I do not like a lot of the WoW playerbase

[thistlechaser]

I was going to post this on Dear_Gnome, but I don't think I can take the flaming (if it came to that) today.

As I mentioned, I've been doing a lot of PvP lately. As happened last time I threw myself into it, it's making me hate the game and the players of it. Part of it is my own fault, but part of it is not.

I do Tol Barad as often as I can. When the queue is kind to me, I do it a bunch of times on a weekday and many times on a weekend. As Horde wins 90% or more, Alliance doesn't queue as much, so fewer Horde people can get in. This evening, after three times not being called to battle, I got in.

Unsurprisingly, the battle was very one-sided. I'm not sure why, since the game keeps the numbers about even. Why are Alliance doing so poorly? I don't know. It wasn't always like this, I remember when they won more than they lost. Not everyone who fights in TB does.

Tonight was worse than usual, people insulting Alliance in /raid chat. I made the same mistake I always do: I spoke up against it. I pointed out that keeping trying when you lose a lot means something, but I got shouted down. Over and over I tried to point out how easy it is to show up and fight when you win all the time, but no one wanted to hear it.

This is my issue (only worse) in other BGs. When someone uses "gay" wrong or "tard" or whatever, I bite my tongue so hard, but I can't stay quite. If I'd just keep my mouth shut it would be less stressful, but I always have (misplaced) hope that at least one person will listen and learn. (Why would they, when the whole PvP culture says it's okay to "rape" the other team?)

I'm tired and I'm depressed. These aren't just characters run by a computer, these are people who are out there walking the streets. They're not all kids, either. How many adults playing thing it's okay to call other players a "bunch of tards"?

PvP can be fun, it IS fun, it would be just as fun without the stupid insults. I understand (fully understand!) that IC is different, but these people have to know that the people sitting behind the keyboard on Alliance side are the same as them.

I'm just so sad and depressed and hurt that people think this is acceptable.

To quote the late Rodney King, can't we all just get along? At least OOCly?

Comments

[arcane-beauty.livejournal.com]

I just want to hug you so hard right now. I feel the same way and I advocate and "mommy" these people, these ignorant, selfish, intolerant people that think it's acceptable to trigger and upset others because they don't buy into the "politically correct bullshit".

I get laughed at, mocked, condemned for speaking up, speaking out, and somehow I am in the wrong for defending those that ate too afraid to. It angers me, makes me disheartened and sad for humanity as a whole. It scares me, terrorizes my dreams thinking that my children will be living in a society full of bigots, bullies, hatemongers and just generally horrible people.

It's ridiculous that I should worry that my children might be bullied, might be made to feel worthless and overwhelmed by sadness because someone just cannot keep their fucking thoughts to themselves and wants to hurt someone just because they can. I don't know how to make a change in the world, but I want to try. If even one person will agree with me and stop hating and bullying, I made a difference.

Just know that your friends are listening, they care. They will stand by you and they will try to help make a change too. Even if it was just you, even of no one said it, I'm sure you made someone think, made them realize this is not ok.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to make a change in the world, but I want to try. If even one person will agree with me and stop hating and bullying, I made a difference.

Exactly. Honestly, speaking up and trying is the first step. I don't know if you've seen it but I suggest you watch the Extra Credits video on harassment in gaming. (http://youtu.be/Dt9GwmOWoqo) It's more concentrated on Xbox Live and misogyny (since that issue is massive there) but the points are still valid overall for all types of harassment in any community.

Blizzard, and other developers/companies, need to start taking this stuff more seriously and clean up their games/communities. Everyone doesn't have to be nice to each other, but there are many that need to be put in line one way or another.

I know it's tough being one of the only ones standing up but you're not alone with it.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Blizzard, and other developers/companies, need to start taking this stuff more seriously and clean up their games/communities.

It may not be fair, but based on the videos of Blizz employees and other stories, I often think that they'd be right there, calling people "tards" and using "gay" and "rape" wrong and such.

I know there would be some who wouldn't do that, but I bet they're outnumbered by those who would.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Aww, this comment. *hugs back!*

It's bad enough me being in the world with these people, I can't imagine what it would be like to have kids and let them go out and interact on their own.

Minor related point: I always worry that my cat will get out of the house. I know there are plenty of people out there who will kill, hurt, or torture an animal just because they can.

It's so depressing, all of it. :/

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

*hugs*, I've gotten into my share of /channelname things about misuse of "gay" especially.

On the balance issue. I think one of the problems w/ TB and WG [wintergrasp] model (vs the other BGs) is that since it is server specific and many (most?) servers have faction imbalances people reach a point where they just stop queueing seriously on the imbalanced side.

Server I'm on is Ally heavy and it shows. For example back in WG days we controlled WG almost non-stop.

Which is another point, TB just never grabbed my attention the way WG did. WG had an epic feel to it that was way bigger than you and TB just feels so compressed: go stand at one of three flags and stay there. A la EoE.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

When they announced there would be no TB/WG in MoP, at first I was sad. But now? I think it's probably the right choice. Let them put their time and effort into cross-server BGs, so it's easier to get in. I would rather interact only with my own server (as a RP server, I think our quality is slightly higher), but it's better to be able to get in than to not get in at all.

Which is another point, TB just never grabbed my attention the way WG did.

Yeah. If I weren't focusing on 100K HKs, I'd just do other BGs, but because it's smaller and people are tossed together more, it's the best place to farm HKs. But WG was a lot, lot, lot more fun.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Firstly, definitely go check out the video I linked in response to Arcane.

