Harbinger General chat Ban

[DWho]

All I know is that if people stop reacting to these fools, they'd lose interest. All they want is a reaction. That's where they get their kicks. Now they made you post about them on the forum...that's a slam dunk in their book.

 

Ignore it and if you can't help yourself then /ignore it. It's all you can do really. But do not ever reply to them or you give them exactly what they're after. Just realise that every angry word you have for them is a reward to them.

 

Ignore does not and never has worked. It doesn't matter if you respond to them or not. The joy for them is just saying it and getting away with it.

[SteveTheCynic]

So the general consensus is that there are general chat trolls and jerks on all the English language servers - is anyone really surprised by this?

Nothing special about the English language servers, sadly. The French server has them (perhaps a little less extreme, perhaps), and probably the German one as well.

if Bioware finally made it easier to cut down on the trolls' audience

The trolls are their own audience. They hope we are listening and they want us to respond, but *they* are their audience.

[SolarSaenz]

Would like to see a community vote available, to validate the muting of Harbinger in general chat. I never played on that server and now that I am experiencing these people, I can not see how anyone stayed on that server. They are very toxic and just going to chase away new players even, seen them camping starter worlds just trolling general chat when new players are asking questions, they are even spamming fake guilds with very toxic messages.

 

I really would suggest everyone from Harbinger be banned from the game, never met such vile people in my life, but a general chat mute from everyone from that old server would be helpful to the game. We have star wars battlefront 2 coming out, along with the new star wars movie. There will be lots of people getting back into star wars and new people looking into it, if this new flood of players are welcomed with these scum it will chase them away and lose the communities chance to grow.

 

SWTOR for whatever reason seems to attract the worst of humanity and the gutter trash of the world.

Sadly, those are the people keeping the lights on, so BW/EA won't do a thing unless there is some blatant abuse and/or something downright illegal going on.

The SWTOR community disgusts me. I have to collapse chat most of the time I'm playing.

[JediQuaker]

Putting people on /ignore can fill up your ignore list real fast. The simplest thing to do is to just turn off chat if it's bothering you. You turn off (and on) chat by clicking on the little triangle at the top left of your screen.

 

Also, suggesting that "everyone" from Harbinger should be banned is obviously unjust. (How do you even know that these people came from Harbinger?)

Edited November 16, 2017 by JediQuaker

[TUXs]

While the OPs post was clearly an exageration, chat has to be cleaned with fire and acid. It has been allowed to fester too long. Right now it is putting a big black mark on an otherwise fairly successful merge.

Well said. It's on Bioware to do something though, this isn't something the players have any control over.

just look at some of the names running around on fleet. If I listed them here I would get a 3 day ban from the forums. They get reported and nothing is done about them. Harrassment reports are ignored. CS is pretty worthless to begin with.

Yup...again, this boils down to Bioware needing to do something about it. We can't...all we can do is ignore them, but they need to be stopped by Bioware themselves.

The trolls are their own audience. They hope we are listening and they want us to respond, but *they* are their audience.

Yes they are. Ignore them. Not just by /ignore, just ignore ignore. You only give them the attention they crave when you engage with them...don't fall into that. Report report report...that's all we can do.

[DWho]

Putting people on /ignore can fill up your ignore list real fast. The simplest thing to do is to just turn off chat if it's bothering you. You turn off (and on) chat by clicking on the little triangle at the top left of your screen.

 

Also, suggesting that "everyone" from Harbinger should be banned is obviously unjust. (How do you even know that these people came from Harbinger?)

 

Sure, I can turn off chat (or ignore it) but why should I have to so someone can spout vulgar garbage to their hearts content. It also presents a very poor image for the game to anyone who gets to fleet for the first time. It makes you wonder why anyone would want to participate in any kind of group activity if these are the kind of people that play the game. You can say they are a tiny minority but they are by far the most visible players in the game.

[Tsillah]

Ignore does not and never has worked. It doesn't matter if you respond to them or not. The joy for them is just saying it and getting away with it.

Well, you say never but it works for me quite well and it does matter whether you respond or not. What it does take is a consistent approach and generally when someone is trolling there are always people willing to take the bait.

 

But ignore definitely has worked great for me, so I do not agree with your assessment that it "never" works.

[DWho]

Well, you say never but it works for me quite well and it does matter whether you respond or not. What it does take is a consistent approach and generally when someone is trolling there are always people willing to take the bait.

 

But ignore definitely has worked great for me, so I do not agree with your assessment that it "never" works.

