One of my favorite webisodic* shows is Extra Credits.  Despite their Twitter handle (@extracreditz) sounding like it couldn’t afford to buy an “s” and had to rent to own a “z”, it serves up four minute video slices of interesting geek related epiphanies or as a friend of mine described it, “epipheo’s.”

I don’t know what that word means.  I think it means they couldn’t afford the letters for both Video and Epiphanies to do “Video Epiphanies” then, once they could afford the letters for a shortened version, put the wrong part first.  I would have gone with, if I had to, “Vidphanies".

Wait, I’ve just been informed their Twitter handle had nothing to do with affording the “s” and everything to do with @extracredits the Twitter handle being squatted by someone with the unlikely name of “Lindsay Lohan.”  pfft.  Like anyone would be named something so silly.

Still, that doesn’t explain why someone would call something “epipheo’s.”

I’ve now written epiphany or a variation of it enough times in this blog post to have that thing happen where it no longer sounds like a word.  But I digress.

Extra Creditz [sic] this week had an episode** where they covered online harassment. Specifically Xbox LIVE was called out, and viewers were encouraged to provide feedback to Microsoft to provide the tools to “stop harassment.”

Before we discuss, please to be viewing the videpiphaneo. (I’d embed it, but PATV doesn’t seem to allow that)

Ok now that you’re back, although my setup has been jokey snarky, the topic and the video are very real and very serious. I’m really glad that they made this video. There are several messages in the video that I feel need to be called out:

Gamers as a group are the people who tend to accept the people most commonly ostracized.

Anonymity breeds douchebags.

Douchebags who misbehave online just want attention and don’t represent gamers as a group.

The tools people have to deal with harassment are woefully inadequate (on Xbox LIVE, but one must assume other places as well)

This, as they say in the slang development bureau at Oxford, is right in my wheelhouse.

The problem isn’t solely Xbox LIVE.  Yes, I know, the problem is most commonly associated with Xbox LIVE.  And yes, I agree that objectively evaluated, the Xbox LIVE complaint system and tools for the customer have not been altered at all since 2005 despite the changes in functionality in the service. Note that in that statement I’m setting aside parental controls, because the problem of harassment online at it’s core isn’t the problem of child accounts or parent restrictions. It’s the fact any 10 year old or miscreant can quickly and easily create an adult Xbox LIVE Gold account in seconds, and a normal adult account can’t really prevent interaction with that account.

And with that, the problem of online harassment is actually the problem of adult customers, especially those who love the platform and the games and play online a lot. 

Believe it or not it’s a problem of the Internet, not just Xbox LIVE.  Certainly (again objectively speaking) it’s clear Xbox LIVE lags way behind in helping people self select their matchmaking pool, truly and fully block bad users, and orienting matchmaking on a reputation based system to increase positive experiences like some systems do.

But the root problem is one of anonymity and the allowance of anonymity on the system to wreak havoc. This is a problem on Xbox LIVE specifically by the lack of any form of delineation from a completely anonymous Gold account made with completely fake information, and an account where all of the information might be completely accurate. Again however it’s not unique to that system, merely that it’s commonly used to tarnish the reputation of the platform.

The video makes a lot of suggestions.  Most of the automated ones that are suggested are problematic although they sound like simple to implement common sense. 

Without violating my confidentiality agreement, let’s just say when you decide to say “User n muted x number of times results in action z” then very quickly online hacker forums will spring up whereby someone says “hey everyone add user n as a friend then mute them because they kicked my ass in Halo”.  Don’t believe me?  To this day the rumor exists that if you complain enough times against a non-offensive gamertag that it’s offensive you get a free gamertag change.  Or if you complain enough against the motto for a permabanned account on Xbox LIVE, the system will override the permaban with a temp ban and eventually unban the account.

Neither has ever been the case when I was in charge of enforcement.  Ever. 

But get just one person saying it works and BAM, even against actions that don’t even work my old team had to deal with the volume of false complaints by people who will do anything low friction in order to mess with the system.

We even presented all of the above facts at PAX and other places and the problems continued. There’s tons of forums where people say “Complain against n because they beat me” or “Do x so that z happens” even if it’s not true ever, people will try it. At any given time a significant labor amount on enforcement is spent making sure automated processes aren’t being misused.

So, pretty much every automated suggestion the video makes has been examined, and proven to be problematic.  The douchebags don’t just talk their game, they game the game, from Xbox LIVE to Steam.

It’s true the system could be developed to take that into account.  That’s a great point of feedback that should be passed on to various online systems, not just Xbox LIVE.  It’s important to communicate to those systems that you don’t want new avatar hats, you want these safety features.  This is important when features are being cut during the inevitable cut time during the process of shipping software.

