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danieldwilliamI play Clash of Clans. I know this is the video game equivalent of admitting to liking One Direction, or even listening to their music, but I like the game. It passes a bit of time in the intersections of life and gives me something to stick my head in whilst I’m being introverted.
For those who don’t know the game it’s freemium where you build a village which gives you access to resources which you use build troops which are used to attach other villages in order to steal resources to build your village so you can have better troops. It’s proper serious. Individuals are grouped into clans. There are leagues. One day I’ll be worth 100 million Euros on transfer to a Spanish Clan.
The interaction within clans is a bit limited. You’re pretty much limited to lending small numbers of troops to each other. Despite the name you can’t actually engage in a clan on clan contest. There is a clan chat function. It’s basically an open channel to the 50 or so members of your clan. Which has been interesting this weekend.
The first interesting thing was that I fell into conversation with some kids. I mean proper kids. Eight and ten year olds. I was older than all of them put together by some way. This is quite a popular game with primary school kids. They are quite sweet in a way.
The second thing was that the EDL turned up.
Folk leave and join clans all the time. A bit like soccer. One guy / kid turns up with a distinctly Muslim name. He’s not there long before he’s mithering on to be promoted and have lots of people give him lots of stuff. It’s a bit irritating. I figure he’s a kid. Mithering on is what kids do. It’s a bit annoying but I reckon he’ll either give up, go away or get himself kicked out for being irritating. He threatens to leave unless he’s promoted. He isn’t promoted. He announces his departure and signs for Crewe Alexandria and leaves. Kids, I think to myself.
About an hour after he leaves another individual turns up. He donates some troops, says hello, behaves pretty much as one would expect. Gets himself promoted. Play proceeds for a bit. It’s now about midnight UK time. Then he catches sight of recent whingey whiney chat from our recently departed (probably) Muslim (probably) eight year old. And he’s off on an EDL rant.
“Hey, “name”, have you heard of the EDL?”
“Look us up on Utube.”
“We’re an English street army. We hatz teh muslims. Your god is a pedo who sleeps with children.”
“We’re gunna throw you out of our country, you scum.”
And so on. To the point where I think we’re bordering on criminal levels of racial abuse.
I was a bit stunned. I mean, almost literally.
Here I was, alone on the internet, in the middle of the night with someone who would fail the entrance exam to the Nazi party but would be let in anyway.
it's the first time I've ever engaged directly with a member of the EDL.
For a few minutes my brain just wouldn’t work properly and I couldn’t think what to do. As my brain rejoined the internal dialogue I was a bit confused. I didn’t really fancy an argument with and EDL thug. Especially not on an open channel with 8 year old kids reading it over their coco-pops the next morning. Also, to be honest, it was midnight. I was just about to switch off for the night and had been for the last hour. I didn’t really have the energy for a discussion with a foul mouthed racist. It was very likely that I was alone on the chat board with this guy. Who also could have been eight.
I couldn’t throw him out. It was too early for the “either he goes or I go” ultimatum. There is a report comment
So, I got my head together and told him I thought he should leave the clan. Switched off the iphone determined to sleep on the matter and take it up in the morning.
Which I did – although he’d left about five minutes after I’d posted my comment. So I didn’t really have to do anything further. At least within the clan. I’m not sure what to do about the incident now.
I also feel as if my response should have been more robust. Although just asking the guy to leave seemed to work it doesn’t seem quite enough.
For those who don’t know the game it’s freemium where you build a village which gives you access to resources which you use build troops which are used to attach other villages in order to steal resources to build your village so you can have better troops. It’s proper serious. Individuals are grouped into clans. There are leagues. One day I’ll be worth 100 million Euros on transfer to a Spanish Clan.
The interaction within clans is a bit limited. You’re pretty much limited to lending small numbers of troops to each other. Despite the name you can’t actually engage in a clan on clan contest. There is a clan chat function. It’s basically an open channel to the 50 or so members of your clan. Which has been interesting this weekend.
The first interesting thing was that I fell into conversation with some kids. I mean proper kids. Eight and ten year olds. I was older than all of them put together by some way. This is quite a popular game with primary school kids. They are quite sweet in a way.
The second thing was that the EDL turned up.
Folk leave and join clans all the time. A bit like soccer. One guy / kid turns up with a distinctly Muslim name. He’s not there long before he’s mithering on to be promoted and have lots of people give him lots of stuff. It’s a bit irritating. I figure he’s a kid. Mithering on is what kids do. It’s a bit annoying but I reckon he’ll either give up, go away or get himself kicked out for being irritating. He threatens to leave unless he’s promoted. He isn’t promoted. He announces his departure and signs for Crewe Alexandria and leaves. Kids, I think to myself.
About an hour after he leaves another individual turns up. He donates some troops, says hello, behaves pretty much as one would expect. Gets himself promoted. Play proceeds for a bit. It’s now about midnight UK time. Then he catches sight of recent whingey whiney chat from our recently departed (probably) Muslim (probably) eight year old. And he’s off on an EDL rant.
“Hey, “name”, have you heard of the EDL?”
“Look us up on Utube.”
“We’re an English street army. We hatz teh muslims. Your god is a pedo who sleeps with children.”
“We’re gunna throw you out of our country, you scum.”
And so on. To the point where I think we’re bordering on criminal levels of racial abuse.
I was a bit stunned. I mean, almost literally.
Here I was, alone on the internet, in the middle of the night with someone who would fail the entrance exam to the Nazi party but would be let in anyway.
it's the first time I've ever engaged directly with a member of the EDL.
For a few minutes my brain just wouldn’t work properly and I couldn’t think what to do. As my brain rejoined the internal dialogue I was a bit confused. I didn’t really fancy an argument with and EDL thug. Especially not on an open channel with 8 year old kids reading it over their coco-pops the next morning. Also, to be honest, it was midnight. I was just about to switch off for the night and had been for the last hour. I didn’t really have the energy for a discussion with a foul mouthed racist. It was very likely that I was alone on the chat board with this guy. Who also could have been eight.
I couldn’t throw him out. It was too early for the “either he goes or I go” ultimatum. There is a report comment
So, I got my head together and told him I thought he should leave the clan. Switched off the iphone determined to sleep on the matter and take it up in the morning.
Which I did – although he’d left about five minutes after I’d posted my comment. So I didn’t really have to do anything further. At least within the clan. I’m not sure what to do about the incident now.
I also feel as if my response should have been more robust. Although just asking the guy to leave seemed to work it doesn’t seem quite enough.
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no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 03:48 pm (UTC)In the mists of pre-history, I used to hang out on one of the RPG forums of Compuserve. We had the occasional nut job wandering by, and the tactic of choice was ridicule - but that was an older audience (not a lot of 8 year olds). I think you did the right thing, and if there's a "report post" button I think you should use it.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-03 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 05:44 pm (UTC)Engaging in a detailed discussion of his views would (I believe) have achieved nothing but get you worked up (and probably interrupt you sleep).
no subject
Date: 2013-09-02 06:30 pm (UTC)