I am a summoners war friend of CogBot.  He left a chat I was in and I asked him why and he sent me these notes.  I told him he should make a blog but he didn’t have time so I made it for him.

Don’t give me a hard time for my bad blog skills.  This was for a test project but it will get better.

A kinder, gentler T1G (By CogBot)

When I go to another channel and make good, constructive comments, I frequently get an “Ew, T1G.” When I go to 1313 it is covered in spam. I’ve been to lots of other channels (including other guild channels) and there is spam there as well, but it seems to be more of the advertising kind or short-term irritating kind, not the long-term “people have it in for us” kind. T1G seems to be almost unique among the other guilds and groups in SW: T1G seems to be the most disliked community in all of SW.

And this is totally strange: so many of the people in T1G are absolutely fabulous. They are helpful, kind, and friendly, both in-game and out of game. I’ve met some of my guildies in real life from G20 and they are extraordinary people.

So, why does T1G have such a bad reputation? Some people say that it is because they are jealous of T1G. That may be a small part of it, but there are stronger guilds and they do not seem to get the constant vitriol that T1G does. If anything, they get a huge amount of love from strangers!

I believe that T1G has so many problems because of leadership style. I don’t mean the individual guild leaders and vices, but the way that the leader of T1G itself behaves and acts. OK, hear me out because I do have some suggestions below (I don’t just complain; I try to offer constructive help as well).

First, the great things: Lucky had a vision for T1G that was and is fabulous. Lucky has done some fund-raising and truly helps people (who does that in a mobile game? It’s great). Lucky helps people individually an enormous amount and has a great sense of humor and would probably give the shirt off his back if someone needed it.

Now to the less than awesome things.

We’ve all seen it in 1313 (and in leader chat if you’re there): Lucky will totally go off on someone and it hurts the community. I don’t mean defending people (he does that too, which can be good); Lucky can just be mean for no real reason.

Here is an example from not too long ago: The Marvel group had essentially fallen apart. T1G had picked up several of the good members. Lucky started trash talking Stan, calling him names and completely disrespecting their entire enterprise. They did, in fact, do some unusual things (having a ton of alts, hard-core recruiting T1G members and candidates), but they ended up folding. There was no need to call names, especially since some of the people in T1G actually had good memories from their previous Marvel leaders. Perhaps better would have been to have come off as generous, saying that we all had differences but we’re sorry they folded. The name calling just sets up an environment where it’s OK to call people names. Is that the kind of gaming guild we want to be part of?

One more example: I was in 1313 helping people with monsters or something else and I got a friend request from Lucky! It had his name and picture on it. Woot! Of course I accepted it! Then I looked at it and noticed that it was a low level so I asked Lucky if he had an alt. I’ll repeat that: I asked Lucky if he had an alt. And that was evidently an insanely stupid thing I did. Lucky totally lit into me, telling me I was an idiot and he didn’t have an alt and why would he ever have an alt and this was stupid. Evidently it was someone impersonating Lucky and I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. In fact, that’s why I asked; I didn’t know for sure. So as a vice of G20, the head of T1G makes me feel like an idiot, belittles me in the public channel, and generally acts like I’m not worth his time. The alt-troll totally got his money worth here, simply by friending me. Again, that sort of behavior enables other people (trolls and other people watching the spectacle) and tells people that it is OK to treat people like garbage in 1313 and that T1G does, in fact, treat leaders like garbage (so how will they treat a normal member?).

There are many more examples, but I suspect you already know that.

I believe in the vision of T1G, but I no longer believe in the management. So, what to do? I have two totally different suggestions.

1) Have a rotating leader and perhaps a different, rotating board. With term limits and vision statements for where T1G should go. I like this idea a lot.

2) Lucky could read some books on management and take the suggestions there seriously. There are so many truly excellent books out there (I like Creativity Incorporated, but there are tons of really great books out there, many available from your public library). I do know that the rest of the T1G board has tried to rein Lucky in with varying levels of success. Really, this is all about Lucky deciding he wants to be a better leader.

I’m leaving T1G, but I honestly wish everyone the best.

ORGANIC NOTE.  CogBot left T1G

Why T1G should not sponsor vaping companies (By CogBot)

Recently I saw that T1G is being sponsored by a vapor company. I feel strongly that this is a bad idea. Here is why…

Vaping is used by many adults who are trying to quit smoking with some success (great!). I’m definitely on-board with people trying to quit smoking and vaping seems to be one of the more successful methods (the actual research is a bit mixed, but the anecdotes are strong and it’s so difficult to stop smoking that smokers should try whatever works for them).

