BradSTL
14-04-05, 05:40
OK, I created two polls just to get a feel for what we, the Neocron players, think of as "fair" or "unfair" tactics, good or poor sportsmanship. In other words, if somebody does something to you that you really hated, how much sympathy are you going to get if you jump on the public in-game chat channels to complain? And if you do something to someone and they complain about it on the public chat channels, how many people are going to side with them and hate you for it?
I got about one hundred votes so far in the first poll (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=124262), which dealt mostly with game-play issues, and only about 50 votes in the second poll (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=124264), which dealt largely with issues of betrayals of one kind or another. That's not a lot, and it's not statistically significant, but it's a start. So let me analyze the responses here, and suggest that this set of principles might just be a starting place for a discussion of what tactics you should avoid unless you want to make big, big chunks of the server personally hate your guts and not want to play with you.
About three fourths of the population understands that spies need to be spies. It is your responsibility to pay attention to your surroundings and know whether or not there are snipers on the cliff tops, stealthers sneaking up on you, and/or people waiting for you to activate your hack tool so they can kill you while you're blind. As dastardly as those tactics sound, they got strong majority votes in favor of them, ranging from 2/3 to 3/4. On the other hand, while people do expect you to watch over your shoulder and know who's in the area, they took a surprisingly harsh stand against attacking people who are already injured (2/3 against). I would love it if someone who thinks this way, that sniping someone from half a kilometer away when they're blind is OK as long as they're not injured already, would explain their reasoning to me?
On the other hand, people have real problems with bullying. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the voters think that blowing up somebody's vehicle just to piss them off, or because it hurts worse than killing them, is just plain low. They feel the same way about large numbers ganging up on small groups (2/3 against) and they hate high-level characters mugging lower level characters even more (3/4 against). Interestingly enough, that applies even if the lower level character is part of a clan that the attacker has genuine issues with, and that surprised me. In other words, you're in Clan X, and Clan Y attacks your outpost. So your clan KOSes Clan Y. But if you attack a much-lower-level member of Clan Y, 3/4 of the server will turn on you for being a bully. That seems weird to me, because I thought it was pretty normal behavior.
Betrayal of trust is pretty unpopular, too. "F6 is just a button"? 3/4 of the players expect not to be attacked or spied upon by allies, and aren't OK with people who do. People understand that the trade function and team functions are there for convenience, and hate people who abuse that trust, too, all of those tactics got at least a 3/4 vote against them.
Pure hackers and PPUs are more controversial than snipers are. Voters split very nearly 50/50 on parashock, and they split almost as evenly on Hacknet camping.
Now, if you see any other conclusions you want to draw from those votes, or think my conclusions based on those votes are full of crap, or if you lost a vote and want to try to persuade people to change their minds, have at it!
I got about one hundred votes so far in the first poll (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=124262), which dealt mostly with game-play issues, and only about 50 votes in the second poll (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=124264), which dealt largely with issues of betrayals of one kind or another. That's not a lot, and it's not statistically significant, but it's a start. So let me analyze the responses here, and suggest that this set of principles might just be a starting place for a discussion of what tactics you should avoid unless you want to make big, big chunks of the server personally hate your guts and not want to play with you.
About three fourths of the population understands that spies need to be spies. It is your responsibility to pay attention to your surroundings and know whether or not there are snipers on the cliff tops, stealthers sneaking up on you, and/or people waiting for you to activate your hack tool so they can kill you while you're blind. As dastardly as those tactics sound, they got strong majority votes in favor of them, ranging from 2/3 to 3/4. On the other hand, while people do expect you to watch over your shoulder and know who's in the area, they took a surprisingly harsh stand against attacking people who are already injured (2/3 against). I would love it if someone who thinks this way, that sniping someone from half a kilometer away when they're blind is OK as long as they're not injured already, would explain their reasoning to me?
On the other hand, people have real problems with bullying. About 2/3 to 3/4 of the voters think that blowing up somebody's vehicle just to piss them off, or because it hurts worse than killing them, is just plain low. They feel the same way about large numbers ganging up on small groups (2/3 against) and they hate high-level characters mugging lower level characters even more (3/4 against). Interestingly enough, that applies even if the lower level character is part of a clan that the attacker has genuine issues with, and that surprised me. In other words, you're in Clan X, and Clan Y attacks your outpost. So your clan KOSes Clan Y. But if you attack a much-lower-level member of Clan Y, 3/4 of the server will turn on you for being a bully. That seems weird to me, because I thought it was pretty normal behavior.
Betrayal of trust is pretty unpopular, too. "F6 is just a button"? 3/4 of the players expect not to be attacked or spied upon by allies, and aren't OK with people who do. People understand that the trade function and team functions are there for convenience, and hate people who abuse that trust, too, all of those tactics got at least a 3/4 vote against them.
Pure hackers and PPUs are more controversial than snipers are. Voters split very nearly 50/50 on parashock, and they split almost as evenly on Hacknet camping.
Now, if you see any other conclusions you want to draw from those votes, or think my conclusions based on those votes are full of crap, or if you lost a vote and want to try to persuade people to change their minds, have at it!