Troll Dodging

You know, I spend a fair amount of time reading the DDO forums, trying to keep up on what's going on with the game and what people have to say about it. Occasionally, I stumble across threads that, for a change, start out with some level of civility to it, where the Original Poster (OP) has something to say that I can at least reason with, regardless of whether I agree with it.

Sadly, more often than not, any form of civil discussion goes right down the drain as soon as someone makes a flippant or sarcastic remark.

Honestly, I should simply stop reading the forums at all. They make me angry more than they provide me any sort of useful information. The unfortunate element in the equation is that, to find any useful information about various approaches to the game, you pretty much *have* to read the forums; you simply have to sift through all of the mountains of opinionated crap to find it.

I mean, it was only with the help of the forums, back well before I became a member of the Face Stabbing Misfits, that I found enough information to help me determine what I wanted to do with Trinarius and his build plan.

But, in the process, I realized just how mean and nasty people can become simply because of the anonymity the game and its associated forums provides. I mean, if you could speak with these people face-to-face, I'd be willing to bet that most wouldn't behave the way they do on the forums. Mostly because what and how they say things would start a brawl amongst the other participants that no one would be able to walk away from; most would be drug away either in handcuffs or ambulances, some both.

Honestly, I don't understand this general trend toward open hostility with anyone who might disagree with someone else's opinion.

I mean, just because you have an opinion doesn't mean that it's right. The reality is that very few things said in the forums are anything but opinion, which means that the assertions (and the aggressions) made are hardly more than the expression of someone's perception of the facts.

This, of course, is only fuel for the fire.

The spark is usually someone's inarticulate reply to the thread.

And, then, at that point, we have a full-fledged flame-war on our hands.

It seems the only thing that can put out the flames is the intercession of The Cube.

But, let's go back to my suggestion of someone's inarticulate reply...

By that, I mean that the people involved with the thread lack the ability to articulate their thoughts in such a way as to be understood by others without being perceived to be a threat or that the author is uninformed or uneducated.

That the author lacks the language skills to express him- or herself, in the tone and context they intend.

This includes, but is not limited to poor spelling, poor or nonexistent punctuation, and/or poor grammar skills. Sometimes even the lack of use of emoticons.

A lack of effective communication skills seems to be the one thing in common with most of the flame-war threads I read. Only a small percentage of the flame wars seem to be started intentionally.

To make things worse, though, there are folks out there who state flat-out that they don't care that their spelling is wrong, or that they have poor grammar, that it's the fault of the other people for not being able to understand him or her. And there are still others that purposely use poor spelling and grammar to exacerbate the problem.

I can only sit and wonder why anyone would want to purposely contribute to the devolution of a society, even one as small as the community of DDO players.

What brought me to write about this issue was a posting to the Argonnessen Marketplace forums by community member BrntVan, and his thread entitled Wounding heavy pick of puncturing.

Now, I'm sure you're asking yourself why I'd be looking at an Argonnessen Marketplace thread when my characters are residents of Ghallanda. Well, when I first saw the thread, I simply saw it in the main forums window where it lists the threads from any forum with the most recent activity. It wasn't until I'd started reading a little further that I realized it was from a player on another server.

But, it was an interesting weapon. One that I wish I had for Trinarius. He could certainly make use of it. Particularly with his selection of Feats, he could even wield it in is off-hand without penalty! Alas, such is not to be. Not in this case anyway.

Still, I read on.

BrntVan was offering his heavy pick in trade for a shortsword with the same properties.

This is when other members of the community started to jump all over BrntVan for suggesting what, to them, seemed to be just another way to scam a "n00b" out of some "uber" loot.

Except that they never considered there might be players out there like me who might be seriously interested in such a trade.

Yes, I'll admit that when you compare the statistical effects of both a Wounding Heavy Pick of Puncturing against those of a Wounding Shortsword of Puncturing, the shortsword is probably the better weapon overall. For example, a shortsword is a light weapon, so it can be used in the off-hand, possibly without penalty, for any character with either the Two Weapon Fighting feat or the Weapon Finesse feat. The heavy pick, on the other hand, is almost exclusively a main-hand weapon. Almost...

For characters like Trin, who have the *entire* Two Weapon Fighting line of Feats, *including* Oversized Two Weapon Fighting, and sufficient bonuses to their Abilites, weapons like a heavy pick can easily be wielded off-hand without any penalties at all. And, since heavy weapons have a larger hit die than light weapons...

Maybe you can understand why I might prefer the heavy pick for my characters over the shorstword.

Maybe.

Still, this doesn't excuse the behavior of some of these individuals. I'm beginning to think many of them just sit at their computer *waiting* for someone to make a statement they don't agree with, just so they can jump all over their prey.

And, it's for this reason that I normally avoid posting to the forums. I'll read them until I get sick of the childishness, then leave. But, on occasions like this, I felt compelled to chime in, in defense of BrntVan.

In explaining my position, someone decided to call me naïve.

Wow!

There's *no* reason to go about calling people names or ascribing qualities to them when you don't know them. And, even then, there're limits to what you should be posting to a public forum.

Of course I took exception to being called naïve! And, of course I responded. But I also told them that, not only did I understand what value *they* placed on such a shortsword, that such shortsword was effectively worthless to my characters.

Certainly, I could've gone into details, but my defense followed up with the statement that now that I know who I'm dealing with, some folks would be required to pay an exorbitant rate some would liken to profiteering. Others, well, understanding what value their goods are to *me*, in relationship to what my goods are valuable to them... we can bargain for what *I* consider to be a fair trade.

You know, it isn't for other players to decide what's right or wrong in the game. The few rules that exist in the game have been established by Turbine, or perhaps the guild you might belong to, or even the group you're running with. And, while it may be true that some of the contributors only had the best interests of uninformed players in mind, I can't imagine that anyone who hasn't played the game for even a little while wouldn't appreciate the apparent market value of such items.

I don't get it.

It's just a game, folks. Keep if fun.

Please!