Science Discovers That MMOG Players Are Jerks

[cononking]

While I agree with his conclusion, can I suggest that he should have accounted for an extra factor in his experiment: that no-one likes a smartarse.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

this was on slashdot, it's kinda sad and funny, he pvp'd some villian and the guy threatened to kill him

it's pretty sad really that people are like that but it's all part of the fact that you can't have the person you're abusing reach over and punch you in the face

 

[Alcookie]

you dont need science to prove that most MMO players a dicks.

 

[traceur_]

If I could, I'd buy CoH/CoV and grind up a hero just to be this chaps sidekick.

And I'd join you.

I feel really sorry for the douchebags actually, getting angry like that and being prepared to take suck extreme measures over a fucking game. I weep for humanity.

Anonymity breeds douchebagery.

 

[Kinguendo]

Wow, that Twixt guy sounds cool... I am a CoH/CoV player and I wouldnt mind fighting with or against him, but there are some jerks on there... but I am on the British servers, we are a classy(ish) bunch... sort of.

 

[Lyri]

And I'd join you.

I feel really sorry for the douchebags actually, getting angry like that and being prepared to take suck extreme measures over a fucking game. I weep for humanity.

Anonymity breeds douchebagery.

Douchebagery breeds my foot up their ass!

 

[Zombie_Fish]

The only thing we know for sure is this: Myers may be a scientist but most of us had this figured out a long time ago.

How is it that I was thinking that the whole way through, and then I get to the end to find this?

He said that while most gamers are adults, his time in City of Heroes was like a "bad high school experience" in which rules matter little when they come up against a "deeply-rooted culture."

The truth is that these alternate worlds mirror our society, because the people in them are our society. They have been influenced by our world so they interact the same way, even in the virtual world, where you're meant to act differently. The result being that those who act in the way they're meant to in this virtual world get thought of as weird and annoying, and become singled out as a result.

 

[Earthbound]

On some level, yes, the people were jerks to treat him like that.

On the other hand... he built a character very explicitly around griefing people, and did so in a very nasty way. I haven't really played CoH, but from my experience in WoW, I can tell you I'd rather be killed in-zone than be somehow teleported to a different zone. Yes, he was using game mechanics, but at the same time it seems as though he would move into high-value zones, park there, and lock the other faction out.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the players asked him politely to stop, and were ignored. He was playing the game pretty explicitly to piss people off, and while the level of response he received was inappropriate, he shouldn't really have been surprised that he'd be treated as a dick when he was acting like one.

Finally, his actions probably had direct, negative repurcussions on his own side, as well... again, using WoW PvP realms as a baseline, a lot of people who get ganked by a high-level character will respond by hunting down one or several lower-level characters of that faction and ganking them in turn.

Were the people online dicks? Yes. Did he perhaps go out of his way to draw their ire? Definitely.

That is mostly just speculation. How do you know that he wouldn't listen to "polite players?" The article doesn't talk about that. He didn't play to make other people angry; he played to take on the role of a superhero and fight crime. If I play a game using superior tactics, skill, and abilities and am able to defeat other players, am I in the wrong? No, I am better than them, and they are worse than me. The other players should look to him as someone to aspire to be, not someone to give death threats to.

 

[Doug]

Hope he gave credit to Richard Bartle, who DID THIS SAME RESEARCH 10+ years ago

 

[deathstrikesquirrel]

that level of spite was unjustified, but I know I would be pissed off if some eyesore came along and teleported me to instant death every time I tried to fight him. Sounds like the professor started the whole cycle of Dickishness for Twixt.

 

[Capo Taco]

Is it really heroic when a hero goes out and kills people all the time, regardless of what they are doing?

Is it really villainous when someone from the same tribe tries to set things straigth by taking revenge?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

All I have to say is this, DUH!
First of all his study isn't exactly valid because he only used one MMO for his study.
Secondly, why did feel the need to perform a study to discover what most of us figured out on our first visit to an internet forum or message board.
...or YouTube.

 

[El Poncho]

Epic, people hunting him down in the game for him to then pwn them so badly they had to shout abuse if I was what guy I wouldn't care about the abuse I would just go on playing the game like he was and killing those fools.

 

[Izerous]

I ran into more morons/jerks in heros/villans than any other MMORPG I have played so far at this point.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

This guy is a hero. He trolls them just by playing purely by the book, dominates the servers, and then writes a paper on his trolling of them.

 

[sneak_copter]

Wow, kids. It's okay to abuse game mechanics and be a dick as long as you write a paper explaining why people are "abusing" you!

 

[Rylian]

Yeah, unfortunately, when you get people divided into factions and cliques, stuff like this will happen. The frightening thing is some people's willingness to take it beyond the game and into real life. Even my beloved EVE is full of this type- http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65475

 

[Yoshemo]

Fortunately, nobody ever succeeded in tracking down Myers or his family and in 2008 he revealed his identity in a paper entitled "Play and Punishment: The Sad and Curious Case of Twixt [http://www.masscomm.loyno.edu/~dmyers/F99%20classes/Myers_PlayPunishment_031508.doc]."

Holy crap I read that whole thing @_@ 26 pages~
Good read though

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

Mabye I'm just weird but am I the only person here who thinks it would be awsome to be hunted down by a bunch of cunts who take a game way to seriously?

 

[NeedAUserName]

I kind of want to play know... And make a my character a tribute to the new modern legend who is Twixt.