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Stressful community


SchwaAkari

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I will preface this post by saying I'm not calling anyone or any group out for anything, nor is this meant as an angry rant or whine or whatever. Actually I'm just curious about other people's opinions on it (seeing if I'm alone or not) and am interested maybe in a personal solution for myself (other than "ignore it").

 

So! I'm brand new to this genre of gaming (calling it the "hypercompetitive multiplayer" sub-genre, same vein as League or Starcraft where leaderboards and rankings and moving up are the actual objects of the game, etc), I got into Blade&Soul because I'm a junkie for Dark Souls PvP but also wanted to try something I've never tried before, the feeling of being a complete beginner again in something sounded fun. The only other MMO I've ever played was Mabinogi (made by Nexon, the creators of MapleStory) which was strictly NOT competitive, it was a very old and tired MMO but filled with a small community of really nice and extremely social people, to the point that many active players recognized each other's usernames just seeing them out and about over time. I humorously make the analogy that moving from Mabi to B&S is a lot like moving from the country out into a sprawling downtown metropolis, having never even been in one before.

 

*takes a sip of coffee*

 

Currently I'm a Level 40 KFM, have done the PvP Arena for a bit (specifically after getting absolutely frustrated with open-world Faction PvP and being ganked and then spawncamped and then called names by griefers 10-20 levels higher than me every time I run dailies) and the Arena is SO MUCH FUN in comparison! Combat-wise it is everything I hoped for and more, even when I get completely blown up by a better player, it has a lot of the same positive feeling I have in Dark Souls's arena or when I invade a good player and we fight one-on-one. I do get frustrated during a blowup when I have no idea why the other guy just stunned me or avoided some attack I did, etc, which I'm pretty certain is from me being a newbie and needing to learn the matchups, just like my earliest days in Dark Souls, thinking I could running-attack a guy casting Dark Bead and it ending remotely well (that spell works like a shotgun and frequently one-shots players that are right in melee range, when all five orbs hit him at once before they spread out when fired). Even last night I finally beat a Blade Dancer running an Evasion build or using whatever that skill was that grants him all that immunity to stun attacks! I feel like I'm learning the "don'ts" a little at a time.

 

But here's the part that is NOT fun: the atmosphere. Like, in lobby Region chat, the atmosphere there. It is literally like someone took five hornets nests and smooshed them all together and they're now an infinite storm of anger and hatred. I have never seen so much venom on the internet in my life. Even after muting all the spam bots, the chat scrolls almost too fast to read and it is ALL messages saying "BLANK is OP", "BLANK requires no skill", "BLANK sucks", "people who play BLANK are trash", "people who do BLANK are no-lifes", etc etc. And any time a voice of reason tries to speak up, they gang up on him and assault him personally (as if "virginity" even has anything to do with this game or what class you like the best) until he is forced to leave. It's the most vile and saddest thing to watch and it's seriously ruining the fun parts of PvP for me. I can't even feel as confident anymore when I win or lose because I get worried that the other guy on his side of the screen is calling me names at his screen or is angry at his screen for a "trash KFM virgin" or whatever beating him, the times it happens. I can't speak up and say "GG that was fun" with certainty anymore, I can't ask questions about "why did this thing happen" anymore (they usually ignore me anyways), I basically feel completely unwelcome as part of this game.

 

And even worse? I've had friends come up and tell me "hey, League is even worse". That's unbelievable! Knowing that there is even a "worse than this" honest to god makes me ashamed to be human. "I could have been a dog or a dolphin and at least I wouldn't have to hate myself for being part of such a hateful species"; those are the emotions I'm feeling. Again I realize I'm an absolute newbie to this genre of gaming, so it's probable that there's a bunch of social nuances I'm unfamiliar with and that's why this atmosphere issue gets me so much. I really just feel overwhelmed. I don't know what to do, and worse, I don't know what to feel. I'm being shown that it's right or wrong to feel specific emotions if I am to be allowed in the PvP community. It's new and it's aggravating and I can't handle it.

 

So I'm doing that thing I often do when I'm stressed, and writing out my feelings! I already feel a huge amount better. But I'd love to know, what do the rest of you think of the supposedly toxic state of the PvP community? Is it just me who feels like this, or are there other, similarly-upset kindred spirits that have something to add or bring up? And if so, what do people here do to cope with it, other than "ignore it"? I don't want to ignore it, I want to be a part of the community here and I'm as excited about that prospect now as I was even before the game was out and I was all hype for its release day, but I want to do it without turning myself into a hate-filled monster. Finding where I belong in any new group is always so hard, I can never tell if I'm doing something wrong, especially when nobody's willing to tell me...

