BANNED!

Well I got banned from Lum the Mad and the Vault. What did I do to deserve such treatment? Was I rude? Did I use profanity or insult the ethnicity or heritage of others engaging in the conversation?

No, I was basically summarily dismissed for being a "troll". I hardly think that anyone who reads my columns would in any way consider me a troll. I personally think that I just stepped on some toes when I questioned the wisdom of Mythic Entertainment's hiring of "tweety" (see this rant), and also during the course of the conversation had a few comments to make about the president of that company, whom I thought was behaving rather immaturely in the forum. However, now that I've take a few weeks off to ponder the incident, I have a better understanding of why SOE closed down their open forums, and a better understanding overall of the entire MMOG industry.

This MMOG industry has evolved in a very tribalistic manner. The professionals, that have been gaming online in text-based MUDs for several years, all developed extreme versions of the "tribe" mentality, where they formed cliques which assaulted anyone unlike them both in the game and on any message boards pertaining to the game. Perhaps this was more a result of the generally socially-stunted mentality of those who found and were able to play and remain in such games when it was basically only available to "computer nerds"; perhaps it's just indicative of humanity as a whole.

In any event, over time this cliquish mentality has become the "developer/fanboy" symbiotic relationship. Those of the tribe that could, have gone out to create the MMOGs we see coming out over the next few years; those that could not have remained behind creating fan sites and message boards dedicated to their successful idols. Many of them hope, one day, to become employed by their idols, and so begins a very strange, inbred relationship.

If you go on a fan site with an open forum and disagree, or post virtually anything that is not basically kissing the ass of the developers, the rabid fan-boys descend upon you and attack with vicious glee. You can be articulate, reasoned, and engage in discussions about side issues and even display humor, but if you hold on to your position that is critical of the company or product or developer decision, eventually you are summarily banned from the site.

It wouldn't have been so troubling had a prominent figure in the MMOG industry not shown up and lent his ridicule to the spectacle. This appalling display of childish appreciation for the drooling sycophants shocked me; that he would actually participate in such behavior on a public board for any reason was a real eye-opener. It bodes ill for the industry that so many of its prominent leaders are so myopic that they don't even realize what's wrong with ridiculing potential customers and behaving like a vicious juvenile in a public forum. That they can't see past the rabid fanboy appreciation on the boards and understand that they are making fools of themselves only lends evidence to the fact that they are too immature to understand there is more to their product than the superficial worship of a handful of game junkies.

Of course, the fanboys on the sites think this is great. They cheer every time a developer or other industry insider makes a snide response, or ridicules the "outsiders", or thumbs their nose at those not in their eclectic little circle, because it makes them feel like their part of the "in" crowd. That is the nature of the public forum on the internet; people form gangs and try to become the "in" crowd by deciding whom to ridicule and whom to support. Most of the time they become the sycophants of those running the boards and ingratiate themselves to their good will. Humans being what they are, this leads to favoritisms and cliques result. Add to that the nature of the evolved MMOG gaming sector of the population, and you have it worse many times over.

And what it essentially boils down to is a self-sustaining cesspool of inbred thought when it comes to the MMOG industry. Those that disagree are PvP'ed off the boards. Those that are insistent are discredited as being "just a troll", a label that allows everyone to dismiss and freely ridicule, and eventually ban, the individual. And so those that are creating these games, and maintain them, come from this same shallow, vicious pool, and look to please those in that pool, and refuse to allow anyone truly different to enter the pool.

Witness ... not long after Lum the Mad had me booted from his site for taking on Mythic Entertainment ... he himself becomes an employee of that company. Enough said?

The problem is that 90% of the people actually playing these games - the average, casual player - doesn't play like the rabid fanboys and their sycophant developers, nor do they want the same things out of the game. They don't enjoy the game for the same reasons. They don't have the same motivations or desires when it comes to the game, but the developers have no way of understanding this ... because whenever a casual player finds one of their little clubhouse message boards, and posts something from that casual gamer point of view, they are blasted for it, told they don't understand, shoved aside because they aren't "real" players, branded as jealous or "lame" or as a "troll" because they aren't subservient enough to the ruling clique or they don't first cut off a finger to the MMOG god du jour.

Then the developers miss the input that comes from those representational of 90% of their actual client base. Which would matter, if they were actually concerned about satisifying these customers ... but they are not. They are interested in ridiculing them and feeling superior to those that actually fund their continued success, because by belonging to a clique the masses are not allowed into, nor allowed to contribute to, they satisfy their own childish sense of self-importance.

Original article on Lum The Mad

Discussion board on LTM - read it yourself and decide if I should have been banned.