Trolls, Griefers, and Drama Llamas, oh me, oh my!

Hey everyone!

First I would like to give you some rules to follow in this thread. Please respect me by following these rules, If not hopefully a guide will remove your post.

Rules:

1. This is not a debate! Do not reply to other users! ( No argue, no pop shots etc. )
2. No references to specific events which will incite conflict or hurt community members.
3. No names ( tribe, player, guide etc. ) No accusations!

Why Make this thread:

One difficulty for many gaming communities is to give a solid and definite definition to griefing for users. In light of recent events it seems any thing which inconveniences another player, or someone doesn't like is now griefing, trolling, or drama.

What is currently in Xsyon TOS in regards to topic:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xsyon TOS

5. Abuse, harass, threaten another player or representative of Notorious Games.

6. Use of any words that are deemed offensive or threatening or that may be sexually explicit . Use of words using symbols, different languages, or different forms of writing, including internet based ones like Leet, that represent the previous mentioned words will be treated in the same way.

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Current Concern:

I feel the TOS doesn't cover trolling and griefing thoroughly and therefore allows players who may not be griefing to be reported and reprimanded (punished). While on the flip side players intentionally trolling and griefing are able to circumvent cautions and consequence through clever tactics.

Current abuse reports seemingly favor the squeaky wheel, rather than investigating prior history behind conduct of conflicting individuals.

How you can help:

- Submit a post in this thread of specific examples of what you feel is griefing.
- Give your opinion in an unbiased manner not referencing to current events.

Example of a good submission:

I feel that pvp is part of the game, and killing someone even repeated times near your camp to protect territory is fine. Yet going across the map every day and killing a person, or following them no matter where they move their tribe is harrasment, griefing.


Example of bad submission:

I don't like it when someone kills me all the time while outside my tribe area.

Processing and Results:

After say a couple weeks I would like guides and Xsyon staff to do the following:

1. Make a forum post with new definitions to trolling and griefing with clear examples/scenarios.
2. Allow players to reply back to the post, but not debate with each other.
3. Use community feedback for revision and then post it to TOS.
4. When new situations arise, as they always do, this same process be used to update and cover issues clearly as the game evolves.


Remember The Following:

1. This is not a debate! Do not reply to other users! ( No argue, no pop shots etc. )
2. No references to specific events which will incite conflict or hurt community members.
3. No names ( tribe, player, guide etc. ) No accusations!

Put aside your current conflicts, tribe loyalties and history with others in this game, lets have everyone give everyone a clean slate and build our community not harm it.
Thank you in advance any guide, or participant which helps with this.

cheers,

Creator

I dont understand the purpose of this thread, other than to try and gripe about people trolling, or an attempt to try and fix the problem before it gets worse. The one thing I have learned in the years of being a troll, is this, the less there is going on in game, or the more problems there are in game the more trolls that will show up in droves in the forums.

So to fix the temper, and troll issues is to fix the game to have more to do in game than just find ways to grind, exploit or grief people who annoy you in the forums.

I'm going to break rule #1 from the get-go but only to communicate 3 things to Creator, the Original Poster. In effect, though, were I to not break the rules, I would be communicating my respect to him and, as such, I would, in essence, be breaking the rules by virtue of not breaking the rules.

Creator - I appreciate what you are trying to do.
i) I'm guessing the Terms of Service is a legal document not created in-house but rather farmed out to lawyers and as such, I'm not sure what transpires here could make it into the TOS, per se. However, a secondary document, created in-house, enforceable by company policy, should not be unfeasible.
ii) I fear some of my examples may be assumed to reference particular events which may have indeed transpired, but it would be difficult to post something completely novel which could not cause a memory to be triggered unbeknownst to me and beyond my intent.
iii) Intent, to me, is at the root of all griefing and trolling. Intent is very difficult to conclusively ascertain beyond a shadow of a doubt. I believe the best a community can do is hope that the management enforces not just the letter of the terms, but the spirit as well.

So, in the spirit of what you're attempting:

1) I feel that using the /unstuck command to bypass a built wall, where possible, to gain access to tribeland without consent is exploiting.

2) I feel that seeking out the one inch of a structure outside the boundary of tribeland for the purpose of destroying said structure is griefing.

3) I feel that opening a gate from just outside tribeland without the express consent of the tribe in question, and particularly for the purpose of harassment, as perceived by the owner, of that gate, and solely to the owner's discretion, is griefing.

4) I feel that paving junkpiles in the vicinity of a tribe is griefing, as vicinity is perceived by professionally administered guides, consistently, and without discretion, until such time as junkpiles may functionally be restored.

5) I feel that pursuing in-game consequences as a result of forum postings, however antagonistic,unappreciated, or intellectually judged, is harassment, and as such, griefing.

6) I feel that posting on the forum with the sole purpose of intimidating, ridiculing, or harassing another customer of different persuasion to stop posting, or to change persuasion without due discourse, as defined by each party for themselves in accordance with their desire for continued discourse, is trolling.

7) I feel that repeatedly, as defined by the subject in duress, and solely to this subject's discretion, seeking and engaging a player for the purposes of a murderdeathkill, is griefing.


Right reserved to edit this post with further thought should relevant thoughts occur at a later time. All opinions herein are my own and have not, at any time, in any way, been influenced by any outside party. Should fun persist more than four hours, give yourself a pat on the back, and then seek immediate medical attention.

I will have to break rule #1 myself unfortunately. So I don't know how this thread will fare :(.

@ Hodo: I did my best to be clear and concise with my post. I am sad to hear that you would jump to the assumption that this is a gripe thread. Maybe you can pm me with exactly what it is you don't understand about thread, its goals or etc. I would really like to hear your feed back and want to see you participate.

@ Book: Thank you RE - i) Very True, and true... ii) Once again true iii) agreed. Thank you however for working with me and understanding my intent here to get people to collaborate. I have no personal complaint about the disagreements, as they don't involve me. But I would love to see our community members work together, than point fingers at each other.

Because I have seen the influence of negativity on this forum I have faith we are equally capable of the same amount of positive influence.

But in all fairness broke my own rule so might as well just lock this thread :(

Oh sweet paradox of censorship, you can be as insulting as you bloody like as long as you are not using offensive words. I get a tiny bit frustrated (and pretty amused) when people react strongly to offensive words and let blatant insult go completly unnoticed. Certain people should take a course in seperating meaning and retoric.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by banden

Oh sweet paradox of censorship, you can be as insulting as you bloody like as long as you are not using offensive words. I get a tiny bit frustrated (and pretty amused) when people react strongly to offensive words and let blatant insult go completly unnoticed. Certain people should take a course in seperating meaning and retoric.

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This is exactly true.