The Last Called Jerk: When extre… behavioral aspects of a tirelessly repetitive event

[TheWalruss]

Numerous publications have been offered on the grammar of headlines. The basic trick is elliptical constructions, but let’s not get into that here. What this title alludes to is the phenomenon when a recipient of a positive event provides it with a negative assessment. When this happens, the situation is changed to the last thing it has been called, and the speaker, in turn, is colored by what he or she can offer. And a jerk… well, it’s a muscle twitch, an album, a play, a movie and an episode of a popular television series.

Now! What I want to draw your attention to with this post is a peculiar Shroud run where something along those lines happened. The healers, both from a very prominent guild, decided not to heal the raid because they wanted to have fun. And oh joy how fun it was. To spice things off, they both, from the same guild, had a language that, to say the least, displayed their highly trained skills in conflict resolution. When someone finally grew tired of listening to it and spoke up about it, one of the players delivered the full package of antisocial behavior starting from A going all the way to Z. Unfortunately I was too lazy to Fraps it, mostly because I had no idea it would get as extreme as it did, but also because cases like these already exist in abundance. Just go to YouTube and type Nerd Rage. Of course the current situation was colored by different terms than those found in WoW, but the basic structure of the argument was the same: My guild is [X] your guild is [Y]. I am [X1] you are [Y0], where X is a numeric value higher than Y and 1 is a self-estimation proportional to the value X is higher than Y. And 0, well… But the basic line of thought is that because X is 1, X can, according to those who believe to be X, legitimately go about offering A to Z bad attitudes towards all the Ys. Why don’t all the Xs buy a Ventrilo and sit there and talk dirt about everyone else? Because X wants to have fun and fun is an audience that X can believe to be Y.

However, before I venture any further into the MMO psychology 12-year-olds in the school yard, I want to offer a contention. I know this post will bring about a lot of replies from the answering machines that got nothing else to do than go around and call people babies, that they’re crying and whining. (People I suppose who didn’t catch the headline?) This is in itself a very interesting phenomenon because it is obviously something people do for several reasons. One is to justify behavior that shouldn’t be. Another is the same as the one used if you crashed your car: “I didn’t crash my car.” Or: “It wasn’t my fault.” The categorized projects the category. I guess the short version of this is that you are what you say/do, an American ethos that I believe is more true in virtual reality than anywhere else in the world because online this is all that people have.

It wasn’t long ago that I was in a group with this guy who said: “Bingo!” every time he saw something on his screen that he wanted to convey. I loved this guy because he was so conversational. Everything he said got translated into deeds that relayed nothing but a positive inclination, and he did a perfect performance at the same time. This guy really had a blast, and he did all he could to share it - while out-performing the rest of us (of course there are no meters in DDO that actually allow people to measure themselves against others, but it was easy for the rest of us to see that he took chunks of hp whenever he landed a hit). Those are the moments that I really want to remember: people showing superiority while not being ashamed of being a simple folk at the same time, a simple folk simply referring to people who speak in the common tongue and use language to cooperate and see that as part of having fun.

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Troll-show-case: He wants your ears!

Troll-show-case: He does not type because he knows that if he typed what he said, he would get banned.

Troll-show-case: He advertises “have ears” in his LFMs. This is your first warning. Why would he need you to listen when you do The Shroud on hard?

Troll-show-case: He belongs to a very famous guild! Do not be mistaken, but famous guilds rely on their numbers. Not numbers of happy members, but guild numbers that are used to show narrow minded authority and immortality: “Ffs! What do I mean? LOL! That my guild is lvl 10 and yours is 2. Srsly. You got nothing to say to me and if you do, plz don’t come here like ur some Mr. know-it-all!” I hope you get my point. If you don’t: “I will make a post in the LFM beneath your post, looking for people for the same event, however, I will decline your application once I have drained your group – because, obviously, people will want to join the biggest number!”.

“Thank you for your inspiration. Without you, I would have been nothing.” (McFailure, 1973: 217)

[Th3ThirdFall3n]

Your first mistake was making a forum post about events that happened in a Shroud.

Your second? Trying to consolidate the variables related to social behavior in an MMO into mathematical terms. In case you haven't noticed, not a lot of people are Arithmetic-fluid on the forums, and are more fluent in the language of the Troll

Your third? Need there be a third?
Just sayin'

[CaptainPurge]

The Mayans said that a wall of text shall cometh leading up to 12/21/2012 and we all would suffer. This wall of text may take years for archaeologists to scribe through and truly translate.

People, we have only 3 days left before we can fully translate, understand, and utilize the OP's message before WE ALL DIE. Gather among your guildies and friends and hope we can all get through this together!

[MartinusWyllt]

TL;DR: Was in a crappy shroud run that probably failed with some annoying players. I probably should have had dropped group and not wasted my time after it became clear those players were in it to grief it.

[Cernunan]

TL;DR: Was in a crappy shroud run that probably failed with some annoying players. I probably should have had dropped group and not wasted my time after it became clear those players were in it to grief it.

You got Shroud rant? I thought it was a p2w stone rant personally.

[MartinusWyllt]

You got Shroud rant? I thought it was a p2w stone rant personally.

It was tl;dr, so I could be wrong. I kinda quit reading after "clerics weren't going to heal shroud"...that's when I would have had left if it became obvious they were going through with it. While I might have a shot in part 4 with many rounds and many pots with almost everyone else dead I wouldn't see the need to try.

