EMs need more power! (dealing with people)

[BlissMarie]

Look around you. In real life we have the same problem. If real life rules and etc. can't take care of it, then rules in a game surely can't.

The rules won't solve the problem. Disciplining the player once the rules have been broken will though, at least for a while. Once the player decides it isn't fun to misbehave if you end up being punished, at least some of the disruptive players will find something else to do.

BlissMarie

 

[RawHeadRex]

6 hour jail sentence followed by a 48 hour stat loss would do wonders ... empower the EM's please !

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

The EM's do a service to the community and I feel it is extremely rude and downright uncalled for when folk feel the need to ruin the event by acting out like a bunch of little kids. I often make the comment that "kindergarten" has let out.

However it's my belief that large scale events such as this should be policed by GM's who DO have the power to ban accounts and remove troublemakers.

Even if it's just occasionally I think it would get the message across that these events are not to be disrupted by unruly Trolls.

It's one thing to RP being a jerk it's another thing to ruin a public event for everyone else and just be a jerkoff. Anyone can act like a troll... but events such as these are not the time to be doing that.

To me this is one more reason why UO will never be popular again. Too many things go unpunished. And sadly I know a few who will no longer attend EM events because of the inability of EA to control the bozo's. It's nothing on the EM's certainly they are subject to more BS than anyone else at the Events. How many times I hear ..... "When are we getting something!" "I didn't get a _________. I want a ________. Give me your ________." Like a bunch of whining kids at a candy shop.

And top that off with other things said after the EM's take hours and hours out of their day and playtime to build an event they have to put up with crap like: "This sucks.... This event is stupid... That's BS... OMG this is so stupid... Why can't you _________." It's sick and it's sad. They put a lot of time into the events and in my opinion if your not having fun you know how to leave. I hate it when folk stand around and heckle the EM's and act like total jerks when if they aren't having fun they could do us all a favor and LEAVE.

And finally if you are just coming to "Get stuff".... then by all means, shut up and just play along... and don't gripe if you don't get something each and every freaking time. Get a life.

heh! perfect ...
Time for another "shard split" then? the red griefers remain in fel, the blue bully types in "rude brit", and the golden children can RP in glorious peace in RGsRP playland ... IC speech police, color coordinated fashion consultants, custom period piece tailors ...
Kidding ... but not so much ...

because, again, censor filter and ignore selection will handle quite alot of the "language aspect" ... need more room on the ignore list?
Dev's? can ya do a longer listing?
but but I PvP! tooo much bother to add/subtract ...
Dev's? can ya do a dual listing? One for events (active inactive) one for "all the time jerks"(always on)

The GMs can help spot police such and so ..
REALLY?
Slap your keyboard and go outside and introduce yourself to the sunlight
Please, do it now ...
I'm concerned that your health is in danger from bedsore like lesions ... really? GMs? logoff for a week or two.

Behavior falls to "Player Justice" ... tears off, crumples and tosses
Since Y'all can't/won't do ^that^

Naturally you want the mechanics or someone else to do it for ya ... to suit YOU ... Naturally
because that IS easier ... and "doable" (from the position in your chair)

no it is not easier for "them" to police the genpop
that is how we got here. "Them" catering to what their metrics say is needed.

Here: the DAEDALUS PROJECT: MMORPG Research, Cyberculture, MMORPG Psychology
Study up on PEOPLE and come back in a week.

 

[R Traveler]

Give EMs Medusa's petrify attack power

 

[Woodsman]

6 hour jail sentence followed by a 48 hour stat loss would do wonders ... empower the EM's please !

I posted this in the other thread, but Lake Superior EMs are already putting out notice about tonight's funeral:

(Just a heads up, there will be no slack for this event, if you are acting out of place or being rude <During the service>, action will be done, there is no 3 strikes for this.)

Actually, that message maybe from Mesanna, since this is the full message:

*Message from the boss*
(Just a heads up, there will be no slack for this event, if you are acting out of place or being rude <During the service>, action will be done, there is no 3 strikes for this.)

 

[Woodsman]

Look around you. In real life we have the same problem. If real life rules and etc. can't take care of it, then rules in a game surely can't.

