Lupe Meza
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
1
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Posted - 2014.03.26 19:09:00 -
[1] - Quote
This game in general attracts some really horrible human beings. People who are at their core just not nice. Not likeable. Anti-social. Maladjusted. If you had a grab bag of reprehensible and/or socially distasteful labels to pick from and threw it at one of these players, more than a few would stick.
That said, in my time flying around this universe I've also met some of the finest people I've met in a game. Generous, helpful, intelligent, and kind human beings. Even the ones that blew me up. Repeatedly.
In terms of a game community, this is about as "real" as it gets and part of what makes this game unique and for me keeps me coming back. God knows it isn't the prehistoric controls, convoluted UI, physics, slow twitch play, and dice roll mechanics. It's that reality that this game, more-so than any other MMO, really encompasses player interaction at a level that I haven't seen done before. Even if you are a "solo" player, everything you sell or buy, most of the dangers you encounter, will be from a player. Even if you never leave a station, that guy that undercut you? A player. Have to reship. A player put that ship there. A miner got the minerals to make that ship. That miner got ganked by some douche-bags getting that ore. You can't script the dynamics of this game with NPC's or AI, because it so driven by actual human interaction.
Of course the downside to this is that some humans just plain suck. While easy enough to avoid and/or deal with this in reality, this game is the perfect medium to project their power with douchetastic efficacy.
Now I will say that you can't really "know" what someone is about on the Internet. Even those people I've met in eve that seem "cool" could actually be skinning cats alive in their garage while wearing their mother's underwear. The jerks could actually be feeding the hungry and curing terminal and really hard to pronounce diseases and are just "goofing around".
But, fan of Occam's Razor that I am, I'm not going to assume that someone who acts like an ass over the Internet is a good person. Or, that a person who has every opportunity to be abusive, cruel, racist, and/or mean spirited under that same veil of Internet Anonymity "The Jerk" enjoys, but chooses to instead treat his/her fellow man with respect and dignity if not kindness, is in real life, an ass.
So where was I going before I got all ranty? Oh yes, in this case clearly Exotica and their cronies are not particularly nice people. I don't really think this is any gray about the morality of this or the clear disregard for a fellow traveler in this short life.
I will concede it was a "little" funny for about 10 minutes. But I'm at a loss as to which is sadder, that the scammed guy sat there for two hours of mockery or the perpetrators....sat there for two hours themselves. Regardless it gets a bit sick and more than a little unfunny shortly after it crosses that line from prank to just really abusing another person.
Yes, a reasonably aware and informed individual would have caught on and left. Hopefully before losing all their stuff, but surely before being asked to make an ass of themselves. I couldn't care less about the money and whatever assets lost, that's is on the player. If I didn't have this game's TUTORIAL telling me not to trust ANYBODY; or have Erotica 1's gajillion isk bounty face flashing on the big screen in the station where I made my first character, I'd have more empathy for all that lost ISK.
My issue is more with a group of human being's lack of empathy for another human being though. It's pretty disgusting to see a group of people getting so much joy from abusing and taking advantage of someone so challenged is terms of their faculty (And I'm not trying to be an ass by saying that). The feeling is like watching a bunch of giggling kids kick a sack of puppies. You'd think the wife's distress would clearly be an indicator to anyone with a modicum human decency to maybe just "knock it off". But this community still never fails to disappoint with the sociopaths it attracts (and showcases upfront and center) or the platform it provides for their malignant narcissism.
That aside, i don't see how you ban someone for not circumventing any game mechanics. The server and exchange was out of game, and while the victim was clearly outwitted, I don't think I can give him the "he doesn't know any better card". Gullible and naive, sure. But those guys are the scammer's bread an butter, they gotta eat to.
I agree what was done was low, picking on someone with a speech impediment is just horrid. It did happen on an out of game server and the victim subjected himself to the harassment by sticking around for it. It's just a shame he didn't leave before he had to lose some of his self respect too.
If you truly feel bad for the guy, send him some ISK, some well wishes, whatever. I won't since he was kinda a racist lunatic himself at the end, but I still feel sorry for him. If you're outraged at Erotica 1 deny them the attention they crave. Don't make blogposts or start 100 page threads. People tend to do this stuff for the attention. Deny them that. Better yet make an effort to educate players about people like that, so they can make smarter choices or at least see these guys coming.
I personally value accountability. Rather than ask CCP for a ban, I think it'd be more meaningful for the player's assets to be returned and a genuine apology issued by the offenders to said victim, if no real harm was truly intended. Sometimes people don't understand the real impact the actions have on other people, so they should have a chance to make it right. However, that is highly unlikely for a group that did it "for the lulz" or whatever trendy prattling 'net speak covers this scenario; their intent seems clear.
A ban though? I don't know, is there a precedent for a game company banning a player for "out of game"... |