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Dear Nettie,
I don’t usually complain and do not consider myself to be a whiner, however, this I must speak about. I am in love with the new CLUE: Secrets & Spies game. I have a small number of Pogo friends who enjoy the game also. We like to get together and challenge each other to see who can complete an episode first. We really enjoy looking for the hidden treasures.
Here is the problem. It seems that every time we go to a room to play there are always numerous people continuously asking in the chat “where is the button in Casablanca?”, “Where is the “flashlight in Venice?”… it goes on and on.
Unfortunately, people respond to these questions by taking up huge amounts of chat explaining precisely where to find the objects asked about. I just cannot understand this concept. Clue is a game of challenge to find hidden objects. If people get frustrated, that is understandable. Maybe they could just stop playing and come back to the game at another time. Why ruin the fun for all by asking where items are. Yes, I know about the mute button, but when I have friends in the room we like to chat among ourselves while finding the treasures.
Please Nettie, remind people that Clue is a game meant to challenge yourself to find hidden items. It is fun and the graphics are amazing. Just keep looking and use the Clue button if you have to. Don’t disrupt the whole room with frustrating questions.
Thanks.
Disappointed With the “Clueless”
| Dear Disappointed With the “Clueless”, I agree with you wholeheartedly, and am glad to remind players to keep your questions out of the main chat. If you want hints as to where to find items, then take a willing partner into Private Chat and keep the conversation amongst yourselves. Hopefully word will spread and players will be more mindful about their open discussions in games where everyone has the potential of seeing the same thing. There will be times, no doubt, that you’ll see folks chatting in the rooms about answers to puzzles, and for those, I suggest you just mute the chatters. You can politely remind them that their chat is in full view for everyone. Perhaps a “Hey guys, we can all see the answers, and some of us enjoy the challenge of the game. :)” will suffice. Of course, people can be unpredictable and some may argue that you should just mute them. And rather than get into an argument that will ultimately be a complete waste of time, you probably are better off just muting them. |
Dear Ms. Netiquette,
Lately, in two different games, so obviously, two different rooms, I’ve run into awful hate speech. As in, “the President is a such & such”, with references to his supposed religion and his race. Or that a certain race is going to start a race war, and that another race of kids who wear gang colors to high school were also going to start a race war. Accompanying these statements were horrible comments about each of the groups referenced.
In both cases, it wasn’t just one person making negative comments, it was a bunch of folks in the rooms making comments.
I’m sick of seeing this stuff. I come to Pogo to enjoy myself. Seeing hate speech makes using Pogo a sickening, negative experience. Certainly something I do not want to pay to experience.
If you’re working on a badge, turning off chat isn’t an option. I have a feeling that hate speech is against the TOS, but try explaining the TOS to a bunch of folks who think teenagers wearing certain kinds of clothes are going to start a war.
Both times I have left the rooms I was in, but it’s not fair to me, to have to start everything over in another room, just because a bunch of folks think it’s okay to use Pogo to vent their piggish feelings.
Please, please, please. Isn’t there something you can do to make this stop?
Thank you in advance,
Unhappy with Hate Speech
| Dear Unhappy with Hate Speech, Wow! I’ll need a hot cup of nerve-calming chamomile for this one. I’m horrified – but sadly not surprised – that such hate speech occurs on Pogo. As you suspect, hate speech is definitely against the Terms of Service and many people who engage in it find their accounts immediately closed. No warning, no three-day suspension, just plain closed. All tokens, gems, badges, Mini items, rankings, ratings etc… gone. This includes hate speech based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and every other type of hate speech you can imagine. It doesn’t matter if it’s directed at someone in the room, or the President of the Land of Purple Pretzels. It’s not tolerated. Incidentally, if you engage in any type of threatening speech made towards the President, and a player does more than just report you, and actually calls the secret service, you may end up with the FBI at your door wanting to talk to you. I’m guessing you don’t read my column too often, as you don’t seem to know about the “Report Abuse” feature we have on Pogo. When you see hate speech (or any other high profile violations of our Terms of Service), you should report the abusers immediately. How? Simply click on one of the names of one of the abusers and and then right click to open up options you have with the player, and choose “Report Abuse”. An Abuse Report form will open, and you can fill out the details therein. The abuse report captures a snippet of chat which is sent to our team of Customer Service Representatives. They will investigate and take appropriate action. Incidentally, turning off chat is an option even when you want to see your badge progress. Simply type: /mute * (that’s a backslash, the word ‘mute’ and the asterisk) into the chat field and hit enter. It will mute everyone in the room, but you’ll continue to see your chat. Remember to unmute those folks by typing: /unmute * before you go! |
Dear Ms. Netiquette,
For me, the best part about playing games on Pogo is being able to forget about my worries and problems for a little while and just relax. I would think that it would be similar for everyone. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
It seems like whatever game I am playing (in whatever room at whatever time), there is always at least one person giving a sob story about their health, relationship, etc. I think that those people don’t realize that when the question is asked “How are you today?”, it’s either rhetorical or purely conversational. Askers just want to hear a one or two-word answer (good, ok, great, not good, etc.). If the asker wants more information, they’ll say “Why?’ or something similar.
A lot of times, people don’t even wait for the “How are you?” question. I was playing one day when the pause/play button poll announcement came up in room conversation. The player who brought it up, thought that the button was a play button. So, she was assuming that if Pogo decided to do away with the button, everyone’s animated mini items would be worthless. Rather than let this misconception continue and spread, I decided to put an end to it.
I explained that the button just allows players to pause any animation in minis. She understood and thanked me for the clarification. Approximately five minutes later she popped back up to tell me that “In case you were wondering,” she has some health problem that makes her read and understand things very slowly. I wasn’t wondering, but now all of a sudden I have to respond or risk looking like a totally rude person, which I am not.
I think these people are just looking for sympathy. They seem to feed off of the “So sorry” replies and further inquiries into their problem. I know that I could just mute them, but should I have to? Don’t most people feel that they don’t want to burden others with their problems?
Personally, I am going through a five-plus year struggle with infertility, but I don’t throw it in people’s faces. I have brought it up on occasion (if someone asks if I have children), but I keep my answer short and simple. It’s in my profile. If someone wants to ask me about it, they can.
I really don’t know if you’ll agree with me or not. Maybe I’m the only one who finds this annoying. But I’ll be watching eagerly for a response!
Peeved with Problems
| Dear Peeved with Problems, You’re definitely not the only person who finds this annoying, and I absolutely agree with you that people who complain all the time about something are looking to fulfill some sort of need for attention. It’s unfortunate that they choose this route. That’s not to say that there aren’t people with real problems, but some folks go through life with a host of problems that they’re ready to talk about at any opportunity. “How are you?” is an invitation to let them tell you about their problems. And frankly, most people don’t want to hear about your problems, unless the relationship is a close one. So, in your case, I commend you on trying to enlighten the confused players. It’s wonderful that you took that step, and you no doubt clarified the question for other members in the room. I’m not sure why the woman felt compelled to come back to let you know why she may have misunderstood. She may have felt embarrassed for not understanding the function of the play button. As for advice… you know precisely what I’m going to say. It’s four letters, starts with an ‘M’ and ends with an ‘E’. Mute! When you recognize that someone is starting to talk endlessly about their particular host of problems, mute ’em and forget ’em. |
Have an etiquette question for Ms. Netiquette? Email msnetiquette@pogo.com
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