I’ve been spending a lot of time lately checking out different MMOs and doing a lot of reading. In my “travels” the one thing that seems to astound me, however, is the general lack of concern for one’s reputation. I understand that an entirely different generation of human beings are now playing MMOs but I do have to ask, “what happened to reputations?” Why don’t these players seem to worry about their credibility and integrity?
I think a large part of it has to do with the community. When I was coming up in the MMO world there simply weren’t a lot of games to choose from and server transfers were difficult. If you were a ninja looter, a jerk, or a liar we tended to know you. If you were on the high end circuit in EQ it was extremely easy to find out if someone was a dirty player even if they weren’t on your server. We, in essence, self policed. We avoided people with a bad reputation. In the modern world of cheap character transfers, tons of servers, and a multitude of games it is hard to make a name for yourself, good or bad!
It isn’t just the community though. A lot of players I have run across just don’t seem to care. They’re seemingly more concerned with “me” and what “they want” than its effect on those around them. It is just something I cannot understand. I’ve always been deeply concerned with my personal reputation and that of my guild’s. In EQ2 I, and other officers, invested a massive amount of time in turning over our image once we took the guild over. It was a rough task but we did it and I say it was worth it.
I use the same character name on every game I play with a matching forum handle for a reason: I’m not hiding. In fact I want people to recognize the name because most that have played with me will go, “oh Ferrel, I know him.” With my name comes my credentials. I’m honest to a fault and I always speak my mind. You know, at all times, exactly where you stand with me. I’m loyal, driven, and eager to help anyone who wants it. I’ve carefully nurtured that reputation with my actions. Most of my guild mates have done the same and we’ve done our best to ensure Sodality has a positive image. Is this a fruitless pursuit?
No pursuit of positive reputation is fruitless. In my eyes it will always be time well spent. There may be more players out there who don’t care about reputation than ones that do but I think it still matters. After all, the older players will recognize the efforts we take. Am I just grabbing at how things used to be? Is there room for personal reputation in the modern MMO market? I’d be pleased to know what others think about the topic.
All characters are © 2007 - 2012
As games have become more solo friendly, people don’t need other people as much, so to most people maintaining a good rep just isn’t important to being able to play the game at all. And with easy leveling, if you do get a bad rep, you just make a new guy, trade all your stuff and be back at the level cap in a week or two, maybe three.
But it does also have to do with the generation change. There is that Internet joke that “The Internet is serious business.” … it used to be. Now its mostly just for fun and for jokes and finding out celebrity garbage and posting pictures of yourself that would hinder your job prospects if not for the fact that by the time you take your career seriously after going to college to finish your high school education, your boss is likely going to be either someone who just doesn’t understand you at all and won’t be looking at your Facebook/MySpace/Twitter, or someone who completely understands you and to whom it will not matter because they probably did the same thing. Only if you get involved in the business of the Internet would you have a chance of running into someone who falls in the middle ground.
I’ve found your blog recently and I have to say I love your style. Well written and I see you put effort into it. Kudos!
But I also think your clinging to the old ways of mmorpg.
I’ve been a long time MMO player too, played UO, DAoC, lots of final fantasy and WoW for a while now. Tried a lot others mmo in the meantime while skipping EQ because I just din’t like the world they created.
First of all I want to say that reputation isn’t dead. In fact right now in WoW it’s more present than ever. People want to clear raids and instances and don’t want to waste time. On a server people will start to know each other and they will put runs together that the kids never hear about. The ones that clear the big stuff in record time while playing their alts. But like you said it’s individual reputation, it goes beyond guilds.
The old style where you guild name told everything about you is dead. Like you said with all the transfers, name changes, etc… we can’t know who you are by looking at your guild name. Instead, over time, people get to know who’s who on a server and they keep contact with each other. They may or may not band into a guild.