As 2011 comes to a close, I feel like bringing awareness to the fact that one of the most cherished icons of our community is slowing and quietly passing away without our notice. This is not just an icon of the StarCraft 2 community, but a famous and powerful image through many, many internet communities.
That's right mother fuckers. The real trolls of the internet. They're DYING. Being replaced by a bunch of ignorant kids who are humorless, angrier, have less class, and generally suck.
Back in the good old days (by which I mean as early as about a year ago), to Troll was to be humorous in a slightly annoying or offensive way. Trolls were not:
People you disagree with and want to flamebait
Extremely offensive and unfunny assholes
People you don't like
Here is an example of trolling by one of the most esteemed members of our community:
Had to waste a fucking comsat scan just to find this dude. Now DTs are in my base
Notice how it's kind of funny, kind of subtle, and kind of classy.
Here's an example of what ISN'T trolling, from this thread:
On December 29 2011 00:16 Cubu wrote: Unless ur on the verge of having sex with her, tell her that shes full of shit and god is nonsense and ditch her
Jokes
But srsly this op feels like troll. I mean its just somthing dat u can agree to disagree well if u r srs then just dont worry bout it ots no harm
Sorry for calling you out, but not really. Go suck a bag of dicks.
Notice how the OP of the thread made a perfectly legitimate post with mostly proper grammar. And how this poster here, wailing away at his keyboard like a chimpanzee, calls the OP a troll. I'd call this poster trolling, but he doesn't quite deserve the title of troll due to the sheer idiocy and unfunniness that's just bursting from this post.
So RIP, real trolls. One day you will all be replaced by a bunch of wannabes who aren't as funny, aren't as classy. I hope you won't go quietly without a fight.
HEY LOOK, SOMETHING COOL. LET'S DESTROY IT THEN SHIT ALL OVER ITS CORPSE. Credits to HawaiianPig for the original image
But more likely than not, this battle will not even be fought. The era of trolling ends not with a bang, but with a whimper.
nuh uh... trolling isn't to be funny in a clever way. It's to type stupid shit you don't really mean just to get a reaction out of people. That being said i used to hate people who called anyone joking in anyway a troll, but it's getting so common these days i maybe should just accept the definition has changed.
Kinda like how Riku thinks everything she does is trolling. "i trolled u" "i trolled this" blah blah. Kids these days don't know what trolling really is. I think there was a write up of the diferent styles of trolls a year or 2 ago. I miss the good ol days
I remember having a huge guide on different types of trolls somewhere on TL. Does anyone remember what I mean? Would fit so perfectly to dig that out. =D
The word troll has proliferated into everyday use among the people at my school as well. It's quite annoying to go throughout my day while hearing it being thrown around in every kind of situation, even those that barely make sense.
I agree with you entirely, a new generation of 12 year old wannabees learning the internet and killing the iconic legend that was the troll. The same thing happened in the COD games.
I hate when people say someone is a troll just because they have a laugh/take the piss. The misuse of the word gets to me. Also bad trolls who think they are good trolls.
Well I actually thought someone had died (trolled by the troll thread?)
But I think you're actually overrating most trolls. Sure, there are the guys who troll with style and dignity (hotbid, old athene vids, max from ytmnd) but most of them are and always have been bored/angry kids on the internet. "trolls" as you describe them aren't dying out, they just weren't very common to begin with-- I remember ALWAYS having to scrounge the depths of youtube, ytmnd, 4chan in order to find some gem of witty and original humor.
The easier the game gets, the more younger people get to play it and the younger the gaming community will be. If you want a better gaming community, go for an older game - preferably one that involves serious thought and not just fast, repetitive pushing of buttons. The differences are immense.
i'm pretty sure "trolling" has always meant when you deliberately make everyone flame you by saying retarded shit. it's only recently "trolling" has been taken to mean "prank" or "joke."
This is great and true, same with alot of internet stuff (4chan, reddit, that kind of stuff), well as our community grows, we will have to put up with people like this.
i pride myself as an oldschool troll. a troll is someone who makes something funny on the internet, thats it.
you need a sense of humor to enjoy a sense of humor and most ppl dont have that.
a nice example of this is earlier i said on a thread on overclocked.net that i thought since america was the best country in the world we should get what we want when we want it. this was in regards to a bunch of EU ppl getting the new zowie mouse first. needless to say my sarcasm was lost and some of them freaked out. it wasnt even that funny i was a harmless stab at every other country in the world and ppl just lose it.
the shittiest part about it is that they are wrong and that america is totally a country full of good looking ppl who get laid and party all the time. ppl are just hating on us
Ehhh the type of unfunny garbage flaming posts that you describe have been common on the Internet for years. Only now they are named as "trolls" so you notice them a lot more.
Not to mention the huge influx of new users on TL has contributed to more posts which has inevitably resulted in more garbage posts being made.
I don't see the point of bemoaning the loss of "purity" or whatever in trolling, especially because funny trolling is always going to be around.
On December 30 2011 14:32 FullNatural wrote: Kinda like how Riku thinks everything she does is trolling. "i trolled u" "i trolled this" blah blah. Kids these days don't know what trolling really is. I think there was a write up of the diferent styles of trolls a year or 2 ago. I miss the good ol days
O.o;
I believe you are quite confused about my opinion and "trolling" claims. In fact, I don't think you can find me even using the term "troll" in the past 8 months.
As for the "good ol' days," I really believe you actually have no idea what you are talking about, especially since you seem to be implying that those days existed a mere two years ago.
Also, stop trying to act like someone who can be justified calling others "kids" when you write like a middle school girl.
*le sigh*
On December 30 2011 13:33 Newbistic wrote: Notice how the OP of the thread made a perfectly legitimate post with mostly proper grammar. And how this poster here, wailing away at his keyboard like a chimpanzee, calls the OP a troll.
Oh, correction, you write like a crazed chimp.
The rest of you, please excuse my grumpy reply, I tend to be rather cranky first thing in the morning, especially on a recovery day.
Oh, and, OP, good post. The art of trolling has definitely been on the decline for years, since internet humor gained more popularity. However, I feel that arguing about it often seems too much like a newfag/oldfag argument and it's best just to facepalm and move along.
Bethesda took all our precious and much feared trolls and put them in Skyrim where they all took arrows to their knees. Much like your artist's impression.
But you do have a point, a lot more attempts at humour but a lot less interesting, subtly entertaining posts. Also, too often people defend a bad argument that they have completely failed at by saying "lol I was trolling".
"xxx imba" "No, he had such a huge lead he could safely get up a huge army of xxx and roll over xyz. If he had made 200/200 of abc he also would have won." "Dude chill I was trolling"
(And then there's about a million memes and "lol"s and "rofl"s and people being overly serious and feeling hurt until Moderator uses Battle Cry and restores order)
It's half trolling, at least the beginning half where it builds up to the troll face. Part of good trolling is to actually make a solid point beneath all of it.
On December 30 2011 18:32 rauk wrote: i'm pretty sure "trolling" has always meant when you deliberately make everyone flame you by saying retarded shit. it's only recently "trolling" has been taken to mean "prank" or "joke."
QFT
so either OP is completely clueless or just meta-trolling
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DUxT4.jpg)
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