The only solution that I and many like me have found to avoid the stress and despair of group interaction with predictable result is to become a loner. We lose big time on the one hand, but don't have to deal with the heartache, hurt and such that the group invariably does.

I don't think that is a solution.

If I'm at a movie and some 12 year olds are acting like little snots, I'm going to tell the manager and they are going to get booted out. They can laugh to themselves about how they were so cool to have gotten kicked out of the movie theater, but they got kicked out and people were laughing at them being kicked out, and their little egos will take a bit of a blow. Little kids will eventually learn to stop pulling this crap.

The solution is not to avoid the movie or try to see it at another time.

I sympathize, but if I want to watch little kids act like little kids, I'll offer to babysit my nephews some weekend. Not a favorite activity of mine.

 

[Bobar]

Yes indeed!. Do SOMETHING it is surely time?.

 

[Demonous]

Dawns funeral on pac tonight..

why can't someone have banned, squelched or dealt with the players spamming, cursing and just being plain vulgar?

Seriously? how hard is it?

the old EMs like 4 or 5+ years ago would squelch people and send them to jail often during the duration of events if they acted up, i had no problem with this and it kept people in line, so yes EMs should definitely have more power, what annoys me even more is that when an EM contacts Mesanna when people don't stop being annoying Mesanna simply talks to them instead of taking actions, if i was an EM you better believe people would be squelched, EMs need to stop living on Mesanna's tight leash and take charge on their own sometimes

 

[Demonous]

Before you pass judgement on me come spend a month on Legends then you'll understand. He and his boys are THAT arrogant. seriously!

that guy omnius is in L*D ? i was in that guild yearsssssss ago, how are they still in power there? i mean really someone needs to oppose them and overthrow them, i had fun in there for a while but had a falling out with Pug, hes not that nice of a person, dunno if he still plays

 

[Neutron Bomb]

Behold, the power of Squelch!

 

[lucitus]

There should be a system for that the EM can use they can jail them and then a dialoge opens you have disturbed the recent Event... 5 minutes until you get teleported out. After the jail disturbing again the time is doubled 5 minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes 40 minutes etc.

maybe also 5 15 1 hour as times. this would be fair and should not give the EM's too much power.

 

[Woodsman]

People were pretty well behaved tonight on LS, until the very end when the EMs started to leave.

We did have a large amount of idiots casting spells and who didn't understand that nightsight is available on jewelry and that maybe they should carry a piece instead of casting on themselves. I would ask if they realized how dumb they looked, but they kept doing it, so I doubt it.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

The funeral on GL had many of the same problems reported on Pacific, though it sounds like not quite to the same degree.

They (Mythic) know that big events like this are prone to griefers, or rather they would if they bothered to play. The EMs definitely know and have probably told Mythic. Its Mythic's ball to drop, and unsurprisingly, it has been dropped at every event like this. (No, not placing any blame for this on the EMs because the tools they are given aren’t up to the task.)

There are several ways to fix it.

1) Give EMs the squelch ability. The volunteer programs had it, both Counselors and Seers. Neither program had a mass of complaints about the use of the ability. Since UO chat can be logged, and everything the EMs do is probably logged as a CYA measure anyway, those who get squelched would have little room to complain.

Obviously rules would have to be posted as to what will be considered squelchable behaviors, and the EMs (and the players) would have to be 'trained' on them.

2) No-Speech/No-casting zones. We know they exist, the Court of Truth had a no-speech area once, and EM halls don't allow you to cast.

Make their creation a dynamic power, even if only one of Mesanna's. This way, an area could be set aside where only the EMs could speak - or only the audience (such as the funeral) couldn't.

This single option would go a long way towards making the 'scripted' events more enjoyable to all.

3) Physically disruptive people could be telestormed. This would move them to a random safe spot on the map and act as more of an inconvenience.

Repeatedly being telestormed, say 3-5 times in an hour, should send the player to a penalty box for another hour. The GM jail still exists and would be ideal for this.

