The atmosphere in UOSA’s forums and IRC outside of UO is not good and it makes this community unattractive as a place to game. Because after all, that is what UOSA is about: a video game that’s supposed to be fun to indulge in occasionally. I am writing all this after having spoken with many new players that I have helped in the past several months to become set up, by actively making social programs for them, and because I was partially victimized myself.
What is going to be discussed in this post is the harassment outside of the game, harassment that is supposed to be illegal. This is not a rage post or a post meant to demonize anyone.
-- I was particularly mortified to hear a story of one player's constant sexual harassment. I will not share her story at this time and hope she will come forward with all the facts.
With in this discussion, I will demonstrate:
#1. An example of an extreme harasser.
#2. Staff unwilling to enforce rules concerning harassment.
#3. The clear inadequacies and non function of system tools to protect players from harassment.
The social atmosphere is practically the sole reason the population is low and new players are saying they don’t want to stick around due to a few things I will discuss. After reading this, you can no longer act as if you don’t understand why the population continues to shrink and no one is staying around for long.
After recently being disrespected by Anarcho, it was insinuated that I was a liar and then I was ironically banned for 24 hrs for asking Anarcho to enforce the rules. All due to the fact I too am tired of being harassed, the ignore feature on IRC was being bypassed by a player changing his name/internet service, and add foe on forums does almost nothing.
I took a week to reflect before I decided to speak up for whats right.
As a UOSA community, I think its important we have an open discussion about some dysfunctional factors going on.
So get your popcorn...... you're going to need it. Sit back, relax & enjoy this.
Let’s get started.
#1. Vega: UOSA’S Harasser
Vega is not actually the richest player or the best at pvp. Vega is simply UOSA’s #1 harasser. He has completely derailed many threads in the trade section and second age discussion that have nothing to do with him by harassing the authors and/or participants. This includes threads about donating to the shard. He has been jailed in game temporarily for racist harassment of someone who didn’t want to do business with him (a new player). He has also been banned from IRC for calling people names like n*gger, sp*c, and making homophobic remarks, and yet is still consistently in secondage IRC openly all day long smack talking everyone anyway he can.
Here are some of the rules:
^ Truth is, we all know that in SecondAge IRC all Vega does is flame and harass individuals all day long.
I have personally done /ignore Vega in IRC just to have him switch ip and nick to send me photoshopped doctored pictures of myself. He then drunk messaged me about "f***ing me in the *ss". Pretty ridiculous, right?
I also added foe his forum account, and told him that I don’t care who he is or what he has to say. I asked him to please stop messaging me, stop posting in my threads with his drama, and he still continually harasses.
Prime example: viewtopic.php?f=74&t=59869
I have only ever done ONE deal with Vega, it was completed without incident: viewtopic.php?f=74&t=59587
And yet:
For the record, I have never scammed ANYONE actually.
Its one of the major reasons I was invited into the "Merchant Association".
Who even does any trade with Vega? No one lol. Certainly not me, and I certainly have never scammed him.
It is simple harassment, and this is all done while his account was "Add Foe" to mine. This is the also same player who carpet bombs new players as harassment, has admitted to hoarding homes on his friend’s accounts because his are all full, and makes fun of new players openly in IRC #SecondAge when they ask for assistance...
SECONDAGE CHANNEL RULE:
I simply don't want to interact with him on UOSA and I know I'm not the only one.
This person is always on UOSA, due to a lack of social life, constantly demanding negative attention from everyone.
This player does NOT donate to the server and continually runs off new players by making them enemies then harassing them non-stop.
#2. Anarcho’s Logic of Blaming The Victim, His Abrasive Personality, and Disregard For The Rules
Let me start off by saying that I am a 6 year vet who remembers him very well as Hemporer.
I have also never had a single problem with any GM in my over 6 year tenure on UOSA.
I have also taken up for Anarcho a lot recently when many players say he is horrible, both on forums and in IRC.
I have even sent him encouraging messages thanking him for being an active GM, since they seem to be in short supply.
However, I am tired of being disrespected with out any real reason.
I feel the reason Anarcho is so abrasive and argumentative is because Anarcho is after all this same Hemporer, viewtopic.php?f=26&t=6587, and because he says he doesn't have time for UOSA.
Below are a few interesting snippets of my last conversation with Anarcho a.k.a. Hemporer.
My Favorite:
As you can see, instead of enforcing the rules he blamed me for speaking up against a harasser.Derrick wrote: We also expect the Staff to respect the Players. If you have an incident with a staff member we will do our best to find a way to resolve it.
For the record, I have only come to him with a problem maybe 3 times in the past 2-3 months.
So the whole "you are constantly bothering me" attitude is way over the top.
If the GMs are this over stretched and angry, then maybe there should be more GMs?
Because the lack of human supervision is exasperating the lack of system functions.
This should be the opposite.
It's supposed to be human supervision is to support and oversee system functions already in place.
Everything seems very dysfunctional, lets move on.
#3. The Many Ridiculous Short Comings of Add Foe on Forums & /ignore on IRC.
Add foe is supposed to be the UOSA forum’s version of block. It almost does nothing.
A player can still send you private messages, see your threads, post on your threads, -1 your karma, and post inflammatory remarks on your forum karma to harass you. All it does is sometimes, because its buggy, hide their post… although it doesn’t even hide the fact that they made a post. There are many holes for a stalker type personalities to find ways to harass and make themselves relevant in someone’s world.
/ignore is the command you type in IRC that is meant to block out a player, however on UOSA there is a problem….
The majority of players, especially new ones, click the IRC link on the main web page, and its impossible to /ignore someone with the client that comes up with that link. It literally tells you that when you try.
You have to find and use another client for the ability to /ignore someone.
Another issue is a player that is asked to stop harassing, gets /ignore command done, then logs on with another ip and/or nick to continue harassing.
The bottom line is this: If a player is habitually harassing everyone, the player needs to be banned regardless of whether or not the GM used to be a habitual harasser. This is because players don’t want to be a part of a community that has NO standards. It’s a video game that is supposed to be fun and it’s not fun to be constantly hounded by some loser desperate for attention. This is exactly why the server population is low and the donation bar is getting very red.
Telling players to utilize dysfunctional tools and not enforcing the actual rules against harassment, especially for habitual offenders, is immoral and unethical.
It’s a slippery slope. Is this the kind of community you want to play a game in?
More often than not, new players are saying “No”, and the population is now dipping into the lower 100’s at peak.
The second age donations bar is looking very red too.
^ I’ll redo my subscription after a few changes are made. Especially for new players who have no idea what to do.
