ok so i have had this happen to me before. sadly i failed to report the 10 Year Old Child who did this! 10! i may as well say this... everyone who ethier says vulgar things or even says "i need a girl/guy", Get A Life
Yes! I was afk for a little bit today, but instead of "dancing" the person was "jumping on me". Very disturbing and I don't want to see it happen to anyone, especially anyone younger! It's hard to report people when they're not talking, they're just doing the action. I would report him, but there's no proof he did it. Seriously, I was really disturbed/ creeped out.
As for the other naughty behavior, I have a nice weapon. It's called "FYI, I'm an ADULT." It's funny how fast people who are trying to hit on me in game will actually flee the zone when I put that in open chat.
I'm glad it worked for you~ unfortunately, it's not always enough.
One of my baby wizards was a victim of such harassment, and the fact that I'm an adult and married did absolutely nothing to deter the guy. In fact, he kept at it, and I was a little bit shaken up, for 2 reasons:
1. I wasn't a person to him, and he didn't care how old I was. When I said I was an adult, it was as though he got some kind of twisted pleasure from the whole thing and kept at it...
2. I felt violated~ because he didn't "say" anything to me, I couldn't report him and, therefore, had no support system to turn to.
Now, imagine a 10-year-old in my place. I like the emotes and all, but will gladly give them up if it means sparing a little kid the same feelings of helplessness and humiliation.
no 1 :kids aren't going too know its that kind of stuff i don't even get the clapping myself and i am almost a teen
no 2: it is apparent that only grown ups are commenting on this and if it bothered any kid they would do something
where there are leafs there are slugs life beats all for even those who die live on in are memories
Indeed, children can get their parent and let them respond to the harasser. "Why are you harassing my daughter/son?" At which point you can change realms, and observe. If the creature does comeback to harass your child. "I have decided to watch my child play, why are you following him/her?" Children can impersonate their parent if the parent is........ Wait, why is the child on the internet unsupervised?! Parents should always be nearby while the child is talking to strangers, even in a virtual setting. Children shouldn't have computers in their rooms either, the computer should be in a high traffic room of the house. The living room, or near the kitchen, near the garage, or dad's workshop. Somewhere the parent can stop, for several minutes, and read over the child's shoulder.
Barring that, the child can impersonate an adult, or their parents, and this will most likely make the creature lose interest. Changing realms is best. You can pm your friends after you change realms and they can meet you there.
I know there are people who want to baby proof the game. For the sake of the children who don't have attentive parents. Consider: the children, or their friends, may lose interest and switch to another game that has no safeguards in place at all. Adult players aren't the only ones who get annoyed because they can't communicate or express themselves.
I comment in these types of threads because I don't like it when people conspire to damage my gaming experience. I also feel the need to remind the lurkers, the true majority, that there is another point of view.
It seems that neither of you have any real understanding as to what many many young kids do know or understand.
When you consider what is being taught in REAL LIFE SCHOOL in public schools systems now, there is not much left for some to learn as they become older. Things that USED to be taught to kids in THEIR HOMES BY PARENTS and what was known as "THE BIRDS AND THE BEES". So your theory so to speak is false.
Kids are also seeing this kind of thing on cable and satellite TV. This is something that was not allowed to be seen by young members in our household at any time. We have always been alert to what our kids have been watching and hearing and making sure they are taught properly. My husband and I don't even watch the "R" rated programs. What others do is none of my business, but what we are seeing in this game is EVERYONE'S business to report.
If, players reporting this kind of behavior for some reason interfers with your enjoyment of the game then I am sorry but be aware, we will continue to report this and the filth coming from the fingers of many. Since you have to take the time to TYPE what you are trying to say, then you certainly have the TIME to stop and think about it before sending. If you have the audacity to take an emote such as the Dancing and add a text description of the intentions, then you have absolutely NO NEED TO BE IN THE GAME EVER!!!!
By the way, I have also been a victim of this kind of behavior along with some of my in game friends in the same place and at the same time. It really does give you a feeling of being VIOLATED. So if these people will do this to adults, what makes you think they won't do it to a child?
