Proper Respect between Players

By Ravenhawk | December 18, 2006

Now, I know I made the post before about common courtesy in online games. This goes a little further than that.
You see, courtesy is being at least civil with people, respect is a bit more than that. On Puzzle Pirates Viridian, there is a chap who goes by the name of MrBalls. The occassional idiot will think he’s just some new player who has spent a whole bunch of money on dubloons with which to garner his fortune, but for those who actually pay attention it should be rather obvious that MrBalls is merely his merchanting character and that he has another.
Even I don’t know who that other is, but I’ve always held the utmost respect for MrB. He is usually seen standing in the upper right hand corner of Lima inn. He has been as long as I’ve been playing the game. I took to standing there myself, whenever he wasn’t in that inn. But upon his entrance, I would step aside so that he could once again claim the spot. The general populace considers it be “his spot.”
You may be wondering what this little story has to do with respect. Well, recently a small group of rather new players decided to take his spot. Not only did they take the spot with their characters, but they made alternate accounts, which they have been running under separate windows and they hold the spot with those while out pillaging. They say it is because people are often asked to move, by either MrB or one of the other lima inn regulars, so he can stand there. They say the spot should belong to everyone. And yet there is one specific pirate who always seems to be standing there now, unless they have an alt there.
This is about more than just a spot for standing. MrB is the type of person who watches over other players. He makes a strict point to enforce the rules on all chat in the inn and has helped stop countless spammers, scammers, and people who were being obscene. He helps out new players with their questions. The new people who took over our upper corner don’t do any of that. Not only do they not help enforce the rules, they break them; they talk excessively, something that isn’t supposed to be done in an inn as it is a small place and you would be flooding the chat screens of a LOT of players. They use alternate accounts which I believe is against the rules, although it is a common practice.
And they show no respect for new players.
Respect is not just something you give to players with powerful characters or your friends. It should be given to everyone. And I personally believe that an even higher level of respect should be given to those who go out of their way to help others.
In the real world, we (the world as a whole, ignoring the opinions of hormonal adolescents) have great respect of those who serve the public; teachers, fire fighters, etc. On games, we respect the Game Masters for their work to further the community. The way I see it, that same respect should be given to those who hold that same objective, even if they don’t have a fancy title or /commands.