Home, With a T
by MJG74, HSM Art Director
“The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out.” – Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
Today, technology has changed how we socialize.
If you are from my generation or older, sitting in a front of a monitor or your TV does not seem to be very inclusive to social behavior.
For the first time ever we can sit in the privacy and comfort of our own environments, log on to a social network, and meet people in a way that normally we would not dare to in the outside world. With that come some challenges, as this is a new frontier, a new medium; social protocols are often challenged in away many would not dare to do publicly.
If history is any indicator, it is to be expected; for example, telephone service started in almost the same fashion.
In 1878 a manual switching board was introduced that allowed many phones to be connected through a single exchange. The first switchboard was located in New Haven, Connecticut. Interestingly enough, the first switch board operators were very impatient and rude when dealing with phone customers. So much so, that within a few years all the operators were replaced with young women who were trained to be, “calm, polite, and gracious.”
(NorseNote: Female operators were also preferred in those early days — and to an extent even today — because their higher vocal tones are clearer and easier to understand over a phone.)
Like the early days of the telephone, Home too has seen its share of “trouble makers.” Many of us have read the numerous articles and forum posts regarding Home and online etiquette. Each article examined if the avatar was – or was not – a true representative of the person controlling it.
Many articles were written with proposals on how to curb harassment and “trolls” in Home. Which is all well and good, but what if I were to tell you although those are great article and blogs, most of which are not addressing the core problem. How would you feel if someone were to tell you its not Sony’s responsibility to develop new software updates to combat harassment in Home? Chances are you would disagree with me; especially if you ever were a victim.
In this article I will hope to challenge your thinking on the subject of harassment and Home etiquette. As I believe Sony already has created the tools to “combat” that problem, from day one of Home’s launch into public beta.
As besides being a gaming and social platform, PlayStation Home is possibly the front running software to learn tolerance from. I know what you are thinking – you probably thought I have gone mad and forgot about all the harassment and trolls and the negativity that plagues even the best of social sites. I have not; the key word is “learn.” Just like those telephone operators so long ago, we too must learn tolerance. Home offers us all an exciting and amazing opportunity to do just that.
Appearance is one of the first lessons in tolerance on Home, and key factor to this is your avatar. We first must keep in mind what an avatar really is, it is a digital image, your personal virtual representative in an amazing social platform that you can change often to suit your mood. We must disassociate all the typical stereotypes and prejudices when dealing with an avatar.
Lets face it – if you are walking down main street in the town you live in, and here comes this giant alien looking thing with wings, skull for a face, carrying a light saber with horns on its head – I’m willing to bet you would stay as far as humanly possible away from it. But in Home, that combination of virtual items may just spark a conversation.
In real life such a creature would cause much a stir, but in Home our avatars allow us look past each other’s real life physical characteristics and start looking inside a person to see who they truly are. After all, personalities do not lie on the outside of one’s body, but in one’s mind.
I believe that Home allows us to accept all people, and it does not matter who you are, or what you do, or who you love, or what believe in, or what color skin you may have. Home offers you a variety of shapes and styles for your virtual representative. You can be almost anything you can imagine. In Home our avatars are not Asians, African-Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, or any other ethnic groups. Although they can take the appearance of a male or female, they really are not either. They are simply avatars.
Once we realize this it is easier to appreciate diversity, and the ability to live and let others live, no matter what their outward appearance may be. The appreciation of diversity, and the ability to live and let others live is Tolerance.
A great example of a group that uses Home to teach tolerance would be our friends the Homelings. In a recent interview, published in the July 2011 edition of HomeStation Magazine Issue Six, with buddy118 – or more affectionately known as “Mother” – talks about his first days in Home:
Mother: During closed beta. I was one of the ones who received an invite after downloading Sony’s promotional wallpaper a thousand times and applying to their website. But I must admit, I was a troll when I first came into Home — a monster in fact. Dancing on people and being rude. When that didn’t feel right, I tried to make huge synchronized dance lines.
Burbie52: What made you change your attitude?
Mother: After someone took offense as though it was real life. I realized this wasn’t my way or path in Home.
Upon that single event, the Homelings were born, and grew into Home’s largest club; a club that tries to reach out to every and all Home users to extend a friendly hand. The Homelings have established themselves, boasting hundreds of members, twenty-five clubs (referred to as “motherships” in the “armada”) Their motto is; they are here to stay, and strive to make Home and the world better for all beings – both “hooman” and Homeling alike!
Though tolerance may seem an impossible exercise in certain situations — as illustrated by stories of harassment in Home and other unwanted behaviors — being tolerant nonetheless remains key to easing hostile tensions within the virtual community, and moving past intractable conflict. That is because tolerance is integral to different groups relating to one another in a respectful and understanding way. In cases where people have been deeply entrenched in negative experiences, being tolerant helps the affected groups endure the pain of the past and resolve their differences.
Tolerance acknowledges the vastness of reality, even in this virtual world of Home, and cherishes the many human faces of that reality. When we are tolerant we watch and listen and seek to discover how the many pieces fit together to make a wonderful whole. We are able to delight in the otherness of strangers, knowing that our own lives would be less rich if everyone were more like us.
July 25th, 2011 by MJG74 | 6 comments
Michael Goss is the Art Director (emeritus) for HomeStation Magazine. In real life, is a normal member of the human species with some imperfections, but with a strength of ten as well, I kid ye not! He also has been know to exaggerate the details from time to time. His goal is to live fearlessly but finds that kinda difficult with current crop of republicans running for office.
