I need to Rage

[Pikmin]

Ok so here it is.

For 3 years now I was a member of an MMO called Domo. I loved that game for many reasons, the good job system, the cutesy graphics, the fact that it was relatively easy for a more casual gamer to still end up reaching the level cap.

But one of the main reasons was the fact it was a social MMO. As someone with aspergers syndrome, I fail quite hard at being social in real life, and find myself having to learn social cues that most people pick up instinctively at an early age.

So I made up for it there, and made a lot of friends... For ages, things were lovely.
I applied for a position as a volunteer helper, and eventually got it after a few attempts. Really enjoyed helping people out, and making events for people to enjoy. Even came up with a few of the promotions.

Then, all at once, several things happened. Grandad became ill, my mum got cancer, and I was struggling a lot at college.
So I gave up my position to focus on my life.

After a few months, I came back, got used to the game again, and re-applied for the position. Got it, but it was never the same again.
Domo's community is now overrun by people who talk about sex constantly in broadcast, and think rape is hilarious.

They insult people almost as a game, because they'll never have to see the people they're hurting, it doesn't matter to them.
There are just a damn load of nasty people there. Every day Domo gets fed to the trolls little by little, and NO ONE does ANYTHING about it.

Earlier today in the forums, I was posting and generally having a laugh, when someone just posts "Why don't you just quit already", because I had made an event to give away all of my money before I left.
At that point I decided that frankly, I didn't WANT these people to have any of my money, so I cancelled the event and have since uninstalled the game.

It just makes me so mad that all this can go on and no one does anything about it anymore..
The internet just seems to get worse every day, to the point where frankly I just don't want to talk to almost anyone anymore.
It's put me clean off playing another MMO again.
It's sad for me though, as for ages, it was a really nice place to be, and one of the few places I could have a good conversation with someone, whilst in real life I'd probably just stare at them, then run....

Rage over I guess.... Dunno what I expect people to say to this, just feel remotely better for writing it down.

[Maeve]

Ugh, I've experienced similar things with other MMOs. Just seems like the companies running them are just happy to put new games up and get more money from users, but they don't do much to make the community a fun and safe place to be.

One game I was playing got overrun by a group of trolls. Although it was the international version, and the rules clearly stated that conversations done on the public channel needed to be in English, that little group kept speaking their own language (can't remember what it was, doesn't really matter anyway), and nobody did nothing against it. The only times when they posted in English, they said offensive and stupid things.
One day, they decided it would be fun to kill all the new players, and thus they stood in the newbie areas, killing whoever they found, stealing their equipments and money. And again, nobody did anything against them...
Things just got stupid after that, and I stopped playing.

Then there was that other game where a small group of idiots got accepted into my alliance, then (while I wasn't around to kick them, or any mod for that matter), they started to annoy the other members, who decided they would leave because they felt it was no longer a safe place to be, but still waited for me to get online to tell me.
So I offered to kick the idiots out, which I would have done anyway, and do something to keep the good members, but another small group still preferred to leave and create their own alliance. That I wouldn't have mind too much. But then, they started to talk to the other members of my group, and in the end they dragged almost all the members of my alliance to their new alliance... Thus I was left alone with idiots... <.<''

I find it sad 'cause I love MMO, and the community can be a really nice thing, instead of just playing games alone on my computer and all. It just seems like they are mostly played by immature and stupid people...

Ugh, mini-rage over too. Glad writing this made you feel a little better ^^

[Pikmin]

Thanks lol, hope your rage did the same o\

Just feel really bitter about it, 'cos (and I dunno if this'll make me sound big-headed or something) but I always cared about that community, even though I complained sometimes, especially about people treating the volunteers like crap.

But I don't really know what I did to deserve their bullshit treatment.

Happier here anyway, I can actually talk to people... And I can swear.
Don't normally swear often but they bloody deserve it. <____<

[momus]

I'm sorry to hear that--it's always crushing when a community you love changes so drastically.

