Recent Experiences with DB Haters

[Hor]

Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of reporting not just one; but two different people for harassment. The first was about a week ago, I was on my way to Mana Tombs. When I got down to the bottom of Auchindoun, I ran by the summoning stone and noticed this tauren hunter. I asked him if he needed any help, figured he was waiting on someone to come help summon his group. His response was, "Go away fukkface hacker, gtfo my server." So, I said, "Excuse me? I was just offering to help you summon." Again, harsh retort. "You herd me fukker, gtfo shithed." Honestly, I was momentarily dumbstruck by the mendacity of this little punk. I wished him a good day and headed to Mana Tombs, then I see him bashing me in general chat. I zone in, and away from his abuse. I didn't bother putting him on ignore, because he hadn't whispered me yet. So, I figured I'll leave him alone, he'll leave me alone. Then I receive a whisper, "lulz bai bai fukkface haxor, your ass is goin down!". So, I reported him. Within minutes I was contacted by a GM, asking me what happened. I copied verbatim what the guy had said to me. And the GM said, "Sorry about that, thank you for contacting us. We'll make sure the matter is taken care of." I had added the Tauren to my friends list with a little note reminding me of who he was, a few minutes after speaking to the GM I see the tauren go offline. By the time I'm up to the second boss in MT I get a whisper from some stranger, it turns out it's this Warrior, he's in a pretty respectable PVE guild on the server. He asks me why I got his kid banned. So, I told him exactly what his kid had said, and that I did not appreciate anyone talking to me like that for any reason, least of all when I was simply offering assistance, furthermore I explained that I was not a hacker, exploiter, or botter: simply a dual-boxer. He apologized for his son, and thanked me for my candor. Then assured me it would be taken care of. Then he was offline. I decided to add the warrior to my friends list, just incase. Then ... I get a whisper from a character with a name very similar to the hunter I'd recently spoken to, it was the kid. I could all but hear the sniveling. Turns out, the kid's only 11. His dad was pissed, because he just xfered that hunter off of his account to this new account for his son to play, because he'd proven he was grown up enough to finally have his own account (and I imagine so the dad didn't have to fight with his son to log on). The account had received a temp suspension, and now had a warning attached to it. The kid said he was sorry, that he had no right to talk to me that way. And that he hoped we could be friends when he was ungrounded from WoW, he thought it was cool and was just jealous.

Then my second, most recent (a few minutes ago). First, I must preface by saying that I've been somewhat lucky, I'm in a small guild of RL friends, who are actually supportive of my MB habit. They want me to box in Kara, etc. Today I did ZA for the first time with part of my team. I got a Shield for one of the Shamans, and went to Org to get some mats off of the AH to enchant it. I park the Shamans and run inside with my Pali. I come back and there's a lock talking trash, calls me "fag", "no skill, no life loser". Etc. Now, I hadn't spoken to the guy, I scrolled up ... this was his first comment to me. So, when he asked me if I could talk I said hello on the Paladin, and explained to him that I was in the AH. Normally, when I'm outside of an instance, I heal people, buff them, help them kill a tough encounter (ROB or Durn, I do that a lot actually). So, the guy starts in on me, "So fag, how much have you wasted doing this?" I shrugged at him and reported him. Sometimes, you encounter ignorance and stupidity in the world, and there's no reasoning with it. I put him on ignore and went on ... then I noticed something interesting. A guy said something in trade that seemed related, "Idiot, he's a nice guy. If it wasn't for him my group would've wiped hard on ROB a few days ago." A few others started in, I realized the lock was talking trash in trade, and there were these people defending me based on their experiences with me.

As I was saying, I've been fortunate. Random hate has been at a reasonably minimal amount since I started seriously boxing in WoW. Nine times out of ten I get "WOW, wtf." kinda messages, or "HOLY CRAP, HOW U DO THAT?" (for some reason they like ALL CAPS). I thought for a moment about cancelling my report on the guy, I've only reported people maybe 2-3 times ... since I started playing MMOs way back with UO, AC, and EQ. Then I thought better of it, maybe this guy needs a little wake up call. He, like many children I've encountered as a educator, he needs to understand that randomly blurting out whatever they think is "cool" will eventually end up being heard by someone who won't stand for it, and may infact do them physical harm in response. I'm hopeful that the guy will get a clue, and learn a lesson. But more likely, he won't.

And for those that managed thru that wall of text, I thank you.

[Caspian]

I had to lay the smack down on one of my kids for being a jerk in game. Wasn't as bad as the kid you encountered but still. No problems from her since though.

It is good that Pops got involved, it is exactly what I did. Good parent. It is also cool to see you getting support from the general population for your random good deeds.

[Day2]

ROFL well being A MB myself I have had my share of harrasment to so hats off to you man.