OFF TOPIC To anyone that wishes to cite "First Amendment Rights", you really need to go READ it. The 1st amendment DOES NOT allow for foul language. So in reality you are breaking the law when you use it anywhere, anytime.
Well, can you feel it in real life? No. I use it to intimidate my opponents in PvP, and I dance when my friends invite me to their fun parties. I know that this emote is a, little wrong in some cases, but some people are just wrong to be begin with. Sending video? Is it really bothering? I mean it's only pixels dancing on one another, which sounds wrong in theory. But in game it's just an computer character. Why does it bother people? Simply leave and go to another realm, nothing hard to do.
As much as I would also hate to see it be removed, one of my wizards has also been the victim of this type of vulgarity and it is very unsettling to say the least.
I have to admit that it is fun to dance with our pets and will miss that, but I do not want to see another player especially a young child be subjected to this kind of lewd behavior.
Maybe somewhere down the road when players accept the fact that they can no longer use these fun emotes to enact highly inappropriate behavior the emotes could be enabled again, but at this point this has just gone more than way to far. It has gone to the limit as to make some players really cancel subs and many more seriously considering doing the same.
Fallon WinterLeaf
Only a child who has been exposed to vulgarity would know that the action was meant to simulate a vulgar act. Someone always shouts, "Won't someone think of the children?!" Their premise is flawed because they no longer remember what it is like to think like a child. I suppose if you allow your child to watch trash on television; then your child may have vague ideas, but they will still lack the comprehension of a teenager because they, hopefully, lack a teenager's experiences.
The ones misusing the emotes wouldn't miss them if they were taken away. Such people would be amused, and would imagine that they were the one's personally responsible for the emote's removal. Further, the misuse of innocent emotes for such a purpose would imply a high level of creativity, removing the emote would only inconvenience them for a short time. The problem being, that removing the emote would inconvenience everyone else permanently. I would not be surprised if a few individuals are actually trying to see how many words or emotes that they can get Kings Isle to remove. Indeed, I am sure that people make alts and do vulgar things in high traffic areas just to see how many reports they can get. Your opponents are like a rumor: the more attention you give them, the more you censor them, the more powerful they become.
The real way to stop this is for Kings Isle to not allow a person to know if they have been reported in game. The, "you have been reported," message only causes conscientious people to censor their own language or move to another location. The repeat or intentional offenders simply continue do vulgar things, because now they know they have an audience. The more warnings they get the larger they know their audience to be. It takes the fun out, if the rule breaker can't figure out how many people are paying attention, or which instance caused them to be muted or banned.
Of course you can simply ignore what I have said and continue to crusade for a Wizard101 that has all the character expression of an eight bit arcade game. Even if you win, people would still find vulgar things to do with their pixels.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I would like to add one thing. but it kinda has nothing to do with what you was saying. If they do remove this I would no long be able to fill up my dorm room with pets and the hop in the middle and do the dance emote. ever tried it? its fun having all kinds of pets run up to you and they are all dancing its so cute! and if you do the claping emote they dance to and get all happy. I hope they dont remove any emotes because of a few bad apples.
Why does it bother people? Simply leave and go to another realm, nothing hard to do.
Simply leaving and/or go to another realm solves the problem for you, but what about the other people left behind who are minding their own business?
There are people who use their character and run around to everyone they see and 'dance' on them. Many times it is accompanied by lewd comments. These people KNOW what they're doing and what it means.
In real life, we all have 'personal space' surrounding us. When someone invades that personal space, it's uncomfortable. The same feeling can be said with our wizard characters. They may be only pixels, but when someone is dancing on top of me, it still feels uncomfortable, just like in real life. Add in the lewd comments and it's a violation of the worst kind.
I'm an adult. I would hate to see this happen to younger players. I have seen many ask the 'dancers' to please leave them alone. As soon as someone says that, then the person dancing on them becomes the harasser, and I will NOT HESITATE to offer assistance.
I've seen too many people abuse this game for their own perverse pleasure. It is NOT allowed, and others in the game should not sit back and ignore it.
Well, can you feel it in real life? No. I use it to intimidate my opponents in PvP, and I dance when my friends invite me to their fun parties. I know that this emote is a, little wrong in some cases, but some people are just wrong to be begin with. Sending video? Is it really bothering? I mean it's only pixels dancing on one another, which sounds wrong in theory. But in game it's just an computer character. Why does it bother people? Simply leave and go to another realm, nothing hard to do.
