Another Random Tomatoes Post You Dont Want To Read.

[Tomatoes 276]

TL;DR - Ask chatGPT to translate this, they seem to be able to understand me just fine.

As some of you may(or may not) know, i have been doing a lot of studying lately - one of the subjects has been MMO design, and something i watched recently is kinda interesting. Yes, i know its a year old, however its still a DAMN good watch(spoiler-ed to save space): 

Spoiler

 

For those of you who dont have time to watch it, Josh goes into detail on what is a Whale(a player that spends a LOT of money in game) and why they are important to game developers. However there is one thing he does fail to talk about: What happens when one whale fights with another, and it crosses the bounds of 'entertainment' and becomes real to one of them? What happens when one whale gets hurt by another? The game turns into a battle field at that point.

One may ask "How?" Well its simple, the hurt whale goes to their lawyer and finds out that there is absolutely NOTHING that can be done about it - different countries, different laws in different parts of the world, and no universal internet law - then all that pain and misery gets turned back on the community that the whale came from: lines get drawn, players get involved, both willing and unwillingly. including staff, no matter how hard you watch out for it. It becomes a nightmare to deal with.

Before some of you disagree that its a possibility, i have to inform you that Wurm has a land war going on: two whales going at it. I have also been used as an unwilling pawn to attempt to hurt another player, and while i admit that the two may not be connected, its not a far stretch that someone could do it.

My question is what does a community do when this sort of thing crops up?

Edited April 10, 2023 by Tomatoes

[Coach 196]

Keep playing until you think you don't have a chance to have fun in the game anymore. And make spaghetti bolognese. Then ask the thing to translate "why do i need to make spahetti bolognese?"

[KarlFranz 174]

Once upon a time, in the vast ocean, there were two mighty whales - Poseidon and Leviathan. Poseidon was a majestic blue whale, while Leviathan was a ferocious killer whale.

 

One day, Poseidon and Leviathan found themselves swimming in the same waters, and they immediately sensed each other's presence. They circled around each other, eyeing

each other warily, until Leviathan suddenly lunged forward and attacked Poseidon.

 

The battle was intense, with Poseidon using his massive size to his advantage, and Leviathan using his agility and speed. They rammed into each other repeatedly, creating massive waves that rocked the surrounding waters.

 

As the fight continued, both whales sustained injuries. Poseidon had deep scratches on his body, while Leviathan's dorsal fin was bent at an odd angle. But neither whale was willing to back down.

 

The fight went on for hours until finally, Poseidon delivered a powerful blow to Leviathan's side, causing the smaller whale to retreat. Poseidon roared victoriously and swam away, leaving Leviathan to nurse his wounds.

 

Although they were bitter enemies, Poseidon and Leviathan had gained mutual respect for each other. They both knew that they had met their match and that they would never forget the epic battle that they had fought in the depths of the ocean.

Edited April 10, 2023 by KarlFranz

[Raybarg 442]

Two whales fought and fought, then a Kraken came about.

[Zexos 468]

They should go onto the PVP servers and do their land war over there.  Then they can see if people want to join their sides and they can play as the king in their own kingdoms with followers.
Then they can have their true land battles.

Instead of using words and insults, lets see if their cash will win the day in the wurm battle field!

[Idlamn 297]

I liked the way Wurm allows you to pay for convenience. You'd have to put in a lot of money to be mega rich but you can put in some money to not have to worry about survival, necessary tools etc.

 

Think any war in a mmo should be in character, not some toxic ooc exchange. Unfortunately that is only ideal, things often go ooc. The community should try and be fair to both parties in this situation - admonish the offending party that took it ooc, but not overly so, and support the other, and strive for a fair peace. But that is also ideal - what happens mostly is there's already friendships in place, some won't rebuke their friends, some won't say anything in defences of the injured party to not get involved, some will get involved but overexaggerate. Like all things human it's complex.

Staff shouldn't get involved except when rules are breached. The rules themselves shouldn't be overly complex and ambiguous, and overly punishing. I played games where this was the case and it's just a source for more injustice as some people use game moderation in their schemes.

 

Not much can be done I'm afraid. The problem is not specific to whales tho. It happens in nonwhale games also. I guess it's part of the mmo experience. Think it might actually be beneficial for some people.

 

I'm thinking it's basically MMORPGs taking in human interaction with all it's downsides as well. Josh also talks about the emergence of solo-friendly mmorpgs as well, which I think might counter some of the effects of community drama, but then again they also take from the mmo a lot.