Topic

Glitch losing it's magical community? :/

It just occurred to me.. long gone are the days of BETA, that the community seems to be going down-hill.. 
I mean in the global chat there's people that will troll, curse or make references to 'naughty glitches'. Just now in the auction I bought a tinkery-thingy and well.. 0/200 uses.. feel a bit mugged-off really. Around the place there are people that'll shout out well.. stuff that isn't really 'user-friendly'..

So I'm thinking, after just a few weeks and the community is already getting worse.. what'll it be like in a few months/years?

Posted 15 months ago by GravityGrip Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • to be honest, so many posts, barely read any. but anyway...

    I haven't been in Global Chat since before reset so I have no idea what kind of mayhem is going on in there. I stay in Live Help :D

    But really, this is the Internet so you're going to find jerks and creepers and generally nasty people everywhere. If you let every one of them bother you, you'll be driving yourself to an early grave with all the stress and emotions. :P

    This is why I wanted Glitch to stay invite only after launch. Less people, less craziness (of the bad sort). :)
    Posted 14 months ago by Piratice Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm new to this game.  My background is Everquest I & II, DAoC, WoW, Darkfall (full pvp), EVE and probably every MMO in between.  I tried out Cityville and SIMS through Facebook and good lord I couldn't build my city or my house fast enough to keep up.

    Got my invite to Glitch at least 36 hours after the official launch, so I knew I was behind.  Don't ask me what I thought I was behind, because I have no idea. 

    At first, I had no idea what I was doing and I don't think I even realized there was a chat window for 2 whole real days.  I was too busy trying to figure out how to please that silly Rock that kept giving me quests like I should be able to fulfill them.

    But you know, that Rock was funny!  So I made my peace with his random appearances and demands for stuff that he wouldn't take away, thereby clogging all my loot space.

    It was two days before I realized the map would tell me which vendors were where if I just poked around at it.  Until then, every time I needed to buy something, I wandered the streets until I found the guy I needed, and that took forever because I couldn't pass a tree without watering it, petting it, harvesting it, or a pig without petting and nibbling, or a butterfly without massaging and milking or a damn chicken without squeezing it at least 2 to 3 times.  My bags were constantly full but I couldn't stop and I picked up every damn thing I found on the ground because EVERY OTHER GAME I PLAYED, TAUGHT ME TO!

    I don't know if it was KitkatCat or someone else in need of a tinkertool, but I bought one, specially, that I couldn't even use yet, that I didn't have the bag space for, because they asked to borrow one from someone else who walked away.

    It's only taken me what, 4-5 days to get that far?

    Give all us noobs a chance to learn, to slow down, to read every word the Rock says and to realize that we have to stand still to be considered "waiting" and that the things taking place around us should be noticed because they are worth paying attention to.

    You testers are racing to get back what you had, but remember that us noobs think we're racing to keep up, not realizing that there isn't a race (although there aren't enough of those arty houses, damn it!)

    We'll learn, or we'll leave for the next shiny new game.

    For now, I can pass a tree and not harvest it.  I can pet a pig and not nibble.  I can listen into a conversation between one Glitch and his nesting chicken and feel happy that he's so into it.

    I hope to learn more =)

    HUGS!
    Posted 14 months ago by Nymity Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I do agree, there's not enough of the arty houses. ;)

    And welcome, Nymity. Glad to know you enjoy the game so far. :)
    Posted 14 months ago by Little Miss Giggles Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nymity, you've done a lot in a short time! It took me forever to learn all that stuff.
    Posted 14 months ago by anonymoose Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm new to Glitch I got my invite to play I think three days after launch, and so far I am enjoying myself very much.  I am a hardcore gamer I have played nearly every major mmo released and lots of smaller niche titles as well.  I have to agree that the community here seems pretty good in comparison to a lot of online communities not just gaming.

    But I do find it a little odd that people keep referencing this "magical beta" time as being without problems.  I have heard about the tree wars in the beta, I have read posts from older players whining that the world is to crowded and that new players are invading "their" private places.  I have seen conversations between beta players about what to call people who are still using the default avatar...And the jokes and references weren't very nice.

    My point in all this is that trying to somehow make the beta testers out to all be saints and blame any problems you have on new players only serves to divide the community.  Seek out like minded players within the community regardless of when they joined and I'm sure the game will be as enjoyable as ever.  

