'Twixt'? Anyone remember this guy?
By
7thCynic,
Posted on: 2009-07-06 16:03 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Here lies one of the fundamental problem with most of you here. Please write down exactly what PvP methods Twixt used to "harass" people in the game that would be considered against the game zone mechanics or rules. Anybody?
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It does not matter one whit whether or not what Twixt was doing was "against the game zone mechanics or rules." What matters was that people did not find it enjoyable or even amusing. These sort of behaviors are only [marginally] forgiveable if they are funny.
Its not "against the mechanics or rules" for some crazy homeless guy to follow you around next time you are at your local shopping mall, shouting insults, curses and threats. He's not actually hurting you, after all. Do we not have freedom of speech? He actually has a right to tell you what he thinks of you, by dint of US law...
Do you LIKE that behavior though? Probably not, and you're most likely not going to look kindly upon the person doing the cussing, unless you are a literal saint.
Twixt thought there was a chance that he could do the PvP version of that and be hailed as a great guy and loved by all, evidently. Frankly that was an outlandishly foolish supposition on his part. There is nothing in the least truly academic about that paper of his, and his theory flies in the face of even a basic knowledge of human nature.
Ha there is none on Triumph. We have enough leet greifers that this guy is just an amateur compared to him.
There's just plain nobody in RV on Infinity.
OPTICAL_ILLUSION,
How do you respond to the issue of ethics violations in Dr. Myers research. Permission is required from any test subject in a Scociology investigation, and no where in his paper does he mention seeking any form of permission( by individuals or by NCSoft). It is also possible that the people that were effected by Twixt's activities were minors, and without actualy conduction interviews, it would be inpossible to know. If Dr. Myers research is unethical, does it invalidate his conclutions?
Furthermore, under no circumstance are you allowed to harm or distress, (physically or psychologically) your research subjects, without their approval and impartial supervision. Dr. Myers had to understand that Twixt's activities would cause harm. Again, how does this effect his conclusion?
Dr. Myers was not an observer to the events that happened in his research. He was the instigator, and his impartiality is questionable. Therefore, his conclusions must also suspect.
As Ive said earlier in this thread, I believe that his research was sloppy and unethical. I think that there were better research opportunities that could have been explored. Opportunities that could have been far more interesting, and more approprate for a Doctoral level investigation.
Grizz
"When Chuck Norris can't go on, Petra Majdič perseveres!"
Am I the only one with a sudden craving for a candy bar?
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
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Its not "against the mechanics or rules" for some crazy homeless guy to follow you around next time you are at your local shopping mall, shouting insults, curses and threats. He's not actually hurting you, after all. Do we not have freedom of speech? He actually has a right to tell you what he thinks of you, by dint of US law...
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Actually depends upon conduct. There are all sorts of criminal harassment statutes out there, varying from state to state. But even the enforcement of the law is left to the discretion of the judge and several unofficial gates in the court system (i.e., lawyers encouraging or discouraging you from prosecuting said crazy homeless guy). Likewise, though there are limits to what that end of the justice system can do, many (urban at least) police precincts have at least one community policing officer who's sole job is to deal with things like this that may be discouraged from ending up in courts but do affect the overall quality of life in each neighborhood. Skilled officers are really good at making themselves understood, gentle coercion and mild intimidation within the ethics of their post. This is also usually helped by the fact that many folks (both victims and perpetrators) suffer from a degree of institutional paranoia and are deeply affected, if not triggered, by the presence of a person in uniform.
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Do you LIKE that behavior though? Probably not, and you're most likely not going to look kindly upon the person doing the cussing, unless you are a literal saint.
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Speaking of victims, overcompliance is symptom of many trauma related psychological disorders. Even a saint, unless they were a sick saint, would look on this person's behaviour with disdain. Overcompliance often leads to a pattern of victimization and revictimization. For a population to get called out publicly in a weak academic paper for verbally admonishing d*ckish behaviour in a study that no one agreed to participate sends the wrong message. The very nature of the "good" Dr.'s study puts all of his subjects in a double bind. Which is BS.
