World of Warcraft: Mists of Online Harassment

#1 - July 17, 2012, 4:53 a.m.

A recent topic on the General Discussion board prompted me to create this thread. The thread was titled "go kill yourself" and detailed the unnecessary harassment of a player. I have never been one to take idle threats and online harassment seriously, however I've noticed lately it's become out of hand.

Online Harassment in World of Warcraft:

Take this scenario. You've finally leveling up to 85, a little later then everyone else, but you managed to get to the top. You and a friend get together and do some quests to get gear, and now you can finally play Heroics like everyone in your guild. Steadily, you pick up tricks that help you preform your role, whether it be tanking, healing, or DPSing. You zone into Shadowfang Keep and fight your way to the first boss. When the fight is finally won, your peer posts a recount, showing you in the number four spot doing 8k damage.

"lol wow scrub you suck"
"Sorry, I'm getting used to DPSing"
"go [removed] and die"

Why? This serves no purpose other then lowering the new players self esteem and, in the long run, might just leave the game. Let's take the same scenario how it should be dealt with.

"Hey rogue why is your dps so low?"
"Sorry, I'm getting used to this Assassination"
"Try using Envenom instead of Evisicrate next fight"

Not only does this handle the situation much better, the new player has learned a bit more about his Class and will play better.

What You Can do to Help:

Whether you know it or not, we are Blizzards front lines against this harassment. They do not have a quiz for the player base to determine these bad gamers from the rest of us. Please, if you see this behavior occurring in your chat, take action. Do not be that guy sitting in Stormwind or Orgrimmar watching someone being trolled and harassed by other players and do not be that guy in a dungeon watching chat and not paying attention to the new player being made fun of, TAKE A STAND! Lead by example and single out these players. If we stand against the these bad gamers they'll learn to control themselves or will end up dropping out of the game. Always report players for harassment and threats.

Thank you for reading this thread, and remember why you play World of Warcraft! Have fun!

Crithto

Community Manager

#229 - July 18, 2012, 10:56 p.m.

Ashtón, thank you for posting your thoughts about how to increase positivity in a community driven environment. There are indeed countless ways to be far more constructive when responding to other players and your highlighted example is fantastic (though I had to remove the inappropriate language).

When you boil it down, we’re all the same. Who sits in front of the keyboard doesn’t matter; you have the same passion as the next player: You love to play World of Warcraft! Scrub away the frivolous things and you now have a foundation for a mindset that will assuredly promote and foster a fun, interactive, and positive gaming experience. We were all beginners at one point. We all had to learn how to play through discovery, trial and error, and most importantly, through the advice shared by others we played with.

Speaking to a friend of mine the other day, I was paid one of the kindest compliments I’ve received in a long while. She said to me, “You give such great advice, I love talking to you.” I can’t honestly say that any of my advice is all that great, but her words meant a lot to me. And apparently, my words to her mean a lot, too. It’s a trade and through simple acts of sharing advice and thoughts based upon our own experiences, we’re able to make someone feel valuable, cared for, and important. The question now becomes, why wouldn’t you want to make someone’s day by being helpful or encouraging?

It is certainly important that we provide everyone with the necessary tools to handle in-game concerns such as inappropriate language and harassment, that’s a given. But it has been and will always be up to us as players to walk-the-talk of building and maintaining a positive community. Not to be too corny, but it’s like the film, Pay It Forward. Get enough people doing little things to be helpful and positive, and voila! Let the domino effect commence.

Crithto

Community Manager

#266 - July 19, 2012, 1:59 a.m.

Sometimes it’s good to discuss the merits of what can encourage or diminish a community and I’m glad you guys have remained civil about it. In terms of responsibility, internet anonymity is merely a crutch for those who choose to behave poorly towards others. Ultimately, we all have the choice to make our own decisions of whether to be friendly or mean -- react in a positive or negative manner.

Growing up, my father used to have a saying, “What did you do to make them think you did it?” I’ll admit, I was (and still am, frankly) the class clown. Though I never really crossed any major lines, I would still get in trouble. One time, though, a classmate of mine shot a spit-wad at the teacher while she had her back turned at the blackboard. She spun around and yelled at the class, “Who did that!?” Being the kind of boy who giggled at childish things, I did my best to hold it in subsequently blushing to a bright, rosy hue. I was busted! I didn’t do anything and yet was handed a parent-teacher conference notice that had to be signed and later attended by my mother. Oh boy, when my dad got home and started yelling at me, I pleaded explaining it wasn’t me but the other guy. He turned to me after a moment of silence and uttered his famous saying. “What did you do to make them think you did it?”

Each of us is responsible for what we do, what we say, and how we react. Yes, there may be some who don’t have the capacity to control certain things, but generally speaking, we each have a choice. Look, we’re all human -- at least I hope we are; there’s this one guy in the office… never mind -- and making mistakes is a part of being human. Don’t be too harsh with those who make a mistake, and don’t let the mean people get you down! You then get to rise up and gaze into a mirror knowing you’re better than all that.