 

Ignore doesn't work in that it does nothing to make the issue go away. Sure I don't see it anymore but it's still there causing havok. It is like putting on a blindfold and saying I don't see any problem. They must be reported by everyone or Bioware will not do anything. If they only get reported by 1 person an hour because everyone has them on ignore or chat turned off they will continue to poison the game. Right now the reporting process needs to be streamlined to something more like is used for spammers to make it easier to report the behavior. A lot of people don't report the behavior because of the amount of effort it takes (If you could just right click to send in a report it would be a lot simpler and the reports would be linked to actual points in the chat log as opposed to someone having to search through the logs to "verify" the incident)

[kodrac]

ABSOLUTELY!!! This is what happens when Bioware doesn't police chat at all...it's not nearly as bad as the OP is pretending it to be, but it is 100% the fault of Bioware for allowing it to continue.

 

Yup they know they have a safe place to be their true selves. You just have to hope the game doesn't get a reputation from it, if it hasn't already. This is why EA/BW should care if nothing else.

[BenduKundalini]

True that Harby should have been renamed Scum & Villainy, however Star Forge is now horrible too... Edited November 16, 2017 by BenduKundalini

[IoNonSoEVero]

Sure, one can just turn off chat (and I do) but there is the point that it stops a method of legit communications between players. I'm sure many of us have answered questions another player has asked in gen, whether that is directions or how to figure out a setting or whatever. I know many people used to announce in gen chat that they would help with datacrons or guide other players on planets. When you have to turn off gen chat you can't be helpful that way, and a player in need of assistance may be reluctant to write anything there because of the trolls. That does hurt the game, and it isn't people clutching their pearls about naughty words.

[Ofcolombia]

We have to realize that in this time of "Populism/Nationalism" trolls/bigots/bullies/racists are empowered, and yes racism/bigotry is rather rampant on fleet chat. It is a sad statement on the times we are in. Yes this behaviour has always been present on online games but it never has been this empowered as now. As stated before we have do our best to ignore them and don't give them the feedback they desire. Yes, BW could do more but that is a thin line they would have to travel and may not be as clear cut as we would think. My advice, avoid fleet and gen chat whenever possible and get the mindset that these are sad and pathetic people, just don't drop to their level.

[xordevoreaux]

Would like to see a community vote available, to validate the muting of Harbinger in general chat. I never played on that server and now that I am experiencing these people, I can not see how anyone stayed on that server. They are very toxic and just going to chase away new players even, seen them camping starter worlds just trolling general chat when new players are asking questions, they are even spamming fake guilds with very toxic messages.

 

I really would suggest everyone from Harbinger be banned from the game, never met such vile people in my life, but a general chat mute from everyone from that old server would be helpful to the game. We have star wars battlefront 2 coming out, along with the new star wars movie. There will be lots of people getting back into star wars and new people looking into it, if this new flood of players are welcomed with these scum it will chase them away and lose the communities chance to grow.

 

Sorry but gaming companies don't write off income by server-wide blanket bans on players providing subscription and microtransaction revenue.

 

I'm going to sound like the biggest gameboy/white knight ever for saying this, but at this point, get used to it.

There is no cultural shift that Bioware can impose top-down on its player base on a given game to somehow coerce those players to be more amenable to what you consider appropriate player behavior.

Edited November 16, 2017 by xordevoreaux

[BenduKundalini]

amenable to what you consider appropriate player behavior.

 

Nope, simply the games' own rules my friend.

[aerockyul]

Nothing special about the English language servers, sadly. The French server has them (perhaps a little less extreme, perhaps), and probably the German one as well.

 

The trolls are their own audience. They hope we are listening and they want us to respond, but *they* are their audience.

 

If Bioware actually gave us effective ignore/reporting tools, I would say let the trolls troll each other. They can knock themselves out while the rest of us go about the game.

 

Two trolls trolling each other in an empty field...they're welcome to it

[AlrikFassbauer]

Trolls just want to have fun that's just it.

Personally, the root of the problem lies in the question "what made them so ?" As long as they feel powerful through this kind of sadism, they wonm't stop, because it's just fun for them. Stronger ones against weaker ones, for them, it seems to be almost sociallly accepted, I fear.

[JaxonLuxor]

I really would suggest everyone from Harbinger be banned from the game, never met such vile people in my life, but a general chat mute from everyone from that old server would be helpful to the game. We have star wars battlefront 2 coming out, along with the new star wars movie. There will be lots of people getting back into star wars and new people looking into it, if this new flood of players are welcomed with these scum it will chase them away and lose the communities chance to grow.

 

Wow - that's painting with an incredibly wide brush. I've played on Harbinger for years and A) have never posted in general chat (and pretty much ignore it) and B) have never griefed anyone EVER.

 

How about instead of coming across like an entitled brat, you try a more constructive approach? Why don't you, and the like minded - I would be happy to participate - flood chat with helpful things. If someone asks a question in gen chat (which is probably the worst way) then DM that person and offer to help. The community is the community - I've never understood why but some people get off on being *****. The answer is to look in the most unlikely of places Eve Online. Eve has a ruthless community in general but if you can get through all the scams, you can find guilds dedicated to helping people - places like Eve University comes to mind. How about creating a guild on both sides dedicated to those ends vs dedicated to end game as most guilds are.

