A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

[Auriel]

I just read this and thought how it applied to DAoC It certainly made me think about the community.

http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

Best read over a cup of tea / coffee.

Enjoy

 

[Vehlin]

It's something that has reared it's ugly head for years, remember the old usenet flamewars? There are people everywhere who'll use any method to protect what they see as "theirs". Look at camps in daoc, the rules say that they cannot be owned, yet people stake a claim to them, the same is true with artifact camping.

Consider the way people react to a game change, their first thought is "Will this change be bad for me?" or "How can I exploit this change for my own benefit?" . Equilibrium is somethings necessary in a society yet the members of said societies will always attempt to undermine the equilibrium to gain self advantage (cheaters syndrome). So you have two choices, force the equilibrium and deal with those who would attempt to thwart it, or allow the equilibrium to fall and for one faction or another to gain dominance, however due to the nature of the game people will jump ship to be on the winning side, further compounding the problem.

In short we have a no win situation, people need equilibrium but will strive to destroy it for personal gain, not realising that by taking the path that both suits them and the society as whole will prove more beneficial to them in the long run.

 

[Shrye]

Quite an extensive read, altho have to say it was worth the time taken. She makes quite some interesting points that leaders of many kinds could learn something valuable and useful from (and the rest would get new understanding for their "unconcious" behaviour, even if not incredible useful for themself).

The first I thought of, while reading it, were the way that Mythic has tried disabling inter-realm communications, yet the different forums and IRC plays a very large part of the communities and not just for statistical analyzis, but also as a mean of pure socializing with the "enemies".

 

[Xplo]

The text states that group leaders are the most paranoid persons

So even if someone isn't really your enemy, identifying them as an enemy can cause a pleasant sense of group cohesion. And groups often gravitate towards members who are the most paranoid and make them leaders, because those are the people who are best at identifying external enemies.

 

[Awarkle]

hey i wasnt paranoid when i run raids.


i was anoyed at the "someone just ld","ive died can you wait for 30 mins for me to finish my dinner". "ive lost stick", "ive lost speed and died", "ive got water beetle agro"



i think running raids makes people paranoid so you can tell the good raid leaders by the ones talking to their buffbots in a personal bg

 

[old.Osy]

I just read this and thought how it applied to DAoC It certainly made me think about the community.

http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

Best read over a cup of tea / coffee.

Enjoy

While I appreciate the sharing of the link, I disagree with it's placement. Of all the places in the world, you had to share this with these indians Kinda defeats the point alltogether.

 

[Revz]

Very interesting. Here is an article written on a similar theme that I read a few days ago:

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2004/09/dead_monsters_a.html

(you have to read on a bit to reach the similarities)