Cyber-Bullying on Salem

[_Gunnar]

My advice to you is just to leave that group. Also if they are as awful as they sound, im sure plenty of people would love to kill them.

[rodrigoq]

OP needs to realize this is a game, his characters are worthless IRL and he can walk away or start a new char at ANY TIME.

Cyber bullying is a fancy new term to describe people who are too stupid to stay off the internet and related sites where they get bullied. Lack of social skills associated with sitting in front of a comp too much contributes to the inability to walk away. If you can't figure out how to deal with ***** and douchebags in an online game, WTF are you going to do when you enter the workforce and have a douchebag boss?
You: "OMG help my boss is bullying me"
Your Boss: " You're fired, LOL"

Or grow balls

4:45 pm on a friday night.. about 2 yrs ago.
My Site Super: "LOL did I forget to tell you you're working late tonight AND working ALL weekend?"
Me: " I'm going home in 15 minutes and I'll see you monday"
Super " No... we have to have this building complete come monday"
Me: "Not my fault your management degree didn't teach you how to schedule properly"
Super: "You're staying late, everyone else is, we need to do a final push"
Me: "I don't care"
Super: "This could determine if you make the "A" list or lay-off list this year"
Me: "I can have a new job before monday that pays the same and has the benefit of not having to deal with you"
Super: "You're an ass hole"
Me: "I know, and it's 5 and I'm out."
Super: "If you get in you're truck consider yourself fired."
Me: "You're a super, not HR. HR does the hiring and firing, you don't."
I drive off site, and 2 seconds later my phone rings, I ignore it, the next 5 calls and 18 texts. I was never laid off.

No balls: I would have been bullied into working a weekend w/o overtime. (Stupid loophole in labor laws in my province)
Balls: I get a weekend to myself.

[LackofCertainty]

OP needs to realize this is a game, his characters are worthless IRL and he can walk away or start a new char at ANY TIME.

Cyber bullying is a fancy new term to describe people who are too stupid to stay off the internet and related sites where they get bullied. Lack of social skills associated with sitting in front of a comp too much contributes to the inability to walk away. If you can't figure out how to deal with ***** and douchebags in an online game, WTF are you going to do when you enter the workforce and have a douchebag boss?
You: "OMG help my boss is bullying me"
Your Boss: " You're fired, LOL"

Or grow balls

4:45 pm on a friday night.. about 2 yrs ago.
My Site Super: "LOL did I forget to tell you you're working late tonight AND working ALL weekend?"
Me: " I'm going home in 15 minutes and I'll see you monday"
Super " No... we have to have this building complete come monday"
Me: "Not my fault your management degree didn't teach you how to schedule properly"
Super: "You're staying late, everyone else is, we need to do a final push"
Me: "I don't care"
Super: "This could determine if you make the "A" list or lay-off list this year"
Me: "I can have a new job before monday that pays the same and has the benefit of not having to deal with you"
Super: "You're an ass hole"
Me: "I know, and it's 5 and I'm out."
Super: "If you get in you're truck consider yourself fired."
Me: "You're a super, not HR. HR does the hiring and firing, you don't."
I drive off site, and 2 seconds later my phone rings, I ignore it, the next 5 calls and 18 texts. I was never laid off.

No balls: I would have been bullied into working a weekend w/o overtime. (Stupid loophole in labor laws in my province)
Balls: I get a weekend to myself.

Cyber-bullying is a real issue, just that the OP of this thread is using the term incorrectly.

Real cyber-bullying is like this:
http://www.dailydot.com/news/kody-maxso ... nt-issued/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Amanda_Todd

It is a problem, because, with how interconnected our lives are today, a person can utilize the internet to continue to harass even after the bullied party has backed away. In the case I linked, even when the bullied person stood up to her bully and said no, he further humiliated her by making a facebook profile with topless pictures of her, and invited everyone from her school/town. It didn't matter that she stopped using facebook, or that she stayed away from sites where the bully could reach her, because he didn't need to reach her. He tortured her indirectly by shaming her through community. This is real cyber bullying. Real cyber-bullying is a very serious problem. Don't you dare brush off the issue in the fashion that you are. (It makes me want to call you very not nice names)

The thing is, because cyber-bullies have so many avenues to get to people nowadays, I don't know if there is much that could be done to stop it in game.

I understand that the OP is not providing good examples, and that we all want to jump down his throat for being a carebear, but this is something that does need to be addressed. At the end of the day, the game is going to keep it's perma-death, and it's going to keep it's PvP focus, but there need to be rules in place for when a person starts going over the line of cutthroat pvp and changes it into actual bullying.

P.S.
Your work story has nothing to do with bullying or cyber-bullying. Congratulations on missing the plot entirely.

[inzain]

i totally get the facet behind cyber bullying, yes it sucks, and is wrong, and yes people do it, but to further elate this topic, the op simply needs to leave that group and head off somewhere new, remove them from his kin list, and they cannot find him UNLESS they happen to stumble upon him somewhere, as it appears they have no scents to track him. if they do? then just make a new character, level it to homestead, then steal everything you can from them transferring it to town(then tradeing it to the new character). and spit on them and let them kill the toons in the end, youll have their loots, and a new home.

they cannot track your alts, unless they have scents on them. there is NO WAY for them to know that a character they pass in the town is you, unless you have allowed them kin on it, or told them, and they memorized you. so if you make a new character, head out and play till you get settling, go buy a marker, lay a claim, and build some boxes, you can easily do what i mention above with ZERO consequences! there is no way for them to find you! or you can leave peacefully, and just make a new toon, on any server you like, and go play, and they will never know who you are!