 

Either way, you are painting with an irresponsibly wide brush and looking for an easy nuclear option vs being willing to actually put work into making the community what you want it to be. **** face. Sorry, I had to being from Harbinger and all.

Edited November 16, 2017 by JaxonLuxor

[casirabit]

I would suggest ignore them. Eventually they will be on enough ignore lists then they will be complaining they can't get into groups.

[BenduKundalini]

Trolls just want to have fun that's just it.

Personally, the root of the problem lies in the question "what made them so ?" As long as they feel powerful through this kind of sadism, they wonm't stop, because it's just fun for them. Stronger ones against weaker ones, for them, it seems to be almost sociallly accepted, I fear.

 

The very fact that there is a law and they can take a dump on it and get away with it and occupy chat. Positive reinforcement of their attitude.

Edited November 16, 2017 by BenduKundalini

[RagnarAugustus]

The OP is generalizing that it's the bogeyman of the Harbinger people when trolls are on every server. Harbinger was no worse than Ebon Hawk or Red Eclipse and I played on all three. Instead of posting threads whining about people that he has no way of knowing from which server they came perhaps he should just minimize his chat window or use the very useful "ignore" function for people he objects to.

[godsuxx]

Hiding gen chat and /ignore are your friends.

 

Utilize them.

[aerockyul]

Hiding gen chat and /ignore are your friends.

 

Utilize them.

 

Cutting ourselves off from gen chat also cuts off new players from finding groups or advice/answers to questions because if all the people that want to avoid the trolls are not seeing gen chat, the only ones there to answer are...trolls...who always give the best advice and answers...and are truly pleasures to have in group content......

 

It's another method to drive new players away, not combat the trolling. Again, it should be harder to troll, not the other way around.

[Ralei]

Sorry but gaming companies don't write off income by server-wide blanket bans on players providing subscription and microtransaction revenue.

 

I'm going to sound like the biggest gameboy/white knight ever for saying this, but at this point, get used to it.

There is no cultural shift that Bioware can impose top-down on its player base on a given game to somehow coerce those players to be more amenable to what you consider appropriate player behavior.

 

You're right. They aren't going to be quick to ban the people who give them money. (obviously not a whole server, but there are plenty of people who just sit and troll that pay them)

 

[rant]

Just like Facebook and Twitter didn't ban bots and troll accounts with hundreds of thousands of fake followers *coughThePresidentcough* because it padded their stats and advertising revenue. But guess what? They got hauled in front of Congress for that because they created a hugeass mess in their online communities that spilled over into other parts of our society. We're going to be realizing the harm these sites have caused for years to come because the companies refused to take responsibility for their products. There are going to be laws made by governments to regulate these online spaces that will probably be terrible because of that. Prioritizing short term profits over long term health and well-being, forcing the dummies in congress to DO SOMETHING THINK OF THE CHILDREN - that's what companies have done for centuries. Never change, tech bros, never change. Top down indeed.

 

[tinfoil hat]

Obviously, SWTOR isn't at the scale of Facebook. There aren't bots in SWTOR trying to incite people to real life violence or cause mental distress or writing fabricated stories to confuse people or make them feel inferior to prop up current power structures or to confirm their racist and sexist biases and that create echo chambers of lunacy that people get addicted to until they're disgusted with it and the feedback loops keeps going and going and going until we forget that most of us have the same values and just want to live a pleasant life and read a pleasant conversation about Jawas and Darth Baras' fat rolls in general chat without having to be reminded of genocide or pedos.

[/tinfoil hat][/rant]

[godsuxx]

Cutting ourselves off from gen chat also cuts off new players from finding groups or advice/answers to questions because if all the people that want to avoid the trolls are not seeing gen chat, the only ones there to answer are...trolls...who always give the best advice and answers...and are truly pleasures to have in group content......

 

It's another method to drive new players away, not combat the trolling. Again, it should be harder to troll, not the other way around.

 

Then I all can say is 'embrace the suck'. Btw, /ignore does not cut you off from gen chat completely, so I'm not sure what you're on about.

 

Cutting yourself from gen chat is a completely different utility than /ignore.

 

I, myself, don't have a single person on my /ignore list, and in doing so, I'm able to help people along the way via whispers if things in gen chat get too hectic.

 

Why? It's because I've experienced this kind of toxic behavior in every MMO that I've played and have grown accustomed to it. Trolls exist in almost every area of the internet, whether it be in MMO's, simple social gatherings, or anything that's affiliated with the internet.

 

It's time for others to get used to it as well. If not, then like I have mentioned before, the utilities are there.

Edited November 16, 2017 by godsuxx

[DWho]

It's time for others to get used to it as well. If not, then like I have mentioned before, the utilities are there.

 

It's time for people to stand up and do something about it. Quit making excuses for the most toxic part of the game population. Very few people would miss them if they were all erased from the game tomorrow.