What have we come to?

[redikus]

I agree! Thank you for doing your job

 

[KiDD]

Technology and advantage spoils many of our generation...

 

[Zinc // Akash754]

Yep

Hey everybody, I've just gotten off my exams and am now back on track with MCGamer work. Upon the recent map update I've noticed something that has got me thinking.

Let's go back 3 years. MCSG. MCSG was founded in April '12. 3 short days after it's opening I joined this community. This was back when we had less than 10 servers, all on US. When games lasted 1 hour. When dead tributes stayed and watched the entire game to find out who won. When people were supportive of one another and instead of "wow you got rekt, haha gg eZ kid" was "that was a good fight, keep it up!". Point is: times have really changed. I can't remember the last time someone said thank you to me for doing my work as a Sr. Staff member. I remember when community members actually looked up to staff members and didn't give them a hassle.

I remember having to play SG 1 over and over again because it was a great map and it was the only map. When Breeze Island came out I remember everyone going insane! Everyone loved it, as did I! I remember when people were thanked for their efforts, long hours, arguments and stress when it was finally paid off. I remember when a dev would join a server and everyone would thank them for creating such an amazing game. Now it's just people complaining and complaining, and complaining.

With Kithex releasing it's first map, a lot of people were excited, a lot of people were not, and in my personal opinion, a lot of people were jealous... Jealous of what? The map being added of course. I never imagined the map getting added. All Kithex was doing was making it look better. Yet here we have people who are giving non-constructive criticism without even playing the map yet! People have become so nitpicky. "oh you used this block too much, I'm never going to play this map". Really? I haven't seen one post saying "Thank you for putting the time and effort into making this map for us to play on", frankly I haven't seen that for about 2 years.

The community is reflecting on our generation. We don't enjoy the little things anymore. We complain but we never appreciate. So here is my challenge for you, for every complaint you make that is not helpful whatsoever (e.g: fix your servers), come up with one thing to thank the staff, developers and Chad himself.

Because really guys, what have we come to? How can we fix this toxic environment we have around us? How can we educate one another to be nice and caring for our fellow community members. Because for crying out loud, this is a video game about BLOCKS. I don't get paid for making maps, I don't get paid for doing the MCGamer Awards, I don't get paid for listening to community members abuse myself and my fellow staff, I don't get paid to uphold your ban disputes, or look at your mod apps. This is all out of the goodness of my heart. The least people can do is stop and say thank you to the people who are helping them. Because that's all we get, the best thing you can give myself, the staff and even other community members (specifically Map Makers), is a simple Thank You.

 

[Frazzli185]

Hey everybody, I've just gotten off my exams and am now back on track with MCGamer work. Upon the recent map update I've noticed something that has got me thinking.

Let's go back 3 years. MCSG. MCSG was founded in April '12. 3 short days after it's opening I joined this community. This was back when we had less than 10 servers, all on US. When games lasted 1 hour. When dead tributes stayed and watched the entire game to find out who won. When people were supportive of one another and instead of "wow you got rekt, haha gg eZ kid" was "that was a good fight, keep it up!". Point is: times have really changed. I can't remember the last time someone said thank you to me for doing my work as a Sr. Staff member. I remember when community members actually looked up to staff members and didn't give them a hassle.

I remember having to play SG 1 over and over again because it was a great map and it was the only map. When Breeze Island came out I remember everyone going insane! Everyone loved it, as did I! I remember when people were thanked for their efforts, long hours, arguments and stress when it was finally paid off. I remember when a dev would join a server and everyone would thank them for creating such an amazing game. Now it's just people complaining and complaining, and complaining.

With Kithex releasing it's first map, a lot of people were excited, a lot of people were not, and in my personal opinion, a lot of people were jealous... Jealous of what? The map being added of course. I never imagined the map getting added. All Kithex was doing was making it look better. Yet here we have people who are giving non-constructive criticism without even playing the map yet! People have become so nitpicky. "oh you used this block too much, I'm never going to play this map". Really? I haven't seen one post saying "Thank you for putting the time and effort into making this map for us to play on", frankly I haven't seen that for about 2 years.

The community is reflecting on our generation. We don't enjoy the little things anymore. We complain but we never appreciate. So here is my challenge for you, for every complaint you make that is not helpful whatsoever (e.g: fix your servers), come up with one thing to thank the staff, developers and Chad himself.

Because really guys, what have we come to? How can we fix this toxic environment we have around us? How can we educate one another to be nice and caring for our fellow community members. Because for crying out loud, this is a video game about BLOCKS. I don't get paid for making maps, I don't get paid for doing the MCGamer Awards, I don't get paid for listening to community members abuse myself and my fellow staff, I don't get paid to uphold your ban disputes, or look at your mod apps. This is all out of the goodness of my heart. The least people can do is stop and say thank you to the people who are helping them. Because that's all we get, the best thing you can give myself, the staff and even other community members (specifically Map Makers), is a simple Thank You.

