Games worth discovering

The Crooked Path of “Warcraft Refugees” Adapting to Other MMOs

602 View2023-03-04

Due to a dispute between Activision Blizzard and NetEase, the Chinese servers of World of Warcraft ceased operation on January 23rd. Players chose to find alternative games to continue their virtual social interactions, and many found the popular wuxia-themed MMO, JX Online 3. However, tensions arose between the influx of "Warcraft refugees" and the native players of JX Online 3, leading to even a "war" between the two groups.

The spark that ignited the conflict occurred during a raid in JX Online 3. A player named "RideMe"(骑我) made a highly offensive remark on the team channel: "Why are all Qixiu(七秀) players so slutty? They even have to spin while standing."

The screenshot of the remark.

Qixiu is class in JX Online 3 that has a graceful and elegant fighting style, but only available for female characters. The sudden and unprovoked attack naturally made the Qixiu players in the team uncomfortable.

"RideMe" did not apologize for their rude behavior, as others demanded. Instead, they refused to admit their mistake and claimed that "slutty" referred to being skilled and that "Warcraft players all say this." in their own YY voice channel.

Several of "RideMe's" friends then took turns speaking up in support of them, claiming to be Warcraft players and using extreme examples of female players in JX Online 3 to attack their opponents' moral standards to prove their point.

A screenshot of the voice channel.

Due to the monitoring rules in the channel, other players were unable to speak after "RideMe" and their friends, leaving the JX Online 3 players feeling trapped and frustrated.

JX Online 3 players called for reinforcements, hoping to use numbers to turn the tables. Soon, players flooded into the YY channel to join the battle.

As the debate become heated, the speakers became increasingly emotional. What started as a reasonable discussion turned into a direct emotional outburst. Either JX Online 3 players attacked Warcraft or vice versa, and new players joining the channel were confused about what was happening and just wanted to defend their own game. Although some remained rational and understood that the focus should be on the instigator, the argument and insults had already reached a point of no return.

In the end, this dispute between two groups of players, involving thousands of people, lasted from 9 pm to 3 am the next day. When the YY channel was closed down, the battle moved to a forum.

Even at midnight, there were nearly 2000 members still in the channel.

The two sides of the argument have long ceased to be the original participants, and the content has evolved into a broader conflict and opposition revolving around the identity of Warcraft players in the game JX Online 3. It's obvious that the tense atmosphere is still present, but the core issue is no longer the key point, and who strikes first has become their main concern.

After a short suspension, the YY channel that was filled with verbal abuse last night resumed its normal activities the next day, as if nothing had happened the day before. The instigator had already left the scene early and went about their day as usual.

In fact, the whole conflict was just another one of their well-planned schemes to attract attention.

"Ride Me," when signing up for the raid that night, introduced himself as a Warcraft refugee who could play in groups but was not familiar with the profession. During the subsequent verbal abuse, their friends played the role of "angry Warcraft players" and attacked JX Online 3 players indiscriminately, further inflaming their anger.

However, even when they were being singled out and verbally attacked, they chose to remain silent and even offered their comments. Only when one side was in the lead and the conflict was about to die down, would a few people jump out and continue to fan the flames.

There were also those who took advantage of their privileges to control the microphone and ban players to further escalate the conflict.

On that night, some players pointed out that "Ride Me" had engaged in numerous inappropriate behaviors towards other female players before this incident, and even had screenshots as evidence. However, the speech was quickly interrupted by the administrator.

The admin has the discretion to mute one or multiple members in the channel.

In the meantime, some players pointed out that this channel was actually an attraction channel. They would frequently create new accounts and spam chat rooms across various Warcraft servers claiming to have juicy gossip, attracting people to engage in verbal battles. There was even a host who was specifically hired to provoke people. Some called this group of people "professional YY quarrelers."

As for why this group of people started the conflict, there were different opinions in the JX Online 3 forum that night. Some said that they were just trying to make money, while others believed it was a conspiracy by competitors to sow discord. Some suspected that they were just looking for a fight for the fun of it.

Those familiar with YY rules believed that this was due to YY's own channel rules.

Some valuable accounts on YY channel (with special number combinations or shorter early accounts) need to pass regular assessments to keep them. The assessment is monthly and quantifies the popularity of the channel as points. A certain number of points must be achieved each month to pass the assessment. Based on the quality of the number, it is also classified into different levels. Those numbers that have a special meaning in Chinese due to their homophonic sound will have additional points. According to the rules of the YY channel, owners must meet a "holding standard" to keep their channel next month.

A chart of the YY “short account number ”rules, shows the different sequences of the numbers and their required scores.

The essence of the conflict that led to the outburst of verbal abuse in the YY channel is already clear. However, most of the people in the channel that night probably didn't realize that they argued for a whole night just because the owner was trying to increase the channel's activity.

A screenshot shows one of the channel owners saying "There are still quite a lot of people today." later that day.

The day after the battle, the JX Online 3 officially banned “RideMe” ‘s account for inappropriate remarks and stirring up conflicts. According to the official data, the initiator "RideMe" was not a "Warcraft Refugee" as they claimed. Their account was established in 2016, and they briefly returned in 2019.

The screenshot of the announcement.

Although the number of people involved in this battle is only a very small part of JX Online 3 players, the opposition between the two groups of players still makes rational JX Online 3 players worried that this culture of mutual hatred will spread to the game.

In fact, in the past few days, some players have reported that their Warcraft refugee friends, who are completely ignorant of the situation, have been bewildered by the ridicule and sarcasm directed at them.

Fortunately, some players still believe that everyone can seek common ground while reserving differences and make their own efforts.

There was a player of both games who posted a long letter on the forum. They shared their own game experience and emphasized that extreme individual cases cannot represent the views of the entire group. As a Warcraft player, they sent their blessings, saying, "Our game is gone, but I hope your martial world will last forever.”