Once upon a time there was a column here, "morons of the week". It was a collection of human stupidity in WoW. I ended it, because it was so much work. It became a grind and I didn't want to do it for some laughs.
In the recent argument over Rofldots, I realized that morons of the week was much more than some easy laugh. It was an evidence that the M&S is real, it's not just "som ppl who r new 2 the game lol". These are permanent and hopeless idiots who can't be salvaged because they don't want to be saved. They are very happy being retards. All we can do about them is laugh on them and reject them from any activity. As long as there are just one sane person who claims that someone with a name "rofldots" deserve a chance, "morons of the week" is not an easy laugh. It's a mission to save - not the morons - but the socials who still believe in saving the morons.
To decrease the workload it won't exactly be morons of the week. It will be one moron attached to every post of mine, only 1/day, 5/week, that won't kill me. So send me the idiots you encounter. Rules:
In the recent argument over Rofldots, I realized that morons of the week was much more than some easy laugh. It was an evidence that the M&S is real, it's not just "som ppl who r new 2 the game lol". These are permanent and hopeless idiots who can't be salvaged because they don't want to be saved. They are very happy being retards. All we can do about them is laugh on them and reject them from any activity. As long as there are just one sane person who claims that someone with a name "rofldots" deserve a chance, "morons of the week" is not an easy laugh. It's a mission to save - not the morons - but the socials who still believe in saving the morons.
To decrease the workload it won't exactly be morons of the week. It will be one moron attached to every post of mine, only 1/day, 5/week, that won't kill me. So send me the idiots you encounter. Rules:
- picture must be readable. If you can't manage a picture properly, just mail me the original screenshot
- give the context in mail if it's not obvious
- simple newbie does not qualify. It's OK if he doesn't know what defensive stance is. However if you explain him and he refuses to use it, refuses to listen or "cba 2 get a shield lol", he belongs here.
- don't send me War and Peace. If you chat with a moron 2 pages, please highlight the moronic part.
- the moron's name must be readable, preferably with realm info if the name is common like "ArthasDK". Armory profile must exist.
- 1 arrow trick is old
- placing 100K gold into trade to "1 g plz" and leave it there is old too
- the stuff should arrive in mail, address is on the about page
Excellent! The «morons» section was always my favourite section of your blog, Gevlon!
ReplyDeleteI think the way you're going to incorporate one image into each post is far better than the old system of posting them in large batches on the weekend.
I look forward to the first one!
Yeah, see, this is what is bothering me.
ReplyDeleteWhy exclude people based on stupid names, and not on apparent performance instead?
I'm fairly sure there are several high-ranked arena players with stupid named characters. IMO, that is their way of saying "F off, I don't care what you, or others, think of my name. I'm competent enough to play in high-end arena and I can prove it. Congratulations, you just got beaten by a guy named 'Xxlegolasxxz'. How does it feel?"
(Proof?
http://www.arenajunkies.com/team/5v5/US/Illidan/Super_Fives_Heh/
http://www.arenajunkies.com/char/US/Sargeras/Cutemeatball/
http://www.arenajunkies.com/char/US/Arthas/Totemofwrath/
Yes, we even have a Xxlegolasxxz on 2.8k rating. And he's a mage.
http://www.arenajunkies.com/char/US/Kel%27Thuzad/Xxlegolasxxz/)
So tell me, in which of the 3 categories would you place those players, hmm?
If moron would be equivalent to badly-named players, surely all you'd have to do is list the armory list of all 'Arthaslol' from armory?
Unless of course, bad names are NOT equivalent to morons, in which case you treat them differently on basis of their competence, not their name anyway.
So really, I understand your previous post (the moron, retard or l33t), but I think you overlooked the fourth category. The anti-social. Is it efficient to discriminate the last one by lumping them with the other 3?
I am very happy about this! Althrough the MotW posts have always been a good laugh for me, I enjoyed the surprise when I discovered yet another form of stupidity. The Seher amounts of idiots out there is amazing!