This pretty much sums up the reason I left both the staff team and the community as a whole. I couldn't have put it better myself. Well said Nick c:

 

[TotalDramaTony]

People have changed. Humans as a group evolve little by little as time increases. It's been only 3 years, that's not a lot of time, but still, so many new people, and old ones have come and gone, and everyone else has changed. No one is the same as they once were, and that is why everything has changed. We are all evolving into a new person each day, and that affects the environment and community we take part in.

 

[Col_StaR]

In my experience, communities always change, and not always for the better.

Personally, I feel like the current toxicity is a consequence of our focus on MCSG. MCSG draws a brand of player that is highly competitive, and with that comes a bit of toxicity and hostility as well. Over time, as our community came to focus more and more on that element, more and more attitudes were drawn here, and gradually became acceptable.
That's one unintended consequence of focusing solely on SG, as so many people demand. It's one of the reasons we wanted to diversify our network's gamemodes, but that would evidently not be accepted.

I don't think of this as a "children, parents, ancestors" generation issue. But I think this is a "newcomers and old players" generation issue, one that people are quick to decry, but apathetic to address.

....
The community is reflecting on our generation. We don't enjoy the little things anymore. We complain but we never appreciate. So here is my challenge for you, for every complaint you make that is not helpful whatsoever (e.g: fix your servers), come up with one thing to thank the staff, developers and Chad himself.

Because really guys, what have we come to? How can we fix this toxic environment we have around us? How can we educate one another to be nice and caring for our fellow community members. ....

Your suggestion actually reminds me of a response to Monica Lewinsky's TED Talk, "The Price of Shame". The response by TED's social media editor Nadia Goodman outlines how censoring a wave of negative opinion, followed by the encouragement of good opinions, eventually lead to a wave of positive opinions. Essentially, she overcame the tsunami of hostility by drowning them out altogether, eventually leading to a beneficial environment where positivity (or at least neutrality) became the norm.

I feel like we could definitely benefit from such a task, especially in light of player hostility right now. It will take more than compliments and education, though; this will require a heavy hand as well. Most people think you teach with either the carrot or the stick; the best people will incorporate both.

I've been doing a lot of research off-and-on about player hostility and toxicity, particularly in eSports and large-scale gaming environments. Lots of interesting research, and an interesting conversation to be had. But right now, it seems like it will just take a lot of time, patience, and experimentation to figure out how best to address such issues in gaming.

Thank you for your perspective, KitMencha.

 

[TheParrot]

These people all deserve a cookie. And we all need to think about the developers and other admins who we don't see a lot and do all of the behind the scenes work to program and make all of the wonderful events tat we get to enjoy. And we still need to respect all of the in-game people we meet. Yes, me may be mad if people kill us right off spawn, but remember, it's not the end of the world, it's just a game, and at least you have a chance to play the game unlike some others. So, thank you.

 

[LittleKisses]

If you "dangle the carrot" in the form of some kind of recognition for positive behaviour towards others, then maybe it will slowly become a 'learned behaviour'?. Unfortunately there is always going to be the people that feel the need to put others down in order to feel superior or better about them selves.
My remedy to this is to treat them as nice as you can, even if it's through gritted teeth. I tried this with a long term 'hater' of mine who abused me at every opportunity, I, in return retaliated but soon realised it was getting me and him, nowhere.
I took a different tactic and tried being nice to him/complimented him and guess what? all he really needed was a friend and that is what we became and still are It is hard to ignore all of the gg12's, rekt, eZ's etc. but try to keep calm and think of it in a different perspective like I did, doesn't always work but worth a try

 

[Glade_OS]

Ah, those times. Personally my favorite (back in 2012-2013, not now x3). Honestly, there were a lot less try hards, boosters, ping abusers, hackers, teams, 9 year old call of duty players, and other things back then (even though we didn't have as many maps the maps are always my favorite part of the server). Sometimes you wonder what happened to be honest :3

 

[RC_4777]

Ah, those times. Personally my favorite (back in 2012-2013, not now x3). Honestly, there were a lot less try hards, boosters, ping abusers, hackers, teams, 9 year old call of duty players, and other things back then (even though we didn't have as many maps the maps are always my favorite part of the server). Sometimes you wonder what happened to be honest :3

I think the fact that the term "ping abusers" is a thing is directly against the message of this thread. You can't abuse ping, it's just an insult used by people that are too competitive and need to find anything to blame a loss on. You shouldn't use that term.

And to be honest, if rather play with the 9 year olds I know than some of the older people here...

 

[Hect0rg]

This is great! Thanks!

 

[Miner9823]

Thanks.

Thank you so darn much.

Thank you, the MCGamer community, for flourishing my smiles.