 

I guess I'd also like to mention the PvE community, if we can call it that-- like, Region-chat in the actual in-game areas-- is super the opposite. Very fun and inviting, usually some either informative or just funny and wacky conversations going on, I've even made a number of cool friends just by seeing them in /Region often enough and since both of us are funny and talkative, we friend up and hang out in-game later! I'm extremely shocked by how utterly different the competitive and the non-competitive environments are in the same game, literally neighboring each other just one F9-button away. That's probably what shocks me even more about the above stuff I went on about.

 

My coffee's almost finished now, and so is this post. Thanks to anyone who read the whole thing! I FREQUENTLY write books whenever I post somewhere, it is not a habit that will die anytime soon, though I know (so far) some of you don't like to read huge things, so, I guess I'm just a little bit sorry!

 

You guys have a good one :]

--Akari Lolita, of Poharan

 

Akari_Lolita.png

 

P.S: Any of you here from Poharan? Hit me up in-game if you want Unsealing Charms at a discount! I believe in passing friendliness forward you know.

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It's always been this way for MMO or any competitive anything really, but especially PVP. People wanna cry when they lose and they think they're the bees-knees when they win. There's no sportsmanship just sportsmanshit. It's unfortunate cause it really does suck the fun out of it and it's impossible to mute every player, so pretty much you do just have to ignore it and focus on what you like doing.

(Or do what I do and pretend they're really stupidly programmed NPCs.)

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I agree with the idea that game communities can be overwhelmingly toxic.  In my opinion it's largely a function of people who feel cheated being mean spirited to people they perceive to be cheated by (because they feel like they should always win, a totally normal human position to have) who in turn become more heated in response to that creating a powerful negative feedback loop. I encourage you to find a clan or even a group of friends whose company you enjoy and enjoy playing the game with them. Otherwise you too may find yourself overcome with the cynicism that occupies so many thoughts and conversations about this.

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I agree with the poster above me. When I first joined MMO's I was shocked people acted like this. Over a simple loss. 

 

You can't change how people act unfortunately. Over time I grew thick skin. That's really all you can do. Don't let people's comments get to you. I make this mistake often, but don't give them your time of day either, because you'll just be talking to rocks. 

 

You also seem like a very nice player :)

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Your RANT, is what the gaming communtiy has come to. It seems every game that comes out is worse than the last with the way people treat one another. I miss the good ole EQ days where everyone helped one another and weren't competing who could be more toxic in chat. I freaking HATE what most of the gaming comminuty has become, but until more people step up and start acting like a human beings, nothing is going to change. */sarcasm on*Because we are behind a keyboard so we can say whatever we want right?? No one gets hurt and I won't get my ass kicked for saying mean, hurtful and racist things. */sarcasm off*

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I read the entire post and all I could think was "Are you new here?" I don't condone acting the way people do on the internet or just like that in general. I'm sick and tired of all of the hate in the world and online, but unfortunately that's how it is these days. It's like a virus one person spreads to another and before you know it everyone is infected. It's not just this community it's literally everywhere on the internet. The only way to avoid it is if find a group of like-minded people to hang out and play with.

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Part of growing up is learning to let what other people say go, like water off a duck's back. Report what you think needs to be reported, and try to move on. PVPing will require a thick skin. Bossing will require a thick skin. If nothing else, learning how to let what other people say bounce off of you without any lasting effect is going to personally improve you. Competition has always been like this, it's not new and it's not peculiar to video games or MMOs.

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You should  be ashamed of being human. Not just for what's happening in this game though.

Quite frankly, the world we live in, is much, MUCH worse. With brother killing brother and what-not. Hate to break it to you writer of books, you should go out more.

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Mabinogi not competitive?

i think you've never been to dunbarton's back ally or even pvp'd anyone competent(or overly incompetent~) at all

 

anyway as for the community just remove region chat and party finder chat from the chatbox it's too full of gold spammers

get some friends together and go through the whole game as a faction trust me it's a whole lotta fun you meet some interesting people both enemies and allies and some neutral people

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There is a point which I taught my children from the very beginning.. DO NOT give a *cricket* what others think about you.  But.. also people need to take responsibility for the things they say and do. We have become a world where everyone thinks they can do whatever and nothing will come back on to them for it. To many little kids are being brought up through the computer and tv and learning nothing but violence, hate, degrading behaviors while parents worry about bneing their childs best friend. Nothing is going to change until steps be taken to make those changes.

Akirah, there a crap ton of long running games that are this bad or even worse.

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Deathbunny.. I'm a MOM too.... I am not talking about anything but this game that we are playing.  The community cannot exist is we cannot communicate due to SPAM.   We are not talking about trolls we are talking about GOLD SELLERS.   If this game wants to continue the GM's need to fix it.

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