Nice thoughts. I do tend to agree with you, that it isn’t really Sony’s responsibility to “clean up” Home. Nor do I believe it is wholly within their capability to do so. The reason I say this, is that the core issues I see with the NA and EU Homes stem from the societies which utilize those Homes. There are things Sony can do to minimize their impact upon Home, to offer us a better experience, but Sony can’t solve our societal ills for us.
Wonderful article MJG, you hit the nail firmly on the head with this one. Whenever you create a microcosm like Home, made up of many societal groups you are bound to have friction, this virtual society we have is a perfect mini copy of real life. Tolerance is something we should all instill in our children as they grow, and the lack of it in society and Home are good examples of the fact that many people in our society were never taught this simple truth, that if you love and tolerate others in all of their myriad differences, you yourself will be loved as well.
Should one tolerate disruptive behavior? Some can and do while others choose not to and report disruptive behavior and/or else leave whether it be in Home or in a real life situation.
Don’t like behavior in a public place? Then either report to management, the Police, or leave. Same thing in Home.
It’s SONY’s playground and we play by their rules or else leave or get banned.
As to early telephones and operators, it was nice. They were polite from what I remember although I did get politely chewed out once. (Never mind!)
I once asked someone in a position to know if operators could and did listen to conversations and was told “We weren’t supposed to.”
On party lines especially in the country areas where many people shared a line, a few customers themselves would listen to others conversations. I assume a few but several could listen to a conversation.) In some respects we have more privacy today.
If the writer is advocating organized chaos that is something some if not most will not tolerate depending how bad it might get. It’s Central Plaza, not Chaos Plaza. I will admit observe chaos would be interesting in a virtual world but I don’t believe that’s what people or even SONY wants.
As far as seeing an alien type beast with wings a a skull face in real life, I might just ask, “Where’s the comic book convention?”
I don’t like this article. Maybe it’s too ambiguous or else I am misunderstanding something.
I am a people watcher.
Kid Fleetfoot, I think there might be some misunderstanding. As Burbie was saying, Home is composed of many different societies. Sometimes behavior which we perceive as being disruptive, isn’t intended to be. I’ve commented upon this on the forums. It’s necessary to “check” your perceptions with another person. Because someone who’s coming from another perspective may see things differently. Tolerance is not a cure-all, but it is one tool that is being underutilized. If you check your perceptions with another person, and it’s clear that they understand that what they’re doing is having a negative impact on you, and they persist, then it’s appropriate to move onto other tools which are available, such as you mentioned.
I’m reminded of when Immigrants came to the USA from different countries, some did not like each other very much… different upbringings or societies. Intermarriage was one way that the different nationalities got along.
You said, Sometimes behavior which we perceive as being disruptive, isn’t intended to be.
I certainly agree with that.
I still don’t like the article but please keep writing. Discussion is good.
1 key ingredient of tolerance is the ability to be non-judgemental as possible when dealing with ppl that have a difference of opinion.Quite often I find that when someone doesn’t like what is being said or discussed they try to pigeon-hole you into a position or view that you don’t necessarily have then label you for it in order to somehow seem to be in control of the convo. which to them seems to have taken a turn they feel uncomfortable with.This usually leads to name calling and unproven allegations about the persons character.I’m a firm believer that in a fair exchange of words the truth will always best the cleverest lies but here’s the thing that confuses me greatly.Irl ppl tend to attribute qualities to good looking ppl that they don’t always possess.On home i’ve noticed this is still true even when it should be clear to everyone that the avatar in front of you is not a true representation of the real person behind it,even if that person attempted it to be similiar there are key differences.So quite often whenever a good looking avatar,either male or female makes no difference here,has a disagreement with an “ugly”or”fat” avatar quite often anyone watching the exchange believes the good looking avatar over the unattractive 1.It’s as though ppl believe good looks impart honesty which i find ridiculous for many reasons.If anyone has a good answer as to why this occurs i’d love to hear it.I believe expecting Sony to cure the trolling problem to everyone’s satisfaction is kind of like asking them to become the opposite of tolerant and non-judgemental.Sony would need to outrightly brick anyone that ever offended anyone else in order to make everyone happy.If that came about Home would be a empty place pretty quickly.I still feel it would be much better to change the mindset of the users of Home than to take the “Iron fist” approach and being more tolerant and non-judgemental is a great way to start but it should also be kept in mind that,as in all societies,there will be some ppl that just can’t or won’t get along.As long as they aren’t harming 1 another this should be accepted as well,but the problem here is what exactly constitutes harm?There are no clear lines to clarify what is harmful or harrassing exactly.There are some obvious lines that shouldn’t be crossed but if someone becomes emotionally “harmed”simply by the nature of a disagreement of,let’s say.about who was really the man in the iron mask should the other party be punished under the “Sony should stop all trolls” policy?I don’t think so.Also how could Sony really establish that the emotional “harm” was real or feigned?If taken to it’s logical conclusion the”Sony should stop all trolls by any means possible” policy would end up banning us all because I seriously doubt that there is anyone on Home that hasn’t offended someone in their time on home in 1 way or another,maybe not in a troll like fashion but the person offended would probably claim it was and claim emotional damage.