If a player is repeatedly sent to the penalty box for disrupting events, their account gets flagged. At some point, their bad behavior needs to earn them a vacation (as determined by Mythic, not the EMs).

I’d love to see this message, posted nearly TWO YEARS AGO actually upheld:
UO Herald - Message from the Game Masters

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

I’d love to see this message, posted nearly TWO YEARS AGO actually upheld:
UO Herald - Message from the Game Masters

Heh! /LIKE

However ... not to be tooo soft here mind you ... but ...

Sending a player to GM holding cell ?

Possible life sentence you know ... GM parole wise ...
ie.
character death ... no resurrection ... again:
/LIKE ... *winks*
http://vboards.stratics.com/uhall/134234-%5Buo-herald%5D-message-game-masters.html

 

[hawkeye_pike]

The whole problem is that UO has become totally unrealistic. Even the king or queen in Britannia can be insulted by idiots without consequence. In a good game, I would expect the guards to either arrest such people (i.e. put them in jail for a week) or to simply slay them.

It isn't even necessary to go out of character for taking appropriate measures against spammers and other dorks. You could handle this totally in character and with existing game mechanics.

But well, that's what UO has become. A item-based sissy Trammel game where idiots rule the world and destroy UO for the rest of us while the Designers and GMs are watching and the EMs are powerless. I understand that UO is in desperate need for subscriptions, but I think that the plan of kissing the feet of the wrong customers will seriously backfire.

 

[MalagAste]

I must agree with Martyna.... something NEEDS to be done.

It burns me to no end that time after time nothing is done about Griefing... and while YES I am aware that there is a "IGNORE" button.... I don't want to spend 90% of my time trying to catch the freaking bar of 300 annoying jerk-offs when a bit of action by the DEV's or the GM's or even the EM's if given the power to do so could put an end to the behavior and after a few times of being squelched or telestormed folk would take the hint that that sort of behavior is NOT tolerated.

And furthermore what I was seeing and hearing was quite a bit of folk extremely unhappy with the event saying things like "This childish behavior is EXACTLY why I HATE this game... and do NOT attend events.".... and wondering why nothing is ever done.

What will it take before some sort of action is taken? Why do so many of us who enjoy and support the events have to put up with folk who only come there to ruin it and grief???

Do you want a petition????? If that's what you want I'll personally begin a crusade to flood you with emails to give the EM's some backing and bring some order to the events.




Fed up on GL's.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

MalagAste, maybe it would help when as soon as the disruptions start, ALL players immediately leave the event. Let them know that we no longer are interested in witnessing this stupidity.

 

[Gilmour]

while i think this is a good idea (that EM would get tools to uphold the rules of conduct) i also know that running an event leaves not much spare time doing so.

someone suggested to have a gm back em up, i would say this is the most viable solution. tho i realize gms generelly are busy enough without this additional task.

Gil

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

MalagAste, maybe it would help when as soon as the disruptions start, ALL players immediately leave the event. Let them know that we no longer are interested in witnessing this stupidity.

The inevitable result of this would be one of the following.

• The griefers get to enjoy the event on their own, leaving out those who actually want to be there for the event.
• If the event is rescheduled on the fly (an unlikely occurrence at best), the griefers learn how powerful they are, and are encouraged.
• If the event is canceled entirely, the griefers learn how powerful they are, and are encouraged.

And if you think the griefers will go away, letting the people who care slowly re-assemble and the event to proceed, you underestimate, rather badly, the tenacity of griefers.

-Galen's player

 

[canary]

MalagAste, maybe it would help when as soon as the disruptions start, ALL players immediately leave the event. Let them know that we no longer are interested in witnessing this stupidity.

One thing I've personally noticed is that, at least GL's case, there are quite a few guilds that delight in griefing. Sadly, these guilds are ALSO GL's largest.

So, yes, you might have 5-15 leaving, but 20-30 sticking around just to prove how socially impaired they are.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

unfortunately the people who spam profanity are only slightly worse than the people spamming STFU and such...

It's depressing that someone would even put these two things in the same category. One is a perpetrator, the other is a victim driven to distraction. While it is not a productive response it's rather understandable. And, most important, it's not a deliberate instigation.

