This post on Tim’s blog deserves something more than what can be said in a chatbox.
The problem for me is that people put clan loyalty above game rules. If a clanmate breaks a RS rule, fellow clanmates ARE NOT to report him/her; at least that’s what I’m getting from Tim anyway. Granted, I’ve only been in one clan so I can’t say how it works with every clan, but most of the clan rules I read about when I was looking to join one stated clan members were not to break RS rules. The people I’ve known, either personally or through blogging, that have reported a fellow clanmate for breaking RS rules invariably get: 1) kicked from the clan, 2) receive spamming hate emails or PMs and 3) will be targeted and PJed during CW, BH, Clan Wars, etc..
If you look at the muted screenshot from Tim’s post, Deamonloard9 is talking about 2 of his friends getting semi naked (topless) on a webcam. IMO, that’s the offense language, not the starred out words (which aren’t reportable anyway since the game censor censors them). It’s not the language that’s offensive but the idea behind it. To me, RS is not the place for talking about girl-on-girl action.
I feel so sorry for Boombaye1 now. He’s made a big, fat target of himself for Blessings. He’ll be ridiculed through PMs, emails and MSN Messenger. If Blessings members are truly vindictive, they’ll follow him around in RS, calling him a tell-tale n00b and/or wannabe pmod, or spam up his blog until he either gives up on RS or turns his chats to private/off and possibly give up blogging.
Tim said to me in his chatbox: “Kitt: Well, if Boombaye truly was bothered about Dl’s language then he should’ve either asked him to stop or leave like he had said he would (instead of lingering around to gather more evidence). To put this into perspective, you wouldn’t report a friend to the police for littering, would you? That’s just too drastic…”
My response: If I thought the police would do anything about the littering, I would. I have reported friends in RS for breaking the rules. Rules and the enforcement of said are all that keeps RS from become an online shithole. Yes, a person can turn off their public chat or switch it to friends to cut out 90% of the crap people think is okay to say because they’re anonymous avatars. But that person shouldn’t HAVE to do that. To play with your analogy of littering – since my friend litters and I don’t like it, I should constantly carry with me a garbage bag and rubber gloves. It now becomes *my* responsibility to pick up after my friend.
This situation reminds me of the whistleblowers in the business world and military personnel who report other military personnel for misconduct.
