Presenation on Cyber Bullying

[Mhaeric]

I experienced harassment by a GM of a game once, so it's not just limited to harassment of players by players.

In this game, I admittedly used a minor bug exploit where I accessed a special merchant that is only available one week a year outside of that week. The equivalent of FFXIV ARR's event merchants that sell vanity gear. I made a token effort to contact a GM about it, but when one wasn't available I went ahead and bought a handful of the vanity items. This was a bug that the GMs had been aware of for years and had never bothered to fix. They would band-aid solution it, but the band-aid often fell off with other patches and updates. Not that this justifies my action, but it provides a picture of the low severity of the offence.

A GM contacted me in game about it, and was disciplined according to the ToS of the game appropriately which I accepted and went on my way, assuming it to be resolved. What happened next is where the GM team crossed the line into harassment.

The GM who had disciplined me posted the next day in the game's official forum about the incident punishing the entire server for my exploit and suggesting the player base take action against me in game, specifically mentioning my name. (The server I played on was open PvP with little moderation of said PvP.) She then went in game and used the game's equivalent of game-wide /shout to link to that post and again call me specifically out by name, using me as a scapegoat for the plight that she put them in.

I responded to her post on the forum by stating that her conduct was unprofessional and against her game's ToS since it specifically states that specifics of ToS violations will not be discussed with people other than the person who made the violation. I also requested an apology.

After my response, the most senior GM in the game posted that her behaviour was justified because I was 'one of the worst offenders' of exploits, and that the server-wide punishment for my personal transgression was entirely defensible. Her actions being against their own ToS be damned. A single minor violation in fourteen years apparently qualifies me for the status of one of the worst. I did regularly find bugs in game and reported every single one of them to staff in game. Perhaps that's what he was referring to. This was the first that I used to my own gain, which I admitted and accepted punishment for. Punishing the entire player base over it and attempting to publicly lay the blame at a player's feet is not acceptable.

I responded to his post by saying as much, and immediately dropping my subscription to that game (which I had been subscribed to for the greater part of fourteen years) like a hot potato, only playing out the remainder of the time I had already paid for.

This is a screen capture of the original GM's post:



I unfortunately do not have a screen capture of her in game communications, her boss's response, nor my responses to either of their posts since I was not thinking clearly enough and those posts are now archived in a forum I no longer have access to.

It is to the credit of that player community that not a single person took action against me during the short remainder of my subscription for what was clearly an abuse of power on the part of the GMs.

Edit: After some digging, I found my response to her boss's post lurking in my documents folder. It's not a screen capture, unfortunately, just a copy/paste of the text. The sections that are bolded are quotes from his response, the non-bolded sections are my response to each of those quotes, and the italicized section is the letter I wrote requesting cancellation of my three accounts:

Post on 3/17/2012

>>5) Someone found an bug that allowed them to get into Guild Fest. I should point out that this someone was also one of the biggest abusers of the Extreme Shop bug, so there's no claiming, "I didn't know that this was a bad thing!"

Not counting the items I had before the incident that had been given to me during a vault cleaning, all that I have received from that shop is one item (an oversize backpack with some stuff in it) and I catalogued the shop for elanthipedia. That hardly counts as being one of the biggest abusers.

>>8) Lyneya asked player "Wtf?". Player basically responded, "Whatever. It's not like you're going to do anything about it. Go away and leave me alone."

Actually, the full and undistorted conversation was as follows:

Chatter[Lyneya] Mhaeric?
Chatter[Mhaeric] Yes? You're lucky I just checked in before heading out
Chatter[Lyneya] Need to gab, can I bring you to me for a sec?
Chatter[Mhaeric] Sure

The world grows blurry and indistinct. After a moment everything becomes clear again. Looking about, you see...
[Lyneya's Hideaway, By the River]
Large tangerine trees stand along the river's edge, their boughs providing a sheltered place to rest by the water. Yellow and green flowers grow around the base of the trees. In the distance, a fountain sits near a stone bridge that spans the river. A small cottage with a wide wooden door is situated just past the bridge, surrounded by some flowers that have grown incredibly high.
Also here: GameMaster Lyneya.
Obvious paths: none.

Lyneya says, "Hi,."
You wave.
Lyneya says, "So, I'm trying to decide what to do here."
You ask, "About?"
Lyneya says, "I mean, on the one hand, I can see that you tried to get my attention on chatter before you went shopping at a closed fest. On the other hand, you didnt wait very long before you said "screw it" and went anyways."
You say, "Oh that."
You chuckle.
Lyneya says, "You had to know you were abusing a bug. You dont go into a tent in one place and come out at another."
Lyneya says, "After the extreme shop thing, I'd have thought you'd display better judgement."
Lyneya asks, "So, what gives?"
You say, "Not sure. Just went window shopping to check stuff out."
You say, "Then ended up buying stuff."
You say, "Got sucked in by the caravan customization." (It was rainbows!)
You say, "I don't even really need or want any of the stuff, so I'm more than willing just to get rid of it all."
You shrug.
Lyneya asks, "You shrug like its just.. whatever. Not important. I guess to you it isnt?"
You say, "The stuff, no." (I.e. the mech abuse, yes)

(From this point forward, I am running around getting ready to leave and only partially atk, checking in every once in a while to type a brief response. Its impossible to show the odd pauses in the conversation that occured.)