I don't know why people act like that, particularly on the internet. There's such an emphasis on being as edgy and cruel as possible in many internet communities, and I think the complete anonymity doesn't help. I have a pretty dark humor, particularly when playing around with my real-life friends, but I'm not vicious to other people and I NEVER joke about rape (that's just a no-no!).

I've had experiences like that, but usually on the newbie end. I'm always really cautious when I start playing an MMO, because I've had tons of experiences of higher-up players bullying me, killing me, etc. Even on forums I tend to be a lurker because of how others can be.

So, I'm sorry again. :c

[neomattlac]

Sounds like DOMO had Gaia-fication happen to it.
Gaia didn't use to be a massive... well, you know if you've ever been to it's Chatterbox. Its now all about the money.
I used to be entranced, addicted, to Gaia, until about... april 2007 or so...
Then I just lost it. It wasn't attractive, and I had an account banned for doing something minuscule, but I wasn't complaining because I HAD violated the rules, but was kind of peeved that people were geting away with a whole lot more. Same thing happened to Avaricia, but that was my own stupidity, and after I left, it died. I was one of about 7 active members during events, 2 otherwise.
I hate it when some sites let thier users violate thier own rules.

[Pikmin]

Feel a lot less ragey now some time has passed lol, but still feel sad that somewhere I kinda hung around so long is now a cess-pool.

Though there are still some nice players there, just... When people are happy about things, they tend to just sit there and smile.
But when people are annoyed/unhappy about something, they QQ about it 'till the end of time itself.

They complain that the game is dying (due to developers not making any new content) yet with their attitudes driving people away, it's them that'll kill the game in the end.

I mean yeah, constructive criticisms/suggestions are good, most companies need them to improve themselves, but most of the posts on the forums now are just out and out insults

Kinda sucks really that it turns out it's happened in a lot of places according to you guys o_o Means that not only is it happening a lot, but people don't learn from their mistakes/the mistakes of others lol...

[ecco]

i cant say i relate with MMOs, but i remember a similar thing happened with Neopets. the site gradually got worse, both in design and members - more idiotic people spamming the place up and just generally pulling the collective IQ of the membership down over time, and then for some reason the staff started banning some of the sites more well known and more talented members, over ridiculous thing. thats about the point the art and roleplay community sorta died over there. shame too cos while it lasted, it was awesome

[Alyssia]

I'm sorry to hear all that happened to you at once.
I've never played an MMO before, but I do know what its like to have to leave a community for personal reasons and when you come back things have totally changed.

I can say that I'm sure you did nothing to deserve being treated like that. Places change, and we either change with them, or move on. In this case I'm glad that you've moved on to a place where you can actually be happy and have people around to talk with you.

I'm glad that you're happier here though, and I'm sorry to hear about your disorder, but I'm glad that you've found a really good balance online. I would say that you shouldn't give up on the internet though, sometimes I feel like good communities are hard to come by...especially solid ones! But you can always opt to chat with the friends you make via messengers .

[neomattlac]

ecco - Yeah, I noticed the neopets thing a while back. Like 2004 or 2005.
I wasn't gonna say anything because I still have to appreciate the work they have put into it.

[evercharmer]

It's sad, but I've notices it happen to basically any site I really got into.

Does anyone remember Quizilla? I don't know if there are that many people here that liked it, but I used to love that place. It had some great writers and even though it wasn't very fancy at the time, it was an awesome place to be.

For an example that you guys know better, there's Gaia. I loved that place but I don't get on anymore. I've been going back the past few days to contact an old friend, but that's really it.

[ecco]

jay;
OMG i used to use quizilla ALL the time. like i never made an account but there used to be some awesome quizzes there. i remember frequenting it less and less as the quality and variety sorta... went down the drain XD

[evercharmer]

@ ecco - I think I started lurking in 2003 and made an account late 2004. I never had that many stories up, just a few attempts at some Harry Potter fan fiction, but I still miss that place. It was the first site I ever really joined.