by Phoenix, HSM team writer

Home can be a wonderful place, full of fun and friendly people. There is the possibility of fun at every turn: adventure on the high seas, worlds of fun in colorful places just like Alice found through the Looking Glass.

But Home can also be a place where danger hides, lurking in the dark, where if one is not careful and watches their feet they can step into the forest.

It is as old a problem as the internet itself: the great flaw with any online community isn’t the world itself, but rather some of the people who inhabit it. Online communities can be a haven for those who, for whatever particular reason, have difficulty with real-world interaction. At the same time, online communities are also a place for emotional predation — and worse. It is not the fault of the platform provider; it is our fault, because it’s human nature run amok with all the checks and balances turned off.

Here’s the problem for Sony as the platform provider: any successful MMO experience is going to have by definition a population which is too large to effectively police without incurring prohibitive employee overhead. Which means that, for the end user, a little bit of common sense is required. Home, like most any other such environment, is not a playground where everyone is mandated to play nice. The catch here is that for newcomers to Home, when that all-important first impression can make or break a potential long-term whale, it’s easy to imagine that the user base has had a hand in cutting its own throat by repeatedly exemplifying horrid behavior.

New users aren’t the only Home residents susceptible to these wolves; though less likely, the seasoned Home user can fall to these smiling and friendly fiends. It can and does happen. Nor is gender of important. Male and female alike are affected. So, like I said, some common sense is in order. Newcomers in Home are generally open and friendly, occasionally giving far more than they should in personal information about themselves to strangers they meet. I have personally seen someone new to Home type out their phone number in the Hub. This really isn’t a good idea. Would you do this on a conventional internet BBS? Then why do you assume a 3D virtual chat room is any safer?

Then there are those who arrive in Home looking for that emotional connection they are missing in the real world. I have seen some jump at the offer of a virtual romantic partner, desperate to form a relationship in Home. They often end up being duped by wolves with a friendly manner. A discussion I overheard once: two friends discussing the noobs they were currently bilking. They had no feeling for those unsuspecting users, pretending to be boyfriends/girlfriends. This duo was only interested in what they were getting from them. So proud of themselves for fooling the others they had no qualms about discussing the situation out loud.

It is a tragedy when someone, bright eyed and eager, ends up bitter and chewed up, spat out, and hating Home for the bad experience they had. Unfortunately, they usually blame Home for how they were maligned, and frankly that’s not fair. They must accept some of the blame for their negative experience, and understand that it was not Home itself that was the root cause of the problem, but rather another user.

In the original story of Little Red Riding Hood, written as a moral and cautionary tale having nothing really to do with a wolf and the dark woods, Red Riding Hood did not know it was bad to tell strangers all of one’s business, or personal information. This tale was a warning for young girls about the wolves that are charming, unassuming, pleasant, complacent and sweet. The new arrivals to Home, as well as some not-so-new Home users know it can be dangerous to do so, but they seem to have forgotten these rules of life when they arrive in Home. For some, Home is seen as a fairytale place, full of fun and adventure; they see no dangers here. The truth is that it can be that, but it is just as dangerous as a fairy-tale land as well. If you remember your fairy tales correctly, there was always something dark, lurking, laying in wait for Red Riding Hood. And, candidly, there are some genuinely messed-up human beings in Home, as there are in any other online world.

Remember: Home is a virtual world, but the people here are real people, not fairy tale characters. Many of the unsavory things that can and do happen in the real world likewise can and do happen in Home. I am certain it isn’t something anyone wants to think about when thinking of Home, but the reality is it is a truth of human nature. The good is always accompanied by the bad. Take responsibility for yourself and your actions accordingly.

The story ends, “This wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.”

In Home, no one has any power over you that you do not first give to them. You are ultimately responsible for yourself, no matter how deeply you explore the rabbit hole.

Share

2 Responses to “Wolves in Home”

1. Burbie52 says:

   October 5, 2013 at 3:09 pm

   Nice article Phoenix and very true. If people would treat Home as though it was the real world and act accordingly many of the things you describe would never happen. If they bilked people they would be arrested, if they harassed people they would be talked to by police then jailed if they didn’t stop. Home is a free-for-all when it comes to these things because people feel like there are no boundaries, even though there are and many have found that out when they got banned for bad behavior.

   Reply
2. Gary160974 says:

   October 9, 2013 at 6:45 pm

   Too little done in the beginning organizing better ignore or block systems that this has damaged home. You randomly drop into the hub now. You will always find a conversation that shouldn’t be allowed. Thing is now most users go into private spaces to hide from the grief. If you go down the woods today will you find the wolves or the teddy bears picnic most lightly the wolves.

   Reply