ReplyDelete@Andru: the anti-social need to fit in at least to an asocial environment. His "look at me I can even win with xxlegolasxx, I pwn!!!" attitude can destroy any cooperation. Raiding is cooperative. We do something together. The difference between us and the social guilds is not the goal but that we don't drag leeches along the way.
ReplyDelete@ Gevlon: "His "look at me I can even win with xxlegolasxx, I pwn!!!" attitude can destroy any cooperation."
ReplyDeleteThat's still an assumption. 'Xxlegolasxxz', realistically, is because 'Legolas' was already taken on the realm.
Andru's example is of an anti-social. You're still overlooking the 'normal', the competent ones who rationally realise that names are meaningless, and are thus happy to indulge in meaningless names, guilds, titles, because it doesn't affect them.
I personally still don't think that we should reject people based on simply their name.
ReplyDeleteIf they really are moronic, it will show soon enough, and we can still /gkick them. However, there is a slight possibility that they aren't moronic and would be a valuable addition to our raiding pool (simply because they use(d) the stereotyped names ironically).
thank you very very much!! now adam has to do some more blogging and all is going to be good again!
ReplyDelete@Andru
ReplyDeletePvP-ers who go by those names usually "cba" with PvE and just leave after a wipe because they cannot be bothered to try again.
Usually all they want is get the trinkets/gear they need for arena and then be done with raiding.
Not all players who pvp are like that, but from what u are saying, "F off, I don't care what you, or others, think of my name..." it just means that his attitude will be just that... very detrimental to a group imo.
@Gevlon: maybe you should have started your guild on an RP(PvP) realm.
ReplyDeleteI know that almost nobody there roleplays and Blizzard does not really enforce the policies ( forbidden: "Any Non-Medieval or Non-Fantasy names (i.e. Microwave, Nuclearotron, Softwareman)" --> http://www.wow-europe.com/en/policy/roleplaying.html ), but still IMO it looks a bit better than on normal realms :)
1, Remember that PvP is cooperative as well. One can actually say that it is even more cooperative, as you can't just do your job, you need to check what others are doing and adapt.
ReplyDelete2, Ofc that skilled people will leave raid after first wipe. Because they see the mistakes and they see no effort to correct them. People died to avoidable damage and RL blames healers, tank was horrible with positioning PP and RL blames dps for low dps. That is a very clear sign for skilled player. And he has no reason to waste his time with such raid.
What if Rofldots had been 'salvaged' as you say... do you expect him to use money to change his name just because he made a mistake (in your eyes) with his choice of name?
ReplyDeleteYou're looking too much into this, the phrase 'never judge a book by it's cover' comes to mind.
I have always had difficulties finding names for my character, not because i want a good name, but because i want to avoid bad ones. When i started a character in Undergeared, i chose gartok for my orc rogue simply because it sounded orcish to me. It turns out i broke Blizzards naming rules by naming him after a character in the wow universe (an NPC in razor hill). (Blizzard has not cared so far)
ReplyDeleteEver since i started playing wow i assumed i would be treated as an idiot if i named my characters like an idiot.
It surprised me to see that most players did not care about such an obvious sign.
I try to avoid players with stupid names in my pugs because they are very often immature players who underperform, cause loot drama and even leaves raid if DBW doesn't drop.
If you doubt that stupid name indicates a stupid player try counting stupid names versus non stupid manes among the spammers when the next anal spam frenzy starts on trade chat.
All players with stupid names are not idiots, and not all idiots have stupid names, however there is a massive overrepresentation of idiots among players with stupid names and that is reason enough to avoid them, It's not worth the risk.
I dont think there is any correlation between a stupid name and being shit at playing wow.
ReplyDeleteSome of the best players ive played with have names like roflcoptor, ratefast and hemosexual.
