Redeem your 
Hey Nettie,
My question is specifically in regards to High Stakes Pool, but I guess it could be applied to any game. I enjoy chatting with and meeting new people. Therefore, after I am finished with a game of pool, regardless of whether or not I won, I will leave and find a new opponent if the previous player didn’t talk, or I didn’t have a nice engaging conversation with them.
I don’t leave in the middle of the game, and I’m not a sore loser if I lose, and always say GG at the end. I just simply don’t want to play the same person twice unless I’m truly enjoying their company.
So my question is: is this rude? Is there something so terrible with that? Is there anywhere in the TOS that says I have to play the same person repeatedly?
I ask this because lately, more often than not, the person with whom I am playing will just sit in my room waiting for another game. When I politely say “no thank you” to another game, many will call me nasty names, say I’m a poor sport, and/or refuse to leave.
Frankly, I am getting so sick of it. Are they entitled to another game? Also, in line with this question, am I absolutely obligated to allow any person who sits at my table to play with me? Is it rude to politely decline to play with someone and make them a watcher while I wait for someone else? Because, apparently, based on the lovely names I am called when I do that also, it’s not.
So please, could you tell me, who is in the wrong here? Am I being rude, or do people just think they are entitled to a game?
Thank you very much for your input,
Choose My Opponents Carefully
| Dear Choose My Opponents Carefully,
You pose a very interesting series of questions, and I’m happy to say that from what you’ve told me, you’re doing nothing rude or even questionable. You engage in the niceties of the game (“gg”, etc…), you politely tell players that you wish to play another opponent, and I assume you don’t respond in kind when attacked. There are several different types of players. Some are here solely for the game – they don’t wish to chat at all. Some, like you, are here for a bit of both. And some are here to make friends and the games are secondary. You are under no obligation whatsoever to play the same partner over and over again once the game has completed and a winner has been declared. In some games, like in Jungle Gin, you’ll complete several hands before somebody wins, and while it’s not against the Terms of Service to bail after a hand, it is most polite to play through until the end of the game. What is rude is to call someone a nasty name or accuse them of being rude when they’ve politely declined an invitation. It’s likely these people feel rejected on some level and take it personally and lash out. Unfortunately, this is bound to happen from time to time, and it is one of the side-effects of playing the way that you wish to play. As for the person who joins your table, this gets tricky. If you’re in an open table (not password protected), then you are, in effect, sending the message that you’ll play with anyone. So, if someone comes to your table to play, they have an expectation that you will happily engage them in a game. When you refuse, it’s understandable that they would feel a bit put out. If you have strong feelings about who you want to play, then I recommend that you make your table “Private” and set up a password and then seek out the individuals that you would like to play. |
Ms. Netiquette,
I can’t begin to express how I’m disappointed in Pogo.
You see, it all started out last year when I had a year of Club Pogo and 350 Gems, I was chatting with friends of mine late at night. Everything was going well until I got a pop up that says “you have been banned”
Shocking to see, I began to go over what I’ve said and to my opinions I haven’t said anything wrong, until I received the email that my name has been disabled due to saying “Peacock”.
I see a banner (I’m on a guest pass because I lost my name) on Pogo’s Site above the home page saying “Stop Agent Peacock From Striking” or something along those lines. Pogo can say “Peacock” but I get disabled for saying the word Peacock referring to the animal?
Not only that I will love to mention to all of my friends who got banned or reported for saying Cockpit when in World Class Solitaire There is a room named Cockpit? I once was reported for saying Meet me in Cockpit in WCS.
Why is everything okay for Pogo to say, and do, but as soon as a paying member of this site says what Pogo has said, you get disabled and lose your name? I contacted Pogo and guess what? I never saw my hard earned money back for my Year of Club Pogo or Gems, instead you tell us to Repurchase Club and Gems?! Are you kidding me?