It bothers me because of what it represents~ sexual harassment by a disturbed individual who doesn't care about his or her victim's age or feelings. It's a clear violation of the ToU, yet we can't report it because nothing was said~ that terrifies me, especially when I hear all of these little kids saying that they "need a boy/girl"; they'll likely be scarred for life, but will have no one to turn to.
By any other name, harassment is still harassment. Whether or not you can feel it in real life is irrelevant~ I'm a big girl and I got over it, but this behaviour is psychologically damaging to kids. They're not stupid~ they probably know exactly what these pervs are doing, and that it's wrong, but who's going to listen if they report that person for harassment?
If there's no accompanying text, you can forget about anything being done~ that's not okay to me, and it never will be. I, too, enjoy dancing with friends or just to be silly... but I'll give it up tomorrow, if it means keeping the little wizards safe.
When you consider what is being taught in REAL LIFE SCHOOL in public schools systems now, there is not much left for some to learn as they become older. Things that USED to be taught to kids in THEIR HOMES BY PARENTS and what was known as "THE BIRDS AND THE BEES". So your theory so to speak is false.
Kids are also seeing this kind of thing on cable and satellite TV. This is something that was not allowed to be seen by young members in our household at any time. We have always been alert to what our kids have been watching and hearing and making sure they are taught properly. My husband and I don't even watch the "R" rated programs. What others do is none of my business, but what we are seeing in this game is EVERYONE'S business to report.
If, players reporting this kind of behavior for some reason interfers with your enjoyment of the game then I am sorry but be aware, we will continue to report this and the filth coming from the fingers of many. Since you have to take the time to TYPE what you are trying to say, then you certainly have the TIME to stop and think about it before sending. If you have the audacity to take an emote such as the Dancing and add a text description of the intentions, then you have absolutely NO NEED TO BE IN THE GAME EVER!!!!
By the way, I have also been a victim of this kind of behavior along with some of my in game friends in the same place and at the same time. It really does give you a feeling of being VIOLATED. So if these people will do this to adults, what makes you think they won't do it to a child?
OFF TOPIC To anyone that wishes to cite "First Amendment Rights", you really need to go READ it. The 1st amendment DOES NOT allow for foul language. So in reality you are breaking the law when you use it anywhere, anytime.
Fallon WinterLeaf a "Wizard City Protector"
Older kids will always try to impress younger kids with, "forbidden knowledge," weather is accurate or not. As far as I know sexual education in schools is geared toward teaching only abstinence which isn't very informative or effective.
I am glad you report such inappropriate behavior, hopefully the perpetrators will be banned. I do not participate in it and see no reason for that kind of behavior. My only qualm is that the people being reported get in game warnings that they are being reported, and thus get an idea about how large their audience is. The, "You have been reported," message needs to be removed. Justice should come to these people swiftly and without warning. As for not being able to report people in game for actions. You can change your settings to allow you to see everyone's name then take several screen shots that show the pervert's behavior. There is a tab under help and support under contact us that lets you submit a report about player misconduct. Attach the screen shots, or send an email and attach screen shots that way.
I detect no sincere sympathy for my point of view in your statement what-so-ever. What are you apologizing for? Your comments clearly show that you are unwilling to compromise. Which is as it should be. Why pretend otherwise?
Either you misunderstand me, or you are making a straw man argument. I recognize in game reporting as a highly beneficial thing. Any form of reporting of vulgar acts, in game, or on the websight is good. I do not harass people in this game or in other games, that would be beneath my standards. The thing I mind, the thing that interferes with my enjoyment of the game, is the excessive amount of censoring a few people are demanding on the forums.
The censoring that does occur, does not stop the sick people from doing sick things, it only forces them to find other words and emotes to corrupt. I fear the game will become so heavily filtered that I will be unable to hold an intelligent conversation with, filtered chat, players. I am upset because; players like myself, who do not misuse the emotes or talk rudely around the filters would be penalized as well.