Only yesterday i was healing a tank called jzzinmypants, he was the first DK ive healed at low level who managed to keep aggro the entire time, usually mobs are all over the place.
Shit players come with all kinds of names, from my experience they have bland unimaginative and unprovacative names like "slyur" or "dflok" or any other random collection of letters which they think fitting to their race.
I think you are being prejudice and therefore just as bad as the M&S you loathe.
"Retarded behavior like "lol", "rolf", "ftw", "ffs", "i pwned som n00b", AlTeRnaTiNgCaSe, insults, #@$!#@ words, "why r u in icc?" gets you kicked."
ReplyDeleteEvery time you say something in guild chat, your name pops up. If your name is something you aren't allowed to say in guild chat, then that clearly violates the rules. There is no more judgement of the player than here than in the making of that rule, and we've already had that reasoning explained.
@Everyone still defending 'Rofldots' and his ilk: 'I'm fairly sure there are several high-ranked arena players with stupid named characters.'
ReplyDelete'You're looking too much into this, the phrase 'never judge a book by it's cover' comes to mind.'
'I think you are being prejudice and therefore just as bad as the M&S you loathe.'
You don't look for diamonds by digging in the trash. While it is theoretically possible to find one, it is much more likely that you end your day empty-handed, discouraged, and covered in shit.
By excluding such as 'Rofldots', Gevlon may be excluding some decent players, but he is saving himself from having to deal with far more useless M&S. Simply put, his time is valuable to him, and it is not cost-efficient to have to /gkick 999 M&S to get the one competent 'Xxlegolasxx'. Better to just exclude them all and be done with it.
@Okrane
ReplyDeleteThat's not true, and that's coming from a guy who does PvP quite a lot. I'm not the bee's knees or whatever, but my rating (2k) is enough to place me in top 5% of arena teams.
'The CBA with raiding' and 'PvE lol' crowd is actually not representative of the high-end PvP crowd. They're actually lower rated people who are higher than average but got carried to their rating by OP combos, or uncounterable setups that go against the mainstream meta-game. Such is why they leave after a wipe. They cannot fathom a loss in arena either, and that is why, most often than not, promising teams with them crumble before reaching the top.
Of course, from my experience, a lot of competent players are anti-social, and lack in the leadership department. (Making them, or their guilds ill-fit for organizing and running raids) However, when integrated in a proper raid group, they perform extremely well.
@Gevlon
This ties with what I've said earlier. If Xxlegolasxxz can work with 4 people to chain CC, focus fire and break rythm, he can do the same with 9 other people.
And let me tell you, 2.8k rating does not compare to any normal encounter so far, in which the space for mistakes is ample and unevenly distributed. (It's unlikely that your tanks would be PvPers in the first place.)
You pointed out that clearing ICC normal is enough to make you 7% of guilds. Fine, I admit that being a PvPer might be a handicap when trying ICC 25 LK HM. But normal content? Trivial for any high rated PvPer.
I recognize that a bad name is a red flag for a supposed member's competence, but to go as far as to put equivocation between name and competence is simply irrational, and a far cry of what we've come to expect from you.
It’s just hilarious how you are trying to use all your available tools to prove a stupid point. Labeling a player as a retard because he owns a stupid name is as illogical as labeling a player good because he has a high gearscore.
ReplyDeleteI hate stupid names, but you can’t tell with accuracy if that player is stupid or a special snowflake. If “Rofldots” is a M&S your behavior rules should be enough to kick him out of the guild.
would a rogue named smiley be allowed into the guild ?
ReplyDeleteid say ´smiley´ would constitute a retarded name but...
see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley%27s_People
so how does the rules regard this person?
on the one hand the name is retarded
on the other its a nice and fitting reference for a name
Anyone remember Crankyhealer?
ReplyDeleteIsn't this just a return to 'Godmodding and griefing' which should be left in the past!