But that doesn't matter. Because it wasn't really science. It's a piece of tripe rationalizing the doc's own compulsive anti social behaviours within gamespaces. After reading how he treats people on his blog, it's clear that there's a lot more Twixt in the doctor than the tone of his academic writing implies. The man should see a shrink. He's likely got some deep issues.
*I edited my original question to be more specific*
Twixt followed the EULA.
Twixt did not use foul or offensive language.
Players have /ignore options at their disposal.
If Twixt was as exploiter and was this major harassing player as others portray him, why was he never perma banned? Hmmm? Well??????????????????? He was petitioned a lot so why was he still allowed to play?
Twixt using TP Foe was the top harassment complaint.
Although the TP mechanics and TP protection has been changed to resistance now, this below was a method players could use to prevent themselves from being Tped or killed in certain circumstances. People complained that Twixt was breaking the rules and harassing them by using this legal tactic. Being Tped into base drones was preventable but many chose to complain as opposed to using these defensive tactics to avoid such occurrence. Also many would come back to base after being droned then get droned again and complain.Getting droned was and still is completely avoidable. Out in the zone it was much easier to TP Foe your opponent to you, into heavies, critters and turrets but there was also methods to lessen the chance of being killed. All legal zone tactics here but once again the top complaint. Simply, Twixt knew how to use the zone to his advantage.
Below are quotes from the PvP Guide to Guides posted by Niviene and updated (now outdated but applicable at the time) by notputzing.
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Q. What can I do if someone is using tp foe on me?
A. An orange inspiration or a kin casting ID on you can prevent you from getting tp foe-d. A few power sets also have access to tp foe protection. Another helpful trick is to always keep jumping. If tped while jumping youll often escape any traps they may have set for you and they may not have time to get off an attack before you hop out of range.
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Another complaint was that Twixt killed players over and over and interrupted duels and farmers.
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Q. Is X cheating?
A. While there are many different things that X can be, generally speaking the answer is no. TPing people into holes in the geometry in PvP zones is a petitionable offense, as is the use of language that breaks the EULA, but other than that, everything goes in a PvP zone. Trailing NPCs to another player is perfectly legal, as is killing someone repeatedly, popping lots of inspirations, interrupting duels and rep farms, stopping someone from getting nukes, using your tier 9 before you go into sirens, or really anything else you can think of.
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People have pointed out that those who responded in such a manner were definitely in the wrong.
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Yes.
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However, not everyone responded that way. The vast majority of people didn't respond that way. They appear to have fallen through the cracks in Twixt's "research". There's no mention of them. No numbers about how often he received death threats and how often he received perfectly civil messages. No actual data to back up his presentation of the community. Simply his word. Unfortunately, since he misrepresented what took place to minimize his culpability, why would anyone believe his word after that? His chat logs are not comprehensive, otherwise they would include the harassing he did, which would instantly discount his "evidence" because he was personally goading his "victims" by attacking them verbally. Unless he presents all the data that goes along with research, he is misrepresenting his findings and demonizing a community based on nothing more than anecdotes.
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Twixt provided the proper and appropriate information needed to discuss the core of his paper. I'm sure when he writes his book there will be more included.
A very sad story about War Witch and the neglected kitty. http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219670
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Originally Posted by Black_Barrier
Guess it's hard to click while actively trying to keep the drool away from the keyboard...
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How do you respond to the issue of ethics violations in Dr. Myers research. Permission is required from any test subject in a Scociology investigation, and no where in his paper does he mention seeking any form of permission( by individuals or by NCSoft). It is also possible that the people that were effected by Twixt's activities were minors, and without actualy conduction interviews, it would be inpossible to know. If Dr. Myers research is unethical, does it invalidate his conclutions?
Furthermore, under no circumstance are you allowed to harm or distress, (physically or psychologically) your research subjects, without their approval and impartial supervision. Dr. Myers had to understand that Twixt's activities would cause harm. Again, how does this effect his conclusion?
Dr. Myers was not an observer to the events that happened in his research. He was the instigator, and his impartiality is questionable. Therefore, his conclusions must also suspect.
As Ive said earlier in this thread, I believe that his research was sloppy and unethical. I think that there were better research opportunities that could have been explored. Opportunities that could have been far more interesting, and more approprate for a Doctoral level investigation.
