Recently there are these massively online games (like ultima online, star wars galaxies, ever quest, world of warcraft, etc) where you're in a Tolkienesque fantasyworld with thousands of others. People form guilds here, they are like gangs of sorts that help each other, and in many cases have some sort of heirarchy. In many cases, this heirarchy is for fun and games, but I feel in some cases, they are sort of cultish.

One group for example, which I will not name, has a leader that very recently has become very authoritative with their members. Many have been treated rather badly, and are also talked very badly of if one's opinions differ from the leader. The leader has a "command structure" of sorts, and the entire heirarchy is made of yes men. Recently, he's been writing posts on the message board which seem very passive aggressive or even overtly aggressive toward any kind of dissident or free thought. If anyone is found to believe he is overly controlling, he immediately pulls them to the side and confronts them in an aggressive manner, possibly in some attempt to bully an "I was wrong" answer.

I realize everywhere there is a crotchety, ornery boss figure that likes it their way or the highway, but I feel in this case, there is a strong personality cult going on.

I guess my question is, does anyone here have any insight? online games are relatively new, so I'm guessing there isn't any literature out there about online guild personality cults.

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I guess my question is, does anyone here have any insight? Online games are relatively new, so I'm guessing there isn't any literature out there about online guild personality cults.

I've experienced destructive groups online, posted about this briefly on [board.culteducation.com] in the past. The fact that they exist is a good reminder to focus on the behavior of a group and to not be side tracked by what their theme is, in other words, a seemingly innocent group focussed on online gaming can indeed be destructive too. I suppose we human beings have the ability to take most anything, any theme, any organizing focus, and create a cult group around it.

Because the net is a relatively new method of communication, might be easy for many of us to forget our usual boundaries and street smarts when online, important to keep our wits about us and use good sense. Critical thinking skills, assertiveness, and a good b.s. detector are vital tools while engaging in cyber space.

I was not part of a guild, but I was part of the equivalent in the gaming I did for several years, in my case it was gaming based on the World of Darkness series online in a chat room. A personality cult formed around the founder of the room.

One method I used to finally successfully tug myself out of the involvement was to visualize what was happening online as placed in my own home. Would I tolerate bullying, abuse, manipulation, and other such behaviors in my own home amongst fellow gamers sitting round a table? No way. So why was I allowing it through the medium of the web?

I also found it helpful to read up on how excessive online time affects us, how the anonymous nature and other aspects can cause many of us to trance out. While in this trance we are perhaps more susceptible to destructive input, we are vulnerable, we do not have good strong boundaries. Kimberly Young is one of several researchers and authors working in this field. Example of one her papers that includes some gaming examples is at:

[www.netaddiction.com]

I've read about various hate groups that actively recruit through the net, I've also read about a destructive group that formed around a live action role playing game. I haven't yet read anything commenting on destructive gaming groups online. I've had some individual conversations online with folks about this, and if I had the energy I'd look into writing a book myself on this theme. Abusive bullying relationships certainly exist in online gaming communities, and in some cases this has expanded out to affect more areas of the participants' lives, phone contact, in person, their entire lives affected.

The online world still has an element of the wild, wild west about it. Important to keep our wits about us.

Last year, there were several incidences in my country that gang members tried to extort "gaming credits" from online players.

Gang members had tracked down internet addresses of high credit gamers, physically beat up the players in online gaming rooms, and robbed their gaming credits. Those credits then re-sold for real money.

It is not surprising that abusive situations happened in online gaming. When addicted, one would spends days and weeks on never ending games.

Addicts would have symptoms of sleep and eat deprivations, emotional disorientation, illusionary, unable to distinguish reality from virtual reality, and heath deterioration. In such environment, one is very easy to get recruited into online gaming cults.

Sure, certain people may manipulate less conscious-aware players. Gangs and cults have the tendency to explore power and money from the unaware populations.

Hsuchi

I play Everquest 2 now. There's nothing evil or sinister about it, it's just a game. Granted, if you allow it to absorb all your time, it's going to have an adverse effect on your life, but that would apply to any obsession.

Enjoy and play in moderation, but don't forget the more important things in your life. :)

It's official: video games are bad for your brain.

New research shows permanent effects on minds of players.

[www.sundayherald.com]

Yeah, play modestly & group cautiously.

Hsuchi

I've been playing the online game [i:090e1791d4]EverQuest[/i:090e1791d4] off and on since Christmas of 1999 when I received a copy as a gift. I haven't had the pleasure of playing [i:090e1791d4]EverQuest 2[/i:090e1791d4] like Glofishy, but I hear it's better structured to help avoid players from investing extraordinary amounts of time in it, such as instead of massive guild raids to progress to most interesting parts on the game as in [i:090e1791d4]EQ 1[/i:090e1791d4], supposedly it's more designed around the idea of single group play (6 people or so). The massive "raids" of the original [i:090e1791d4]EverQuest[/i:090e1791d4] were and are very time consuming and involved to prepare, organize and execute. So it appears that game designers are responding to some of the aspects of their games that encourage excessive involvement.

On the issue of guilds that form within these games, I haven't personally noticed any particularly disturbing behavior, but I can only speak on [i:090e1791d4]EverQuest[/i:090e1791d4] here. There's a lot of different guilds to choose from, and people generally seem to want to keep you happy to keep you around so they have lots of people to play with. Leaving a guild is easy, one just types [b:090e1791d4]/guildremove[/b:090e1791d4] and you're on your own and ready to seek out a new guild if you wish.

Also, one can get by fine in the game without joining any guild. I've gone through long periods playing without involvement with any guild and had plenty of fun. But belonging to a guild can be helpful by helping you to more easily find others to play with.

Guilds do have a hierarchy system (sort of) where the better your standing with the leaders, the more likely they will make you an "officer" in the guild, which gives you the ability to invite new people in and even boot rowdy people out (although normally you need to confer with others before removing someone). But really, there's no real reward system in place to encourage players to be submissive to the leaders. From my experiences, the leaders have been more concerned about keeping me happy than trying to turn me into a "yes man" because like I said before, it's easy to leave and easy to find a new guild.

If someone is in a guild that is abusive, I think the problem may lie more in the individual than with the guild system itself. It's easy to leave, one doesn't lose anything by doing so. It's not like some abusive relationships where the person may become codependent for financial reasons, etc.

Using the word "problem" and pointing the blame at the individual sounds a bit harsh, and I honestly don't mean it that way. I'm saying that person may have issues where they're drawn to abusive relationships. That doesn't mean that there's something "wrong" with the person, it just means that that's something they should be aware of and learn to recognize its signs when that behavior arises.

Back to the issue of guilds, I've even had good guild experiences on a "player vs player" server where the most aggressive gamers are drawn. I was made an officer of the guild I was in on the PvP server, not because I was submissive to the leaders, but because I was active in helping other members out. I didn't even know who the leader was at the time.

There's unpleasant people everywhere, and no doubt we run into them in the online gaming world. You steer clear of those and you hang out with those you like. From all the years I've played, I really feel it's that easy. Even if someone is bothering you, there's an ignore command. You just type [b:090e1791d4]/ignore [player name][/b:090e1791d4] and they can no longer send you messages.

I haven't personally seen anything in the structure of the game that encourages cult-like behavior. But I can just speak of my experiences with one of these games -- [i:090e1791d4]EverQuest[/i:090e1791d4]. There very well may be some structural problems in some of the other online games, and if so, we should definitely look into those issues. And perhaps even hammer out the problems we see and come up with some reasonable alternatives, and send some letters to the designers of the particular game(s) in question.