Maybe I’m the odd one out in this situation, but I’m starting to get fairly concerned about the number of times I’ve walked into any area and immediately seen people shouting “Reported!” over things that seem like complete non-issues.
At first, because “Reported!” has been a long time tongue-in-cheek joke across many online games (especially MMOs), I had assumed it was just people messing around for a chuckle here or there. Now I’m not so sure. Here are some recent examples I’ve seen in various zones that I hope will help you understand what I’m getting at.
Lion’s Arch – Exchange of goods during Trading Post downtime:
A player was trying to sell a black dye while the TP was down for maintenance and was asking if anyone would like to buy it from him via mail. Someone took him up on his offer and asked if he would prefer if he sent the gold first or not. Rather than someone warning the Buyer that the Seller may intend on scamming him out of his gold, players immediately began a crusade against the Seller and demanded that everyone present report the ‘scammer’ so that he could be rightly(?) punished for his ‘crime’. A third player stepped in to make the point that until the deal has actually taken place no one can know if the Seller is pulling one over on the Buyer or not. This Defender was also immediately attacked and supposedly reported for ‘supporting scammers’. Afterword I confirmed with both parties via whisper that the deal had gone through and they had received their due payments.
Orr, The Cursed Shore – A player explains how he makes his income:
A player in Cursed Shore was complaining about how he was having a rough time bringing home the bacon for his lovely Salad family. An Entrepreneur of sorts chimed in, explaining that he himself had taken the time to memorize the locations of the larger clusters of ore nodes in the area and made a route he followed to minimize the time needed to gather it all while still doing events along the way. He also explained how, after he had finished his run, he would take whatever Mithril he received and use the Mystic Forge to change it into Orichalcum, which he would then sell on the TP for a much larger profit. Players in the area immediately began telling him how this was abuse(?) of the node system, one even going so far as to claim “if ArenaNet intended you to farm anything other than karma, the Trading Post wouldn’t exist”. Our poor Entrepreneur was also “Reported!”.
Orr, Straits of Devastation – A joke seemingly gone too far:
During the prime time event zerg for karma, one very angry user was taking out his frustrations by calling the group of players ‘a bunch of stupid [filtered word goes here] that can’t stick to a simple pattern’. An aspiring Jokester believed this may be his moment to shine and said, “Excuse me, but that harsh language is an exploit of my feelings. If you do it again I’ll be forced to report you! jk lol”. Apparently ‘jk lol’ isn’t what it used to be, as several users began to attack the Jokester, ironically claiming that his abuse(?) of the report system would not go unpunished. Evidently, the Jokester was “Reported!” too.
Again, maybe I’m the oddball here, but frankly this seems like a lot of commotion over nothing. I think everyone could benefit from taking a deep breath, getting the facts straight, and using their best judgement before throwing out a “Reported!” so willynilly. And if that doesn’t work, than I seriously hope ArenaNet is taking a majority of these reports with a grain of salt before ultimately deciding on a final verdict.
