How to deal with flamers

[[APrX]Nuffing]

How to deal with flamers

A guide/advice by Nuffing

Hello, I am Nuffing. I have played Heroes of Newerth since closed beta and I have experienced all kind of players(supposedly). I am sitting around the 1750+ PSR bracket and 1750+ MMR. Like everyone else I began at 1500 and started out by hovering around there. Fact is that in every tier of gameplay there is what I like to call it: A person with infected social behaviour(flamer, angry guy, immature dude, kid, etc). So I have learned how to deal with them throughout the time I've been playing HoN.


Why write this guide?

As I mentioned above I have figured out the way to deal with these kind of persons who do nothing but rage on you whatever you do. I decided to share my knowledge and let you do what you want with it.
Do you think this sounds stupid already? I think it might do, but I would be glad if you continued to read what I have to say. Well, you might even be one of those "angry dudes" who make other people feel bad. Either way, just keep on reading.

Thank you.


What is a flamer?
If you already know and you are totally clear about it, skip this part.

Yeah, a flamer. I suppose everybody knows what that is and has encountered some time in their HoN-career.
I guess I will explain either way so let's get it on with.
A flamer is a person who is possibly very mad at you/your team/your teammate(s). The reason to why this person is mad varies. It could be that he/she died in a stupid way or maybe you "stole a kill". One way or another this person has a problem. Might be you. Well, anyways, sometimes they do have a point. "You could have stunned 1 second earlier", "You could have ran the other way around" etc. It is OK to give criticism, but remember, we are talking about a flamer here so he might include the words: stupid, noob, idiot, retard, <insert swear word/humiliating word of choice>.
I think that covers it. Let us move on.

What to do/how to handle flamers?

There are three easy steps.

1. Analyze
2. Talk, speak
3. (Ignore)

Analyze
The first thing you do is analyze. Why is he/she saying this? Have I done something wrong or behaved in an inappropriate way towards him/her?
Preferably you haven't in any way acted like a total ass to this person. If you have you should reconsider how you act on the internet and practice on your etiquette/netiquette.
Analyzing what happened you might learn something from what he/she said to you. Maybe you should try to put out those stuns a little bit earlier or position yourself in a better place. There is always something to learn and nobody is a perfect player.

Talk, speak
Communicating is always good. You should tell this person that you don't like how you're being treated by them. That you are happy to receive advice but not in such a harsh way. This actually works most of the time.

Ignore
If you can't seem to calm this person down in any way possible there is a simple solution: Ignore.
Add this person to your ignore list. Command is: /ignore add nickname
You might even want you add this person to your ban list: /banlist add nickname
This way you will never have to listen to this person again and you'll feel much better. If you see him join a game you are in, simply ask for a kick on him or find another game(unless you're playing matchmaking, then it's just hard luck).


General Tips

• Never get upset, just try to stay calm.

• Don't ever flame back, it will only get worse.

• Getting ignored is one of the worst things for a flamer who keeps humiliating you. Utilize on this.

• Be polite and a good model for correct behaviour towards others

• If you see someone else having problems with a flamer, help him/her to sort things out.

Abusing skills/items ingame, griefing

This is also a grave problem in the world of HoN. If people get mad at you for some reason and they play a hero that can use a skill to put you in a dangerous position or hinder your participation of the game, they probably will.
By this I mean abilities/items like:

• Pebble's Chuck

• Nymphora Teleport(Staff of the Master)

• Ophelia's Ophelia's Judgment

• Andromeda's Void Rip(Swap)

• Chronos's Chronofield

• Blood Hunter's Blood Crazy

• Glacius's Ice Imprisonment

• Succubus's Mesmerize

• Behemoth's Fissure

• Gladiator's Showdown

• Devourer's Hook

• Pharaoh's Wall of Mummies

• Flux's Discharge

• Gauntlet's Grapple

• Storm Spirit

• Tablet of Command

* If it is clear that a player is using abilities like these to kill/grief, you can report this by going to "Report Abusive Behaviour". It's located at the upper left corner of the screen. This will require you to fill out a form where you have to include replay#, player name, etc.

The Solution
There is one, very simple, solution to most of these problems that you can encounter(Chronos can always ulti you, behemoth can always block you, and etc). If you press the little green dot to the left of your teammates portrait(to the left side). It will turn red and this results in the inability for your teammate to use for example Tablet of Command and Chuck.

In this case I disable all the things Gauntlet is able to do with me if I have a green dot on him. In other words, when it's red, Gauntlet can't Grapple me, Tablet of Command me and etc.