I do not debate to convert those few who post. I debate to sway the opinions of those who never post at all, the majority, the lurkers
[off topic] As for breaking the law. The first amendment does protect freedom of expression. The first amendment does not exist in the game. If you swear in game, or swear around he filter, you break a rule of the game, the terms of service. You can be banned. You do not break an actual law. A police officer does not show up to your door, after you get banned for swearing, and write you a ticket.
As for breaking the law. The first amendment does protect freedom of expression. The first amendment does not exist in the game. If you swear in game, or swear around he filter, you break a rule of the game, the terms of service. You can be banned. You do not break an actual law. A police officer does not show up to your door, after you get banned for swearing, and write you a ticket.
Heya Zeb,
Professor Greyrose has most eloquently stated that there is no 1st Amendment right to free speech in the Great Spiral. So those wizards have no leg to stand on in defense of inappropriate speech.
IRL, hate speech, sexual harrassment, and other forms of abusive speech are also not protected speech. A person can go to jail for such forms of violence against others. And they should. Maybe we wouldn't have the plague of killings in our society if we could more readily "report" those who thrive on hurting others.
What saddens me, and makes me very angry, is that these wizards seem to think they have the right to be mean, cruel, and abusive at all. Where in the world did they get such ideas? (Insert rant against public schools here)
Anyway, I guess my reason for this post is to say: Goldendragon isn't trying to pick a fight with you. She is passionate about protecting the young ones from the nastiness that currently infests the Spiral, and she is not likely to back down from her position. She is a hero in my eyes, although we don't see everything parallel; Fallon is a wonderful lady.
@ QBB: I would be rather disappointed if Goldendragon did back down. Far to many people are unwilling to defend their values. They seem to be afraid of being judged by others. They withdraw their statements at the first sign of disagreement. Others assume that if I disagree, I must hate them, and so deserve their hatred. They seem incapable of understanding the admiration one can have for a worthy and intelligent opponent.
If someone's conviction is as strong as my own, I know I cannot persuade them to change their mind. However, other people read this, if what I say makes sense to them, then maybe I can persuade them toward my point of view.
@vonawesome1 These others, who are left behind, they are just as capable of changing realms. If someone bothers you, and won't listen to reason. You get away from them. Even animals move away from something that makes them uncomfortable.
People cannot insist that the children are brilliant, and yet too dim to change realms when someone is harassing them.
@ others: You all act as if it is impossible to prevent people from being inappropriate within the game. You seem to think that you are powerless to stop the unacceptable behavior, while in the game.
The most effective way to stop them, in game, is to get them to stop themselves. Deny them their source of attention and they will leave out of sheer boredom.
If you come upon someone who is being harassed, and decide to help them, I feel that you need to focus in the victim. If you feel that you can report the bully then do so. After that, or instead of it. you get the victim's attention. You could call them by name and ask if they need any help with a quest. You could ask if they could help you with a quest. You could simply start a conversation. The point is to help the victim to ignore the bully. Since you want to keep the victim's mind off of the bully you should try not to mention the creature during the conversation. Meanwhile, the bully will be jumping around clapping or dancing. You are doing your part by not reacting to their antics. Your conversation is hopefully causing the victim to not react either. Since the bully is trying to be the center of attention; this strategy should cause them to leave.... most likely to annoy someone else, but you will have rescued someone. You can always go after the parasite after you finish your conversation or quest help, and rescue the next victim. If the bully becomes repeatedly frustrated by your interruptions he will leave.
Using this method you deprive the harasser of his audience, you are making yourself the center of the victim's attention. You are also providing the victim with a positive experience that may blot out the whole unpleasant episode. Hopefully the victim will remember your pleasant self and forget the bully entirely.
Occasionally the bully will decide to focus on you, because you are stealing his audience. If he focuses on you then the victim is no longer a victim. You can lead the bully away. Walk aimlessly, walk into a wall, but don't talk to the bully. He will get bored. When he leaves follow him. Become his shadow. Distract his victims, and lead him away if he turns on you. Eventually your meddling with his plans, and your lack of direct verbal response, to him, will cause the bully to leave the realm or log off. At which point you will have saved the entire realm from a nuisance.