Grizz
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While I won't disagree that his methods were sloppy I will point out, as it has already been stated in this thread, that permission is not needed under certain circumstances as long as an ethics board has approved the experiment. Did he get permission from an ethics board to run this experiment? I dunno, and I would certainly suspect the validity and adherence to whatever he did submit to them, but that doesn't mean he didn't have permission to run these experiments without the participants' consent.
As for NCSoft, I can see ToS conflicts throughout this. For example: why did he have to call out players by their names? Couldn't have have blocked out the names and/or replaced them with generic identifiers?
So, yesterday you were fanning the flames and trying to spur on the riot with two and three word post
Now today you are suddenly an intellectual who can see the vast reasoning behind the research and paper and who believes that socially developed laws have no weight when held against hard coded restrictions?
Please pick one internet persona and stick too it. You are messing up my bingo card. :P
((QR))
ITT: a dbag behaves like a dbag, is despised for it, feigns incredulity when people are angered to the point of threatening responses, then reveals it's all a methodologically-laughable academic "study."
Tenure: he haz it...and that's a damned shame.
Most amusing aspect: the aforementioned dbag violates established social mores...then flips a hissyfit when others violate different social mores by threatening him.
"And in this moment, I will not run.
It is my place to stand.
We few shall carry hope
Within our bloodied hands."
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Twixt did not use foul or offensive language.
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Not according to many reports from other players. How are you so sure?
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Twixt followed the EULA.
Players have /ignore options at their disposal.
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This does not relieve him of the fact that he harassed people and misrepresented how the community reacted.
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If Twixt was as exploiter and was this major harassing player as others portray him, why was he never perma banned? Hmmm? Well??????????????????? He was petitioned a lot so why was he still allowed to play?
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You claim he followed the EULA. Just because the developers allowed it to happen doesn't mean it wasn't harassment. This is where definitions and the difference between video games and real life become important. Twixt took his research and applied it to a real life set of conclusions and judgments. Thus, the description of what he did must also be applied to a real life set of conclusions and judgments.
Exploit: In game, developers deem this as using loopholes in the game's coding to allow one to receive greater than intended rewards without the appropriate amount of risk or time involved. In real life, exploiting is using something selfishly or unethically for profit. Twixt was not an exploiter in the video game, but he is exploiting the players and the game in real life. Such exploitation (RL) is not a crime itself, but when people are unhappy with how they've been treated, you can expect there to be consequences. His research methods are being called into question, possible legal ramifications regarding subjects' permission and the game as a research tool have been raised.
Harassing and exploiting a group of people without their permission or knowledge simply isn't a smart thing to do. The video game world may not have had any repercussions for his actions, but he's no longer in the video game world. Real life may prove a tad harsher.
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Twixt using TP Foe was the top harassment complaint.
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As you know from having read the actual petitions. No? Oh, well then you must have counted up all the complaints that occurred on the forums and in the zones and mapped out a graph that compared them. No? Huh.
Exactly how did you determine this?
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Twixt provided the proper and appropriate information needed to discuss the core of his paper. I'm sure when he writes his book there will be more included.
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By only presenting an extreme minority's reaction as the community's standard reaction? No, sorry, that's not proper or appropriate. That's a gross misrepresentation that possibly violates numerous different legal and academic standards. In the video game world, no punishment could be applied to Twixt. In the real life world, the same loopholes don't exist. He chose to take the issue there, it's now appropriate and proper for those directly affected to address the issue there as well.
- Ping (@iltat, @Pinghole)
Don't take it personally if you think I was mean to you. I'm an ******* to everyone.
It's a penguin thing. Pingu FTW.
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So, yesterday you were fanning the flames and trying to spur on the riot with two and three word post
Now today you are suddenly an intellectual who can see the vast reasoning behind the research and paper and who believes that socially developed laws have no weight when held against hard coded restrictions?