@all the rofldots
ReplyDeleteWhy is everyone also skipping over his large use of 'lol' 'hahahaha' and other such speech that is prohibited in the guild chat? You are all putting the cart before the horse. It's plain as day. Gevlon declined him for his name, and rather then argue counter points, or even a 'I can't afford a name change' sort of argument, he devolved into the annoying type of speech that is the reason those names aren't allowed.
@Arena crowd: You specifically choose PvP names sometimes and Arena Team names Just to tick someone off. What hurts more, getting killed by 'Bob' or 'Bobdabilder'? 'Entari' the elf, or 'XxLegolasxX' the elf? Again, if someone approached with this sort of reasoning and could back it up, that's one thing. Rofldots didn't even try.
Gawd I wish I had a screenshot of this.
ReplyDeleteAbout 1 year ago, when wow-heroes was more commonly used for its gear score rating than the addon, I was in a toc10 pug that failed on the worms.
I called out this hunter for both doing awful DPS AND getting hit with the poison in range of like 3 other people. He then proceeded to blame me (who was #1 on the meter) because my gearscore was lower than the minimum requirement.
I'll make up the numbers now, but the minimum was something like 2300, and I was certain I had a gearscore of 2400 (wow-heroes numbers, not the addon). He claimed my gearscore was 2200. Of course, I checked wow-heroes.com, and noticed that I had previously logged out with my fishing pole on!
I told him (in raid chat) "dude, check out my gear on wow-heroes, I logged out with my fishing pole."
So, at this point he was probably pretty embarrassed, right? WRONG. He then switched to a private message flame war, complaining that I was trying to get "carried" because my gearscore was subpar. When I squelched him (after he was no longer amusing), he started logging off, creating level 1 characters, and whispering me again and again.
I wish I had that screenshot. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. It was then that I knew that gearscore measurements would severely hurt WoW.
Ofc that skilled people will leave raid after first wipe. Because they see the mistakes and they see no effort to correct them
ReplyDeleteIf you leave at the first wipe, how could you possibly see a lack of improvement? Divination? Totally curious.
@Emily - He left on the first wipe because they did terrible.
ReplyDeleteObviously he did a good job choosing who would come...
Looking forward to the moron posts, not because I am here to laugh at the morons but rather to get a cheap laugh from THE moron.
@All those who think, that Rofldots must have his chance.
ReplyDeleteI guess, it's time for little bit of personal history, as it seems awfully relevant with this case.
Once upon a time there was a guild. It wasn't biggest or most progressed one, it was, in fact, quite unremarkable. One day there was a conflict in it, between raid leader, that was tired of carrying many people through the content, and sub-Guild Master, who was sure, that his status in the guild is enough reason to carry his alt through actual content. Raid leader was promptly gkicked, and some of those raiders, who carried those raids, left as well. It was fun to watch the guild raids wiping on the content they steamrolled just one day ago, as there were too little people left to carry the rest, but this story is not about that guild anymore.
Those, who left, made they own guild. There were exactly 10 people, that wanted to see some progress after all this time, those people was pretty much the best of they old guild, so they started they progress not caring about expanding the guild, during that time it was exactly 10 people. The guild had no DKP system, no raid attendance rules (everyone was ready to raid 7/7 anyway, and did sometimes), high enough level of players, so pretty fast, all actual content progression for 10-man raids was complete. And then they decided, that they want to do 25-man as well, so they made DKP system, rules and started usial recruting routine.
That's about the moment it all went wrong. Old crew wanted progress, newcomers (who was quite numerous, after all, that was the guild with server-first rusty protodrakes), wanted to be carried. Exellent attendance on the farm days (when clearing some simple content), was just as common as exactly 10 persons in the progress days. People with abyssmal perfomance was carried through the content to get better gear, and vanished without a trace after they got it - so guid nearly instantly turned to exact copy of the one it's founders did run from. Even 10-man collapsed (several times, we were persistent in rebuilding), because of the need to boost people for 25-man raids and zero progress, boosted did as little as they can to help, explaining this with they lowly gear. So in the end it was disbanded, as no one left willing to carry it anymore.