    Also try and have some tolerance towards those who enjoy the game differently than you and understand that having to "ignore" someone because you don't like what they are saying isn't an injustice, it is part of being around other people.
    Posted 14 months ago by Diskonekted Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I tried introducing some people to it but they don't understand it or say there is no point, some people want immediate satisfaction and accomplishment when you let them loose in the world it's pretty intimidating but i think glitch can get repetitive... I am sure that will change when the game grows though. (Crosses finger that devs took his breeding animals idea)
    Posted 14 months ago by Chosen Predator Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That's a good point, Diskonekted!
    Posted 14 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Diskonekted!  
    Posted 14 months ago by Poppy of Detwoit Subscriber! | Permalink
  • 99% of the new people I have encountered are awesome.  We need to help new players feel the magic, and everything will be fine.  You know what will help the magic?  Awesome bog animals to pet.  They bring people together.
    Posted 14 months ago by Saralein Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Same with me - all the new players I've met are kool...And the golden age of Beta had it's problems as previously pointed.

    Diskonekted said it well:

    "Also try and have some tolerance towards those who enjoy the game differently..."
    Posted 14 months ago by MeherMan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I thought people made that point all along. I can testify that, yes, beta saw some afwul things. I don't blame new players one bit. I just blame stupid people for doing stupid things.
    Posted 14 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ahmen on stupidity!!  
    Posted 14 months ago by MeherMan Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I have some Things to say.

    First of all: " (although there aren't enough of those arty houses, damn it!)"
    YES. I KNOW. I have one but only because I was fortunate that whining about it on the forums actually got me a good result, ROFL.

    Secondly, more on topic:
    This is not the end of the world.

    You are hallucinating, and I am about to tell you how you have been conditioned to have this exact hallucination. You'll feel better afterwards.

    Are any of you familiar with the Mythological Theory of literary criticism?
    Rhetorical question. I'm going to explain anyway.

    What you're experiencing is the same thing that you experience when you pop in to the Ancestral Lands for a walkabout: Nostalgia. Overwhelming nostalgia. I'm not using the word in the common form, however. I'm using it like a senior English major uses it:

    You are remembering the past as better in some way than it actually was.


    Read that sentence again.
    This is a common theme in mythology. Every myth, every fairy-tale takes place in something called a "strong-time" or a "dream-time"--an undefined, nebulous period in which everything that was good was good and everything that was bad was bad, and it was very easy to tell the difference. You hear things about how humans were stronger In Those Days, as tall as giants, or how men were braver Back Then. There was magic in the world--maybe animals talked, maybe the semi-divine creating hero invents fire or music (two inventions that are signature of every semi-divine creating hero). This time (which never happened) becomes something that cultures hold on to ferociously hard. They hold onto it FOREVER, and they keep it close to their hearts, and people have nostalgia for that time even when they have never directly experienced it themselves. 

    Beta testing was great! It was a lot of fun! *I* had fun, anyway, and I know a lot of you guys did as well. Then we launched, and we were all excited, and then a HUGE population of the beta testers all simultaneously experienced the exact. Same. Psychological shift.

    We started having nostalgia. We started noticing that there were an awful lot of people asking "frustrating" questions that "they should know the answer to". I joked about whippersnappers and asking the devs to give us canes to shake and rocking chairs to sit in on our porches. I was sort of kidding, but at the same time, I wasn't--I was in the throes of nostalgia with the rest of you. It happens.

    We started having nostalgia, and our attitudes started changing. We immediately assumed that just because the game was open, just because there were a lot of new players (not that there WERE new players--we were dismayed because there were SO MANY of them), the world was going to end, the Legendary Time of the Beta (which by that point had taken on a faintly gleaming, golden aura of perfection and harmony) was going to vanish forever into the abyss of the internet, and that the same thing would immediately happen to Glitch that "has happened to all the other communities on the internet."

    Why did that happen?
    It happened because of YOU. You right there, the one reading this right now. You and your society. Mythologic nostalgia is a human universal, and if you are human, and if you've ever heard any story about the good old days, or a fairy tale, or a legend, then you have been culturally brainwashed into having nostalgia.

    Xev made a wonderful post, and I realized that I was part of the problem, not the solution. Some of you have made some wonderful points about treating the newbies in a more positive manner, but let me reiterate: Standing around whinging about your nostalgia is not going to help you feel like you're doing anything to improve the community. It's only going to reinforce your feelings, which--by the way, if the previous essay hadn't given it away--are off the mark.

