Since my original intent of this blog was to discuss technology, business, and the interaction of ethics within both, I have been looking around for less-than-average issues of such. I found one today when I read an article called;
‘City of Heroes’ character ‘Twixt’ becomes game’s most hated outcast courtesy of Loyola professor by Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune.
I am not surprised by the verbal abuse, and I would argue the real-world abuse he would have suffered had his identity become known at the height of his activity. I too have been threatened with real world violence because I handed a beat down to someone in World of Warcraft. Other times, people have held vendettas in an attempt to eliminate everyone in my guild, which consists of alternate toons of me. I have an entire guild so that I had access to a guild bank so I could store more material. It is interesting that people hold the game so tightly that they can’t handle something negative happen. I’ve been in dungeons, and people have exited when things got tough, and a raid would be wiped before they killed a boss which usually means an inexperienced group or at least someone very under powered. I’ve been in many groups like that, but it is all an experience. One not to run away from, and definitely not one to threaten someone with death.
The Loyola professor named David Myers ran a toon named Twixt in City of Heroes/Villians which I was a beta tester for, and early inhabitant of. I didn’t really like it. Just like I didn’t like LOTR:Online, the methodology of performing tasks are too segmented. Unlike World of Warcraft which is seamless, except for dungeons which are more like entering large rooms and having to open a door. So, Professor Myers was playing his toon so well, and by the rules, that people started threatening him. He ended up writing a paper and giving a talk about his experiences. Something I have been toying around with.