I have certainly in my time in online systems provided my opinion on these matters.  But it seems to me the best results are probably driven by abandoning participation in them from a financial standpoint if you want to truly drive change.  In the end, the community that cannot encourage participation because the members of that community do not feel safe is the community that cannot help continue a financial reason for being. You truly have to vote with your dollars.  Your community will never become safer if you spend all your money there despite the abuse.  Resources will always be diverted to getting you to spend more money over anything else unless there is a real risk you will simply leave.  It’s the nature of business.

Beyond that fact, let’s move onto the tools people can use to help limit their exposure to the bad guys.  There’s always going to be the John Gabriel Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.  How can online communities stop this?

One way is simple, provide a striation between anonymous users and those willing to trade a small amount of identity for greater security. (Note to the libertarians ready with their founding father quotes: not liberty, identity.)

By this I mean those that provide Google voice phone numbers and fake credit cards are relegated to only being matched with others of like unverifiable fake info.  You want to be unknown?  No problem.  You are cast with the other unknowns.

Those people who can prove their identity at least at some level would then only be matched with others of a same level of verification.  Somewhat like “verified” PayPal users.  Or go the route of saying: if so many individuals who are “identified” in the system have a verified opinion of those who are jerks (verified meaning investigated by an enforcement team) then they are only match made or can interact with individuals at their level of reputation or below. In essence, those who are judged by those verified customers to be jerks will only be matched or allowed to interact with those otherwise verified to be jerks.

Gaming the system is prevented by setting the bar to be “verified”. Why bother “verifying” people if there isn’t a method to make a concrete punishment for faking things.  If my verified account ties to my actual bank or driver’s license number, there is a concrete reason for me not to participate in automated circumvention schemes. Herein the user has the choice: total anonymity at reduced level of privilege, or more accountability and a higher level of privilege in the system.

To me, this is the minimum an online interaction system should provide at this point.  The days of “just provide a 5×5 code and we let you fake name, address and everything else while still allowing you the same privilege as someone paying with verifiable information via PCI” are long gone.

Yet for many online systems, they are still here today. That’s stupid.

Lastly:  provide verified users who have that level of accountability in the online system the ability to truly (from an interaction perspective) block players, block players friends, and report all of the above with evidence to a team that reviews it. Sorry, if you are unverified, you cannot reach the top of the Call of Duty leaderboards. If you are unverified, your opinion of online interaction weighs less. This isn’t “pay to be ranked” it’s “verify” to be trusted to be ranked.

So. Why isn’t the feature set laid out above present today?

It’s a fair question not just for Xbox LIVE customers but also for any online service. Sure, the response might be the wonderful progression in child safety settings on any given platform, but that’s not the issue. Everyone’s made progress on child safety issues. But the adult account gamer today on Xbox LIVE and other services has only the same limited options the adult gamer of 2005 had. 

Surely the online environment, as evidenced by FatUglyorSlutty.com or the Extra Credits video, helps prove there’s an ongoing systemic problem that, while not unique to the Xbox LIVE platform, is at least exacerbated by whatever the platform interaction is implemented on?

The Extra Credits video links to an online form asking Xbox LIVE support for help. I sincerely hope that method has more impact than I did in my previous position.

I still feel strongly there is a simple solution to at least the problems facing most online interactions:

Provide easy to use, concrete tools for users to avoid or limit negative experiences.

Provide punishments to encourage users to obey Wheaton’s law.

Provide incentives for people to engage with each other in a positive manner and “be excellent to each other”

Ah but hey, I’m just a writer now.  What do I know. 

To the crew at Extra Credits, thanks for prompting the discussion.

 

 

 

*The phrase “Webisode” makes my heart hurt.  Because it’s not a word right now but in five years if it’s not a part of your elevator pitch (“it’s a series of webisodes about how if Deckard from Blade Runner was *not* a replicant”) than you won’t get off the ground.

** See above except “episode” becomes like “mimeograph.”  look it up kids.

With a title like that I suppose I’m going to have to explain what I mean because I can already sense my fellow geeks sharpening their crossed bows and loading their broadlong swords made from mithrilarian steel as they prepare to cast firefrost orbs at me. Hear me out.

You see, I was introduced to the world J.R.R. Tolkien created at an early age. I’ll pause here to let my more jaded geek friends sniff disapprovingly at my failure to put away childish things.  But much like the reaction people have today to viewing Citizen Kane (namely “what’s the big deal”) reading the Lord of the Rings after the movies doesn’t really convey the fact Tolkien practically cast the mold for the fantasy genre.  It was like a writer had taken all of the things I loved about Dungeons and Dragons and created archetypes not just of the classes and characters, but of what a fantasy plot should be. Like Citizen Kane is responsible for so much of what modern film has become, so too in my mind Tolkien’s work was so rich and realized as to be the fantasy work every fantasy work tried to be. I devoured The Silmarillion (which is like reading the entire bible, except more slowly paced), the Book of Lost Tales, and even the really obscure works like the “J.R.R. Tolkien guide to writing lyrics about bathing and the summer barley harvest”. I couldn’t believe someone had defined a world and history so thoroughly.

