Topic

Dear Glitches: Stop Being Mean

Glitch is a very unique community and I believe you're up against a harder challenge than you may realize now that the game is open to the world. I write this post with the utmost of best intentions because I don't think many of you realize how mean you're beginning to sound.
 
NB: I'm writing this as someone who really does want to see Glitch beat the odds, as someone with real life friends who love and enjoy and evangelize the game, and maybe most importantly as someone who understands the appeal without fully finding it appealing.

* Respect people's gaming backgrounds as you would respect their cultural backgrounds.

There are more than a few posts here, posted with non-confrontational earnestness, wondering if there is "more" to the game. Everyone has a different definition of "more" and "game". Many people arrive here with expectations formed by other MMOs, other games. That is not their fault, it is their experience and their history. Try to put yourself in their gaming shoes. Be nicer. Answer them honestly.

* Not everyone who doesn't enjoy this game is a first-person-shooter/killer/blood/gore lover.

To stereotype Glitch detractors in such a way is giving in to the dark side. Which does not befit you. Engage them as you will but stop with the Glitch-variant of what is effectively the FPS version of "l2p n00b" (Learn To Play Noob)

* Not everyone who doesn't want to be Greeted or Helped or Help is a horrid antisocial being.

Some people enjoy discovering things on their own, playing on their own. Let them.

* "This game may not be for you" can be hurtful.

Being told "This game may not be for you" is about the same as saying "Well, I guess you're not one of us." That phrase, no matter how well meaning, is alienating.

Posted 14 months ago by Hydi Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Well written!

    I agree.
    Posted 14 months ago by nosesoen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1  and very well written, too!
    Posted 14 months ago by Marla Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't generally disagree, but I think "This game may not be for you" is fair game when the other person mentions something like "this game might not be for me" first. Which, in at least a couple of forum threads, has been the case.
    Posted 14 months ago by juv3nal Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you.  I've noticed a lot of beta people being kind of condescending to new people.  I'm sure it's not (all) intentional, but it's definitely there.
    Posted 14 months ago by DJ Plaid Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Good points but the two things that annoy me are 1) the forum posts about "am I just missing the point?" are very numerous and have been answered far a long long time (during alpha and beta) and if a player utilized the search feature a little bit, they'd find those topics and give them a read through. Because every time someone makes that post, the answers are always the same and frankly, beta testers were/are nicer than new players (I mean, when Glitch was in beta, the answers were friendlier in most cases than they are now [I know a lot of beta testers are getting irritated, including me, because a lot of new players aren't really trying to play the game. they just want all the answers to get rich and be number one which isn't the point of the game]).

    and 2) mostly what I'm seeing is that new players AREN'T willing to try things out for themselves. A lot of the forum posts and questions posted in Live Help are questions that can be answered if you tried to figure them out for yourself instead of running to Live Help/the forums and rudely demanding the answer. (asking for the fastest way to make currants is NOT an appropriate Live Help question, by the way. Again, there are NUMEROUS forum topics already posted during beta/alpha that answers that question)

    But yes, overall, I agree with you Hydi. 

    @DJ: I know several beta testers who are that way, no matter what the issue is. It's just their personality, sadly.
    Posted 14 months ago by Piratice Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'll try to reform my group. I don't know how or when, but I will do so.
    Posted 14 months ago by Rook Subscriber! | Permalink
  • At first, I was all like "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, no"

    But then I actually read your post.

    And then I was all like "heheh, those are some pretty good points."

    Then I typed "+1".