Please pick one internet persona and stick too it. You are messing up my bingo card. :P
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The whole point of my un-intellectual post was because the paper is so incredibly faulty that I didn't know where to begin. If you will notice, my intellectual posts are directly quoting faulty logic within the forums that don't directly involve the study. My post responding to MrQuizzles had to do with NA internet chivalry, not the study, and my response to Grizzle_Bok (what is it with Zs?) had to do with ethics violations, not the study. I did mention the study to the extent that it is the focus of the thread, but that wasn't the reason behind my posts. I'm still of the opinion the study isn't worth the Word document it was written on and if I wanted to try and dissect the faulty logic within the paper I could (I really really don't want to, but I can).
*Looks at who Calash was responding too.*
*Realizes O_I is still ignored.*
Ah crap...Sorry 
I won't delete the above post 'cause people don't like that apparently. However, I'm sorry Calash for misinterpreting your post and you may ignore it if you like. 
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It does not matter one whit whether or not what Twixt was doing was "against the game zone mechanics or rules." What matters was that people did not find it enjoyable or even amusing. These sort of behaviors are only [marginally] forgiveable if they are funny.
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Did Twixt design the mechanics and rules for PvP in CoX?
No. He followed the mechanics and rules available to him so it becomes the players problem for not accepting these mechanics and rules.
It's a QQ situation for these players.
Don't like how PvP works then leave.
Don't like the chat then /ignore.
Don't like the mechanics then complain to the Devs and not blame Twixt for playing the game, following the rules, doing some research on a particular topic and making observations.
A very sad story about War Witch and the neglected kitty. http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219670
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Originally Posted by Black_Barrier
Guess it's hard to click while actively trying to keep the drool away from the keyboard...
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It does not matter one whit whether or not what Twixt was doing was "against the game zone mechanics or rules." What matters was that people did not find it enjoyable or even amusing. These sort of behaviors are only [marginally] forgiveable if they are funny.
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Did Twixt design the mechanics and rules for PvP in CoX?
No. He followed the mechanics and rules available to him so it becomes the players problem for not accepting these mechanics and rules.
It's a QQ situation for these players.
Don't like how PvP works then leave.
Don't like the chat then /ignore.
Don't like the mechanics then complain to the Devs and not blame Twixt for playing the game, following the rules, doing some research on a particular topic and making observations.
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You must be daft because I can't understand for the life of me why you are defending a person that clearly manipulated their research to suit their hypothesis. [censored], that's giving him credit for even ESTABLISHING one before he began playing the game.
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Don't like the mechanics then complain to the Devs and not blame Twixt for playing the game, following the rules, doing some research on a particular topic and making observations.
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I can only say this: PROVOKE THE BULL AND GET THE HORNS.
Twixt got the horns. From the looks of that "paper" of his, the horns hurt quite a bit. 
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So, yesterday you were fanning the flames and trying to spur on the riot with two and three word post
Now today you are suddenly an intellectual who can see the vast reasoning behind the research and paper and who believes that socially developed laws have no weight when held against hard coded restrictions?
Please pick one internet persona and stick too it. You are messing up my bingo card. :P
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The whole point of my un-intellectual post was because the paper is so incredibly faulty that I didn't know where to begin. If you will notice, my intellectual posts are directly quoting faulty logic within the forums that don't directly involve the study. My post responding to MrQuizzles had to do with NA internet chivalry, not the study, and my response to Grizzle_Bok (what is it with Zs?) had to do with ethics violations, not the study. I did mention the study to the extent that it is the focus of the thread, but that wasn't the reason behind my posts. I'm still of the opinion the study isn't worth the Word document it was written on and if I wanted to try and dissect the faulty logic within the paper I could (I really really don't want to, but I can).
*Looks at who Calash was responding too.*
*Realizes O_I is still ignored.*
Ah crap...Sorry
I won't delete the above post 'cause people don't like that apparently. However, I'm sorry Calash for misinterpreting your post and you may ignore it if you like.
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No worries. Probably should have quoted just to be clear. 
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A thread on this guy in every server forum and here, he's loving this.
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Yeah, but to keep it in perspective: this story is on some jerkwater news site and the Twixt article is trailing one about Sarah Palin for number of comments. 
Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
As a player, it doesn't sound like Twixt did anything wrong.
As a professor, the guy sounds completely incompetent.