[Solon]

Why is it that a WoT usually equals win if it is coupled with punctuation? Very nice read, thanks for sharing.

My own personal experience (at least the one that really stood out) was first starting my 5 BE pally team. Since I can't stand the appearance of male elves (either type) they are all female. Some kid in the noob zone walks up to my characters and says "I have a huge d!ck." My reply, "You are a liar, now don't make me report you for sexual comments before I even get my macros set up." His said, "I am in sixth grade." Okay, so maybe he IS in sixth grade, and needs to learn a lesson, or maybe he isn't and is hoping I will be more lenient to a child. So I reported with a "this kid needs a good solid warning, but probably not a ban". I told him I reported him. He said, "B!tch." My final reply, "Now go away before I report you four more times." Never saw him again, and I have yet to see him logged in since.

[Vyndree]

Pops got involved, it is exactly what I did. Good parent.

QFT.

I'm glad to hear the parents got involved.

[Dooz]

My email is on my children's accounts, even my adult children (20 and 18). If they screw up I know about it. My kids are generally well behaved, and I don't have to worry much. However, My 14 year old recently got a warning for the anal thing. I told him his WoW days were over if he got another one. I'm not the worlds greatest parent... far from it, but I would hate to think that one of my kids, adult or not, was being an ass... in game or out. Trade/World/Zone chat is off limits to him now, except for trading.

[accretion]

Dooz, that is one of the best avatar pics I've ever seen. I repeatedly lol at the sight of it. I know, I know, I'm a bit twisted.

[valkry]

I lold at the lock saying you have "no skill"...a lock...lol.

[shaeman]

I lold at the lock saying you have "no skill"...a lock...lol.

*sigh*. Do we really need to slam an entire class in WoW because of the comments of one moron in game?

[EvilSqueegee]

I tend to get a very varied set of responses from the players I encounter in-game. To my knowledge, I'm the first multiboxer on my server - Cenarian Circle - or, at least, the first one that was so noticeable (it's one thing to see a pally following a warrior, but five identical shamans tend to stick out. :P)

At the point I'd started multiboxing, I was already a bit of a voice in Trade chat. I'm a chatterbox, and I love conversation. Like having a good time, etc. Of course, names frequently spotted in public chat channels get ragged on. And *this* particular voice happens to be *ghasp* multiboxing. As a result, I tend to be avoiding stalker-esque 'overlyfriendlies' as much as I do the random hate. Some of the best examples over the past few months, though... hmm.

As far as supportive experiences - well, I myself also have a bunch of friends I've played with for a long, long time. Living right next to Boston, it's not something I'd call a real-life friend crew, given they live in canada. But we've been playing together since before BC was released. They made bags, helped me coordinate macros, and even recently helped me chew on the leaderess focusless system until I'd wrapped my head around it so I could get it working. Good group of kids.

The negatives, though... yeesh, which ones do I start with? I'd have to say, out of all the random, unasked for, unprovoked idiocy I encountered, the guy who accused me of being a pedophile has to take the cake. It's been a few weeks, but it was fairly recent. Something about me having the technical know-how it takes to multibox made me a kid-snatching fiend for some reason. He told me I needed help, and that I was being reported to the GM's so I could get that help. And in-between his tells to me, he'd have me on ignore. Not that it mattered, what with the four other shamans. I was too busy laughing anyways.

Then there's the guy who's been abusing the system for the sole purpose of frustrating me to high hell and back. And it's almost worked a few times, too. I must say I was pretty frustrated when the 5 shamans got hit with a forced name-change, because apparently Plox, Plocks, Plocs, Plawks, and Plockz (I don't even think I spelled them all right, lol) were leetspeak of some kind.

The fact that he then rolled a level 1 alt named Plox (the toon I'd used as a leader before the focusless setup, and thus the name the server knew me by), and started harassing people with tells for cyber and so forth, was about where I drew the line. I was fine changing names (at least until I learned it DESTROYED my macros). I filed a ticket, the GM gave me the name Plox back, and then told me I'd have to contest the other names through the email system. I just haven't had the time to sit down and write out the RP story behind Plox (given it's an RP server) and I really don't want to think too much on the situation as a whole. I have to walk on eggshells around naming policies (including guild names, etc) which isn't so easily done on an RP server simply because he's gone on such a crusade.

But in the end, it doesn't really matter. I was going to drop 40$ to rename them to Plox and the four accent variations anyaways. Now I just have to wait three months to do it.

Out of idle curiosity, am I the only one who slaps up a DND during BG's that tells people to report you if they think it's hacking or whatever? I find myself so drowned in tells that if I don't just slap up a DND message and PVP, I'm idle more than I'm active. -.-