Think about this logic.

• Person A griefs.
• Person B says "stop griefing."
• Person A griefs again.
• Person B says "stop griefing."
• Person A griefs again.
• Person B gets frustrated and says "stop griefing," plus a few extra words.
• Person C says "Person B is just as bad as Person A."

Person C's position is completely indefensible. Sorry.

-Galen's player

 

[Vallend]

MalagAste, maybe it would help when as soon as the disruptions start, ALL players immediately leave the event. Let them know that we no longer are interested in witnessing this stupidity.

Besides the griefers sticking around, you would also have those cross shard rares collectors sticking around. Matter of fact the rares collectors would be in heaven if all the shards normal players left the event. It would increase the chances of them getting rare item drops and rewards that they could resell for a fortune.

 

[Lady Michelle]

The Ems already have the power to take control
Its called the power to give out event items or not for that event. Know one ahead of time knows if they are giving them out. So if there is griefing then nothing is handed out to anyone. or the Ems could do this so the ones that dont grief dont lose out.
Use the Ems houses to pass out event items. A griefer comes up to get an event item the Ems boots them out, and they get nothing.

 

[Fayled Dhreams]

It's depressing that someone would even put these two things in the same category. One is a perpetrator, the other is a victim driven to distraction. While it is not a productive response it's rather understandable. And, most important, it's not a deliberate instigation.

Think about this logic.

• Person A griefs.
• Person B says "stop griefing."
• Person A griefs again.
• Person B says "stop griefing."
• Person A griefs again.
• Person B gets frustrated and says "stop griefing," plus a few extra words.
• Person C says "Person B is just as bad as Person A."

Person C's position is completely indefensible. Sorry.

-Galen's player

/false
Person C is correct
A & B are just two children squabbling in a sand box ... over sand.
When person C goes >beyond< forming and opinion / judgment(both just as bad)
By stepping in and "enforcing their(c) standards"

SAND FIGHT!!!
call the teacher/warden and lock it all down ...

>I< was having fun observing quietly(in silence using ignore/censor filter)
Then C comes in and ruins it ...

*shrugs*
That which angers you controls you ... someone quoted.

 

[Omnius]

It's depressing that someone would even put these two things in the same category. One is a perpetrator, the other is a victim driven to distraction. While it is not a productive response it's rather understandable. And, most important, it's not a deliberate instigation.

Think about this logic.

• Person A griefs.
• Person B says "stop griefing."
• Person A griefs again.
• Person B says "stop griefing."
• Person A griefs again.
• Person B gets frustrated and says "stop griefing," plus a few extra words.
• Person C says "Person B is just as bad as Person A."

Person C's position is completely indefensible. Sorry.

-Galen's player

Person B doesn't begin by saying stop griefing. Person B begins by spamming a counter strand of profanity, often worse than Person A's. Person B covers just as much, if not more text of the EM and gets his friends to join in.

So it becomes Person A, plus Persons B-H, and Person I says all of them are griefing.

 

[Uriah Heep]

I still think there should be an invisible GM at each event, and if you get too out of hand, you get to see Bucs for a bit, and your account is 24'd. It really wouldnt take too many times of that, with escalating penalties for repeaters, to stop this crap.

Ya know, enough with the talk of the workarounds and use ignore and just don't go if ya don't like it. And how to get the EMs to fix it, they got enough on their hands running the event. We've run simple events before, it's a handful. I want them doing what they are paid for, running the event. Get some GMs, or Devs if they will do it, and enforce the rules. This bull**** of how to deal with it shouldn't even have to be discussed...and we shouldnt have to fill up an ignore list to fix it. Got enough in there now just from normal gameplay.

I know it's a game...but unlike PK'ing and PvP and thieving, Griefing and disrupting are neither playstyles nor skills. So if thats your intention, dont go, unless you wanna come here tomorrow and cry about how unfairly you were treated by the Secret Police I can hear it now:

"All I did was ask for one of those pretty pink things *cries*"

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

/false
Person C is correct

Nope; sorry.

