EVE and the troll

Considering how close the post is to the paper that is due in class, here is a small (edited) excerpt from that paper. It talks about a character that goes by the name WuSE. He is a bit of an eccentric character. However, he is still well liked within the channel (especially by those of us with a more cynical and dark sense of humor).

WuSE is a very adamant hater of trolls. EVE Online is rampant with trolls. Given the complex nature of the game though, many are legitimate questions by newbie’s. In EVE the difference between a troll and a newbie is whether or not they take the advice and don’t repeatedly ask the same question. If some one does troll, WuSE has no qualms about blocking them from chat. He also emphatically shouts “BLOCKED!” in chat. Donath (1998) again gives good descriptions of trolls, and also that it is best to not encourage them. However, he also mentions that people who expect trolls everywhere can unintentionally hurt legitimate questioners (p. 14-17). The shouting of “BLOCKED!” is also similar to Donath’s “Plonk!” to killfiling. The point of shouting it is to announce to the troll that you’re done with them (p. 21).

Newbies

Early in ones EVE Career you are placed in a starter corporation. Corporations are EVE’s versions of clans, guilds, or outfits. The game is actually very capitalistic centered. If it happens to be your first time playing EVE, then your new account and character has special access to a newbie help chat channel. All sort of people abound in this channel. More than one is actually an experienced player who has simply purchased a new account. But many more are genuinely new characters.

What is important in this channel are the moderators. They are either employees of the company, or volunteers that are very experienced with the game. Their job is to answer any newbish questions anyone might have. Another good thing about this channel is that many people have the same questions, so if you ask one, more often than getting a response from an ISD (the game helpers), you will get one from another player who previously asked the question.

And unlike other games, the moderators actually take action when they are confronted with rude, obnoxious players who troll or won’t listen. And spammers are dealt with quickly and decisively. The red text that they use in chat draws everyone’s attention and respect.

The Basics

This is basically an overview of what EVE Online is. EVE is one of the largest massively multiplayer games there is. It honestly has the largest game world, with over 25,000 players online at a single time (at non-peak times). Yes, its true that other MMOs such as WoW have more players total. But EVE’s beauty lies in the simple fact that there is only ONE “realm”. So all those players can interact with each other simultaneously if they wanted.

Such ability to interact provides a rich basis for events to spontaneously occur in game. This is also a key in the greatness of potential conversations between players.

The Beginning

This is going to become the home of my own personal thoughts and takes on EVE Online. Most of this will actually focus on how people communicate within the game. You might not realize it, but EVE has a very in depth and sophisticated chat tool.