Lyneya says, "I'm at a loss here."
Lyneya says, "I quite honestly am flabbergasted by your blase attitude."
Lyneya says, "I've already reclaimed the items Portal had in his inventory. I need to talk to the trader guy about how to deal with Pouch, and I need to talk to the other SGMs about how to handle everything else."
You say, "So much for un-moderated."
You wave your hand distractedly.
Lyneya blinks.
Lyneya says, "Actually, bug abuse is one of the only things that can actually get you in trouble over here, Mhaeric. Beside that point, I'm really disappointed in you. You knew better, or else you wouldnt have been asking about it on chatter."
Lyneya says, "Unmoderated means that we dont get in the middle of your pvp disputes and we dont bother you about your language. It does not mean you can abuse bugs."
Lyneya says, "Pouch and Portal have both received bug abused warnings."
You say, "Oh, I think there's a slight miscommunication btw. Not that it changes anything." (re: her thinking I'm blase about the mech abuse.)
Lyneya says, "Read NEWS 5 18."
Lyneya says, "I'll set you back down so I can get on to figuring out how to deal with the rest of it."
Lyneya nods politely.

The world grows blurry and indistinct. After a moment everything becomes clear again. Looking about, you see...
[The Western Road, Foothills]
The road dips slightly between the path north through the forest and a steeper rise to the southeast. Off to one side, victim of some misfortune, sits an abandoned wagon -- or what's left of it after passersby have stripped it of usable parts.
You also see a bone-trimmed wayerd pyramid, a bone-trimmed wayerd pyramid, a battered Wayerd pyramid, a bone-trimmed wayerd pyramid, a battered Wayerd pyramid, a battered Wayerd pyramid, a bone-trimmed wayerd pyramid and a bone-trimmed wayerd pyramid.
Obvious paths: north, southeast.

<<11) Lyneya made it clear, again, what is expected from the TF community when it comes to bug abuse and exploits on the forums.

You forgot the part where she explicitly named me as the person who was subject to a policy violation and discussed various details of that policy violation such as the number of accounts and what the violation was for. I find it very telling that you intentionally gloss over that part, since it goes against your very own policy that you are so actively defending in this post. And especially since you continue to discuss in even further details the circumstances surrounding the violation in this very post in points 5, 6, and 8. Point 9 even reveals that you not only publicy discussed it, but individually with other players prior to the public discussion. Given my cancellation reason that was forwarded to you, and has yet to receive more than a form-letter response, I am at a loss to explain how you feel that is even remotely an acceptable thing to do. Here, I'll include it here as a reminder:

<<I am cancelling all of my three accounts (*****, BALLD1, *******) because of unacceptable actions by GM Lyneya that directly violate your privacy policy. Her actions were in direct follow up to a mechanics abuse violation in TF that I received and that had been resolved.

<<For a bit of backstory and context, the mechanics abuse I was found to be guilty of was entering and purchasing some items from a closed festival which did not have its access cut off properly. While I don't believe this to be considered a major mechancis abuse as outlined in POLICY 5, I accept that its open to interpretation and accepted the policy warning on the two accounts which had accessed the festival. I assumed the issue was resolved, except for the behind the scenes work necessary to fix the bug. Everything up to this point consists of acceptable conduct by your staff and does not factor into my complaint or cancellation.

<<The day after the above mechancis abuse consult was resolved, GM Lyneya made the following post titled "Mech Abuse in TF" on the TF forums in the official GM Announcements folder: http://forums.play.net/forums/DragonRealms:%20The%20Fallen/Talk%20to%20Simutronics/Official%20Announcements/view/1095. She then cut and paste a link to it in the in game chatter. Both of these locations are public means of communication.

<<The majority of the post is information about mechanics abuse and explanation about how it applies in TF. The second last line states that she will be punishing all of the players in TF for the mechanics abuse of one of those players. While a questionable decision, this is within Simutronics rights as you are able to provide or remove content for any reason.

<<Had she ended the post there, there would still be no issue. However, the last line of that post is completely unacceptable. Simutronic's policy is, and has always been, to not discuss or comment on an individual policy decision with anyone other than the person subject to that decision. That I was publicy called out by name in both a forum post as well as via a link in game to said post flies in the face of that policy so blatantly it has me shocked. It is also more than a little hypocritical, since her violation of policy is direct response to a policy violation itself. Even in the Extreme Shop series of violations from last year, there was no singling out of any player by name by a GM. It smacks of vindictiveness or a personal grudge and is quite frankly petty.

<<Whatever her reasoning, I am disgusted by her behaviour, as well as the fact that her superiors must have signed off on the post before it went out. I do not hold out for anything more than a non-apology in response to this, and as such am no longer willing to continue providing your company 60USD per month.

I have purposely kept myself out of the kerfuffle resulting from this, both on the forums and in the game, because I agree with the mechanics abuse warnings as was stated in my cancellation reason. Even the soup Nazi-esque "No guildfest, for you!" response for all of TF is fine by me, again for the above reasons, although I do consider it to be an over-reaction and childish.

However.

Your, and by extension, Simutronics' continuing hypocrisy is what is not alright. Especially considering that it was as an attempt to publicly vilify one of your paying players in game. An attempt I might add that notably backfired. I am heartened to see that people saw it for the childishness that it was and chose not to act on it.

I stated that an apology was something I did not think would be forthcoming, and I was correct. I am disappointed that I didn't even receive a token response from you at least acknowledging the situation and explaining your side of the situation, but no matter. What I am is angered by your continuing public discussion of details of my violation with others knowing full well that I disapprove of it and that it is against your own policy that you are holding up on a pedestal in the very same post.

Simutronics and I are completely done once I use up every last minute I paid for. Good luck in your future endeavours. Given the events of the past month, I believe you will need it.

-Mark.