Spiral Knights - People bullying and reporting others for fun

People bullying and reporting others for fun

22 replies [Last post]

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 06:27

Prexxus

Legacy Username

Hi there,

on the German servers something strange is happening. IDK if this is taking place on other servers as well, but I could imagine this is a "German problem".

Whats going on?
People strolling around in Haven, in big numbers (mostly together in guilds) and bulling others. They often start out with some less bad stuff, and get agressive super fast. At the end of this, they report the player they have been bulling. For nothing, in fact, it's them misbehaving not the person who gets reported. Sadly, this has already left to players who got banned because of this [BS].

If people get a hang of this, this will have a huge impact.

Oh, you don't like this one person? No problem, gather your guild and report him.

OOO, this game is awesome. I love it, and I really want to play it. But if this problem will not be taken care of, I'll leave the ship. I don't want to waste my free time with dudes like these. They are annoying enough in the streets in Real Life - keep them out of the way online, if they are not able to behave.

If people have come along some of these, it would be great if you could share your thoughts too. Thank you.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 06:36

Thoranhippo

That problem isn't really

That problem isn't really about Spiral Knights. That's the Internet. Some people (and not all luckily) think they can hide behind a pseudonym to bully, verbally aggress other people and act like total jerks. The best thing to do: ignore them (I know its very hard, but entertaining them only results the problem to get worse)

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 06:48

Trias

Ignoring people is made a lot

Ignoring people is made a lot easier by the \ignore command. I guess \ignoring a whole guild could be a drag though.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 06:53

Gwenyvier

All reports are looked into,

All reports are looked into, if the person reported did nothing wrong then nothing will happen to them. On the other hand, abusing the report system (reporting people that have done nothing wrong) will have consequences on the person doing it in every online game I've played. If I am correct every report sent includes a recent chat log from the zone... so if the person reporting you is actually the one behaving badly then they kind of just reported themself...

~Gwen

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 07:08

Prexxus

Legacy Username

Thanks for your

Thanks for your replies.
Ignoring is the best solution, indeed.

Gwen: Yes, that's what I was thinking, too. But just yesterday a person I know got banned, and exactly because of this. I don't want to discuss this special case here, because I know, that it's the wrong place. What I was wondering about is, that he was bullied and got banned shortly after this. The people clearly stated in the offical chat, that they will report him. There are witnesses who where standing by. The people responsible for this, are still around.

He will discuss this with OOO in a support ticket, what is fine. But I think, that this is not the way it should be.

What I want to achieve with this topic, is to increase awarness for this problem. And possibly find a solution for it.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 07:24

viper901

Legacy Username

The fastest option is the

The fastest option is the show people how to escape into other Havens. You can easily jump to a different one and it will be difficult to find you, unless you have one of the people on your friends list. OOO should really also make a much more robust investigation into all reports for behavior, which would involve hiring more customer service reps yes, but customer service is really important especially in games that kids play.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 07:35

Metaphysic

Legacy Username

How do you bully someone in

How do you bully someone in the game? I don't understand. You can't interact with them physically, you can't force them to read anything you say and you can't find/follow someone if they go into the clockworks or even another instance of haven.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 07:39

Astralis

Legacy Username

I can't remember where but in

I can't remember where but in one pretty recent thread I read that a shortt log of the past few minutes of chat is recorded and sentt when something is reported. So the people looking into it should be able to somewhat grasp the situation and then judge from there.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 08:06

Senshi

Legacy Username

How to bully someone into being banned:

Bully: wao, what a noob he's wearing stupid wolver?
Victim: what? this is the best armor in the game!
Bully: no way, jelly armor is -way- better, only a total moron wears wolver?

Victim: Oya? #!@% you!
Victim: Why can't I say #!@%?
Victim: F, U, ... (etc)

Bully: /complain victim
find option for 'Evaded filters to cuss at me!'

Victim has logged off.

The truth is, most people don't even glance at the ToS and Three Rings has a strict language policy that makes it very easy to bait the unaware into breaking the rules. Language is usually a temporary ban unless racial epithets get involved, AFAIK, but I haven't heard much about the ban process in SK and don't know how it differs from Puzzle Pirates. I do know the -complain- process is totally different with page after page discouraging you from filing a complaint and saying 'just use ignore! Spamming, harassing, and cursing can all be ignored and then we can keep making money from the jerk!' ... err, words to that effect. Seems like the actual complaint processing is similar though, but I've never been through a ban firsthand on any three rings game so, I wouldn't really know.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 08:09

Thoranhippo

A chat log is sent to GM when

A chat log is sent to GM when a complaint is made, Hyperion mentionned it in the french forums (yes I know, stop being amazed, I'm french). But the thing is the further you go into the "bully's play" the most chance you get to commit a language "mistake" and end up the same way as your bully.
It is very important to IGNORE them. You know that kind of people, when they can't f--- with someone, they just go look for another place to f--- with people.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 08:19

#10

Prexxus

Legacy Username

Thank you, for your input. As

Thank you, for your input.