Oh, given my Dungeons and Dragon’s love I tried to read other fantasy.  But every story had Elves (but these aren’t Tolkien’s elves!) and Dwarves (but these are different than Tolkien’s) and magic rings (but totally different than Tolkien’s!) and there came a point where after around age 20 or so I stopped reading new fantasy and started just re-reading Lord of the Rings every couple of years.

To me, fantasy had been done to the best it was going to be done. The only Fantasy I read in the past few decades was Harry Potter, and I still compared it to Tolkien at every turn.*

Now, granted forming an opinion like that is about as well founded as the religion of Cheeto Christ of Latter Day Saints. It’s not like Neuromancer or the Foundation novels or Ringworld stopped me from consuming copious amounts of bad sci-fi on my way to the good stuff.  Fantasy writing however seemed to have a lot of the same tropes, and I just couldn’t be bothered to find the stories that didn’t. It isn’t so much that the fantasy genre sucks, I think it’s more that I formed the opinion that the genre was living in the shadow of a magnum opus to which all would be compared.

So I considered the fantasy genre somewhat sucky and dead to me.

Until I stumbled across a simple word: Hodor.

Paul (of Paul and Storm) was wearing a shirt with the word on it at the Seattle w00tstock I performed at.

I have no idea why in the above photo Storm looks like a 19 year old version of himself and Paul looks like a young George R. R. Martin.

Anyways, I asked Paul what the word meant and he explained it was from a fantasy series called A Song of Ice and Fire.  I told him my opinion of fantasy and he informed me I was stupid.  This was also about the time the buzz on Game of Thrones** was hitting a fever pitch because of the HBO adaptation.  Paul suggested that he would be highly surprised if I read it and didn’t like it.  A couple weeks later I picked up a copy on my kindle app for iPad.

Over the next eight weeks I had my misconceptions about the fantasy genre completely rebooted as I devoured every book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. For the first time in 20 years I had rediscovered a fiction genre. Not long after I finished the Song of Ice and Fire series to date, I started Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy.  Much like George R. R. Martin had taken the Tolkien out of his fantasy series with the lack of magic, adept application of incestuous sex and long term breastfeeding, so had Sanderson with his concept of Allomancy. The Mistborn Trilogy was just as fun to read and as interesting to me.

So I told you all that story so I could tell you this one.

Recently on Twitter I asked for people to recommend their favorite fantasy series so that I could continue rediscovering the genre.  The response was overwhelming and people asked me if I wouldn’t mind blogging the results so as to share which ones I chose to pursue. Here’s the reading list in order I narrowed things down too, note I have not read them yet:

1. Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles

Young George R. R. Martin (Paul) recommended this straight out of the gate, along with many of my followers.  Reading Mr. Rothfuss’s blog leads me to believe he’s just the kind of author I like, meaning the only thing I would rather do than read his books is buy him a beer.  Especially for his goodreads review of Alloy of Law, a side novel from the Mistborn universe. I can’t wait to start this series, it came so highly recommended.

2. The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

I got this one quite a bit too.  Apparently it’s one of those universes that managed to outlive its author since Robert Jordan died before its completion. This one intrigues me because amongst Fantasy aficionados there’s tons of debate about the merits of individual chapters of the story but almost no disagreement that it’s a worthy investment. I normally abhor universes that continue past their author’s death by other writers.  But I make two exceptions: situations where the author opened up the universe prior to their death for other authors, or situations where the author authorized expansion after their death and left specific guidance.  The latter appears to have happened here and since the author is Brandon Sanderson I’m kool moe dee with that.

3. The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson

The tell tale warning of this series was simply how much content has been written by the author in a mere 4 years (8 books) but then I came around to my chief complaint about George “Trenchers of Bread” R. R. Martin writing too slow and decided I was, in the words of Young George R. R. Martin “Stupid.” This series combines several elements that intrigue me: a military-esque mindset describing conflict, political intrigue, and a well defined universe.

So those were the top three although there were many more I plan to explore.

For now at least, there’s a genre I can rediscover and luckily most of the stuff is written so I don’t have to wait for the next chapter.

*I’m looking at YOU, George R. R. Martin*.

 

Side note:

Books that I love that somewhat fit the borderline of fantasy:

A Canticle for Leibowitz

The Dark Tower (books 1-5)***

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

 

*Joseph Scrimshaw nails the very essence of the pollution of Tolkien with a Harry Potter joke with Young George R. R. Martin and Storm.

**Look let’s get something fucking straight.  Game of Thrones is a book in the series Song of Ice and Fire. I hate that HBO is marketing the entire thing under “Game of Thrones" because people get confused when looking for the follow-on books.  It’s like the opposite of the Jethro Tull problem, where Jethro Tull *is* the band but people think it’s the lead singer.

***SPOILER Stephen King wrote himself into The Dark Tower series in books 6 and 7.  It’s the worst most idiotic author hubris I have seen since George Lucas wrote his fever dream fantasy about a space Stepin Fetchit being the key reason the Galactic Empire was formed.