Other [Issue 30] Tanki Chat Considerations

[MadDog21 230]

Tanki Chat Considerations

 

Anytime lobby chat or game chat occurs, certainty promises criticism. Questions and comments both merit some thought and consideration they, too often, do not get. Some queries plainly relate to violation of rules. To know this, it’s useful to read the Rules. Some do; many don’t. One of the clearest clues of chat to ignore comes in the form of “Who wants . . .?” Often these will be solicitations for coveted crystals, some insane amount like nine kazillion. Of first note is that Tanki offers NO method to exchange, share or gift crystals. None! The hope of those who toss that line in the lake is that they’ll catch a fish ignorant or greedy enough to share their password, hence enabling access to the account. Do it, and the account is gone . . ., or worse. I know this is hard. Greed presses heavy on those with no or little experience, but you’ll lose all your experience and gain nothing except the opportunity to whine and howl that you were “hacked” when in truth you simply gave away the proverbial farm.

 

Some relatively harmless questions surface that still waste time and space and hold no merit. “Who’s the MOD?” What difference does it make? Who the MOD is matters not one whit. That the MOD is present and doing his/her job is what counts, and honorable Tankers ought to appreciate their efforts. Same applies to “Who banned me?” Better to not earn bans, eh? Appreciate that the Mod’s present and working. S/he’s striving to make the Tanki environment function well. Their identity is immaterial and certainly not worth inquiry.

 

Asking others what to buy is nearly as pointless. Given, gaining opinions from more experienced Tankers can benefit newer Tankers, but expecting someone to choose for you is silly. When asked, I paste this. “You've watched play. You've seen various rigs at work. Don't waste time asking someone to think or decide for you. It's YOUR decision dependent upon your style of play, and nobody knows that better than you. Man up! Think for yourself.” My main point is that allowing another to choose for you will go quite sour if you find the purchase apart from your favored style of play. Then you may be inclined to place blame in the wrong place on another rather than upon self where it belongs. Choose for yourself; own your choices. Any advice that comes from another  knows far less to nothing about your style than you. For example, I tend to be a charger. I relish movement playing CTF mostly. I want to get to the flag or assist a Mate in doing that. The sniping style leaves me wholly disinterested though I know some do exceptionally well with that. Sitting in selected cover waiting for a good shot leaves me cold, respects to Carlos Hathcock, Simo Häyhä, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and their ilk. If I advised a sniper, my advice would fail. I opt for speed, close range effectiveness and armor. A sniper likely more favors a rolling condominium like the Mammoth or Titan with stout armor and distance equalizer like Shaft or Rail that reaches out, way out, and touches someone. Get my drift? Choose for yourself, and own your choices.

 

Of insult and profanity, much may be said. A concept born of the cyber age resides in the illusion that being distant, separated by half a world and communicating through monitors means little or no consequences for what one says. This assumption errs. Firstly, Tanki staff can find their way to offenders. It’s debatable that they choose harshly enough in the cases of some “chronics,” regular offenders. That’s Tanki’s choice, but offending Tankers ought to know they can. More critically, to those who take their play time and the game somewhat seriously, your reputation is built upon your conduct. Tanki tracks what they call “karma.” Tankers track others in their memories. Tankers who curse, profane, flood, harass and do any number of objectionable chat faux pas garner attention as must be a part of their intent. If staff observe those remarks that violate  rules, bans, can and will be issued. For some bans are immaterial. They aren’t here to play, compete and interact positively.  Their “fun” is acting like the last three letters of class as often as they can. These are either grossly immature children or emotionally impaired persons of any age. To serve their uninterrupted delinquency, they create multiple accounts enabling the dodge of bans till Tanki staff decide enough is too much. But consequences exist in community, and the block feature or potential hefty ban-hammer from staff aren’t the only solutions for honorable Tankers who don’t care to read such scat. Those consequences promise no assistance from irritated Tankers fed up by such chat nonsense. If scofflaws ever take gameplay seriously, they will have lost the potential of enjoying help from higher ranks in deciphering the nuances of Tanki and tactics learned in veteran play.

 

A better course beckons. Be what you’d wish to encounter. Make chat relevant to the game. Rise to the high standards of the timeless Golden Rule.” “Do unto others as you’d have then do unto you.” Pretty solid plan, that. If wishing to socialize, by all means do so, but resist the “cyber temptation” to insult, offend, solicit crystals, exchanges of which can’t be done anyway, account trades or shares, pleas for assists known as boosting, and, one of my personal peeves, “dates.” Seriously!?! One expects a deep, hand-holding, lip pressing with an allegedly appealing other half the world away? One solicits “dating” another whom s/he’d never meet? And, of course, “She’s hot.” That really entices me. I fantasize about fat, sweaty “lovers” half the world away. Har!

 

Tanki’s community is vastly diverse. Given it could be classified by some as a kid’s world. Then I wonder at the age of some with whom I’ve played and conversed to include a brain surgeon from the Ukraine, a nuclear engineer from Sweden, a commercial pilot from Great Britain and on. I’m pretty certain these folks are older than kidlets. At least I hope so if they’re flying my ride, tuning a reactor near me or muddling about within my sacred cranium! If we deport ourselves with grace and respect, we might savor conversations with ones we’d never meet otherwise. For a long while a personal standard for me has been to make friends with people smarter than me. I favor learning what I don’t know about Tanki and life. That’s tricky if I hang with those who can’t even understand or regard Tanki rules or common courtesies. Respect tendered brings respect in return.

