PC and the Sunshine Band

[satya_sai]

This morning I was reading the thread about voice chat and I was about to respond when I realized my response was about a topic that likely deserves it's own thread.

I feel that in the last year or so, I have been witness to a plague of societal problems arising from the "happy, nicey-nice, good times for all" Politically Correct Societal Sunshine, school of thought. At high levels, ddo seems to have a player retention issue...and I think this is an important social situation that has server (and perhaps game) - wide implications which must be faced.

First: Regarding the voice chat
I noticed in the course of reading this thread that many of you talked about the bad experiences that you've had in voice chat.
I too have been victim to the crime of the obnoxious voice chatter that has ruined the ddo (and pug) experience for the entire party.
So my question here is: Why do you accept it?
Do you think you're being polite by allowing someone to persist in this sort of behavior?
Do you think it's nice to allow the other five members of the party to be subject to this for the amount of time it takes to complete a quest?
I don't. I think it's completely and absolutely rude. I think the party member should be told immediately and succinctly that they are disrupting a party with their voice chatting and that they should stop...and if they refuse... they should be asked to leave or dropped from the party when possible. I think this is the responsibility of the person with the star to address this behavior for the good of the party immediately.
I don't care if they are a child. I don't care about any of the reasons they have to behave in that way. They must be told to stop.
I know that many of you are gasping inside at the mere thought that anyone could be so callous and cold and rude....
but let me tell you what.... without consequences, people DO NOT alter their behavior.
This obnoxious voice chat will go on and on in party after party and propagate itself until it becomes commonplace. (and I think we're seeing that now).
And this doesn't apply to only voice chat... there are a myriad of problem game-play behaviors propagating themselves in just this way.
Please, do the community a favor, and address the problem behavior with the person doing it directly and immediately.

further: you're NOT being nice by going along with it and then thinking bad thoughts about someone because of their behavior.
These people often want to fit into the social part of this game as well and your "niceness" can actually be very hurtful to someone else... especially when left unchecked until another party member explodes at them.

Second: A game, by definition, is a competitive activity.

I'm not sure at what point people in this game decided that it was a bad thing to compete or excel in the competition of this GAME.
Games are pastimes and social activities but the entire point in any game is to develop and execute a competitive strategy.
Someone in this game is going to be better than you at this game.
Someone in this game is going to do something better than you can do it.
Are you going to cry about it? is it going to wound your psyche to have the knowledge that someone did something good?
or are you going to use that person and that knowledge to LEARN HOW TO BECOME A BETTER PLAYER?

Winning isn't a bad thing. Excelling isn't a bad thing. Sharing your accomplishments isn't always arrogant.
and ELITE isn't a dirty word.
That's why the quest difficulties are labeled: Normal, Hard and ELITE.

The removal of these things has a very, very detrimental effect to the gaming society at large.
When there's nothing left to achieve, there's nothing left to do.
When you remove people's achievements, you remove their reason to be here.
When people can't win, people aren't going to play.

And beyond that, I have no idea why people are not allowed to post their accomplishments on these forums anymore.

and Finally: Some of us are here to play the game.
We aren't here to have dance parties.
We aren't here to role-play
We aren't here to be everyone's friend and pal.
We aren't here to make movies about how cute our toons look.
We aren't here to make sure everyone's inner child is not damaged and
We aren't here to make sure everyone feels warm and fuzzy inside.
AND THAT'S NOT A BAD THING.
and further...what makes people feel good isn't any of these things... it's accomplishment, it's learning, and it's acceptance.

that's my two cents...
so please....FEEL FREE TO FLAME THIS POST if you don't agree. I CAN TAKE IT.