Analytical Reflection on Three Actual Events - Essay Example

Three Events – Event Level Up! Philippines, Philippine Ragnarok Online The first of three events I will discuss pertains to the Philippine branchof Level Up! Games – distributor of the Philippine version of Gravity’s Ragnarok Online, which I played briefly while on vacation there. It being the most popular MMORPG over there at the time (and still is today, according to the official website, accessed 11/20/09), I was invited to try it by my friends. I was not disappointed. The graphics are simplistic, consisting of 2D, paper doll-like sprites in sprawling 3D backgrounds – a stark contrast to World of Warcraft, which boasts rich 3D environments as well as character designs. However, RO was no less fun. In-game towns and cities were jam-packed with players at any given time. In fact, the Chaos server in particular often had literally over 9,000 people from all walks of life and of all ages playing at a given moment. The diversity of the community, as can still be seen on the Ragnaboards, coupled with a simple yet addictive gameplay interface, was what hooked me – the first two months of my stay were spent leveling up my character. Alas, it was not meant to be; I ended up quitting after getting a first-hand experience of Level Up’s lack of customer care. I logged in one day to find my character stripped bare – all the gear and the loot I had hunted for disappeared. When I filed a complaint to their Customer Service, they refused to compensate my loss – this angered me to the point of quitting. Sadly, Level Up seemed to have deteriorated even further from there. Over time, hacking and scamming alike increasingly fell on deaf ears. Bots – 3rd party programs used by players to gain an unfair advantage – while ostensibly illegal, were no longer being addressed. Next thing I knew, Level Up legalised botting (MPC Forums, 2005). The overwhelming number of other reports such as item duplication made it worse. It still makes me sad sometimes. I loved the game, but the company’s utter disregard for its customers in the name of money turned me off – the legalisation of botting in order to maximise their income by way of prepaid cards attests to this. Considering how much prosperity RO and its players brought to Level Up, one would think these customers deserved better treatment. Event #2: BitingBeaver and Radical Feminism Feminism, as the word implies, entails the defense of women’s rights. As further explained by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (first published 2003), some writers use the word in reference to specific American and European movements whereas others equate it with the belief that injustices against women exist. Most sources agree, however, that the word ‘feminist’ as used in the English language has roots in the women’s suffrage movements in Europe and US during the 19th an 20th centuries. Radical feminism is this, only taken to absurd extremes. What sets it apart from the standard variety is that it focuses on the patriarchy as a system of male supremacy. Radical feminists are known for opposing standard gender roles, and calling everyone out on violence against women – real or perceived. They will usually insist on spelling the words ‘woman’ and ‘women’ with at least one y – something understandably seen by some as a sign of pettiness. One of the most well-known ones in recent years was Andrea Dworkin, whose quotes (BrainyQuote.com, accessed 11/20/09) range from the slightly off to the flat-out outrageous. Mine was not an encounter, but an observation of their practices. As archived on the blog Herd Watching (accessed 11/20/09), in 2007, a certain radical feminist known online as BitingBeaver lamented her son’s proliferation of pornography despite his indoctrination (for lack of a better word) into her radical feminist beliefs. She even went so far as to express regret for not aborting him when he was a fetus. Even more sickening is the fact that her fellow posters appeared to have ignored if not outright encouraged her thoughts of filicide. As a result, she incurred the wrath of the internet group Anonymous. The said group, famous in recent years for its opposition of the Church of Scientology, called her “batshit insane” – that being among the more polite names. Not to mention, if the archive of her blog posts is to be believed (accessed 11/20/09), is more than a little accurate. As described in screencaps and links on one of their websites, Encyclopedia Dramatica (accessed 11/20/09, NSFW), this resulted in Anonymous launching internet attacks on BitingBeaver and her compatriots, leading them to lock away their websites from the general public. In my own opinion, it is because of BitingBeaver and those like her that the epithet “feminazi” exists. Event #2: PETA According to its official website (accessed 11/20/09), PETA is currently the largest animal rights advocacy in the world, with over 2 million members and supporters. Among other things, it focuses on the rampant animal cruelty in factory farms, laboratories, the clothing industry (their ad “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” comes to mind), and the entertainment industry. Its methods of spreading the word include, but are not limited to, celebrity endorsements, cruelty investigations, and protest campaigns. A specific program is its Community Animal Project (CAP) in both Virginia and North Carolina, which focuses on caring for neglected pets such as cats and dogs, as well as strays (HelpingAnimals.com, accessed 11/20/09). Among other things, they provide free (or at least extremely affordable) sprays, neutering, and veterinary attention. They even bathe strays, giving them much-needed love and affection. It aims to persuade people