as to the topic of cyber bullying, yeah it sucks, but the girl at some point gave those pictures to her boyfriend, and well, the point here children! is NEVER give nudey pics of yourself away! if they were fake, then thats an easy out, simply contact the right authorities and have the guy arrested. simple logic, its called harassment, and is against the law in every state. you can request they are brought down, if they are not, then you can sue them, yes the damage was already done, but in the society we live in, who gives a rats patootey!

harassment is harassment, there are legal ways to deal with it, but again this really has nothing to do with the OP! he feels stuck, in a group, and its dragging his enjoyment down, so there ive told him all he needs to know to get out of it! do it , or dont, its your choice. but your the only one to blame if you allow them to ruin the game for you.

sorry if this reply seems somewhat insensitive, i understand and agree that REAL cyber bullying is a bad thing, and although the OP mentioned it, in his topic, it really isnt the fact at hand, more like peer pressure imho. but again, now he knows what to do.

so head out there, and meet some nicer people, and hopefully have a great time in this wonderful game. good people are out there, finding them is the real feat!

[rodrigoq]

How does it have nothing to do with bullying? The site super tried to use his position and a threaten my job security, (which pays my mortagage ect) in an attempt to force me to work a long night and a weekend w/o paying overtime. Of the 6 men on the crew, all but me were bullied into working an extra 30 hours friday night saturday and sunday. 30 hr unpaid OT. At 35/hr thats a good chunk of change. Cyber or not, bullying is bullying.

[harflimon]

Your work story has nothing to do with bullying or cyber-bullying. Congratulations on missing the plot entirely.

As far as I can tell this thread barely has anything to do with cyber-bullying in the first place. OP just put it in his title as if it was actually occurring. I'd be curious as to how someone could actually cyber-bully someone through Salem... unless you are dumb enough to use self-identifying info in-game. Even then, what exactly are the devs supposed to do about that? They can't force intelligent internet use on everyone.

What I'm getting from everything OP has posted is that he's worried about noobs getting griefed and not having any recourse or safe haven to rebuild from, instead being faced with a potentially hostile and apathetic social environment. My answer to that is, maybe instead of ***** about it maybe OP should do something about it. Start a group dedicated to helping noobs or something. Either way, this isn't something for the devs or publisher to get involved in, if they did it would only alienate the core playerbase who come to this game for the very reason that it doesn't pander to carebears.

[LackofCertainty]

Your work story has nothing to do with bullying or cyber-bullying. Congratulations on missing the plot entirely.

As far as I can tell this thread barely has anything to do with cyber-bullying in the first place. OP just put it in his title as if it was actually occurring. ...

I agree. Honestly, if cyber bullying were to occur around salem it would more likely occur via forums or other communication. (skype etc)

Still, whether or not the OP is being bullied, I think it's important for the admin/mods to be ready to deal with situations like that if they crop up.

How does it have nothing to do with bullying? The site super tried to use his position and a threaten my job security, (which pays my mortagage ect) in an attempt to force me to work a long night and a weekend w/o paying overtime. Of the 6 men on the crew, all but me were bullied into working an extra 30 hours friday night saturday and sunday. 30 hr unpaid OT. At 35/hr thats a good chunk of change. Cyber or not, bullying is bullying.

You're correct, your story does involve bullying. I was angry at the time I posted, because you were dismissing what I find a very serious topic, so I didn't really think about your story and was eager to prove you wrong. I apologize. It is important to note, however, that cyber-bullying is significantly more dangerous than regular bullying, in my opinion, because it's much harder to catch the bully. In your story, you stood up to the bully, and that was the end of it. In the story I linked, the girl stood up to her bully, and he just went through other channels to continue harassing her. Heck, the guy responsible still hasn't been punished. (although the story got enough publicity that hopefully he will get his just desserts sooner or later)

[Sevenless]

Ok guys, discussion of a problem is one thing, but this has moved far beyond the realm of what Help! is designed for. Moving to CoaH, but there'll be a shadow topic so people will still be able to find it.

[Kaol]

This thread is bollocks.

Cyber bullying would refer to harassing someone on the internet, not mistreating a virtual character in an online game.

Its like saying "What are the devs doing to prevent genocide?" and then trying to compare raiders with nazis, then people going "hey genocide is a serious topic!", well of course, but it has nothing to do with this game.

[TotalyMoo]

Okay, chill out time.

Firstly, stop attacking the OP for coming in here with a legit question. He had a concern, he raised it, all is good. He didn't even have an arrogant attitude towards the issue, although it may be considered uninformed by some more veteran players.

So to clear up the issue of cyber-bullying...

In Sweden the term cyber bullying is most commonly used when a person who knows you in real life and bullies you there continues online to bully you on sites like Facebook and via email. That means it is extensive harassment both in real life and over the internet.

It can go the other way around too, someone can find you online and use this information to carry on and bully you in real life. This is not as common as far as I know but still happens.

Now for this particular case I believe MagicManICT has summed it up pretty well in collaboration with some other posts in this thread.

We will not do anything to change the course of events in the game. This means that unfortunately for you and some of the other victims of the MM Tribe there is no other way to dodge this situation than to assimilate or run away. There's a reason we advise people to start elsewhere than Boston as there are some stronger factions there that can more easily try to control your gaming experience.

If this would carry on and they would start harassing you as a real person then we have a problem with it and as mentioned we will and can step in to prevent this. But as long as it is confined to the game there is nothing we can nor will do.

As for how this concerns the profitability of the game I have no worries. No one faction is large enough to change every players experience this way.

I'm running out the door as I am writing this so excuse me if I missed some parts. Will revise the post as soon as I have time.