Very Confused and Angry
| Dear Very Confused and Angry,
I can’t say I blame you one bit for being confused and angry. You should not have suffered any punishment for discussing a fine feathered friend. Nor should anyone get in trouble for saying “cockpit” in reference to aviation (or whatever other transportation vehicle uses that term). As I said in my email to you earlier, I will do what I can to ensure that you get your account back, if you still want it. (I know it’s been over a year). We can work together on that offline. The fact of the matter is that we have hundreds of Abuse Reports coming in at any moment, and those folks who handle them do make mistakes from time to time. They’re trained to look for the violation, and on occasion, they just see part of the word, and assume the report is valid. Remember – someone had to actually file a report against you in order for our representatives to see what you wrote. So, they do expect to see some violation. And sometimes they don’t see the context of the conversation and people are mistakenly banned. If this should ever happen again, you should immediately contact our Customer Experience Team and explain the situation. If the issue isn’t addressed to your satisfaction, you should ask that it be reviewed by a supervisor. |
Dear Ms. Netiquette,
Since it has not been mentioned in some of the other nice letters you have received about this issue, I just wanted to say that despite the fact that I am proud that almost all of my Badges have been acquired through the years by personal effort, there are a just a few that have required the help of others (Bless their hearts!)
I’ve been through 3 eye surgeries in the last two years for a macular hole. Some of the Badges that used to seem so easy became impossible for me earn. I am referring to Pogo Bowl and some of the very dark colored puzzle games in particular. Since I had earned every other Badge since the inception of Club Pogo, I just didn’t want to leave my “collection” incomplete, so I asked for help.
Granted, it was disappointing not to be able to earn them on my own, but I am sure there are many others just like me who cannot win at a specific game and find they need a little help to keep their collections up to date. Skill factors vary by game, and as we age we are often not as quick as the younger players, or the game is so involved that the younger players find learning to win it within one week too hard. In fact, I have been proudest to wear a badge someone else helped me earn because it represented a wonderful gift to me, a gift of their valuable time and skill. I hope this does not cheapen it for others who earn their own badge.
Yes, I guess you could call it cheating, but I’ll continue to call it something else, “Friendship,” a valuable commodity found in abundance among those who play Pogo games.
Please Don’t Call Me a Cheater
| Dear Please Don’t Call Me a Cheater,
I received heaps of feedback on this over the past two weeks, and I have really had to mull it over. The question before us is whether or not having someone else do your Challenge is a form of cheating. And I have stated (twice) that it can be nothing but cheating. However, your many e-mails and messages on the Pogo Forums has forced me to really think about this. Let me start by explaining my line of reasoning: Club Pogo is a game site. Games are competitive in nature. I’d like to repeat that, bold it, and give it its own line:
Challenges are put forth to players to ‘challenge’ them to complete specific tasks in various games. Many of the people who own those accounts take the Challenges very seriously and truly feel that they don’t deserve a Badge unless they, themselves, earned it. Why? Because that’s the nature of the game. You do such and such, and you receive your reward. That is how the Challenges were set up. And for a good number of our players, those Challenges are a reflection of those personal accomplishments. However, there are a lot of people, like yourself, who are collectors more so than they are gamers. The games are the means to earn the Badges that they collect. So, is it fair to call these folks “cheaters”? Perhaps that’s going too far. Perhaps we simply call them “Collectors” and recognize that they don’t derive the same enjoyment out of earning the Badges as the folks who earn all the Badges themselves? Honestly, it’s a conundrum, and I’d be very interested in how those who are competitive about the Badges feel. On one hand, I do feel like it is not a correct representation of one’s accomplishments and is a sort of “cheat”. On the other, I am sympathetic towards those who do share accounts or cannot for physical reasons complete every Badge for themselves and feel that the term “cheater” is a bit harsh. Furthermore, I really do not want to take anything away from the many people who have legitimately earned all of their Badges. Those folks should be commended for their diligence and their hard work at earning those Badges. Perhaps we call them “Competitors”. As I stated before, there are different types of players on Pogo. Some are definitely more competitive than others. A great number of people are not competitive at all, but really do enjoy the act of collecting the Badges. And some families do share a single Club account, so it’s likely that everyone who shares it has at one time made progress on or earned a Badge. So, I’ll be honest. I’m of two minds on this. Can we find a word other than “cheat” or “cheater” that still recognizes that it doesn’t reflect a person’s achievement? If you can think of one, please let send Ms. Netiquette an e-mail, and we’ll further flesh this out over the course of a few more columns! |
