Who Gets to Decide?

Puritanism — The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
--H.L. Mencken

 

I remember the day, as clear as a bell. 

Back when the LFG tool was shiny and new, I got onto a run of the Halls of Lightning instance.

For the uninitiated, it's one of two five person instances attached to the Ulduar complex. This is where the Titans created Earthen and the iron giants that serve Keeper Loken in "keeping Yogg-Saron in prison". Yes, in traditional WoW fashion, Loken has been corrupted by Yogg-Saron, and the Old Gods created the Curse of Flesh that turned Earthen and the iron giants into the first Dwarves and Vrykul (yes, Viking Giants). At the end of the Halls of Lightning you confront the corrupted Keeper, but to get from here to there you have to kill a lot of things in a place that looks straight out of a Medieval Astronomer's hideout.

When you zone in, you have to navigate some ramparts that are part Harry Potter and part The Vikings*, which can take some time to clear even if you skip a lot of the trash.

Well, on this particular day, I zoned in with four other random people, and the tank just up and takes off. He begins pulling. And pulling. And pulling. Until he pulls the entire room. 

Oh, he wasn't done there. Oh no.

He kept right on pulling, up through the next room, until he finally died.

"WTF are you doing??!!!" The healer cried.

"I'm having fun!" was the reply.

After we rather predictably wiped, the tank got back on and tried doing the same shit again, which led once more to a quick death. One DPS dropped, their replacement almost instantly died and dropped group, and their replacement kept saying "OMG! OMG!" while running to us.

Randoms like that were things that made me question my sanity, especially given that this was in the pre "merge" LFG, where you theoretically got to know people on your server even through random LFG pugs.

The thing is, Area 52 - US was a huge Horde favored server back in the day (10:1 Horde) which is now even larger and almost completely Horde (there's something like only 3 Alliance guilds on the server compared to 1130 Horde guilds, according to WoWAnalytica). With a size like that, a random asshat will almost never be seen again by people in LFGs, so they could afford to behave so poorly.

But I was reminded of that run last night when I was reading Horde LFG chat on Myzrael-US while I was on Neve, grinding some mobs in Eastern Plaguelands for their Runecloth.**

When I popped in, people were talking about what I can only describe as hentai with a side of "WTF are you talking about?"

After about 10-15 minutes of rather R-rated discussion, one person had finally had it and started reporting and ignoring people. 

"He's just upset we're having fun," someone replied to that person's leaving.

The response I did not say --I decided to not get involved-- was "Whose fun?"

***

In a multiplayer game this sort of question inevitably comes out. How people define "fun" to them is going to be on a pretty broad spectrum, and one person's "fun" is going to be another person's "annoyance".

Or, in the case of that so-called LFG Chat "discussion", much worse.

And I don't know if I can answer that question effectively.

There ought to be some sort of community standards in place in multiplayer games, especially when they're advertised as T (for Teen) as World of Warcraft is (and, I believe, SWTOR and LOTRO are too). Sure, Age of Conan and it's M (for Mature) gets a bit of a broader allowance for shenanigans, and EVE Online is, well, anything goes. But still, my point is that you kind of have to adhere to the rating you aimed for (and received) on the box.

But chatroom behavior just one aspect of multiplayer games.

There's behavior out in the field, in a group context, in raids***, in battlegrounds/PvP, and just general "off time" behavior in game you have to navigate. What is applauded in one area might not be in another.

For example, ninja-ing things are applauded in battlegrounds, but are rejected in other forms of group content. The quickest way to find yourself ostracized on an MMO server is to become known as a loot ninja in groups or raids.****

I'd like to think the easiest way of saying how to behave in a multiplayer format is Wheaton's Law: "Don't be a dick", but what that really means is up for interpretation. Some people are more strict about what being a dick actually entails than others, and that disagreement can spark issues. 

For example, I've always considered it unseemly if I, as a raid lead, got loot ahead of others. When discussion about the Legendary Twin Blades of Azzinoth that drop in Black Temple came up, I was surprised and shocked that on the 2x/week raid one of the raid leads was fingered to receive the weapon. I found out that the other Rogue on that raid team was a bit upset, but she figured she'd lost her chance at the legendaries because she wasn't picked to be a raid lead. I said in our internal raid lead chat that was the reason that I would pass on the weapons on principle, as I'd never want anyone to think I used my position as a raid lead to influence whether I should receive the two blades. 

"You're a better man that I, Brig," another of the raid leads replied. "I'd take it. But I wouldn't be part of the conversation, either."

Regardless, what is fun for people can vary enough that in a multiplayer format I don't know if there's a happy medium that can be reached. Some people have to have a defined set of goals to achieve, others don't. Some people like the grind (yes, they do exist) and others don't. Some people like group content, and others would rather avoid groups like the plague. I guess the question remains as to whether an MMO can be all things to all people, and yet still try to push players in a specific direction. Can an MMO such as WoW, which is all about the Endgame, still be broad enough to accommodate the player for whom the journey is far more important than the destination? Can an MMO, which like so many other video games is focused on the acquisition of things, accommodate people who are not interested in the new shiny?

***

Anybody else remember the Sparkle Pony?

If you're of a certain MMO age, you probably remember it. The Celestial Steed, if you want to use its formal name, was the first mount in the Blizzard Shop that you could buy using actual money and use in game. I certainly remember my first encounter with a Sparkle Pony, as I was on one of my toons handling some Auction House work in Silvermoon when a player rode by on one. I did a double take and asked the player where they got that mount. "Oh," they replied, "It's from the Blizzard Shop." 

"Oh."

Within hours we were inundated with Sparkle Ponies all over the damn place, and the mount went from "hey, that's kind of cute" to "WTF" to "those damn things" just like that.

Over a decade later, despite the tempest in a teapot that was the controversy over the Dark Portal Pass Deluxe Edition, there were tons of people using the Phase Hunter Mount and the Dark Portal Hearthstone skin. Obviously those people who bought both mounts off the Blizzard Shop were having fun, despite the visible annoyance to a lot of other people. 

I guess the best thing we can do make our own fun, so long as it's not done so as to annoy others. After all, it could be worse. Such as using an honest to god ERP brothel in an MMO.

*Yes, the cheesy old Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis movie.

**Sometimes, you just have to kill things for their drops. In this case, I wanted enough cloth to level Tailoring so I could make some Frostweave Pants for Neve. Yes, she's a Frost Mage, so getting a bonus in Frost damage is always a good thing, especially if it means she's not totally outgunned when she crosses the Dark Portal.

***Raids have a separate dynamic from smaller group content, so I identified them separately.

****Of course, a quick name change --and maybe a guild change-- and you're back in the saddle, ready to ride again. Kind of sad if you think about it. Blizz laughs all the way to the bank, and the player gets off (mostly) scot-free.