Poll: GoonSwarm

[Eipok Kruden]

So, seeing as how BoB collapsed and a GoonSwarm corp came out and said that they did it (take that with a grain of salt, they are goons after all), I thought I'd bring them up. What do you guys think of GoonSwarm? For those that don't know, they're Something Awful's EVE Online clan, but they're the largest, most organized, and most enthusiastic of all of Something Awful's clans. EVE Online is the perfect griefing game, which as you know, is something Goons LOVE to do. Think of GoonSwarm as a massive 6000+ griefer corp/guild/clan filled with Goons. Here's a video by some Goons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfv1QtZDirY and here's it done live after hours at Fanfest:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYAXKjz0Llo and this is one of the directors of GoonFleet explaining GoonSwarm to the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1sdTzj9iac&feature=PlayList&p=9173ACB738DC15B2&playnext=1&index=1

 

[Fraught]

Who is GoonSwarm? Some clan from EVE Online?
How are they supposed to be funny then?

 

[Eipok Kruden]

Who is GoonSwarm? Some clan from EVE Online?
How are they supposed to be funny then?

This is how they're funny [http://www.somethingawful.com/] They're a Something Awful clan. Everyone in GoonSwarm is a member of something awful.

 

[Fraught]

Who is GoonSwarm? Some clan from EVE Online?
How are they supposed to be funny then?

This is how they're funny [http://www.somethingawful.com/] They're a Something Awful clan. Everyone in GoonSwarm is a member of something awful.

Oh, I see. Fair enough.

 

[Eipok Kruden]

Who is GoonSwarm? Some clan from EVE Online?
How are they supposed to be funny then?

This is how they're funny [http://www.somethingawful.com/] They're a Something Awful clan. Everyone in GoonSwarm is a member of something awful.

Oh, I see. Fair enough.

Oh, and watch their presentation at fanfest, I linked the video. That's another reason they're funny. Watch the "little bees" videos too.

 

[Singing Gremlin]

They're dicks, but at the same time they're bloody hilarious sometimes. Grudging admiration as long as I can avoid them.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

I think this is too EVE centric really for this forum, very few if any will know what you're on about.

 

[Jandau]

While I did find some of the articles on Something Awfulto be funny I was always very much opposed to any severe trolling, and SA is a cesspool of it. Doing hurtful things to total strangers for no other reason than "lulz" is not fine (this is about trolling and online harrassment in general), and trying anything like that in real life would land you in prison, or at least with a fist in your face.

So no, I don't find Goons amusing.

 

[derpaderpfistinpooper]

from what I've heard they generate the most epic battles, and make the game less boring to play.

 

[Eipok Kruden]

They're dicks, but at the same time they're bloody hilarious sometimes. Grudging admiration as long as I can avoid them.

Yea, they're total dicks, but they can be so damn funny. You hate them, but at the same time, you admire them and laugh with them. I don't know what EVE would be like without the Goons.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

They're dicks, but at the same time they're bloody hilarious sometimes. Grudging admiration as long as I can avoid them.

Yea, they're total dicks, but they can be so damn funny. You hate them, but at the same time, you admire them and laugh with them. I don't know what EVE would be like without the Goons.

Probably about the same as The United States without it's hoards of personal injury lawyers. Better in some undefininable way but far less entertaining.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

While I've never played EVE, I have played other games which contained Goons, and I never really felt like my gameplay was in any way enhanced by their presence.

I've never seen them do anything I'd call "funny", even though I was rarely (if ever) on the receiving end of their "humor". Most of the stunts I saw, I'd just call annoying. Attending an open area raid just to spam the chat channels to make it hard for everyone to work together? Really? That's your joke? People who are over 10 laugh at this stuff?

Fortunately, we can take it for granted that most of the goons will grow up eventually. Most of us were pretty annoying back in our early teen years, after all. Otherwise, we'd be looking at a fairly bleak upcoming generation.

It does, however, come across as somewhat cowardly (to me at any rate) just how many people are willing to act this way behind the veil of total anonymity, but wouldn't dare meet the eye of a pretty girl or a tough looking guy out in the real world. But hey, what can you do? This is the price we pay for having the Internet.

- J

 

[Jenny Creed]

They make the game interesting. So do any pirate holding you for ransom, but they do it on a greater scale - a greater scale than anyone has ever done in the history of gaming, as recently seen.

I like the image of someone holding a gun to the head of the entire game world. We're living, so to speak, at the whim of these madmen. We're feeling the adrenaline rush of sex and death, the increased consciousness that accompanies the awareness of the presence of death. Is that a good thing? Is it a bad thing? I love it and I hate it.

And that's life for ya. If at this moment you're feeling more intently and as intensely alive than you could imagine, that's one moment not gone to waste. It would be silly to complain about that I think.

BoB by comparision, as all accounts agree they brought a sterile and elitist, rigid hierarchic structure to the table, we're forced to ask ourself, was that living? Was it fun?

 

[PhoenixFlame]

Well, with the Goons, your mileage may vary. There's lots of Goons out there who are good folks, if not humorous. The problem is that the membership is so large these days there's no ability to exert control aside from a few generalized ideas, so you get some Goons that are ok folks and some that are just hateful.

I'm mostly indifferent to what the Goons do, because being a jackass has existed since pretty much the beginning of time. It's good reading and funny at times, but what they're doing isn't particularly revolutionary or innovative, it's just modernized for the 21st century.

Honestly though, the Goons' argument of "we make fun of people who think serious business because we don't give a crap about it" is at odds with what they do as a group. Obviously, they care on some level about being recognized even if to be hated, so to say on one hand that you don't care, while making a highly visible circus of themselves and others is a bit off to me. It's obvious that some of them do care about the recognition and try terribly hard to be seen as reviled even as they make fun of others for "serious" endeavors.

It's just that that idea is pretty much obscured by all the angry, serious, and sometimes hilarious rage directed towards them when they do something. Threads about them only fuel their needs. There's a niche out there for this kind of stuff, and they fill it pretty well, but to be honest, if you really want the detritus of the internet, you can look no further than 4chan and /b.