It may be advisable put the bully on the ignore list. Using a pm, you may want to explain to the victim how to put someone on the ignore list.
@vonawesome1 These others, who are left behind, they are just as capable of changing realms. If someone bothers you, and won't listen to reason. You get away from them. Even animals move away from something that makes them uncomfortable.
People cannot insist that the children are brilliant, and yet too dim to change realms when someone is harassing them.
Changing realms is a band-aid fix, Zeb. It's great for the short-term, but won't prevent long-term damages~ on top of that, it inconveniences the victim (however briefly) and the perp gets off scot-free.
One thing I noticed in your post is that you seem to place most of the responsibility on the victim's shoulders, rather than the bully's. It's like how KI Support tells us to turn our chat off if we don't like what people are saying, which leaves the bullies free to continue spewing their filth~ we shouldn't have to.
As I mentioned, the kids aren't stupid~ however, they probably don't have the life-experience to know how to react to such things. After it happened to me, I immediately exited the game~ thanks to a great group of friends, I came back to the Spiral that night, unafraid. Harassment is disarming, and it makes one feel powerless~ it's about control over the victim, and that's where it begins and ends.
A child doesn't always know what to do, in such situations~ basic instinct isn't enough, sometimes. So I stand by my original position, and am for removing the emote. End of.
zebulous, I do agree with you, why should everyone be penalized for something a handful of perpetrators do? Still, something does obviously need to be done, as this whole forum thread would indicate.
I have never personally experienced this lewd behavior, although on my way through the commons on two occasions, I did see some comments made which were quite explicit in nature although the words, if used in their proper context, were not lewd. It really surprises me that there are no in game mods yet KI advertises this game as kid safe and a family game, and reporting rules are so stringent that the majority of the offenders get away with their behavior. This is something KI really needs to look at more closely and take action, now, before it gets so bad that whole families will quit the game.
I totally agree with the suggestion that the offenders do not receive a message that they were reported, so they have no way of knowing that they were reported. Thumbs up to the OP and the rest of you who have supported this suggestion. Hopefully KI is listening and will do something about this soon.
This is an interesting conversation, one that highlights an important problem:
Since when is bullying and sexual aggression appropriate behavior in the Great Spiral? The many comments here that dismiss the problem are alarming to me, especially in light that some of them are from long-term players. Ignore it? Port away?
How about this scenario: My child goes to the Commons on his way to the Bazaar. He encounters someone who, say, doesn't like his outfit or mount. That person says mean things to my child, threatens to rape him, kill him, jumps on his avatar, etc. Now, this child of mine is not accustomed to being harassed and bullied. He does not act in such unacceptable ways, and he doesn't curse. He is a good and kind child. He has never encountered such ugliness in the Spiral in his 3 years of game play. Do you really think this child can keep his head straight to immediately get away?
Now, if I am with the child, should I turn my head from the abuse, and make the child log off? Does this teach the mean wizard to follow the rules? No, it teaches that person that he or she can easily get away with the same behavior the next time. Is this honestly what we want in the Spiral?
No, this is a situation in which the ball has been dropped, the standard lowered to unnacceptable gutter level. It's time to correct the problems. It's time to hold those who would abuse and bully others accountable for their actions. It's time to take responsibility for our environment.
Zeb, are you aware of what that dancing emote has come to signify? Do you really think dancing on your PvP enemies is appropriate, given the intention behind that act? Would you like for your child to encounter such unkindness in the Spiral?
As a mom, all I am asking is that everyone read the rules, follow the rules, and report transgressions of the rules, so my child is safe in the Spiral. Would it be unreasonable if I asked for wizards to be mindful, kind, and model good behavior?
As much as I would also hate to see it be removed, one of my wizards has also been the victim of this type of vulgarity and it is very unsettling to say the least.
I have to admit that it is fun to dance with our pets and will miss that, but I do not want to see another player especially a young child be subjected to this kind of lewd behavior.
Maybe somewhere down the road when players accept the fact that they can no longer use these fun emotes to enact highly inappropriate behavior the emotes could be enabled again, but at this point this has just gone more than way to far. It has gone to the limit as to make some players really cancel subs and many more seriously considering doing the same.
