Over the past months, I have seen players come and players go. Sometimes I know why, even though none of us will ever know all the reasons why. Some just leave, others cry like babies, some blame anyone they can find, and shout a few expletives, making the rest of us think "Good riddance, don't let the door hit you on the way out." But in each case, every person I have seen leave, bar none, has someone on their side, and someone not. No one ever knows all the details. And in each case, Funcom almost always takes the heat for it. Is it deserved? I cannot say, but if it is, it may be as much as their fault as those of players.
When I was asked by an ARK about my recent petition, I gave all 5's. Why? Because my question was handled efficiently and courteously. Was it solved? No. BUT, the ARK made me feel like s/he actually cared about me and my problem. I did not get a ton of useless canned scripted answers, I felt like I was being taken care of. Customer service is NOT just fixing problems, it is serving a customer. I realised there was nothing the ARK could do, but an honest effort was made, and I was satisfied. He did the best he could with what he had. So yeay for FC, you did well.
But recently something else has bothered me more and more, and it seems to be getting worse. That is the inconsistencies that I see over and over, and I cannot explain why. One player gets to change sides, another does not. One player gets a nickname change, another does not. One player gets banned, another does not. And yes, we cannot know the details, but speaking to some of them I basically got "Oh I just asked for this, it depends on which GM you get." Hmmmm.
Recently people are getting other people in trouble for supposed "favours." I do not agree with this. Other upstanding people are getting their accounts banned for seemingly silly reasons. Did it have to do with the ARK or GM they got? I sincerely hope not. Now I hear talk of "FC is afraid to admit they made a mistake," and "FC did it again." Well, I know 2 things for certain:
1) FC do make mistakes, they are people just like us and
2) FC are not the ONLY ones at Fault here.
Now before you start yelling at me, consider this...if you do not want to be accused, do not arouse su****ion. Showing up in the wrong places at the "right" times can do this. Visiting people who are su****ious can too. So can whining, making threats, etc.
Sometimes though, people DO get accused of things they did not do, and this is a serious problem. The problem I see is so many unwritten rules. How can we follow them when they are not in writing anywhere? But that and the inconsistencies I see are making things VERY frustrating. I said once before (I hate quoting myself):
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but interpretation and arbitrary enforcement of unwritten laws is a travesty.
I was told recently by a GM, who will remain nameless:
"Cat> Where can I go to read all these rules?
GM> well there is some rules of conduct on our webpage, and there is also the EULA. Our guidelinse will be pointed out more specific in not too long."
So does this mean that we can be punished for unwritten laws? Well yes and no. If the boards are not required to play AO, and someone is not a genius about irc and message boards, and just wants to play, (or even if they do,) is that enough? We have to do the best we can, since AO seems to exist in its entirety online, and this is still new by today’s standards. We are still tied too much to paper and pen, ask any laywer, so this is pushing the envelope. Can we be required to read webpages and message boards and even email for that matter? This does not apply to laws about common decency so much, they may vary, and common sense is an oxymoron. But “in-game” laws are a problem, and my reasons why will follow (apologies in advance).
While I do not understand computers and programs as well as I’d like, I have a bit of an idea that I want to consider, and yes this is a big stretch, but I asked some programmers about it. The confines of this environment are absolute, there are no shades of grey at all, no guesswork, computers do not make mistakes, people do. If there is an error in the “code” it is there because someone PUT it there, there is no blame as such. This is a computer game and like ANY game, people will want to explore it's limits, to see how far they can go “outside the lines.” But in fact, you really can never cross the lines, because either the program allows it or not, period (absolute). And yes, I understand this is a REAL stretch, but if you really want to get technical, you could even try to say that means that there are in the end, no exploits at all, because the game allowed it, and the programmers did not fix it. Can it really be an exploit IF it is available to every single player in the game under the same conditions? Hmmm. There is almost no need for an "honour system" if something fails, its the program it self, we are explorers, curious, it is a human trait.
In the real world, this does not apply. And FC have to know that no one is perfect. But some standard of consistency HAS to be reached, for the sake of integrity if nothing else.