that pets are supposed to live inside their houses and not out. If all else fails, they offer to put animals out of their misery in the most painless possible way (accessed 11/20/09). According to an interview with Sir Paul McCartney, notable for having been one of the Beatles (accessed 11/20/09), animal lives have value, too – thus, they must not be treated with cruelty. Again, my encounter, while not a face-to-face meeting with PETA or its members, was no less touching to me than the first two events I discussed. Me being a cat lover, I am appalled and saddened whenever I walk home and see children abusing kittens, throwing stones at them for example. Later that night, I fed one of these kittens some food when it came inside our gates. I unfortunately have not been able to adopt that stray kitten as my own, as my housemates are allergic to fur, but reading about PETA and its acts led me to consider working at an animal shelter. Reflection Sure enough, each of these events touched me on a personal level, at varying degrees. I felt all manner of emotions such as sorrow, disappointment, disgust, and full-blown outrage in my encounters. My feelings on the events discussed will now be gone over in detail, still in the same order. First, my encounter with Level Up: it goes without saying that the way they handled the situation annoyed and enraged me to no end. I came to them, having had my precious character hacked, and they did absolutely nothing for me. An explanation here is in order: hacking is when someone unauthorised logs on your account and either vandalises it, steals your gear, as what happened to me, or worse, uses it to victimise your friends. Such cases even exist where the hacker, unsatisfied with merely taking his victim’s items, goes on to delete the character stolen from. In short, hacking would be the MMORPG equivalent of such crimes as robbery, rape, and even murder in hack-delete cases. I attempted to compromise, explaining that even just punishing those responsible would do, as I was not around often enough to take full advantage of my equipment anyway. But still, they did not guarantee me anything. More than anything, that was what led me to quit. Losing my gear was bad enough. But the hackers getting away with it was more than I could stand. A few years after the fact, I feel no regrets; in fact, I’ve played in private, supposedly illegal servers, whose administrators care more for their players than Level Up – for one thing, bots are banned and not tolerated. From what I’ve been hearing, though, Level Up has been making attempts to fix RO and win back their old players. In spite of legalising bots, for instance, they created Valhalla, a new, bot-free, free-to-play server. Players even work together with the administrators in catching violators, as can be seen in the long, long list of suspected bots in one of their subforums. Only time will tell if this is enough; as for me, though, I couldn’t go back even if I wanted to. Meanwhile, the most prevalent feelings I felt towards BitingBeaver were disgust and outrage. Even if her son Brandon had been surfing for pornography, there must have been better ways of addressing it aside from having a filicidal fit online, right? What a sensible, right-thinking mother would have done was talk and explain that sexual urges are perfectly normal, and that there are proper and responsible ways of dealing with these urges. Instead, she repeatedly inflicts psychological and emotional abuse on her son. No mother in her right mind would consider wishing she’d aborted her child instead; indeed, even the mothers of criminals still love their children despite what they’ve done. And certainly no mother in her right mind would give her children the idea that they are responsible for crimes based solely on their gender. While I also agree that Anonymous may have taken it too far, it’s not hard to see why. What outraged me more, however, were the reactions of her fellow posters, one of whom wished she had murdered her then-unborn child with a rusty coat hanger. They tolerated, condoned, and encourage her filicidal thoughts when they should have been horrified and sickened instead, as most mothers would be. One, in a post entitled “Trash and Purveyors of Trash” (2007), even attempted to divert the issue by instead talking about how she was hacked – noticeably glossing over why she was hacked in the first place. It makes my stomach turn how Brandon must be treated and viewed by his mother and her compatriots, simply because an accident of birth made him male. It is unacceptable to me as a sane woman and as a human being. I believe that BitingBeaver and her ilk deserve karma, and that it will come some way or another. In a way it already has, with their shenanigans archived on a site for everyone to see. Not to mention, Anonymous took a break from its usual internet attacks and wrote a genuinely touching, concerned-sounding open letter to Brandon (2007). Indeed, if even a group known for causing mass mayhem on the internet is disgusted with BitingBeaver’s parenting methods, they must have a very good point. Finally, PETA. While I do not agree with everything they stand for (for one, I have absolutely no plans of becoming a vegetarian), I agree wholeheartedly with their stance on animal rights, especially regarding fur clothing and the treatment of pets. No, I haven’t seen their videos of what animals go through in the fur industry, but I don’t need to; the descriptions speak for themselves. A few incidents come to mind when discussing them. First, they are known for hounding celebrities who endorse fur clothing or even own fur clothing lines; in particular, Beyonce and J. Lo come to mind (TMZ.com, 2006). In an example of real life trolling not unlike the kind