Has monetization made guilds a bit.... sterile?

[goldlock]

This might just be personal experience but ever since streaming, carries, and anything else involving some kind of currency transaction ingame or not has taken hold it seems like guilds have been less rowdy and more tame with stricter speech rules.

I don't really mind it but I admit to longing for the more boisterous and raunchy communities of old.

[bowchikabow]

It probably has more to do with the fallout of the Method collapse, and a number of issues raised about behavior in-game. There are VERY few streamers who don't have their chat windows blocked by either a logo or their camera, and often, most aren't in general voice channels while streaming... For the very thing you mentioned: They don't want random inappropriate things coming through. I don't think it is strictly a monetary issue. I think for some, the idea of terrible language/behavior would overall turn people away from their channel. The monetary loss is tied to the viewer loss, and it is the view loss itself (as not all of them are subs) that streamers often worry about.

Personally, I am mostly ok with it. For the same reason you wouldn't/shouldn't act a fool on TV camera, I think having some decorum in a stream is perfectly fine. The high-end guilds that are involved with esports organizations (think ComplexityLiMiT, and Big Dumb Golden Guardians) have behavior and conduct requirements PRIMARILY because they now represent an organization, a commercial entity. And just as your employer expects a certain level of behavior, they too have a standard of behavior for carrying their org name.

[Toybox]

This might just be personal experience but ever since streaming, carries, and anything else involving some kind of currency transaction ingame or not has taken hold it seems like guilds have been less rowdy and more tame with stricter speech rules.

I don't really mind it but I admit to longing for the more boisterous and raunchy communities of old.

My guild is still a cesspit of lighthearted degeneracy, but I know a lot of the members that participate in & lead raid boost/dungeon boost with other entities have been told recently that banter is to be cut out while they're doing their bit there.

[korijenkins]

This might just be personal experience but ever since streaming, carries, and anything else involving some kind of currency transaction ingame or not has taken hold it seems like guilds have been less rowdy and more tame with stricter speech rules.

I don't really mind it but I admit to longing for the more boisterous and raunchy communities of old.

I think the issue is people taking offense to things said in a meaningless video game. It's an MMO. You're going to offend someone if there are 1-2000 people in a chat.

I imagine that has translated down to guild levels as well. It would be nice honestly if Blizzard and triggered people would just sit back and think, "No, this is a game. It's NOT real life." Stop being offended by everything, and move on from stuff you see in chat. More than likely the guy you want to report or cancel is a genuinely good person and is memeing in chat on an MMO like everyone who plays them has done.

[Dunkelzahn]

Nope. Because you couldn't catch me dead in a guild that's "monetized."

[Relapses]

"I want to say gamer words freely" the thread.

I kind of miss it, too, to an extent... but there are ways to get around this. For example, you can ask anybody who streams to turn off comms.

[OrcsRLame]

It probably has more to do with the fallout of the Method collapse, and a number of issues raised about behavior in-game. There are VERY few streamers who don't have their chat windows blocked by either a logo or their camera, and often, most aren't in general voice channels while streaming... For the very thing you mentioned: They don't want random inappropriate things coming through. I don't think it is strictly a monetary issue. I think for some, the idea of terrible language/behavior would overall turn people away from their channel. The monetary loss is tied to the viewer loss, and it is the view loss itself (as not all of them are subs) that streamers often worry about.

Personally, I am mostly ok with it. For the same reason you wouldn't/shouldn't act a fool on TV camera, I think having some decorum in a stream is perfectly fine. The high-end guilds that are involved with esports organizations (think ComplexityLiMiT, and Big Dumb Golden Guardians) have behavior and conduct requirements PRIMARILY because they now represent an organization, a commercial entity. And just as your employer expects a certain level of behavior, they too have a standard of behavior for carrying their org name.

Streamers aren't worried about their viewers getting offended, they're worried about random N-bombs getting them banned from Twitch. If you're a streamer sitting in a Discord and someone gets in channel and says something as innocuous as, "Yo wattup my nigga?" that's a 3 day ban at least, and that's only if it's your first offense.

[Dziubla]

This has nothing to do with any "monetization", since it has always been there, and everything to do with our Brave New (Leftarded) World, where everyone is afraid to say the wrong word, since someone might get "offended" and ruin your entire life over a tweet/post/whatever.

Back in the day we had this little thing called "freedom of speech". And yes, as someone will inevitably point out, it did not mean freedom from consequences, obviously, but but you could still say a lot of...i don't know, borderline? stuff, and even the people who didn't like what you say, wouldn't have a complete mental breakdown over, you know, words. Nowadays...well.

[Drusin]

communities

There's your answer Make a community and invite like minded people to it.

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This has nothing to do with any "monetization", since it has always been there, and everything to do with our Brave New (Leftarded) World, where everyone is afraid to say the wrong word, since someone might get "offended" and ruin your entire life over a tweet/post/whatever.

Fuck that if you got a problem with me put me on ignore.

[Lavey]

I would love to see a guild be a for profit social club, with a management team handling all the tedium of Guild preparations for events, and all you have to do is pay your dues and show up.

[Die]

selling boosts / mounts / gear is as old as vanilla.

[Wheeler]

This might just be personal experience but ever since streaming, carries, and anything else involving some kind of currency transaction ingame or not has taken hold it seems like guilds have been less rowdy and more tame with stricter speech rules.

I don't really mind it but I admit to longing for the more boisterous and raunchy communities of old.

Not a chance.

Guilds are just as toxic as they've ever been, maybe even MORE so since community is non-existent with absolutely zero chance of ever coming back.

[Shelly]

This might just be personal experience but ever since streaming, carries, and anything else involving some kind of currency transaction ingame or not has taken hold it seems like guilds have been less rowdy and more tame with stricter speech rules.