There are thousands of such sad stories in WoW, many is happening right now. They all have one thing in common. All is good just to the moment some M&S get's in and carried to at least one raid. They may be kicked after - but they already got they boost (usially, new raiders get in the raid at the start of the cooldown, so first easy bosses are nearly guaranteed boost for them), already done they damage (raid is on cooldown and there are not enough people to go on), and they even may stay, as it's pretty normal to assume they bad not because thay are morons, but because they are new or/and have bad gear, especially at the moment, when there are people shortage. From this point guild is doomed.
My point is, that inviting someone with a name like Rofldots, xxLegolasxx or something else is exactly the risk of getting nearly gurandeed M&S into the next week raid. They can be good, but most likely they are bad, even more likely - they are extremely bad and will need to be carried all the way. Asking them in, "giving them a chance", is just asking them to accept your humble boost. Best policy here is to keep them out and use all the means to identify them. That may get some decent people out as well, but it's exactly the case, when it's better to be safe, than sorry. Decent people, who really want to be in, know, what to do, anyway.
To all the people who defend rofldots or are against the "No retarded names" rule:
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't really matter if rofldots guy happens to be an intelligent and skilled person. It's enough that there's a high probability this person is a M&S. Maybe the Gevlon's rule seems immoral or discriminatory, but it works in filtering people and this is the most important aspect.
If a guy typed a moronic reply one time only in the gchat ("lolz I luv Megan Fox") would you be 100% sure he's a retard? Not really, but he did the first step in showing he's retarded. After the next moronic replies, he indefinitely cements his status of retardation. As an example, rofldots refused to change his name or explain why he cannot, instead he did subsequent mistakes.
Moreover, how can you expect from a "rofldots" named guy to properly write in English, to have a mature attitude, etc, etc?
Are you a retard if you write "LFG", "inc" and other common abbrevations?
ReplyDeleteJust wondering as I personally really don't think "idd" should be put in the same category as "lol" and "rofl".
@Aljabra and Derrek
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your strawman argumentation.
Thing is, I would have rejected Rofldots too (not given him any chance) based on his gear choices and gemming and talent spec.
To me, that speaks volumes, even moreso than a simple name.
I'm not advocating giving anyone who happens to come by 'a chance', becouse he might be good.
I advocate giving stupidly named players a chance, IF THERE ARE NO INDICATIONS THAT HE'S A MORON OTHERWISE.
I also have a small bone to pick with the 'no stupid language on gchat too' but that's there for logistical reasons. If you don't understand what a guy is saying, it does not matter how 'skilled' he is, since you can't work with him.
But how on earth does a bad name hinder anyone from playing well, or indeed working with them? It doesn't.
Oh and to the statistics crowd. Empirical evidence is empirical. Unless you come with a study on how likely a stupidly-named player is to be bad, that I can review, I'll laugh in your face, if you parade personal experience as 'statistics'.
Contrary to popular belief, statistics is not "what me and my 3 friends happen to agree upon because our limited sample size confirms out observations".
@Andru
ReplyDeleteBut how on earth does a bad name hinder anyone from playing well, or indeed working with them? It doesn't.
From playing well? It don't. From working with them? It is. It is clear indication, that he want some fun on your expence. Why on yours? Because it's not him who will read his name all the time, it will be you. Each his sentence in chat will inevitably start with "Rofl". You can't communicate normally with someone who laughs at your every word.
And that's on top of that big chance he's really as moronic, as his name suggests, and you and your raid will have to carry him around at least part of the way, denying raiding from someone way less suspicious.
When I see "Rofldots" at the front of each message, I'll see it as a name. Just like "Glotan" or "Squishalot". If you don't have the acuity to separate the message from the sender, there you've got more things to worry about than a raid member's name.
ReplyDelete