Infatum on Virtueverse
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Yeah, but to keep it in perspective: this story is on some jerkwater news site and the Twixt article is trailing one about Sarah Palin for number of comments.
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she teleports moose into drones, ive seen it.
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I can only say this: PROVOKE THE BULL AND GET THE HORNS.
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Sure, I agree.
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Twixt got the horns. From the looks of that "paper" of his, the horns hurt quite a bit.
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Yes he is getting some horns but they are only serving to prove the validity of his paper and helping to create a whole new dimension for his future book.
A very sad story about War Witch and the neglected kitty. http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219670
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Originally Posted by Black_Barrier
Guess it's hard to click while actively trying to keep the drool away from the keyboard...
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[u]TWIX[u]T
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The only thing of interest that comes to mind when I see that name.
Sounds like he went out of his way to purposely annoy people after having been told his behavior was annoying. Pretty sure that would get people angry in any situation, not just in online games.
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
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Yes he is getting some horns but they are only serving to prove the validity of his paper and helping to create a whole new dimension for his future book.
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I can get the same depth by poking a hornets nest and then complaining about getting stung. Would probably be much more valid research.
Heh, seems as though a bunch have forgotten that this is just a game and it should be treated as such.Whenever I see a PC that is an as*, I just treat it like a NPC that is an as*. Thats all they are on my screen.
Take the blue pill.
Twixt
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I still laugh at people who nerd rage over getting beat in a video game (be it by a drone or players).
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Yes, it is a very sad thing...they need to go out in what is called *outside*
Guy sounds like a dumbas*. I only seen a few of his cry baby posts on the forums about PvP. I thought it was a little kid the way they posted. Most hated huh...This guys rantings are fause. I didnt know the old fart.
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(Or do you believe it is impossible for a impartial researcher to not respond to negative comments?)
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No it is possible.
Playing the zone game as intended...
Kill Villains
Take over pill boxes
Communications/chat systems are not disabled in zone so using said function as an additional method/medium (with the rules) is intended, otherwise it would have be disabled.
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Was it just that he was playing the game by the rules and they got mad?
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Mainly this.
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Or did some of them get mad only after he replied to their complaints?
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Sure Twixt added fuel to the fire at times but he has the right to respond to negative comments and always remained within the EULA.
Twixt did not use exploits and did play within the zone rules. The problem here is that many people do not know how to PvP and do not know the mechanics and rule set. Still today we have people petition others for droning, interrupting duels, getting TPed into critters, being attacked repeatedly, and being attacked while farming and badging. None of these are against the game rules and these were the primary complaints about Twitx in the zone. There are a lot of misconceptions by players and many follow their own prefabricated set of rules.
The majority of the time after Twixt would use these tactics people would start making negative of varying degrees to him. Twixt would then follow up with his own but never broke the EULA.
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You see, you can't have it both ways here.
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Yes you can. Twixt used all methods available to him that were provided by game mechanics, functions and rules.
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You pretend that it is required to respond to players not saying "GF or GG"
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No Im not
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To respond with taunts is pretty much admitting that it had nothing to do with actual research.)
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No its not.
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And finally, the conclusion he is trying to support is that the enforced social norms actually limit the types of gameplay,
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This is true
Go and actually PvP on Freedom and use these legal zone methods and tactics and come back with the responses from the players you used them on and others in broadcast chat.
Attack someone farming.
Attack someone fight clubbing/dueling.
Drone someone into police drones when your base is being camped.
Drone someone into critters, a heavy or pill boxes and kill them.
Kill someone over and over and over.
Pop a bunch of inspirations and attack someone.
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His methods are poor science, his conclusions are unsupported and his willingness to defend them on their merits seems limited to arguing with people who disagree while never providing additional evidence or claims that back up his point.
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People are not paying attention to what the core of the paper was about. Twixt provided enough evidence.
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In that context, it is hard to read this as anything other than emo-nerd-ragequit, dressed up as an academic finding.
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Im sorry you read it that way.
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(since you demanded answers, I'll expect that you answer every question I've posed here, otherwise it would seem you can't keep to your own standards either.)
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Well now you can answer the first question in my previous post.
A very sad story about War Witch and the neglected kitty. http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=219670