    I remember it like it was a few seconds ago.
    Posted 14 months ago by Btaylor Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The general attention I have received in every game I have played as a newcomer has been the same, and is my driving point in refusing assistance. So thank you for including the statement about how those who refuse a greeter are not necessarily anti-social. A small percentage of people, myself included, are from former communities where cruelty and a lack of acceptance of "new" individuals is the norm. This isn't how we might treat new people ourselves, but it's how I in particular have learned to interact with others till I get my bearings. I have a question? I go to the wiki. I need help with something? I wait till someone I know personally signs on to help. I want to do something in the world? I foster my own smaller community of people I pull in from outside of the game having them join the game, thereby making my own clique. Why? Because I'm expecting people to be cruel. So far, this game is like every other game I've been in, and I wasn't expecting anything else. I just want to thank you for recognizing that, at least in part. Sure a hundred people asking  "HOW I MAK CURNTS?" is annoying, but so is someone spitting in your face when you ask a question to begin with. How about we do not do either? :c
    Posted 14 months ago by Ristretto Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Considering that in Global Chat very recently there was a derogatory term against woman and a racial stereotype being flung around, as well as a rash of animals being named another derogatory term (and then somehow set to not be renamed), asking people to show the same respect as they do cultural backgrounds may not work as well as we'd like :(
    Posted 14 months ago by Creatrix Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hydi-I generally agree with you but I am confused at how the statements "this game may not be for you" and "you are not one of us" are synonymous. There are many that I am friends with here in the game. Many of these people have nothing in common with me in real life yet we can carry on a conversation and talk about the game quite freely. Conversely, there are other people in real life that enjoy the "shoot-em-up" games that also share other interests with me as well. I don't think that just because this one game isn't a perfect fit that the person should feel outcast. Do you have any other suggestions for what to say to people?
    Posted 14 months ago by Holly Waterfall Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I have friends who have stopped playing who have similar gaming backgrounds to mine. I have friends who have stopped playing who have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of games and gaming and have played more games in one year than most people play in their lives. Why did they quit Glitch? Because the game wasn't for them. All that means is that they just didn't enjoy it enough to continue playing.

    Just because I say and they agree that the game wasn't for them doesn't mean that the game couldn't be for them or that they are no longer "one of us," unless by "one of us" you mean "someone who enjoys this game." I am not sure why we need to tiptoe around this phrase. I'm not entirely sure the game is for me sometimes. 

    This game requires patience. On more than one level. It requires patience while you learn every skill you need in order to perform whatever goal you have in mind most efficiently. It requires patience to wait for plot quests to pop up, as the story is actually very slow-moving. It especially requires patience from those who are not used to grinding or making their own fun (self-determined questing is one of my favorite things about glitch). It requires buttloads of patience to deal with fairly simple questions being raised over and over again about one of two things: 1) Something that you found fairly easy to figure out on your own, possibly with the help of wiki, possibly just by experimenting. 2) Something you couldn't possibly know without having just seen it (last egg) or looking it up yourself (wood tree).

    I wrote a lot more, but I deleted it. You're welcome for that.
    Posted 14 months ago by Quirk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • When you say this game is not for someone, you are shutting down the conversation. You're saying that the best course of action is probably them moving on, not that we should consider alternate viewpoints and discuss the ways we enjoy the game ourselves. Sometimes a facet of the game might have been overlooked that's interesting. Sometimes it's honestly a mismatch in expectations.

    It gets hard when this argument/discussion pops up again and again, but I agree that "This game isn't for you" is deliberately moving towards a dead end, and I'm not sure that that's the right approach in most cases.
    Posted 14 months ago by Abby Smalls Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There's a big difference between "this game isn't for you" and "this game may not be for you".  The former is rendered as a statement of fact, and does have the connotation of "...and so you should no longer play it".  The latter is merely a way to suggest that perhaps there is nothing wrong with your understanding of the game, it just doesn't gel with your play style, and you know what?  That's okay.
    Posted 14 months ago by Cindy Electronium Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Also, though, you may be simply saying you disagree and don't feel like discussing it further.  We have freedom of association, and don't have to grind our opinions up against those of people who we may have irreconcilable opinions with.  The whole world does NOT have to get along 100% on anything.  Discussions do not need to be perpetual and there are times to move on.

    Nobody who plays this game 'owns' it.  And early adopters who 'stake a claim' on the game and insist that it remain what they nostalgically remember it as having once been are simply being nostalgic.  You can coddle a child forever and keep it in a nursery, where it is safe and it will never, ever, encounter anything that is not nice.  If you attempt to do that forever, you stunt the child.