As I said, ignoring is the best and only possible solution at the moment. Thats fine. But as you stated, Bullies try to force you to misbehave. Some people will fall for it. Sure, this might be a rule broken by the victim on some point. But GMs should be able to get the point and see, that the one reported was being picked on and reacted on this in defense.

I'm totally fine with getting people out of the game who use bad language and don't stick to the rules. But if someone reacts in defense and anger, because let's say 10 people are picking on him, this should not cause a ban. A GM could contact the reported one, tell him how he can evade such situations (ignore them, move to another location, ...) and remind him, that using bad language is not allowed - not even in defense situations. This will be a first and only warn - after this, a ban can happen immediately. Im not saying, that every one who gets reported should be handled that way - but it should be decided case specific and not generally. In my opinion.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 08:53

#11

Richy

Gathering a guild and

Gathering a guild and reporting someone does absolutely nothing. I have often told people to quit spamming and the response is I am going to report you because you reported me. Which gives me a good cause to start laughing because it does nothing.

Ignore is probably one of the best options. I have probably 200 people on my ignore list and climbing every time I see excessive spammers. Heh sell my mats to them then click ignore a second later.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 12:49

#12

Eurydice

Community Manager

Generally speaking, we do

Generally speaking, we do not, on any of our games, accept "I didn't read the ToS" as a reason not to apply a penalty for a ToS violation. "But they made me mad" is similarly not an excuse for violating the Terms of Service.

That said, do please report people you see who are actively trying to get others to break the rules. That is also Not Cool.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 15:49

#13

Legendsmade

i actually laugh irl when

i actually laugh irl when someone tries to be tough over the internet. they usually end up to be 5 year old girls. then they start cursing thinking there cool and they dont know what there saying.

last time you said lol, did you really laugh out loud?

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 15:52

#14

Sunless

i actually laugh irl when

i actually laugh irl when someone tries to be tough over the internet. they usually end up to be 5 year old girls

Something sounds off here, but I can't tell what it is...

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 15:53

#15

Senshi

Legacy Username

Small fix

s/end up to be 5 year old girls/turn out to be 13 year old boys/

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 19:14

#16

OptimusPunk

Legacy Username

Oh man, this joke is just setting it self up

5 year old girl, 13 year old boy, is there a difference?

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 20:15

#17

Azulflame

Not in maturity (coming from

Not in maturity (coming from a 15-year old boy. Im one of the more mature boys at my age, but sometimes I just go crazy. It can be fun. Just hover back slightly and don't do anything stupid)13 year old boys are going through 'The Changes' and those hormones drive em crazy.I'd like to see a 13 year old boy act more mature than a 5 year old girl. (Not trying to offend any 13-year old boys out there)

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 20:43

#18

Sunless

Im one of the more mature

Im one of the more mature boys at my age

Oh boy, here we go.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 20:57

#19

Richy

Eury does this mean I can

Eury does this mean I can report the 5000 spammers on this game after I politely ask them to stop? And then they ask what ToS is and tell me it is okay to spam that is how they sell stuff.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 21:01

#20

Eurydice

Community Manager

You can report what you

You can report what you believe to be cases of ToS-breaking spam (so, not just someone advertising their wares in trade chat every five minutes). The GMs will then decide whether they agree with you. ;)

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 21:03

#21

Richy

Say it is the same people

Say it is the same people shouting what they are selling every 15 seconds? Would that be considered ToS breaking spam? That is about half the game population.

Sun, 07/03/2011 - 21:13

#22

Senshi

Legacy Username

What about...

People advertising their wares in the town square every five minutes?
Every thirty seconds?

The in-game prompts strongly suggest that only extremely rapid spewing of nonsense or abuse qualifies as 'spam', and it seems to be that Town Square is now the de facto 'trade chat' area. (Which is highly aggravating as there is no other access to the auction house so I can't just avoid it without cutting myself off from functionality.)

The problem with these people is that added together they are unavoidable spam that makes it impossible for me to follow guild chat or /tell conversations, even if each of the throng is only posting once every few minutes.

Also have not yet seen a thread that starts 'i wuz band 4 no reason was just buying shards for 1 crowns each and sellin' shards for 900 crowns each in the square' ...

The fact that most of the 'traders' in the square are blatantly exploiting people that don't understand the auction house makes me all the more annoyed with them, and no, '/ignore' doesn't really help, because there's always another one. Also experience with puzzle pirates suggests my /ignore list will last longer than some of the knights and I'll end up ignoring people that just happen to have the same name, unless the SK mechanic is different. Kinda looks like borrowed code though with the same problem. This makes me not really want to ignore anyone, although the social mechanics in SK are totally different and I'm a lot less likely to have to talk to someone who happens to have the same name as someone I ignored two years ago. Still, don't like to be ignoring people who's names are probably going to be recycled.

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People bullying and reporting others for fun