    This is NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. Tell the brainwashing that you're not going to buy into it anymore, go away from the computer for a bit to let your Overwhelmed by Ancestral Nostalgia debuff time out, and then come back and ask yourself what you can be doing to be living the dream of beta. I know it's annoying when you're present for today's 200th request for salt/cheese/woodtree assistance, but remember. It's not the same person asking 200 times. It's 200 people asking once because they don't know the answer and because they don't know that 199 people have just asked the exact same question. It's not their fault.

    Do something good for a newbie. If it doesn't make you feel good, do it again and again and again until it does. Make friends with one. Adopt one! Help them. Be kind to them. In beta, when I was brand new, I was amazed at how kind people were to me. This is one of the most amazing communities in the whole of the Interwebs, so please, please, please don't let your nostalgia trick you into thinking everything is going to shit when it's only just started to be really AWESOME.
    Posted 14 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A few days ago, I needed to repair a tinkertool for the quest, and borrowed one from another glitch.  Hers didn't really need repair, but she handed it over anyway, then she jokingly asked if I would do her fancy pick.  I agreed, and we chatted for a while after I fixed it up, but it wasn't until after we parted ways that I noticed I still had two picks in my inventory!  I didn't remember her name, either.  So here I am, looking like a bad guy, I guess.  I'm sure that by now she has purchased a new one, but I would make it up to her, if I could.

    I think my point is that even people with the best of intentions come off wrong sometimes.
    Posted 14 months ago by Jewel Stoned Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I +1 so much that I added Diskonekted as a friend.

    Beta was typically the same as the game is now as far as community is concerned. Alpha may have been better. Dunno. There are just more people now, so asshattery is more evident.

    I catch myself getting frustrated with people in-game and I get off my computer and go for a walk or take a nap. Or I give in and complain and/or argue. But to say that this feels different to me than beta did is not a valid statement.

    It just feels much bigger than I can deal with now. Perhaps that's what the beta testers are feeling. Before, I would have seen most people I saw in chat and in the forums around in the game. Now? Not so. I rarely notice who's on a street with me UNLESS it's a name I know from chat or the forums. There are far fewer of these instances now. There are too many people playing to get to know them all and the people I recognize are few and far between. I'm not complaining about it. I just realize that it might make beta testers feel like they're getting into arguments with asshats who are also strangers rather than asshats who are friendly acquaintances. It can feel a bit more impersonal.
    Posted 14 months ago by Quirk Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That was all so well said, Quirk.

    I totally agree with everything you said. It is far more evident now when someone takes all of the pigs that I make with my egg seasoner, because they don't even wait now...they just snatch it right as I put it down. (Just one example of the asshattery I've come across since game opening.)

    It was far easier to actually get to know people during Beta, because there weren't nearly as many people around, and many of the ones who were around weren't running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to find a wood tree (or worrying about all of their quests all the time.)

    Personally, I think if people would just slow down....the quests will be there tomorrow. The game level cap is now 60. Do you really want to be the first to "finish" the game? And if so, why? I'm actually starting to wince a little (in a lighthearted way), each time I level up, but I play so much that it just "happens."  I know some people are just competitive no matter what. I am not. I don't feel that Alpha/Beta Testers are any "better" than the new players. I also prefer to get to know people in the game than to just play it for myself all the time.

    I'm not a huge "gamer" as it were and I am used to the more social aspects of the few games that I have chosen to play. I love when a friend old or new decides to take the time to IM me or send me mail ingame just to say hello. My favourite part of Glitch is the people, and I am going to do everything *I* can to keep it that way.

    Sorry if I'm babbling....

    ♥ C.J.
    Posted 14 months ago by Carnivale Justice Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Arii, I love you!

    Brilliant post, well written, very pleasing to read. And very very true!
    This should be in The Ur Weekly!