I, for one, prefer to assign blame for bullying and disruptions on the bullies and the disruptors, not those who react poorly to being bullied and disrupted.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

-Galen's player

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Person B doesn't begin by saying stop griefing. Person B begins by spamming a counter strand of profanity, often worse than Person A's. Person B covers just as much, if not more text of the EM and gets his friends to join in.

So it becomes Person A, plus Persons B-H, and Person I says all of them are griefing.

What you describe I have not seen.

What really happens is Person A disrupts, Person B objects, Person A responds with further disruptions, threatening Person B with GM paging.

As I just wrote to someone else, I, for one, prefer to assign blame for bullying and disruptions on the bullies and the disruptors, not those who react poorly to being bullied and disrupted.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

-Galen's player

 

[sablestorm]

I have to ask what was actually said during the funeral. Were they being critical of the queen or just talking smack? Some(who actually pay attention) were happy to witness Dawn`s death.

Actually there was only one or two guys disrupting the funeral. He would park himself front and center so his masses of text would be eye catching. It didn't cover the EM text because they had a cordoned off area, but it was still pretty distracting. He was basically calling the event lame non stop and insulting everyone for being pathetic for taking part in it.

The night before there were a couple of guys acting squirrely at the EM event, simulating public sexual contact with each other. Mesanna turned up and warned them and that's when one of them started pestering Mesanna herself. He even called her the B-word at one point.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

This happened on GL last summer during a pirate event involving EM driven boats:

A mass of people, fresh from being trapped in a room full of overpowered undead, are asked to get into two boats so the EM (RPing the Captain of the Royal Guard) can follow the coordinates on a map to find a fleet out at sea.

So, while most people filed onto the boats in anticipation, ONE person held up the event for 15 minutes because he thought it was HILARIOUS to cast field spells onto the water - trapping both EM boats. Did he stop when he was asked by the EM? No. Did he stop when he was asked by the mass of players? No. Did he stop when players started 'asking' in a not-so-nice manner? No. Even when the EM pulled him off the boat, his behavior continued. He was ENCOURAGED by the negative attention.

Having the players who are actually there to enjoy the events be the ones to leave is as assbackwards as the current harassment rules. The EMs deserve the ability to silence or remove disruptive players, not have to continually work around the childish antics.

As Galen said, disrupting an event isn't about a play style, skill, or any thinly veiled "RP" desire. Its about making a bunch of people upset, nothing else.

 

[Farsight]

I have only support for the original post. The EMs need the ability to do something about rude/obnoxious language.

But for the mean time, here is what I do.
I show up early to any given event (about 10 minutes is good)
I set a certain 2 guilds to ignore the second they walk in (Used to be 3, but one guild moved to another shard or broke up). Everyone who attends events should know who those guilds are on your shard. It doesn't matter to me if they are currently being bad, just that they might be.
Then I enjoy a relatively peaceful event.

After the event, I clear my ignore list of all but the most obnoxious, since some of the people I ignore for events are friends of friends and don't know they're on my list.

I ignore people instantly, since when they walk in, they usually sit still for a while before the EM shows up.

In this last event, I only had to ignore one person while the event was running.

 

[Gilmour]

ORIGIN - Ultima Online - Main

....IF YOU BREAK ANY OF THESE RULES, YOUR ULTIMA ONLINE ACCOUNT, AND YOUR RIGHT TO USE THE ULTIMA ONLINE SERVICE, MAY BE TERMINATED IMMEDIATELY BY ORIGIN SYSTEMS.....

THE RULES ARE:
1) You may not harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to another player.

2) You may not use any offensive or sexually explicit language.

3) You may not use any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable language toward any other player.

............

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU AGREE TO THESE RULES AND WILL ABIDE BY THEM.

...........

Link to Rules of Conduct


all it says like any rules of conduct for any game is "Be nice, don't be an ass" Unfortunetly the ones that that these rules are written for are ppl who either don't care about behaving bad and/or laugh in your face when you mention the RoC and call you a nerd and whatever else for mentioning them.

although i must admit that i have been around in some other games, which has been much much worse, in terms of bad behavior...

but would be nice if there was some enforcement of these rules