Fallon WinterLeaf
Only a child who has been exposed to vulgarity would know that the action was meant to simulate a vulgar act. Someone always shouts, "Won't someone think of the children?!" Their premise is flawed because they no longer remember what it is like to think like a child. I suppose if you allow your child to watch trash on television; then your child may have vague ideas, but they will still lack the comprehension of a teenager because they, hopefully, lack a teenager's experiences.
The ones misusing the emotes wouldn't miss them if they were taken away. Such people would be amused, and would imagine that they were the one's personally responsible for the emote's removal. Further, the misuse of innocent emotes for such a purpose would imply a high level of creativity, removing the emote would only inconvenience them for a short time. The problem being, that removing the emote would inconvenience everyone else permanently. I would not be surprised if a few individuals are actually trying to see how many words or emotes that they can get Kings Isle to remove. Indeed, I am sure that people make alts and do vulgar things in high traffic areas just to see how many reports they can get. Your opponents are like a rumor: the more attention you give them, the more you censor them, the more powerful they become.
The real way to stop this is for Kings Isle to not allow a person to know if they have been reported in game. The, "you have been reported," message only causes conscientious people to censor their own language or move to another location. The repeat or intentional offenders simply continue do vulgar things, because now they know they have an audience. The more warnings they get the larger they know their audience to be. It takes the fun out, if the rule breaker can't figure out how many people are paying attention, or which instance caused them to be muted or banned.
Of course you can simply ignore what I have said and continue to crusade for a Wizard101 that has all the character expression of an eight bit arcade game. Even if you win, people would still find vulgar things to do with their pixels.
Couldn't have said it better myself. I would like to add one thing. but it kinda has nothing to do with what you was saying. If they do remove this I would no long be able to fill up my dorm room with pets and the hop in the middle and do the dance emote. ever tried it? its fun having all kinds of pets run up to you and they are all dancing its so cute! and if you do the claping emote they dance to and get all happy. I hope they dont remove any emotes because of a few bad apples.
Norr, many of us have danced with our pets and will miss that too. If KI can do a proximity adjustment to emotes that will keep these offenders from being able to do this on top of another wizard then we would be just as happy to keep the dance.
@Qbb, Thank you. I do feel very strongly about keeping our children safe. I would also take action if I saw this kind of thing taking place in real life. Our children are the future and these sort of things being done against them is the most horrible that can be done. It is our responsibility to help clean up this game and make it safe once more.
We have no idea who is on the other side of that screen doing the most disgusting acts in a game that they should never have been able to do. These acts are bad enough on an adult but I don't think those that do them care who or the age of the players they do them to. That sends the wrong signals in my opinion and those players have absolutely no business being in this game or any other involving children.
For myself, as much as I would miss this emote, I am more than willing to accept that loss if it becomes necessary in order to stop this from happening to anyone else and especially a child.
Well, can you feel it in real life? No. I use it to intimidate my opponents in PvP, and I dance when my friends invite me to their fun parties. I know that this emote is a, little wrong in some cases, but some people are just wrong to be begin with. Sending video? Is it really bothering? I mean it's only pixels dancing on one another, which sounds wrong in theory. But in game it's just an computer character. Why does it bother people? Simply leave and go to another realm, nothing hard to do.
Hi SantaIceBurg,
Do you think it's modelling positive behavior to dance on your PvP opponents to intimidate them? What if your opponent is, say my 7 or 10 year old children. Do you really think such behavior is acceptable? If you acted this way to my child on the playground, I would call the police. If I saw it in the game, I would report you for bullying, a bannable offense.
In case you missed it, the dance emote is often used to simulate sexual behavior, consensual or otherwise, as in the felony offense called "rape". It is used to intimidate and upset wizards. It is used as a form of bullying. So, I just don't see how you could possible say "Why does it bother people?" .
Perhaps you are not an adult, a parent, or otherwise concerned about such issues. But I do hope you will take note that you are part of a larger community, one that contains LOTS of families and children, and you are responsible for helping to keep our game safe. I hope you care enough about the other members of the community to help clean up the Spiral, including the PvP arena, where so much of this poor behavior originated.
