I’ve had a lot of Wurm drama the last week and I’m a bit tired of my usual posts so I decided I’d write about it (pictured above, my deed on the Independence server).
In Wurm Online there are very specific rules players have to follow to keep stuff safe. Number one, try to own a deed. You have special rights that way. Number two. Lock things up. Number three, don’t let things decay to the point where they crumble and just allow anyone in.
So I find a deed that’s got an unlocked gate and crumbled walls – and the owner has decided not to build anything on the actual deed itself (aside from their house) but to stretch their fences onto the perimeter, which technically players don’t “own”. You CAN secure these areas, but again you have to follow the rules. Since the gate wasn’t locked, it was already free game.
People who know me outside of a video game situation (and even in) know I’m a pretty nice person. I typically help out, and am quite generous. However. If you don’t take the time to secure your things, in a sandbox game like Wurm, I WILL come by and salvage what I can. I also don’t feel bad about it because it is the players responsibility to keep their stuff secured.
Now. Does this make me a bad person? That could be debated.
The person whose items I took absolutely freaked out over it. Part of it was my fault because I openly admitted that I took items from the perimeter she had failed to secure. I also showed them where their unlocked gate was, and explained to them about how to secure everything for the future. They decided to get a GM involved, but since I had not broken any rules (I’m very aware of the rules of the game) nothing could be done. Then said player decided to tell everyone in general chat about what a horrible person I was for taking their unsecured items, and told everyone that it was not her fault that she had unsecured items and didn’t know the rules, because she was disabled.
Wow.
Whether or not that’s true doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can’t claim you’re immune to the rules because you’re disabled. In the help channel this is what she said:
“Note to game moderators: Advertizing this game, it should be advised that this game is not appropriate for the disabled as it is monies falsely accrued.”
Through all of this I said not a word, I actually put the player on ignore, but the ignore function does not work when dealing with the CA help channel. The next day the drama mounted. She decided to tell everyone in any channel she could that I had been bashing her walls down. Now, I admit outright that I WILL pillage and salvage – but I always do this within the rules. Even though the rules say players CAN bash an unsecured fence – I’ve never done it. I just don’t see the reason to, there are loads of falling down places that have access already there without me having to bash stuff.
So this time I sent in a support ticket, asking for someone to come check her deed and confirm that I had not been bashing her walls and give her some peace of mind. The CA who tried to deal with the case was not helpful at all and never forwarded it to a GM which was my request, but at least now things have died down. I hope.
There are consequences to salvaging items that belong to players. You have to be prepared to deal with that sort of drama and be 100% certain that you’re not breaking any rules. Whether or not it’s “right” to take items from players is something we each have to deal with individually.
I think in order for this game to remotely succeed, the Game Moderators have to actually do something about the griefing that’s going on in the Freedom Cluster. A lot of people use the caveat “They’re volunteering!” etc as an excuse for their poor performance as moderators. I can volunteer for any number of non profit organizations and essentially be a representative, if I volunteer my time for one of these, and act indifferent/apathetic or don’t attempt to solve obvious issues, I’m making the organization look bad, and they won’t want me to come back.
So, why is this a valid excuse for volunteer GMs in games? It’s not, and they really need to shape up.
To take a quote from Chris from the G+ conversation:
“Those who are not at all familiar with Wurm would certainly read about what Stephanie did and would probably be horrified. Mainstream MMOs have had very strict ownership mechanics, and people have “grown up” with tagging and looting rights. We think it’s fun and novel in GW2, for example, that we all get credit and rights for tagging a mob that someone else has tagged! It’s all handled for us in these games, and we understand that they’re there to ensure that people DON’T petition over rights to stuff.
But Stephanie KNOWS the Wurmian Way. It’s different there. In that context, she did nothing wrong. When you look at the Wurm community and it’s mores, they’re MUCH different than those of other MMOs. It was apparently a culture shock for this other person, but was acceptable behavior in the context. “
Not to be *too* judgemental about it, but just because the rules may permit you to take some action, does not necessarily mean that you should.
Taking the stance that you are merely dishing out tough love that will help the player in the long run, and that is better learned from you than from another, more ruthless, player seems to these aged eyes to be just a wee bit too convenient and self-serving.
My 2cp
I think I might give it a try, you always make it sound like a lot of fun. Just things like this that have made me think twice about playing. But maybe I’ll give it a go, see for myself how it is. Lovely pic up top.
Given the serious problems you reported having with both players and administrators last year I was surprised to see you start posting about it again. I know that as a direct result of reading your account then, and reinforced by this latest incident, I no longer have any interest in giving it any more of my time.
Shame, because the new graphics do look nice.
A link to the G+ discussion about this post: https://plus.google.com/101848509345653775667/posts/Ne9H6dckecH