Attack of the Internet Trolls: Traveling the world virtually to escape them.

First off, I want to ask a question ... where the heck are all the MODs on Home? It seems they have taken a vacation and the "Trolls" (as my friend May calls them) are back in full force in the PlayStation HOME community.

It's sad when a girl like myself can't log into HOME for more than two minutes, before a Troll comes running across central plaza with "You're HOT! Let's talk about me and you .... " blah blah blah .... am I right girls or what? And if that's not all, the obnoxious messages about phone sex, gross questions and disgusting photos begin flooding my inbox. Why is this happening in full force? Because in the past two weeks, not a single MOD who would often offer assistance have gone missing and every second that ticks by becomes less enjoyable and more aggravating.

On the US server no matter how many times you tell them no, stop bothering you or even go away. They keep
pestering you and start talking about how they are ten times better than my
boyfriend and even have the virtual (insert body part of choice) to insult him personally if he happens to be there with me. Reporting them doesn't seem enough to put an end to their nonsense either, so I've taken refuge on foreign servers.

For example, on the Japanese servers I get asked if I have a boyfriend and would I be interested. Tell them you are already taken and they bow politely and excuse themselves with an apology. If my boyfriend is standing there they offer an apology to him as well and go away. No messages, no photos, no pestering. Once and a great while we find one or two Trolls that have escaped the US servers and leaked over but they are quickly reported by everyone around you and you don't often see them again.

On the UK server, simply saying no often drive them away and the same over in Germany. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, I don't get bothered at all by pervs or anyone else there for that matter. They are there to play the games and chat with friends, that's it. Also, they seem to enjoy you trying to speak their language if you know a word or two. And if you're typing it wrong they help you, while you play a Home game with them or even teach you new words to help you make new friends. If you happen to play the same multi-player game they may send you a friend request to join them in a game session.

In Australia, its as bad as the US server so I don't often visit there anymore. Haven't been to the French servers yet and have yet to explore the rest of the world's servers and checking out what games they're playing now while I'm there.

But from what I've seen, there's so much interactivity there like for example. You should have seen the concert in Japan, check it out. There's more on Youtube, see if you can't find me in the crowd in one of them. I'll be wearing a white kimono top, black shorts and black boots raving in the crowd :)





Or over in Hong Kong, where you can be taken to your destination by rocket ship:





Maybe if we didn't have so many trolls behaving badly on Home, Sony may actually do something like this on the US server. Maybe? I've been to several events that were cut short because of the trolls and the cursed bubble machine these trolls like to use to block games, prevent you from entering certain spaces, etc. Like the meeting with the creators of Street Fighter 4 ... only lasted 3 minutes before it ended because trolls went up to these creator's avatar and started doing the running man and cursing at them. When Home first opened, one of the Home managers came to ask what everyone would like to see on Home and again ... a troll started cursing at them claiming X-Box was better and so on.

What is happening to our society? Is there no way to do a better job of disciplining this bad behavior? I'm already dealing with glitchers and cheaters in Metal Gear Online, when I want to relax and go somewhere to unwind the last thing I want to deal with are 14 through 25 year-old perverts flooding my inbox with smut or pestering me when I'm having a chat session with friends. Simply reporting them and then blocking has become a chore ... I'd rather deal with the cheating idiots on Metal Gear than deal with idiots on HOME. At least on MGO you can mow their team down with an AK-47 or throw a grenade over there or even kick them out of the arena to silence them ... on HOME ... well ... its sad really.

Don't get me wrong, I think HOME is still great, but it would be even better if we didn't have to deal with these trolls every single day. But now I have to take up virtual residence on foreign servers to enjoy my experience. There needs to be a better way to deal with rude people other than just report and block. Blocking them just simply means muting their text so you can't read it, but they're still there being a troll.

Well, I guess i'm off to explore the French server. Au revoir pour maintenant mes gamers semblables.