Troll season is upon us here at XSketch, and so it seems appropriate to advise our more serious players how to respond in the dreaded troll situation.

1. Stay calm!

Trolls sense panic, annoyance, fear, and other negative reactions. This is what they came for… the shock and upset. If you can’t help feeling annoyed, walk away or suppress the urge to let the person(s) know that they are being a douchebag. If nobody feeds the troll, it will go bother somebody else, somewhere else.

2. Try to kill them with kindness…

Don’t expect this to work, but some seemingly offensive players just need attention. In rare but fortunate cases, positive attention will stop the negative behavior.

3. Dealing with extremely offensive behavior…

We all have our pet peeves and limits… things that push us into flying off the handle. It’s in the trolls nature to find out what sets us off, and do everything in their power to make that happen.

Some tips to ignoring these individuals include muting them in the chat box (by typing /mute players name) and clicking on their av picture if it is offensive. You can also post their id in the forum for a moderator or play in another room.

4. Explain the rules, politely

When a newcomer joins a game during troll season, players should not expect the worst but instead they should help newcomers get off on the right foot by explaining the rules. For example, if a new player sees somebody writing the first letter of the first word in a sketch, it can be easy to feel confused over whether writing is okay or not.

Through friendly conversation, we can help prevent a new player (with potential to be a good player) from feeling annoyed and frustrated by understanding why they were warned and how to play fairly.

5. Recognize a new player disguised as a troll

Several of the new players sent from this video begin by copying certain sketches. Yes, the initial intentions are based on a twisted sense of humor, but not all fans of this video continue to behave like this way.

As annoying as the wannabes are at first, some end up having fun and staying to play for real. It’s frustrating to see the same idiotic sketches repeated, but the sooner you explain the rules in a friendly manner, the sooner a person can decide if they really want to play online Pictionary or if they want to go do something else – like watch cartoons.
Feel free to explain that the sketches from the video are, like, sooooo yesterday.

6. Warn with Caution!

Many players are guilty of going trigger crazy on new players, so it’s important to remember that the warn button should be used only if a player is cheating by writing or drawing something offensive.

When a new player has drawn a copied sketch or an offensive sketch, this does not necessarily mean that the next sketch will be the same. It’s not fair to warn somebody out without giving them a chance to redeem themselves.
It’s easy to tell when a sketch is going “down that road” and you shouldn’t warn until it happens.