    There is already some of the 'This is OUR GAME cuz we were the BETA testers' stuff happening which many of us disliked on Faunasphere.  I hope Tiny Speck is on top of it and will handle it a lot better than Big Fish did.
    Posted 14 months ago by Parrow Gnolle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Saying "the game is not for everyonbe" might be better. It isn't for eveyone. None of us are in position to determine if it is the right game for any individual but ourselved.
    Posted 14 months ago by Kookaburra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Abby Smalls and Cindy Electronium-You have answered my question well. Thank you for that. I understand now it is a case of semantics.
    Posted 14 months ago by Holly Waterfall Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, VERY well written indeed - thanks for putting this so nicely.
    Posted 14 months ago by Messy Monster Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There is no need to tell someone this game "might not be for them". They will find out soon enough themselves OR adapt their expectations to the game. Instead, try to focus on the issue they have with the game or just ignore them, let others respond. That's what I do.
    Posted 14 months ago by Victoria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ^ If someone asks me "So there's no fightin? You can't kill or raid?" then I'll them right there this game isn't for them.
    Posted 14 months ago by Draron Subscriber! | Permalink
  • draron, i would be tempted to give them a plank, splank them and then run away :D
    Posted 14 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 to Hydi for both the writing and the message.
    Posted 14 months ago by martian-b Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's okay to "alienate" individuals who make the game unpleasant for others. It's okay to say "if your only intention is to harass others and be cruel and vicious and not even play the game, then this game is not for you." As a mental health therapist, I understand human behavior well and understand the sensitivities involved with not wanting to alienate others. But there comes a point where it's okay to stand up for what you believe in and simply say "NO, you do not belong here" after exhausting other forms of diplomacy.
    Posted 14 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You do realize we're on the Internet, right?
    Posted 14 months ago by Bashere Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Bashere
    Posted 14 months ago by La_La Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "There is no need to tell someone this game 'might not be for them;"

    I don't know about that.  I had a friend who was approached about Glitch with the comment, "this game suck donkey dicks", among other comments, and it seems to me that "this may not be the game for you" would be a well measured response to that.

    I mean, unless you know for certain that the commenter had a taste for them, donkey dicks that is...in which case "this may not be the game for you" would be the absolute wrong response.  But I can't think of a time when "this/that sucks donkey dicks" wasn't intended to convey anything but extreme scorn, except in some very insular pockets of the internet that I don't really want to know more about.

    Hydi, I appreciate your post but...when did declining a Greeter turn into an anti-social or hostile act?  I am flummoxed by this.  Someone please give me some examples of this, or point me to a forum thread, reading this really bothered me.
    Posted 14 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Liked the answer one of our awesome Greeters came up with, when asked the good ol" "So we can't kill anything here?"  She replied with..yes, we kill....we kill a lot of time..(sometime along those lines,,can't remember exact words...and it was said with a smile)

    and +++++Cerulean..xoxox..
    Posted 14 months ago by SavannaBlueRose Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Possibly the more vocal new players are in global chat asking basic questions rather than doing the research because they want to catch up to Alphh/Beta Glitchens higher levels. It always nice to gently remend these folks of some of the reference sources so they can put in some study time.

    I've also offered gifts to several new players level 7 and lower, and some refused, and other accepted - both of which are great, as some do want to do it on their own, and others know the value of accepting gifts.

    I have also seen some very nasty and hostile comments in global chat, and I've always politely engaged these folks explaining that sugar works sooo, sooo much beter than vinegar(please no cooking counter metaphors, :) )

    For me, the community is as the community does, and simple kindness works so much better than an in-your-face atitude.

    And to my fellow Alpha/Beta folks, let's always remember that it's the new players that we did all the testing for, and IMHO, they are the key to Glitch's success. Ths I remind myself quite often that once I was a level 1 guy that new nothing (hell, I still feel I have so, so much more to learn, try, and do), and it was the advanced A/B folks that kindly show'd me the way.

    May our innerGlitchs shine always!
    Posted 14 months ago by MeherMan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, I agree that the feeling of buying a BROKEN Awesome Pot for 200 currants is pretty irritating... People should be more respectful towards others...
    Posted 14 months ago by Darkmile Subscriber! | Permalink