However, vaping is also being used by companies to encourage children and young adults to start the nicotine habit. There are a series of sub-points about this:

1) Cigarettes are on the decline in the US (~21% in 2005 to 14% in 2017).

2) Companies that sell cigarettes and tobacco farmers are feeling a great deal of financial stress, so they are shifting more of their efforts to the vaping business (nicotine from vaping comes from a plant in the tobacco family, though it’s not exactly the same as smoked tobacco).

3) Cigarettes smell bad to non-smokers; vaping does not smell nearly as bad. There are many vaping products that are marketed directly to kids and young adults — sweet vapes with names like gummy bears, fruit loops, cotton candy, kool-aid, sweet tarts, and even named after cartoon characters (curious george, smurfs, etc.). The vaping industry denies they are marketing to kids (“Everyone likes fruit loops and gummy bears!”), but the FDA has said that many of these companies are misbranding and using unfair and deceptive marketing. The FDA is taking legal action to stop this as well.

4) Even though smoking is on the decline, vaping is on the rise with children and young adults.

5) Multiple research studies from excellent institutions and published in peer-reviewed journals have shown that vaping is a gateway to cigarettes. I’m happy to share articles with those who are interested.

6) One of the main reasons that people start vaping or smoking or using alcohol is because people who they know vape or smoke or drink alcohol. Their friends and family are influencers to them.

Possible Objections and Responses:

“Kids will find vaping anyway!” “Kids will do drugs / alcohol anyway!” Yes, this is true. But we should not encourage anyone (especially kids) to start vaping or use drugs or drink. And if T1G is sponsored by vaping companies, the kids and young adults that play SW will see it and be more likely to try it when, perhaps, they would not otherwise.

“Vaping is legal!” Yes it is. However, that does not mean we should endorse it. I would feel the same way if T1G were being endorsed by an alcohol firm or an opioid drug company.

“Football/Basketball/Nascar companies are sponsored by alcohol companies! We shouldn’t let our children watch football!” It is true that professional sports are sponsored by alcohol and alcohol in excess can be very bad. I would honestly rather alcohol and cigarette companies NOT sponsor professional teams, but there is nothing I can do about that. What I will say is that tons of research has shown that while TV and movies definitely influence people’s preferences and buying behavior, the people we know influence us more. So if my friends smoke and drink, I’ll be more likely to smoke and drink. Also, just because sports companies are sponsored by alcohol companies does not mean that T1G, a mobile game platform should also be sponsored by something like vaping.

“There are other terrible things going on in the country like the opioid crisis, the legalization of marijuana, increased drinking, obesity, …” Yes there are other terrible things going on. Some of these things bother me more than others (the opioid crisis I am actively trying to do some minor work in). But just because there are some terrible things going on does not mean we should do nothing about this one. If you feel strongly about any of these, do something about it. That’s what I’m doing in various parts of my life and I hope you will too.

“We’re not promoting vaping to children!” Yes you are. T1G leaders are looked up to by gamers in T1G. Lucky is idolized. If Lucky is doing something or promoting something, the people who look up to Lucky will think that vaping is OK and are more likely to try it next time. And children are more liable to be influenced and more susceptible to this sort of influence than you think. You may not think you are promoting vaping to children, but through T1G endorsement of the product, by asking guild leaders to send a note to all members (that had no disclaimers about children), by receiving money from them, T1G absolutely, positively is encouraging vaping use. There are children and young adults who play SW and are in T1G. These people are exactly who you will have the most influence over. These are also the people who the vape companies HOPE you will have the most influence over (see point 2 above).

A few other miscellaneous thoughts:

This note focuses on these issues in the US — other countries may have similar issues/findings, but I have not tracked them down.

Lucky has called me names (tree-hugging hypocritical snowflake was my favorite) over my views on this. He has been extremely rude to me and others as we have talked over our differences. Our guild (G20) has had an excellent conversation about this topic — people on different sides, people with different views, people making up their own minds. We did not call each other names. We did not always agree with each other, but we were not rude to each other either. This is the way it should be done.

I have tried to share my reasoning on this in a straightforward, thoughtful, evidence-based manner. (I have a background in these areas and do research in the cognitive sciences (and robotics) as my day job. I can read these scientific papers and do professional evaluation of them. I have written more than 100 scientific papers myself.)

I have tried very hard not to be rude, and apologies if you think I have. If you can think of a better way for me to make my points without offending people, I’m very open to suggestions for the future. Lucky suggested I leave T1G if I disagree with the way he is doing his endorsements. I do, so I will.

I wish everyone here the absolute best.

Tree-hugging Snowflake (aka CogBot)