Trollgate and What You Need to Know

(Updated December 24th, 2014)

Trolling has become a big part of Star Trek Online. It can range from simple annoyance to flat out stalking another player. While attempts have been made to try and curb the in game trolling, little to no help has come from Cryptic – the studio that produces the game. Because of the massive influx of trolls in the game and Cryptic’s non-action, the situation has become known as Trollgate.

Trolls come in many flavors and varieties from your everyday jerk trying to get a rise out of you to people purposely failing missions to give you a hard time. Some have even taken to impersonating others to ruin online reputations. Here are a few things you should look out for:

1. Trolls have been know to impersonate others by creating new accounts with very similar names to legitimate players. Make sure you read the names carefully as the similar names are created specifically to get you to attack the legitimate player by mistake.
2. Trolls will purposely block progression in several group missions. There are some way around certain blocks, but if the player continues to do it you have yourself a troll.
3. Trolls have also spammed various types of invites to players using accounts purposely made to troll others. Often they are the mock accounts which are used to cover their tracks. While ignoring that troll account and adjusting your privacy settings can help, not all types of invites are covered in the ignore feature.
4. Trolls will purposely argue with you in chat specifically to get a rise out of you. This one needs to be thought over carefully as some discussions in chat are legitimate and the person you may be debating with may very well be speaking truthfully. Just because a player disagrees with you on something DOES NOT make them a troll. A troll will grief you and try their best to make you feel small and possibly proclaim that your opinion doesn’t matter.
5. Trolls have been known to spam channel invites to various players. At this time, there is no way to stop the channel invites. You can however remove the channel from your drop down list through your chat settings.
6. Trolls will grief and attack you on your sex or sexual orientation. In some cases, they will push you very hard to try and get a rise out of you. This may escalate to sexual harassment. Be wary of these trolls and do not engage them. That is exactly what they want.

In most cases, ignoring the troll completely is the best thing you can do. Engaging them is almost never the answer as getting a reaction is what they thrive on. If they continue to harass you, you should file an in-game ticket by right clicking their name and selecting Report to GM.

While a ticket may not solve the issue, it is really the only recourse you have right now to try and get something resolved when there is nothing more you can do.

The Saint Olivia fleet and many other fleets and players in the game despise trolling in all forms. We are all for having fun and joking around, but trolls take this to a whole other level. For some reason, they seem to think griefing and upsetting people is fun. Be sure to review the Known Trolls list which you can locate here.

 

O