Game Journal Entry 4, Sun. Jan 18: DDO & Discrimination
Background Info
I have a number of online friends that seek me out every time i log on. During my time as a co-guild leader for the Umber Hulks Guild, I created a lot of ties with the other guilds. This was an effort to create a community base for questing in raids. UH is a small family and friends guild, but we offered casual gaming. Our motto was "We understand wife/gf/cat/pancake aggro." So though I haven't been playing very much in the past 8 months, people still remember me and send me tells when I log on.
DDO Voice Chat
High level 12-man raids in DDO take a ton of coordination. Even some 6-man quest parties take a bit of coordination and cooperation. Raids in DDO are multi-part quests that have several puzzles and a range of mobs that need both strategy and tactical planning. This is an ideal environment for voice over IP. DDO is one of the few MMORPGs where VOIP was intentionally built into the game from the start. In the harder quests, party leaders will use VOIP to get a feel for the players in the group and what they're capable of, then discuss a strategy. Once the strategy is agreed upon, group members will take up tactical roles. Communication is very much the key to a successful run. Without communication you have to rely on the expertise of experienced players who have run the quest before, and in fact those who are expert players tend to not even need to communicate since they already know what to do within the quest. I have been in quite a number of quests where no one talks over the VOIP because we all know our roles and we know the game plan.
VOIP isn't without its downsides. One prominent issue that occurs continually is discrimination against those who do not use VOIP. I have been in pick up groups (PUGs) where the leader will dump players who do not respond in voice chat. There are stereotypes against female players or against those who sound like women. With male players its an odd mix of gentlemanly behavior and out right bigotry; while other female players tend to show respect or display competition. One particular prejudice that I have been guilty of is against children who play the game. The primary stereotype is that children lack the ability to stay focused and tend not to follow the leader's calls. Having a heavy foreign accent will also lead to discrimination. Many English players won't play with people who can't speak english. If you have a Chinese accent, you can forget about finding a group because you're probably a Chinese gold farmer. In the end, all these prejudices lead to people acting in (sometimes drastic) ways that will ensure their success with the quest, even if it is at the exclusion of the player in question.
Discrimination in the Virtual World
If we take away the voice component, would there be as much discrimination? Many articles cite how users find social interactions more rewarding and diverse because of the nature of the virtual world -- to escape the social limitations found in the real world. In DDO, people are able to view an avatar's information and could discriminate against multi-class builds that didn't make sense to them. In Second Life, would I get the same kind of treatment if I selected a black avatar over a white one? I must admit that in Second Life I found the "Furry" avatars to be rather scary.
Discrimination Against the Virtual World
There is talk of employers discriminating against people who play WoW and other MMO games. "There is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere. That their sleeping patterns are often not great.". There wouldn't be any recourse if you were discriminated by an employee because you played an MMO. Employees are fearful of hiring people that would waste money and time, and are unwilling to take that kind of risk.
Discrimination, Prejudices, and Stereotypes
Why discriminate in a virtual world? Why discriminate in the real world? Because it is in human nature to generate prejudices in self-defence. We act to ensure our security at all times. To do this, we instinctively and quickly create biased views which may be needed for survival because there is no time formulate a legitimate view about a potential enemy. We formulate stereotypes to simplify complicated relationships. In the end we are all fearful and lazy creatures -- we would need to spend more effort, time, and dedication to form a more truthful picture in our heads. That was a rather harsh statement but we make short cuts like that in order to do things more quickly and to be adaptive all for the sake of playing it safe.
I have a number of online friends that seek me out every time i log on. During my time as a co-guild leader for the Umber Hulks Guild, I created a lot of ties with the other guilds. This was an effort to create a community base for questing in raids. UH is a small family and friends guild, but we offered casual gaming. Our motto was "We understand wife/gf/cat/pancake aggro." So though I haven't been playing very much in the past 8 months, people still remember me and send me tells when I log on.
DDO Voice Chat
High level 12-man raids in DDO take a ton of coordination. Even some 6-man quest parties take a bit of coordination and cooperation. Raids in DDO are multi-part quests that have several puzzles and a range of mobs that need both strategy and tactical planning. This is an ideal environment for voice over IP. DDO is one of the few MMORPGs where VOIP was intentionally built into the game from the start. In the harder quests, party leaders will use VOIP to get a feel for the players in the group and what they're capable of, then discuss a strategy. Once the strategy is agreed upon, group members will take up tactical roles. Communication is very much the key to a successful run. Without communication you have to rely on the expertise of experienced players who have run the quest before, and in fact those who are expert players tend to not even need to communicate since they already know what to do within the quest. I have been in quite a number of quests where no one talks over the VOIP because we all know our roles and we know the game plan.
VOIP isn't without its downsides. One prominent issue that occurs continually is discrimination against those who do not use VOIP. I have been in pick up groups (PUGs) where the leader will dump players who do not respond in voice chat. There are stereotypes against female players or against those who sound like women. With male players its an odd mix of gentlemanly behavior and out right bigotry; while other female players tend to show respect or display competition. One particular prejudice that I have been guilty of is against children who play the game. The primary stereotype is that children lack the ability to stay focused and tend not to follow the leader's calls. Having a heavy foreign accent will also lead to discrimination. Many English players won't play with people who can't speak english. If you have a Chinese accent, you can forget about finding a group because you're probably a Chinese gold farmer. In the end, all these prejudices lead to people acting in (sometimes drastic) ways that will ensure their success with the quest, even if it is at the exclusion of the player in question.
Discrimination in the Virtual World
If we take away the voice component, would there be as much discrimination? Many articles cite how users find social interactions more rewarding and diverse because of the nature of the virtual world -- to escape the social limitations found in the real world. In DDO, people are able to view an avatar's information and could discriminate against multi-class builds that didn't make sense to them. In Second Life, would I get the same kind of treatment if I selected a black avatar over a white one? I must admit that in Second Life I found the "Furry" avatars to be rather scary.
Discrimination Against the Virtual World
There is talk of employers discriminating against people who play WoW and other MMO games. "There is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere. That their sleeping patterns are often not great.". There wouldn't be any recourse if you were discriminated by an employee because you played an MMO. Employees are fearful of hiring people that would waste money and time, and are unwilling to take that kind of risk.
Discrimination, Prejudices, and Stereotypes
Why discriminate in a virtual world? Why discriminate in the real world? Because it is in human nature to generate prejudices in self-defence. We act to ensure our security at all times. To do this, we instinctively and quickly create biased views which may be needed for survival because there is no time formulate a legitimate view about a potential enemy. We formulate stereotypes to simplify complicated relationships. In the end we are all fearful and lazy creatures -- we would need to spend more effort, time, and dedication to form a more truthful picture in our heads. That was a rather harsh statement but we make short cuts like that in order to do things more quickly and to be adaptive all for the sake of playing it safe.