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The most hated guy in City of Heroes- "Twixt" (his true story)
popinjay
Member Posts: 6,539
'City of Heroes' character 'Twixt' becomes game's most hated outcast courtesy of Loyola professor
Loyola University media professor David Myers palmed his computer mouse and zeroed in on his prey.A role-player in an online game, 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."
The chilling text shook Myers two years ago. It served as a telling detail for his ongoing study of social customs in Internet gaming communities.
I think that guy will be mad if he knew he was getting beat by a real life Grandpa.
That's his real character's reflection in his glasses.
Comments
Fascinating article. Cool. Thanks!
fishermage.blogspot.com
Haha this guy owns
Interesting article. I'm a little confused though and maybe someone can clear this up for me. I played CoH when it was released. However, I quit before CoV came out. The article says this guy played by the rules but still managed to dominate the other players when he fought them. How was he able to do that? Was he just better than everybody else? Did he come up with more imaginative ways to use his powers than other players? It almost sounds from the article like his character was more powerful than the others, as if he was able to tap into powers that others didn't have access to? Like when the teleported his opponents in front of a firing squad. Couldn't others have done that to him?
If he played by the rules but found some sort of loophole in his powers, I think the devs should have nerfed the loophole.
I love how this is the story of an old man beating up small children online. I mean, I assume he PK'd kids, as any adult would have been fully aware of the PvP zone and its ramifications, thus not complaining as if it was uncalled for. (note: I'm not criticizing him)
And WTF... City of Heroes has PvP but nobody does it? Why not? Back when I tried CoH, before CoV, it was horribly boring to have no enemies but NPCs. PvP sounds like something that would bring people to the game...
So now I'm considering getting this game. I had no idea it had PvP. Is it any fun?
I'm thinking he was probably better than most people. For some reason people have a strange attitude when they pvp. They tend to enter fits of nerd rage if they get on a losing streak or a certain person keeps winning over them. Instead of learning from this and adjusting their skill tactics they go into terror typing mode and start spamming insults and threats. I don't think anyone would really go kill the guy in real life, that would require breaching the parental basement barrier and I don't think they would survive long in the real world. Reminds me of when I play FPS games. You go in and try to improve your skills and learn new stuff but you always have a few nerds come in and start spamming if they don't get all the kills. At least you can ban them from the server in those types of games.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
If you read the comments you will find a story different from the one he presents. A story mostly void of the hyperbole the professor uses to present his study. The players point of view is that he kill-stole from other hero players, teleported villians to the NPC guards (who insta-killed them) that guarded the hero entry points and hero hospital points, bragged and taunted when he did same and was basically an ass. Anyone killed,even by one HP, by a guard is not counted as a kill by a player. He avoided the entry points for the villians and thus prevented them from teleporting him to the villian NPC guards. The teleport powers he used were ones readily available to that hero archetype. All this occurred in the PVP areas
The players considered him a nuisance and an annoyance but not the most hated avatar in the game. He played the part of your typical PKer. Annoy as many people as possible and avoid as much of the consequences of doing the same.
The wingnuts that lose it with death threads are the ones that amaze me. I never could understand why anyone would even suggest they want to actually murder someone over pixels. The last thing video games or MMOs need is more ammunition given to people who say games cause violence, when its not true.
I remember someone posted a story about a two guys in Europe in different countries playing a game and one guy actually drove to the other's country and stabbed the guy multiple times to death. Over a computer game. So those saying they don't really think that this professor is/was in danger can never account for the actual crazies that really play games. That's why when I play I try to never give much personal info out as possible. It's really no business of people who I really am or where I really am from as a game character. Usually those nutcakes aren't the saavy type to track you down unless you give them some rope or clues to do so.
This kind of reminds me of the death threats people say here on these forums. I never understand why if someone is going to get upset because of something someone types, why they continue to read it. Simply don't click the topic or BLOCK the person's responses out. It does wonders.
"TO MICHAEL!"
So in other words, the guy acted like an ass, other people got sick of him being an ass, failed at trying to teach him a lesson because he was abusing the game, and then bitched at him about it... and he thinks its because he wasn't following the cultural gamer ways?
If you flip the order of events around to "guy being ass, people sick of him being an ass, people bitch at him for being an ass, people fail to teach him a lesson," how is this any different from life?
Oh but I forgot, gamers somehow exist outside of the "normal life" and thus we're like some strange (de)evolution of regular humans who would otherwise sit around with each other drinking beer and watching football.
...and then sent him death threats.
I'm sorry, but no matter how much someone is "being an ass" in a game, death threats aren't called for. Usually when someone is acting like a wingnut, you can usually log off for a bit or go to another area and when you come back, they're gone. This happens so much already so I'm not sure why the CoH people thought their game is any different.
It's like node mining. There's an "unwritten rule" that you don't come up to someone's node while they are farming it and start mining. That's "bad etiquette". But that type of action is well within the rules of the game. Neither player "owns" the node so neither one has claims.
It's the same as if you are watching a guy about to mine/farm when he's attacked by a mob. While he's busy fighting the mob, you swoop in and mine the node. That's "bad etiquette" but entirely within the rules of the game.
Or if a guy clears an entire area of mobs to farm, and you farm it out while he's doing that.
Or if a high level character comes to a lowbie zone, grabs up 1,000 mobs and then AoEs them to death farming, you're pissed because you can't finish missions.
In each case they are certainly against "societal rules", but well within the game rules. All those nodes and mobs respawn in minutes usually so I never understood the big deal when it was done to me.
If fact, the MORE attention you usually gave those guys in game, the more they hung around.
"TO MICHAEL!"
Makes me want to reactivate my account.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
...and then sent him death threats.
Well the death treats although not the best sign of a "stable" personality usually have a reason. In real life if someone is being an ass sure you can ignore him but you have the option of being more physical. That's a reason actually that many people are not being asses as much as they are online.
In the game you don't have such an option since you can only "affect" someone by the devs rules. So with absense of the fear of a physical retribution many people act like how they would want to act in their normal lives.
The "professor" wasn't an ass though imo. He just followed the letter of a rule while disregarding the spirit plus any part of the social structure. Technically he acted as an antisocial personality.
And pardon me he was supposed to be a professor. Did he need a to use a lot of his brain capacity to know what happens when you break the "status quo" of any established order?
It's like me going to a place where everyone sleeps at 9 o'clock and start playing loud music. Yes the law allows me to do that, but would it be surprising that everyone else would be pissed?
A friend is not him who provides support during your failures.A friend is the one that cheers you during your successes.