Removing the "you have been reported" message Add a ban to that person's MAC and I.P. address so they can not simply create a new account to continue their bad behaviour, and I am totally for that idea!
As for dancing, jumping, clapping and praying on another avatar's pixels? Simply moving away from them doesn't help. They follow you around the room and keep doing it, even when asked to stop. Someone above is correct in saying they want to know how large their audience is. They are showing off and looking for like-minded fans. Porting home, switching realms or ignoring the person calling me a racist word solves nothing. If they get no reaction from me, they will move to another victim, or focus on anyone that responds to their antics.
"It's just a word" or "It's just pixels" Words have weight, and hurt sometimes. Not physically, but psychologically. I suffer from depression, being called such names as I have been while playing hits home with deadly accuracy. I don't know about anyone else, but I feel connected to my avatar. I make my characters look just like me (except I don't have yellow eyes), and it becomes an extension of myself. Having someone dance, clap, prey or whatever while standing in the same place as my avatar violates my personal space.
It is not just myself I am worried about, either. I see often someone saying they will hack another person if they don't do what they are told. Or they threaten to find the person in reality and kill them. That kind of harassment and intimidation is uncalled for. I find it slightly funny - yet annoying at the same time - when someone has been reported they immediately look at their friends. Either they don't realize there are other people around them that can see what they are posting, or they don't expect anyone else to care what they post. It usually results in more swears, and thus more reports. It just keeps escalating
The language and behaviour is no longer limited to one particular building in one part of a zone. In recent weeks I have seen an increase in bad language on previously clean servers. It has spread beyond low level, free-to-play wizards and has appeared in Wisteria, Celestia, Grizalheim and Dragonspyre. It is no longer effective for a handful of good intentioned parents and grand parents with younger players to patrol a single zone. It is the responsibility of ALL players to report the bad behaviour.
"Reporting is for no life noobs" And getting on to a kid/family game to use foul language and lude or obscene actions/comments is okay? I don't have any issues with the word noob. It has been rendered meaningless by the younger generation of online interaction. Check out Wikipedia for a brief history of the word, and urbandictionary.com (possible language warning) for a more in-depth look. Contrary to the belief some of the transgressors, I - and the rest of "us" - do not spend my entire life on the game to hunt down the slightest swear word or inappropriate action. Most of us have jobs, education and families that are more important than babysit immature teens and young adults that can't control their own keystrokes. I don't get in to the game until mid-morning due to medical reasons. I spend a few hours questing with my lowbies, then start my rounds looking for foul language. Before anyone says anything about hunting the trouble makers, you should know that my niece (age fourteen) and nephew (age eleven) love to play this game...or they used to. Their mother took the game away from them until the language and bad behaviour is cleaned up and the game atmosphere is the way J. Todd Coleman intended. My niece comes to me every night asking if she can play yet. It breaks my heart when I tell her "no" as I click the report button because someone threw an F-bomb or worse. In some cases the people doing these things come to find us. They come to were we are, swear, then complain they were reported, usually using more swears to express how they hate to be reported. When they are finally muted, they quickly log in to a second, third, fourth, etcetera account and continue to announce how upset they are for being reported.
I will not punish myself by turning off my open chat just because someone else is breaking the rules. Here are [strike]three[/strike] five reasons that I think Support is wrong: -Most of the swears are typed in a way that can be read by text chat. -Menu chat is not communication in my opinion. -My vocabulary is far to extensive to be limited by menu chat. It would be an insult. -I will not punish myself by turning of my communication because others can not control their keystrokes. -I will not remove the privilege of open chat - which I paid for on three accounts.
Let's try to get the spiral back to the way J. Todd Coleman envisioned when he created the game.
You want to punish these vulgar dancers, but you don't seem to grasp that your ideas and their ideas of what punishments are do not match at all. These vile people thrive on attention, they find negative attention acceptable. They may want to be banned. They may have a collection of screen shots or emails on their computer, a sort of trophy room, for each dummy account they made and had banned or muted. The greatest punishments you can met out are seen as minor inconveniences to them or are even seen as rewards!
