Researcher Trolls MMO, Surprised When Players Hate Him

D1gital_Prob3 writes with this excerpt from a story about David Myers, a Loyola professor who spent some time studying superhero MMO City of Heroes/Villains: "... he aimed the pointer at his opponent, the virtual comic book villain 'Syphris.' Myers, 55, flicked the buttons on his mouse and magically transported his opponent to the front of a cartoon robot execution squad. In an instant, the squad pulverized the player. Syphris fired an instant message at Myers moments later. 'If you kill me one more time I will come and kill you for real and I am not kidding.' ... As part of his experiment, Myers decided to play the game by the designers' rules — disregarding any customs set by the players. His character soon became very unpopular. At first, players tried to beat him in the game to make him quit. Myers was too skilled to be run off, however. They then made him an outcast, a World Wide Web pariah that the creator of Syphris — along with hundreds of other faceless gamers — detested."

Comments

Not Research

[sexconker]

This isn't research, this is trolling.
There is nothing novel about it.
There is nothing to be learned.
You're just being a dick.

Nobody give this fucker any research money, any PHD, or any book deals.

If it's within the rules, it's within the rules.

[EWAdams]

Get used to it or get out.

Re:Being an asshole makes people angry, film at 11

[ChaosDiscord]

You know what game you have played? Social discourse. Regrettably today you lose. Best luck next time!

Re:Not trolling

[nbates]

So, the other characters are so lame that they even loose to the cheapest tactic possible?

I understand what you mean, but you are wrong. When you play a game, you are allowed to do everything that is not cheating.

Re:within the rules doesnt mean its within the rul

[nine-times]

This isn't "socializing". What we do here on Slashdot is engage in little intellectual arguments about a variety of topics. Sometimes they're interesting, sometimes they're inane, often they're impolite, but what they never are is "social".

If you want to live in a society, then you actually then it's probably a good idea to involve living and society. If you want to stop dealing with society for a little while and go kick the asses of super villains with your super powers, that sounds like a good video game.

Re:Who makes the "rules" of a community?

[MidnightBrewer]

If you're going to join in on a game and then not actually play, it's your own damn fault when you get your ass handed to you. If you want to chat, go to IRC. If you want to do it with an avatar, go to Second Life. If you're going to bitch because somebody tries to fight you in a (gasp!) fighting game, you may be pointing the finger of blame in the wrong direction.

An action/adventure game is meant to be just that. It's not like the rules weren't outlined in advance. If I join a baseball game, I expect to be playing baseball, not watching everybody stand around preening and admiring how they look in their jerseys.