    ETA: I also would like to point out that a forum is mostly used by many players to complain and write something in a negative way. It's like with reviews of a restaurant. 1 bad experience needs 10 good ones to make up for it. Don't jump onto every negative post - people here are only like 5%? 10% of the total amount of players? And not all beta players post a lot here on the forum.
    Listen to this enormous silence of all those players, the other 90%, of all those beta-players, who aren't commenting, because they are maybe too busy enjoying themselves :)

    Eta2: This forum contains surprisingly many positive posts though. Well not surprisingly maybe, but still, there's lots of positive posts. Or neutral ones.
    Posted 14 months ago by Miriamele Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Miriamele -- ROFL. Well, if the Ur Weekly wants to publish it, I'm okay with that... XD
    Posted 14 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I thought that the beta testing days fostered a "magical" community.  You would work your butt off grinding to get as much accomplished as possible before the end of the test.  Then toward the end would be a lot of hustle and bustle with people preparing for "end of test" parties (sometimes misnamed End Of The World parties).   Then in the last few minutes you would sit back and listen to the Goodnight Groddle song.   Then you would be happy to return to reality for a few days, maybe dreaming at night of living in a forest.   Then you'd start to wonder when the next test would be.   The experience had a beginning, a middle, and an end.  When it was over the memories lingered until antiicipation built up for the next test and hordes of little glitchens could be seen banging on the forum door demanding to be let in.    When it came time for the final  reset, people were sad about having to let go of everything they earned in the game but hardly anyone complained.   I think those activities set the foundations of the community feeling and maybe explain why so many beta players don't mind the tedious grind that are involved in some glitch activities.

    At least that was my experience for the few test periods that I participated in.   In the end I found it quite cathartic to go through an exercise of letting everything go.   I'm a terrible hoarder.  

    Maybe that experience can be reproduced with "graduating" classes reaching level 60?
     
    Posted 14 months ago by Treesa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A lot of the beta community activity took place right here in the forums.  Downtime allowed us to chat with each other in threads, and build up a sense of the personality behind the screen name.

    You recognized people in-game because you read so much that they wrote on the forums.  With all of us busy in the world now, we don't have as much participation in the forums, and we have fewer ways to observe people's behavior. 

    For whatever reasons, going live dramatically changed one of our main ways of being with each other.  More people, fewer hours spent hanging out in the forums, less time actually chatting because we are each focused on tasks.

    It's different.  And I for one, am nostalgic for something that is truly different about being live.  Hanging out in the forums is not something that carried over very well after launch. 
    Posted 14 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • One of my first experiences on my first day was a fellow standing over a patch of dirt and saying very, very rude comments to keep people off the dirt and it was his dirt.

    But my quest said to dig dirt. So what did I do? I smiled at him and waited, and I helped him dig his dirt when he dug it. He called me rude names, said I was stealing his dirt, asked me to cyber and send nude pics, and generally was an asshat.

    I smiled and waited. Having been in a ton of other MMOs this behavior is nothing new to me. I also have children, so ignoring bad behavior is automatic at this point.

    When the dirt respawned, he couldn't dig it because he had already dug his limit. He cursed, insulted me, and left.

    I dug my dirt.

    This experience is only memorable because it is one bad instance in a sea of good instances. It is easy to remember the bad, or the things that stick out. Glitch is such a sea of good experiences, sharing, and helping that this one moment is shown in stark contrast.
    Posted 14 months ago by Garney Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The thought of that makes me giggle, Garney (mostly the part about simply smiling and ignoring him and the fact that he wanted to own the pile of dirt when there's millions to be had). But you're very right. :)
    Posted 14 months ago by Little Miss Giggles Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I keep being there for:

    catb.org/jargon/html/S/Sept...

    As it comes to comunity after comunity... 
    The strong ones are able to get newbies to act better.
    Others have exclusive groups for the best.
    And others have Barrens chat, EVERYWHERE.
    Posted 14 months ago by ICountFrom0 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nymity, your post made me smile so much, my new quest will be to find you in the game and buy  you a drink. 
    Disonekted, you are absolutely right. I remember no small amount of grinding and gnashing over the change from alpha to beta  and how the influx of a certain demographic was going to  wreck the place. 

    Most people resist change, all change.  It shakes things up.  I find it discombobulating, and I actively seek change, so I can see those who are comfortable with the present, and misty about the past, are wary of the future. 

    So far, the new people I've met out and around are lovely, and overwhelmed. Mostly. 

    That said, I soaked an asshat tonight.  I thought about explaining why I  found their actions offensive, but I'd already seen others try that route. So I opted for a laugh instead. Asshats hate being laughed at. Which reminds me...   could we please have the watering can action, the same as the SPLANK.
    Thank you
    Posted 14 months ago by caley dunn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Miriamele, I absolutely love your post. I love the bad restaurant review comparison, because it's so true.
    Posted 14 months ago by Vickinator Subscriber! | Permalink
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