[SableShadow]

Language should be used to communicate.

[Memnir]

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[Finch_Bloomwhiffler]

http://my.ddo.com/finch_bloomwhiffle...in-the-shroud/

[jandhaer]

So let me guess. You died a lot. Contributed little. Then ran to the forums for a QQ session. That about sum it up?

Once I got to your equation I had already decided that whatever happened to you, I was sorry I missed it. You seem like someone super fun to raid with.

[TheWalruss]

the mayans said that a wall of text shall cometh leading up to 12/21/2012 and we all would suffer. This wall of text may take years for archaeologists to scribe through and truly translate.

People, we have only 3 days left before we can fully translate, understand, and utilize the op's message before we all die. Gather among your guildies and friends and hope we can all get through this together!

+1

[Anthios888]

Guys, it's an excerpt from


The Best New Poets 2012

On a serious note: jerks suck, but you might not want to attribute the behavior of one person to an entire guild.

So . . . (eliptical construction) Orien for Best Drama of 2012?

[Dribble]

Just for your information, while I am not usually one to pontificate I feel it is important for me to take some time out of my rather busy day to make an honest attempt to clarify some of the more contentious aspects of your rather lengthy diatribe on social and group behaviour + dynamics. I am fairly confident my honest efforts will be met with a measure of innate opposition stemming, in my humble opinion, from sources that are not in actuality intellectual but more like simply reactionary.

First and foremost, I have a deeply held belief that your condemnation of the forum community is wholely without merit and, dare I say it, simply indicative of an individual seeking to initiate some measure of conflict long before it is ever justified. To quote: "However, before I venture any further into the MMO psychology 12-year-olds in the school yard, I want to offer a contention. I know this post will bring about a lot of replies from the answering machines that got nothing else to do than go around and call people babies, that they’re crying and whining. (People I suppose who didn’t catch the headline?) This is in itself a very interesting phenomenon because it is obviously something people do for several reasons...". Perhaps it is simple a reality that when people disagree with you on a matter of some social relevance, it is not in fact arising out of some inappropriate act of disparagement but instead indicative of genuine disagreement. I go further and suggest that perhaps this is an opportunity for you to do some self reflection (assuming you encounter a large degree of the aforementioned behaviour) as I would venture to suggest perhaps there is some merit behind a certain degree...hopefully polite of course...of criticism directed at you.

Second is your issue taken directly with two players interacting in a way you do not fundementally see as appropriate, given the age group and social norms (at least norms dictated by your experiences within a rather limited frame of reference). I think it is improtant to take a moment and at least consider whether your "right" to both judge and criticize the verbiage shared between two people (where you are the third person) is in fact sorely misplaced. Allow me to quote you once again, and please note I hope my direct quotation is not perceived as being overly base: "The healers, both from a very prominent guild, decided not to heal the raid because they wanted to have fun. And oh joy how fun it was. To spice things off, they both, from the same guild, had a language that, to say the least, displayed their highly trained skills in conflict resolution...". Given that, I would even go so far as to ask you to consider it may have been downright contemptuous to suggest that it was anything than a pointed attempt to cause issue because this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-air.

[TheWalruss]

@Anthios888

An entire guild backed up the person by contributing to troll-show-case step 4. Got screens and vids but meh.

Take it some guilds want numbers over social relations. Surprise, what you get is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=4GptLfMfHzE

Less is more, I abide.

[TheWalruss]

So let me guess. You died a lot. Contributed little. Then ran to the forums for a QQ session. That about sum it up?

Once I got to your equation I had already decided that whatever happened to you, I was sorry I missed it. You seem like someone super fun to raid with.

That's exactly what I meant with some of the stuff I wrote.

[TheWalruss]

bla bla

Now this is super interesting. You are a PhD candidate. I admit, I don't know if a candidate is one who’s still struggling or one who is in it. What it means to me is that you are at least a post grad. Fascinating what you support considering the facts. Even more fascinating you are as popular as you are on the forums. Taleban? Berlusconi? Teacher (PhD) persuading your students to up you? Nasty guild leader using authority? The point of view you support without showing any detail of balancing out considerations is a mystery to me, especially if you claim to be educated. To me, what you show is partisanship. Then again, in some parts of the world PhDs are financed, and financing sometimes goes a long way. (These relationships are super nice when you try to do concise research btw!)

[MRMechMan]

Now this is super interesting. You are a PhD candidate. I admit, I don't know if a candidate is one who’s still struggling or one who is in it. What it means to me is that you are at least a post grad. Fascinating what you support considering the facts. Even more fascinating you are as popular as you are on the forums. Taleban? Berlusconi? Teacher (PhD) persuading your students to up you? Nasty guild leader using authority? The point of view you support without showing any detail of balancing out considerations is a mystery to me, especially if you claim to be educated. To me, what you show is partisanship. Then again, in some parts of the world PhDs are financed, and financing sometimes goes a long way. (These relationships are super nice when you try to do concise research btw!)

Did you type anything in party chat during the raid?

Cause...I'd probably stop healing anyone spouting that psychobabble, can't really blame them.

[TheWalruss]

@Dribble

You approach this entire post by being defensive.

[nni]

What was the point of the OP?

[TheWalruss]

What was the point of the OP?

that it sucks when people have fun in premature ways