Retired MOP writer and all around epic human Mike Foster (yo Mike!) recently tweeted about his days working as a GM for World of Warcraft, noting that the role taught him “that there are major RP geeks who sit in starting zones and report non-RP names en masse” on a daily basis.
This genuinely surprises me because reporting people in MMORPGs is usually a pain in the butt. Sure, sometimes you can do some sort of right-click-in-chat-report-and-done, which is the case in WoW, but most MMOs make it a little bit more difficult than that either out of poor design or in hopes of stopping report abuse. I might bother to block, but reporting is a whole ‘nother step of work, a whole 30 seconds or so where I’m letting some jerk live rent-free in my head and very likely only wasted my time as well as the time of whatever GM gets stuck dealing with the report, assuming it doesn’t end up in the circular file anyway.
I’d still probably report for really bad behavior just to do my best to help the community that follows me. But to sit there and report troll names all day long? Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Do you bother reporting miscreants in MMORPGs? What sort of behavior compels you to do more than block?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