How to give constructive criticism/feedback

I think this has to do with the subject flamers. A lot of people might start fighting because they give each other advice and tips in the wrong way.
I won't be writing about this myself. I will refer to some links:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2327864_give...-feedback.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Criticize-Constructively

http://www.joanlloyd.com/Managing/Ho...fectively.aspx

These are some links I found on the net about criticism. One of them is about criticism at work but I think the same stuff applies to HoN. It's some good reading and you guys might be able to snap something up and use it.


Netiquette

This is also an important part that has to do with flaming. I think this is a vital part to the subject and it should be read.

http://www.suite101.com/content/neti...delines-a26615
Some general guidelines for netiquette.


More reading

http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh...ad.php?t=35274
A very good article posted originally on the DotA-forums by Sephram and reposted here on the HoN-forums by spikernum1. Read this!

http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh...d.php?t=198662
A thread started by Ayano where he asks for advice about how to deal with flamers. Some posts/replies are good and serious, there are some trolls also.

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/7-tips-...rs-and-trolls/
A good article that is worth reading.


Last Words

Thanks for reading, I hope it was to some help and enlightenment.

Nuffing

[mukjiPA]

i agree with this post, thanks for taking ur time to write this post

[[PDNO]frtzarn]

noob stupid idiot post...
/sarcasm off
good guide i think this should be required reading in 1600 brackets! or any bracket for that matter

[[APrX]Nuffing]

I suppose there is people in every bracket that needs a little heads up.
Thanks for the comments.
I would be glad to get some constructive criticism. Things to add, things to delete etc.

[[APrX]Nuffing]

- Updated guide with some good to know stuff.

[[OUTG]Itchy_Nads]

Go nyph, summon the rager to a place on the map he cant get out of, tp home.

KTHANKSBAI

[[APrX]Nuffing]

Implying it's not possible to send a TP with the courier?
Also, that's going against everything I have mentioned in this guide.

[[OUTG]Itchy_Nads]

TP ? You can summon ppl with staff, problem solved

[kingcools]

Good work, the best way to deal with flamers is to simply put them on your ignore list. I do this now, though i feel like im missing out on some "rage fun" lol.

[[APrX]Nuffing]

Thanks a lot. Still open for new ideas to add and such.
(^Epic sig lol)

[[APrX]Nuffing]

- Updated guide with more links.

[[APrX]Nuffing]

400 views. So few comments. Please feel free to comment. I'll be happy with any advice etc.

[Jezu]

Problem is, that sometimes most of the people WILL get mad when they are flamed, and they flame back, and soon its a flamefest.
However, good post.

[Korrh]

Good work!

[[APrX]Nuffing]

Problem is, that sometimes most of the people WILL get mad when they are flamed, and they flame back, and soon its a flamefest.
However, good post.

That is one thing I tried to promote. That if something is flaming you, you might get bad but try to stay calm at all times. Didn't I make it clear enough, should I change something? I understand what I write differently from others so it's hard for me to know.

Thanks for comments.

[mobbscene]

id like to simply say one thing. QQ.
this whole page is about anon crying like a little girl.

[[APrX]Nuffing]

Well, people does have different opinions about different things. But isn't that a little harsh? This might help people.

[[APrX]Nuffing]

This guide never really got much attention. Bad guide or lack of interest from the community?

[[SyCF]FurFarmer]

Personally I think it is a good guide, but there is a limited target audience (And a lot of those people probably don't read the forums). To some people I am sure the content seems obvious, or they might have stopped playing a long time ago because this community can be a bunch of D*&^% Nozzles at times. Others are the source of the problem, and find it a bit too ironic to flame a "How to deal with flaming" thread.

You might want to include something about how to turn off certain abilities from other players (Like chuck, grip, and tele). Once ignored some people result to throwing you at the other team to be obliterated...

[[APrX]Nuffing]

Personally I think it is a good guide, but there is a limited target audience (And a lot of those people probably don't read the forums). To some people I am sure the content seems obvious, or they might have stopped playing a long time ago because this community can be a bunch of D*&^% Nozzles at times. Others are the source of the problem, and find it a bit too ironic to flame a "How to deal with flaming" thread.

You might want to include something about how to turn off certain abilities from other players (Like chuck, grip, and tele). Once ignored some people result to throwing you at the other team to be obliterated...

Thank you for the feedback, I agree with you. I will update later on when I have time.