 

 

Edited January 7, 2018 by Hexed

[bravo30 136]

Can you describe it in English. I. Understood nothing!!!!!!

[sachet100 1,020]

Nice work MadDog21 :D

[Superlative 500]

Nice. I see this all the time. I see now, Mad. The last paragraph, I see why you did that. Thank you. :)

[Superlative 500]

Favourite, complex article of the day, Mad. :)

[swede1 1,726]

Unfortunately MadDog, no one who fits the description above will read this, understand it, or care to even visit this forum,,,(fingers crossed).

If anything, the social media aspect of the game needs to be expanded, and solutions found to deal with the violators blocked like they are on any other social media, or community blog site.

It is a core component of Multiplayer games and should have a central role to the game.

[jazz20 1,181]

nicely written :)

[Lord-of-the-Snipers 1,620]

Unfortunately MadDog, no one who fits the description above will read this, understand it, or care to even visit this forum,,,(fingers crossed).

If anything, the social media aspect of the game needs to be expanded, and solutions found to deal with the violators blocked like they are on any other social media, or community blog site.

It is a core component of Multiplayer games and should have a central role to the game.

Unfortunately I have to agree with Swede1 here.

 

TO has a lot of young players who are not interested in any of this and even if they would read it

they wouldn 't care at all and just continue to be their "old" self.

 

Though it 's again a very good piece of work you wrote here,

but I think the only solution should/could be found in a stricter TO that deals

much sooner with for example people that make alt. accounts to avoid bans.

 

Just a matter of dealing bans on IP adresses, so a violator has to go to another adress to keep on going.

Most of them I guess won 't bother to do so.

 

I would vote for such a system. TO could give an almost complete amnesty on all former violators

(only people who crossed some lines you simply don 't cross excluded)

and make everyone aware of the new ban method.

 

Actually I don 't see this happening, so we just have to live with it.

And I want to add that the Moderators do a very good job with the tools they have

at their disposal!

[swede1 1,726]

There are many solutions to get the desired outcome, many of which I am certain have had intense discussions in Tanki board rooms, and others that haven't even been conceived or considered. 

Often though, the old saying, if it isn't broken, don't fix it. Is the theme of most chat interfaces, or follow a proven method rather than produce innovative ideas.

[canadarules 1,938]

#WhyHeTryingToConvertEveryone

#YouAreBlockedBuhBye

[The.Skilled.Legend 1,459]

Very Nice Article! 

[rich678 1]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Swede1 here.

 

TO has a lot of young players who are not interested in any of this and even if they would read it

they wouldn 't care at all and just continue to be their "old" self.

 

 

I guess I am not one of those young players...

Edited January 4, 2015 by rich678

[Lord-of-the-Snipers 1,620]

I guess I am not one of those young players...

I didn 't mean to say that all young players are like that.

I 'm often amazed how matured the opinions are from very young players.

 

Even a lot more mature than many of the older people I meet in daily life or

even some of my own opinions. (almost impossible, but hey ;) )

 

The smartest people that have lived or live on this world

never stop(ped) questioning their own opinions...

Edited January 4, 2015 by Lord-of-the-Snipers

[applications 993]

I'm pretty sure this topic is good even though it looks 2long and I disentangle read it

[muncher2 60]

Well put Maddog thank you very much!

 

~Muncher2

[JROCKS 46]

You know, i rarely actually read the Tanki Newspaper, but i end up at least just glancing at it, and it would seem that i always end up reading an article, which 9 times out of 10, turns out to be MADDOG's  article. I gotta hand it to you MAD, you are a very skilled writer and not only is your advice smart and good and well thought out, but it also helps me change as a person and gain maturity. Thanks for sharing your articles with us, sir.

 

-JROCKS

[x.VIP.x 4]

Very Nice Article! 

[My_Tiger_Psy 4]

What he said ^ xD

[general_abrams 424]

Spot on as usual MadDog. The first article I've read of the latest newspaper.

 

Keep up these educational articles, they're extremely helpful to the community, and an excellent source of information. :)

Edited January 6, 2015 by general_abrams

[Phoenix-Warbird 1,329]

The unspoken is finally spoken. Thank you for putting those thoughts into very good words, Professor.

[Quarks 2,255]

Half the time in TO, I am actually trying to help with the chat, the other half is me annoyed about one player who always kills me or that one camping shaft who I can't get passed. its life, but I do agree with what you are saying.  ;)  B)

[euphonium 40]

Are you a boy or a girl?  Should I buy Thunder? How old are you?

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHA :lol:

 

Keep on keepin on Dog ...... always with a refreshing POV.

 

EUPHO

[Truthteller 4,204]

Nicely written, good.

[altitude96 70]

Woah ok Tolken, didn't know you were Tankis guidance councellor too!

Edited January 9, 2015 by altitude96

[Rebellion 640]

First of all, a work of art ;)
Oh and how "young" is young?

 

I think that TO should crack down on repeat offenders at least after a specific rank. I try not to curse and to uphold the rules although I'm not perfect specifically when there is a hacker or player who's ruining the "team spirit" :D While I will agree it's annoying, it's life. It is far from perfect. Let's hope that tankers will see this article after it's been posted in the hall of fame and will follow these guidelines. :rolleyes:

Keep up the great work, -TTW