Despite the terrible toxicity of our community arising, and the competitiveness for gaining the most wins to reach the leaderboards. The community's life had begun so long ago, and to this day, I wish I got to participate in the golden days many people had described and memorized so much. I am curious towards what the community was like long ago, unfortunately, I had only first joined around 2012 - 2013, right before hubs were even introduced! Unfortunately, with the dim mind I had then caused me far too much competitiveness, yelling, screaming at the screen every time I had lost a game. I was such an idiot, and to this day, I still depict myself as one.

Although I was fortunate enough to actually have a roof over my head, have access to technology, access to food and water, have a bed, and every essential thing I would require to live a decent life; I had still felt empty. (Probably because I'm ungrateful...) My educational life did begin growing into a burden, and took a detrimental toll in my life. Additionally, certain situations that had occurred in my home, an illness had caused a relative of mine to travel overseas to be treated, and I was unable to see both of my family for over half a year.

Conflicts had arisen, causing a large tear in the relationship between my peers and I. Which had unfortunately, resulted in a substantial amount of harassment, bullying, threats, isolation, exclusion, and rejection. My attitude to learning had begun dimming gradually, my motivation to carry on my supposed burden had vanished! And despite the fact that they are obviously first world problems, I already have a full understanding on how there are individuals out there under more severe circumstances than I am enduring. Nevertheless, one's issues, regardless of where they come from, are ultimately insignificant compared to what else is resting within the vast space around us known as the universe. But despite such depicted insignificance, our issues remain relative on Earth, additionally providing an abundant value of learning from them.

I was truly fortunate to have had access to the technology we own today, unlike a vast majority, regarding statistics, not many people on Earth do have such luxuries of owning either an insanely powerful computer used for our personal entertainment and enlightenment. Or perhaps simply having food and water ready for you at the table every day at all in that case! And the time I began to discover the full potential of the internet, and online communities, was the time I had discovered MCGamer. My first impressions was how intrigued I had become, and how absorbed I was to the game itself. As we may all can tell, I was not a relatively good player. Resulting in my addiction worsening every moment I had lost yet another mere game of Survival games. To the extent where I had grown intolerable, and violent behaviour.

Eventually, I had finally found my retribution upon encounter of a typical trash-talker, who would be, from my assumptions, a very youthful individual who had lots to learn about the terms of respect and morality. Additionally one who would also revolve great interest and curiosity of one's mother, too! The encounter had ended with me contemplating, day and night, about my behavior, on whether or not my approaches, or my attitude would be appropriate, or any way beneficial for my future. Thereafter, I began by firstly... Improving my writing, it began making me feel quite peculiar if I write in internet slang, although quite fun to write for fun on the internet, or even writing 1337, I figured that it would be more settling to begin writing and communicating with others online in a more settling method. As so I can assure their first impressions of me do not come off as me being yet another individual who would be too oblivious to understand respect. I had now set myself to allow people to trust me, to let them know that I am willing to aid them any way I can.

I set myself a goal to become a good person.

But I am a long distance from achieving that, yet.

As my experience with being another member of the internet had taught me a variety of different values, and what importance they pose in every day life. Respect, kindness, the understanding of immoral behaviour, the diversity of a human's mindset, and how well they can be compared to with others. In every part of the internet, there will be guaranteed a spot reserved for your preferences. MCGamer being an example. As I had finally been capable of truly flourish my writing skills (Although I still have a long way to go with it!), meet amazing people with similar interests, and overall, actually stepping up to help people in need.

Unfortunately, my time here in MCGamer so far is relatively brief. And of course, I hadn't helped as many people as I had hoped to. However, just being in MCGamer, I had finally learnt how valuable it is to even contain toxic circumstances in our network. As it most frankly put, helps us understand on what we can improve. My encounter with the individuals who had shown their savage-like side to me in the past, was so much more than enough to imply what my errors were when it had come to my approach with other people online.

It is true, people can grow far too content with what they dislike, that they begin to lose consciousness on what really matters, to understand the value of even the most insignificant things. The introduction to the latest hub and additionally, the 1.8 update, had caused such a vast uproar, and reach a stage of controversy that where the little discussions can turn into an all out flame war. Eventually, it had cooled off in the end! Before I had become a staff member, I had fully acknowledged how hard people actually work, and to some extent, hours on end, just so they can achieve a proper service to help individuals they have completely no knowledge of, living half across the globe. It led to my admiration for the amount of effort they had put in, and making a simple thank you to all the amazing staff members who had worked vigorously hard to help all of was, was simply not enough in my standards. Therefore the only way I can pay off my debt of gratitude, is to become a staff member, and help as many people as I can.

Nick, and everyone else here,

I hope you now know my last reasons on why I had wanted to become a staff member in the MCGamer community.

My gratitude for your efforts are boundless, you're the true reason I maintain hope,

thank you, for everything.