as "griefers" A "griefer" is someone who finds it amusing to log into online games and ruin the experience of other gamers. There's a host of strategies "griefers" use to do this: Insults, team killing and cheating are common methods. "Griefers" are more concerned with being a nuisance than playing the game.

What I experienced in the tournament was not that at all though - it was just juvenile behavior from people that have no manners at all!! 

I started Internet chatting as an ICQ-er (in 1996 or 97 - can't really remember it was so long ago!) In those days we used to chat in the South African chat channel - Channel Moonbeam - what a wonderful place to learn internet "manners" - taught to all of us by my wonderful friend Diane (Dinx) She was the "owner" and moderator of the channel and did not stand for any nonsense!! Kicked people off the channel and banned them for the type of behavior I witnessed last night! A tough teacher, but I am grateful today that I got taught the correct way of behavior as a "newbie".

Thank Dinx for being such a good teacher and above all thank you for teaching me not to "feed" troll-like behavior!! And TG for reminding me where the "X" button on my internet window is!


Dinx and I at the beginning of 2012 during a "tea-session"

Have a wonderful day and don't feed the TROLLS!! :)

QUOTE OF THE DAY - "Look what I'm dealing with, man,  I'm dealing with fools and trolls" - Charlie Sheen

1 comment:

  1. Trolls have been a constant since time immemorial (1994/5 - in Cybertime) :) We just have to learn to click the X.. so true. Those IRC days were the best weren't they? Seriously good times! Glad you have good memories those times. And thanks for the mention. Always good to see you my friend. Love and hugs and Happy 2012. xxx

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