I don't really mind it but I admit to longing for the more boisterous and raunchy communities of old.

It has very little to do with streaming or the monetization of audiences - excepting when you're watching a stream of course.

For the most part it's just that we're older.

I'm 41 and that actually puts me at in the lower age range of my guild. I used to say a lot more stupid stuff back when I was 25, then miracle of miracle's I grew up.

We play with a guy that's in his 20's, he's obnoxious and trollish and says dumb things and tries to deflect his choices on others. As you'd expect from a younger dude.

We aren't sanitized we're just being respectful and trying to either maintain peace in a group where there are tons of things that we could talk about that we don't agree on, or we are just no longer feeling the need to "keep it real!" because we know that part of being an adult is just not purposefully choosing a persona that's offensive for amusement.

Face it, the game is older, the players are older and most of us don't have time for each other's shit.

[munkeyinorbit]

I think the issue is people taking offense to things said in a meaningless video game. It's an MMO. You're going to offend someone if there are 1-2000 people in a chat.

I imagine that has translated down to guild levels as well. It would be nice honestly if Blizzard and triggered people would just sit back and think, "No, this is a game. It's NOT real life." Stop being offended by everything, and move on from stuff you see in chat. More than likely the guy you want to report or cancel is a genuinely good person and is memeing in chat on an MMO like everyone who plays them has done.

Telling people how to live their lives and what is and isn't appropriate is cancer. The people telling others that "it's just a joke" or "stop being triggered" are just as bad as the ones who are calling out people for inappropriate behaviour. Yes, the world is changing and some behaviour should be stamped out but the simple solution for op is to make their own channel. I have no problem with people making something that would be deemed as toxic or inappropriate in a work setting as long as the platforms rules were adhered to. I also think they should be protected. I might find the content childish or cringy but it isn't my place to demand those people adhere to my arbitrary standard. The main reason why content is steralised is money. But I bet there's a market for something more "organic" too.

[Creutzfeldt]

This has nothing to do with any "monetization", since it has always been there, and everything to do with our Brave New (Leftarded) World, where everyone is afraid to say the wrong word, since someone might get "offended" and ruin your entire life over a tweet/post/whatever.

Back in the day we had this little thing called "freedom of speech". And yes, as someone will inevitably point out, it did not mean freedom from consequences, obviously, but but you could still say a lot of...i don't know, borderline? stuff, and even the people who didn't like what you say, wouldn't have a complete mental breakdown over, you know, words. Nowadays...well.

This isn't a freedom of speech issue. People are communicating through corporate owned means. Now if they were censoring the right to receive information you might have a point, but even then that would really only crop up if companies were enforcing policies on their staff that were anti 1st amendment. As for your last point, obscenity is usually not considered a freedom of speech issue.

[Whackadoodle]

You can tell from this thread alone that there's people that learned that their actions have consequences, and those that haven't. A lot of people "grew up" and went on into having families, careers and decided they want to try and make the world a better place around them, even if it inconveniences themselves slightly. A small side note as well, the rules in-game are far, far more lax than they used to be. I was once reported and banned for 2 hours for telling a gnome I would punt him and calling him a clown. I wish I was joking. Now the joke is the report system and lack of GM's.

As for the "monetization" part, guilds have been selling boosts since vanilla. We used to sell MC runs for Anathema and Rhok'delar. Before that, I was in LS's that sold runs in FFXI. There is nothing new in that regard.

[Marrilaife]

Do you mean guilds that stream or random guilds for non-top players? Cuz one of the guilds I've been in this expac had very floor level humour including demoting for lulz people to a rank that was a wordplay on the "N word" and few other non-PC behaviours. In another guild I had an officer who was constantly making mum jokes, sexual jokes and racist jokes and everyone was like "*shrug* this guy is just the guild's clown move on". Both guilds were boosting, however boostees would not join the guild's voice comms.

So I'd say anecdotal evidence is anecdotal but mine is different than OP's.

[Volitar]

It's got nothing to do with monetization and everything to do with cancel culture.

All it takes is one pissed of psycho to email your boss a video of you saying naughty words and you could lose your job or something crazy.

[Whackadoodle]

It's got nothing to do with monetization and everything to do with cancel culture.

All it takes is one pissed of psycho to email your boss a video of you saying naughty words and you could lose your job or something crazy.

"Cancel culture" is nothing new and has been around for quite a while, as in almost 30 years. Also, if you're losing your job for saying "naughty words" chances are, they're on the extreme end of bad. If someone's having difficulty not saying things that are that level of foul, they should probably find a therapist to work through some issues.

[tangers58]

I think the issue is people taking offense to things said in a meaningless video game. It's an MMO. You're going to offend someone if there are 1-2000 people in a chat.

I imagine that has translated down to guild levels as well. It would be nice honestly if Blizzard and triggered people would just sit back and think, "No, this is a game. It's NOT real life." Stop being offended by everything, and move on from stuff you see in chat. More than likely the guy you want to report or cancel is a genuinely good person and is memeing in chat on an MMO like everyone who plays them has done.

Or, the idiots that know how to do nothing but run their mouths could follow the rules that the guild leadership sets for the guild chat... if they don't like it they are alwAys free to leave

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It's got nothing to do with monetization and everything to do with cancel culture.

All it takes is one pissed of psycho to email your boss a video of you saying naughty words and you could lose your job or something crazy.

In a shocking turn of events, local douchebag discovers his actions can have consequences.

- - - Updated - - -

This might just be personal experience but ever since streaming, carries, and anything else involving some kind of currency transaction ingame or not has taken hold it seems like guilds have been less rowdy and more tame with stricter speech rules.

I don't really mind it but I admit to longing for the more boisterous and raunchy communities of old.

I'm really curious how you managed to make a connection between "monetization" and not being a douche in guild chat