Poll: The Escapist's MM: A case study?

[Brotherofwill]

Well MM is in full swing. Zynga, a facebook developer, is likely to win due to the large amount of fans voting from there. That's all good and fine, or is it?

A lot of people seem to be really upset about the flocking of new people here. They see MM as 'their' competition and would hope that developers that are usually highly praised, like Valve Bioware and Bethesda, win the competition for the best representation of the site.

Now, I don't think there are too many harshly mannered people here, but the debates are quite intense in the competition. Insults are thrown around. Zynga, as a developer, is degraded. New users are degraded.

That kind of reminds me of...immigration debates! In the US or Europe, a large amount of guestworkers immigrate every year and we all know the usual debates that follow from angry 'locals'. While I don't think the problem has so much to do with racism (just like I don't think the problem here has to do with anger or disrespect), it seems to be mostly caused by a false sense of ownership. Locals think that the country is 'theirs'. Escapists think that this site is 'theirs'.

Could the MM situation be used as a case studio for immigration, albeit a loosely related one? What do you think?

 

[SharPhoe]

Frankly, I have this to say about it: I'm very disappointed in a lot of members of this community for acting the way they are. Yes, there are people who will join this site, vote once, and never be heard from again, but not every newcomer around he time of MM shouldn't be lumped into this category. It's that behavior that makes people want to leave more than anything, making it seem as though we're all incredibly inhospitable towards new members and, like you said, very territorial about whats "ours".

 

[Tiny116]

If anything the massive increase in one sentence topics has annoyed me slightly.
But I have more issues with MM itself than the new users. It's nothing but a popularity contest, no basis on the decency of games.

 

[Flames66]

I'm still not sure what MM is. Some kind of contest? Anyway on the subject of the new users I welcome them here as long as they stick to the rules and don't clog up the forums.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

I've never liked March Mayhem but this year has been especially tiresome. All it does is breed hate.

I don't like the way this competition is going as of this time but neither do I like the way the community is acting in response. But then again, it's understandable that people would be angry.

Personally I don't believe March Mayhem benefits the community in any way, apart from maybe increasing it's numbers (which as a member rather than an owner of the site doesn't bother me, I like this community as it is) and I personally think the whole thing should just be scrapped next year, or the rules should be changed.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Yes, yes it could. Some people welcome the new people with open arms as new, productive members of the community. Others are annoyed that these people will come, vote in a competition and contribute nothing else to our community.

 

[Trivun]

It isn't anything to do with the influx of people. The influx of people who post stupid one word comments is the problem, I have no problem with the (sadly minority) people who vote Zynga then proceed to make valid and worthy contributions to the forums and the Escapist community. Also, the problem is that Zynga are in the competition ahead of other developers who make actual, real, games rather than stupid crappy Facebook apps. And if you go to their Facebook pages there are hundreds upon hundreds of people posting there who dislike Zynga because of bugs or glitches in the games, yet Zynga are still winning votes. How is that the case? Many of us have called shenanigans on them and yet nobody seems to care enough to investigate. What will happen if they win then it's discovered they only won through their 'fans' cheating? It undermines the whole competition, and the Escapist itself. And we won't stand for that.

More people coming to the site is by no means a bad thing. People coming here to troll, or cheat in a competition? That's the problem.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

In all my time here I have paid hardly any attention at all to MM, it is purely a marketing move by the Escapist, which is fair enough as they are a business.

The new users aren't coming into off-topic or gaming much (except for the troll floods of the past few days), so I can't help but wonder what all the fuss is about.

 

[antigodoflife]

THEY TOOOOOOOK'RRRRR POOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLZZZZZ!!!
dey doook rrrrrrrr pooooollzzzz!!!
der doook rrrr doooooo!!!!!
der deeerkrrrrradeeeerr!
-rooster call-

 

[Blights]

More people coming to the site is by no means a bad thing. People coming here to troll, or cheat in a competition? That's the problem.

This.

Yeah, people Trolling (For Example, someone put up a thread for us to join Farmville, why? I do not know.) and them not posting again really bugs me too, its a waste of a Username some person with more than half a brain might want to use.

 

[sirdanrhodes]

I personally think that joining up during the contest should be stopped or restricted, mainly for the fact that there will be a fuck ton of non talking members who just vanish until next March.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

its a waste of a Username some person with more than half a brain might want to use.

Well most people round here pick silly names, luckily lots of the Zynga recruits are using their real names from what I've seen.

 

[Blights]

its a waste of a Username some person with more than half a brain might want to use.

Well most people round here pick silly names, luckily lots of the Zynga recruits are using their real names from what I've seen.

Yeah but, loads of people have the same name.

It doesn't matter anyway, I'm just waiting for March Mayhem to be over so it can go back to being the Escapist rather than "Zynga winning spree" month.

 

[Master Kuja]

I don't give a flying monkey's about MM really, I'm slightly pissed that Valve are going to lose to Zynga of all things, but the fact that over the course of the last few days, I've seen reputable and generally friendly members get turned into hooting dickholes over a silly little contest is truly pathetic.

MM just creates tension, anger and animosity in the community and it really shows the worst side of people.
I hate to say this but, though I don't post nearly as often as I should, I enjoyed lurking around the forums because there's always quite a friendly atmosphere going around, yet since this whole shebang started, I've been less and less inclined to drop in because of how rabid and angry people seem to be getting.

Frankly, I reckon MM should be scraped for those reasons alone.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

its a waste of a Username some person with more than half a brain might want to use.

Well most people round here pick silly names, luckily lots of the Zynga recruits are using their real names from what I've seen.

Yeah but, loads of people have the same name.

I still don't use it online. My real name isn't Mr. Oblivious

 

[JEBWrench]

I don't read the MM threads. What exactly is the "poroblem" supposed to be?

If people are pissed off the Zynga (the company that makes the (do I need to say this again?) Most Popular Games In The Entire World) is winning a people's choice contest about the best developer, then they need to go sulk quietly.

 

[Blights]

its a waste of a Username some person with more than half a brain might want to use.

Well most people round here pick silly names, luckily lots of the Zynga recruits are using their real names from what I've seen.

Yeah but, loads of people have the same name.

I still don't use it online. My real name isn't Mr. Oblivious

Well sir, You fooled me.

 

[JEBWrench]

its a waste of a Username some person with more than half a brain might want to use.

Well most people round here pick silly names, luckily lots of the Zynga recruits are using their real names from what I've seen.

Yeah but, loads of people have the same name.

I still don't use it online. My real name isn't Mr. Oblivious

Well sir, You fooled me.

Isn't it obvious? He's really Lieutenant Colonel Oblivious.

 

[Lost In The Void]

Personally, I'm quite disgusted how the community acts on such events, mostly on how the refer to the site as "Their Site." Its not your bloody site, you didn't make it nor do you participate in the maintenance of the site in anyway at all so who are you to judge what they decide to do with the site. Oh two weeks of slightly annoying server crashes and a popularity contest that does nothing to the site what so ever. You get an influx of Users, some of which we never see again, a variety of trolls that burn away slowly and some genuinely good members that go on to contribute and enjoy "your site."

In short I'm saying get over it; one little contest is not going to cause "your site" to become casual central, or blow up permanently. This is a way to get a bit more traffic for the site and a bit more advertising for The Escapist, which helps it keep moving