usually done by Anonymous, PETA accosted these celebrities at a classy restaurant and a reality show audition, respectively. I for one approve of their actions; as it stands, both Beyonce and J. Lo have been shown to be full of themselves for a long time now, and cruelty to animals does absolutely nothing to help. Paris Hilton and Britney Spears have been similarly confronted over their impulsive purchases of pet dogs. According to Ingrid A. Newkirk (2007), this only encourages similarly impulsive pet purchases, regardless of whether the buyer is fit to own a pet. She further adds that more pets bought from pet stores indirectly results in more homeless animals dying in the pound. One of the comments to the article also reads that pets are almost as difficult to take care of as babies. And, given their track record, I feel sorry for the pets of these two women. I do not fully agree with the methods PETA employed where these celebrities are concerned, but again, sometimes extreme measures need to be taken to get one’s point across. Reflection: What it says about organisations In these encounters, I learned quite a bit about the organisations involved. Even if I did not directly interact with the latter two organisations I discussed, I was still able to see how they interacted with outsiders as well as each other. To sum it up, they all had one thing in common: they serve their own ends and beliefs, what everyone else thinks be damned. First, Level Up. Any current player of Ragnarok Online will probably attest that the company cares more about making money than the welfare of its customers. Every week they release new items in the online cash shop, but their customer service is subpar, if not nonexistent. Just like me, players have been hacked who, despite desiring justice rather than recovery of their lost gear, were denied. Understandably, this causes players to quit playing – they are aware of how this hurts them, too, since the official boards has a ban on threads announcing one’s desire to quit. Next, BitingBeaver and her band of radical feminists. As can be seen on their archived blog posts, they only allow comments which express agreement to their opinions; any dissenters, regardless of how well-thought out and polite their opinions are expressed, are summarily flamed, mocked, and blocked from posting. Rather than responding to or rebutting the dissenter’s argument, the dissenter himself is attacked. It can then be said that they do not take criticism, even constructive criticism, very well. Finally, PETA. As I’ve already explained, I do not completely agree with them and, like Anonymous, they are known for using questionable methods such as harassment in order to make their points. But then, maybe that is the only thing such celebrities will listen to; Paris Hilton in particular is known for being snobbish and turning up her nose at people. They gain backlash from the general public over their actions, but their options are limited if no other way will work. On the whole, it shows that most organisation’s top goal is self-preservation. This can easily be seen with Level Up’s money-minded management, the radical feminists’ extreme mindset and indoctrination methods, and PETA’s methods of dissemination (graphic videos, for instance). While not all may share the same Machiavellian mindset, these organisations certainly do; questionable means are alright as long as it is in line with what they stand for. References BitingBeaver (2007) Encyclopedia Dramatica [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/BitingBeaver J. Lo Ambushed by PETA (2007) TMZ.com [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.tmz.com/2007/01/22/j-lo-ambushed-by-peta Beyonce Ambushed by PETA at Nobu (2006) TMZ.com [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.tmz.com/2006/06/15/beyonce-ambushed-by-peta-at-nobu PETA Still Doggin’ Paris and Britney (2007) TMZ.com [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.tmz.com/2007/07/27/peta-still-doggin-paris-and-britney To Brandon (2007) Save Brandon [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://savebrandon.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/to-brandon/ The Hiatus Will Start After This Post (date unknown) Archive of the Biting Beaver [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://archiveofthebitingbeaver.wordpress.com/ Trash and Purveyors of Trash (2007) Shakesville [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2007/08/trash-and-purveyors-of-trash.html L.U.G. Statements…. Got to read it or else (2005) MPC Forums [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.mpcforum.com/showthread.php?t=84650 About Level Up! (date unknown) Level Up! Inc. [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.levelupgames.ph/about-level-up/ About Us (date unknown) HelpingAnimals.com [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.helpinganimals.com/about_cap.asp Euthanasia: The Compassionate Option (date unknown) PETA Media Center [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.peta.org/MC/factsheet_display.asp?ID=39 Sir Paul McCartney’s Exclusive Interview: ‘We Will Win!’ (2009) PETA Official Website [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.peta.org/campaigns/sirpaul.asp Andrea Dworkin Quotes (date unknown) BrainyQuotes.com [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/andrea_dworkin.html Topics in Feminism (2003) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-topics/#FemBelFemMov The Biting Beaver Memory Hole (2007) Herd Watching [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.herdwatching.com/2007/08/08/the-biting-beaver-memory-hole/ About PETA (date unknown) PETA Official Website [Online] Accessed 20 November 2009 from http://www.peta.org/about/ Read More