If you use swords to attack phantoms, or if you attack a swarm of flies with a battle axe. You are far more likely to hurt your allies, rather than your opponents, using direct force against such foes, is simply not effective
You cannot hurt the bad players because their value system is vary different from your own. You already know that the thing they enjoy is the filth that makes you sick. If they valued what you valued, then taking the emote away would punish them. If they feared the consequences you feared, then reporting them would cause them to behave. However, they continue to act badly no matter how many words are removed from filtered chat, and no matter how many times they are muted or banned. It would be safe to say that these slime do not fear what you fear, or value the privileges I choose to champion. They are not like you, they are not like me, things that would cause either of us to stop and take notice barely cause them to blink.
I was bullied in my youth. Looking back on my experiences, with my tormenters gone and the helplessness they caused me to feel only a memory, I see a pattern: The bullies wanted to be the focus of my attention. By various means they kept my attention. Indeed while tormented, I could think of nothing but the bully and their abuse. Surely that made them feel powerful? So the longer they tormented me, the longer they got to keep their feeling of power. Of course the teachers would find out and punish the bully. However the teachers had limited ability to punish a bully. The bullies were very aware of this. I now think about the situation: The bully had my unwilling attention, then later he would get the teacher's attention. The teacher was in charge, the boss, yet he was forced to give the bully his undivided attention whenever the bully wants him to. Perhaps the bully felt he had power over the teacher? Perhaps he would enjoy such a feeling? Perhaps the punishments given had been a kind of reward, from the bully's point of view? Perhaps punishments that are effective on regular students are less effective on bullies? Of course, in a school setting, the teacher must try to teach a bully the error of his ways. The teacher is obligated to guide the bully down the correct path. The mods of Wizard101 are under no such obligation, thus the situation is simplified.
So, my current plan of action. KI is made aware of the bullies action, but the bully can't be sure that they have KI's attention. Because the bully cannot see that they have been reported thirty times within the last five minutes. The only time the bully is sure that they have KI's attention is when the bully's throw away account becomes banned. This may happen within the hour, within a day or after several days. Which incident was it? Uncertainty undermines one's feeling of power. The bully is trying to get attention and is tormenting someone. Another player comes along and strikes up a conversation with the victim. The rescuer does not talk to the bully or mention the bully out loud. (pm's and reporting all can take place, but the bully has no clue) The rescuer either gives the victim a reason to leave the area with him, or stays and entertains the victim. The bully is deprived of the victims attention, and is ignored. Powerful people are never ignored, only nobodies are ignored. The bully moves on. In this way the game becomes like a desert. The bully or troll wanders from realm to realm finding no enjoyment. He can hold no one's attention. The bully is punished because the game is no longer fun to him, the bully has no feeling of power over others. The bully is banned or muted several times, but he can't tell when it was and the reason is always the same robotic answer: "you have broken the terms of service." The bully may rail and rage, but his forum posts are largely ignored by the other players, and perhaps the staff neither reply nor delete the post (unless the content of the post is against the forum rules.) Eventually the trouble maker leaves the game, of their own accord, and good riddance!
This dancing must be stopped, behind every person, there is a wizard, and what if that wizard is a young child, a young child that's being danced on! Honestly, I'm sure that the KI didn't mean to make emotes that certain people would abuse, it wasn't meant to be dirty, just some people brought the dirt inside. For whatever reason, these people want attention, and to get that attention, they will do that dancing thing to random wizards. If we remove the idea that they have attention, we will remove the problem. Instead of sending a pop up that they're getting a "warning" there shouldn't be one at all. Just get them to think that they have no audience, the beginning of the trap. Then get other wizards to spread out, and try to help everyone else leave, maybe by asking if they could help with a quest. Before long, everyone would be gone, the dirty wizard would have no audience, and would not be sure if they had an audience, and if they try to keep commiting these infractions, they will get banned, and they might not even know why that happened. Some wizards who are doing this are also just going with the flow. They do that to not get attention from KI, but to try to be 'cool'. Although it is certainly not the right way to do that, they may really have somewhat true intentions. We don't want to ban wizards that are just having a hard time in the wizarding world. Also, when the children are being harrassed, we know what's going on. A lot of us are smarter than others think. We may not know the exacts, but we know that something bad is going on. We will know what is happening, and we will do something about it. Most children are not ignorant.