Story time: I've been hanging out with a group of people for about 7 years now online. When I started playing games with them I noticed a bunch of misogynist remarks getting slung around and it got to me every time I'd hear one. I mean, it wasn't constantly all the time but it was still there. After 4 or 5 months when everyone was all hanging out I eventually just brought it up about how I was uncomfortable with the whole thing.

It was incredibly awkward and for maybe a week or so after it there was just a sort of silence that followed me around since people weren't really sure how to handle it. Eventually things got back to normal and I haven't heard anything like it from them again in 6+ years. I also noticed that a bunch of them slowed down and stopped the use of "gay" as an adjective since then as well.

Now it's different then just random idiots in TB since they are my friends but it is still nice to know that sometimes even just standing up and going "Guys, seriously, really?", was enough to change the behaviour of at least a small group of people.

I unfortunately don't think that we'll see a lowering in the use of "tard" unfortunately. Not because people won't listen or "Who cares about retarded people!" but more because "retard" is just becoming a word that has lost it's original use. People who would have been "retarded" are now "mentally challenged" or "mentally delayed" or whichever word combination we are using now-a-days to refer to that set of people. Not that it makes it right to use "tard" as a derogatory remark but it's going to be harder to curb it's use since people aren't looked at as being "retarded" in most of society anymore.

Just remember, can't get sad from stuff that happens in WoW from trade/general! It's what the trolls want, they feed on our pain!

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

According to my wife, who a year ago worked as a counselor and caretaker for adult day care, the PC term is "M.R." (notably this term only applies to the people who are just slower on the take than the average adult would be-- if the problem is due to injury or involves some sort of incapacity, there were different terms).

Admittedly, there are a scant few times I've used 'retarded' in a derogatory fashion. The word meant 'slow', and getting frustrated with someone for being very very slow to learn a simple thing...the word fit, in my opinion (note - I asked them to 'stop being retarded', which has a very different sound than "hurr derp 'tard"). I don't feel bad about using it that way, but I have to be very frustrated before I reach that point.

Honestly though? This is what is slowly killing online gaming for me. I loved the gameplay of TERA...but the people there are as bad if not worse than I ever saw in WoW (TERA's chatfilth is mostly of a paedophilic nature, just for extra creepiness). Diablo 3 public games are exactly as bad as WoW. Battlefield3...a game I absolutely adored...*shudder* I feel like I needed to track people down with a big bottle of liquid soap and start washing out mouths. Don't get me wrong, I curse. Profusely, with a range of volumes and eloquence. But some of the shit I hear in FPS multiplayer makes the worst neonazi hate speech sound like a children's book.

I miss the community of FFXI. I could never find something like it in WoW, which is why I play WoW for a bit then leave again. EVE had great pockets of people, but the game felt like playing with spreadsheets with space in the background. Maybe with the 2.0 patch FFXIV will be worth playing.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Honestly though? This is what is slowly killing online gaming for me.

While driving the other day, I thought about how much more fun PvP would be if I controlled my side myself. I say where each character goes, what they do, who they fight/heal. It would work a lot better and we'd have more success.

It was at that point that I started wondering if offline gaming would be a better fit for me. :P

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Oh ya, I play CoD (and some Battlefield here and there) so there are times when I am stringing together words in ways I didn't think was possible before. I think I made it about half an hour in TERA before I realized that the general/LFG chat was basically turning into WoW chat so I pretty much left every channel and just play talking to friends or listening to music. I instantly mute everyone who has a mic when I go into CoD lobbies and if I can't do it before the match starts then I just take my headset off since I can't even stand the 5 seconds it takes to load the map of hearing those people anymore. Haven't gone into any D3 public games and I don't plan to, I'm satisfied just playing with buddies randomly.

Something has gone horrible wrong when everyone is going "Connectivity, connectivity! Connect your facebook to your twitter to your tumbler so everyone knows ever kill you get!" and I just sit there thinking "Yes but why would I choose to interact with the people on the internet in my time off?"

I decided I wanted to play one of the Minecraft mod packs that's more based on online play and I spent about 2 hours looking over threads advertising servers. Trying to piece together the kind of people in each server and trying to find a decently small one that still had an active community. After I found one I spent another 2 hours doing other things and I would occasionally flip back to the page and think about if I even wanted to try it. It's very sad that it's gotten to the point where I will forgo the potential of finding nice, fun people online just to avoid the bad ones.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear they listened and changed. I bet it isn't just around you, I bet they say that stuff less other times, too.

I unfortunately don't think that we'll see a lowering in the use of "tard" unfortunately.... but more because "retard" is just becoming a word that has lost it's original use.

That's an interesting point. It's odd, but "tard" bothers me a hundred times more than "retard". (I blinked and for a second had an 'oh yeah!' moment when you reminded me that one stood for the other.)

Just remember, can't get sad from stuff that happens in WoW from trade/general! It's what the trolls want, they feed on our pain!

Ha ha true! And usually I do avoid it. My periods of PvPing are rare, and I avoid trade/general like the plague!

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I think it might be more that the word doesn't have any redeeming qualities for you so it just gets to you more? I mean like if you hated gay people (I don't know if we have enough imagination to pull this off) then "gay" as an insult would bother you a bunch still because you wouldn't see any redeeming value in it and it would be pretty much 100% negative.

Plus it's also the laziness of it I think as well, at least for me it is. I get more aggravated when people do like "o ya u fckin bastrd! your just a piece of crap biotch who dont kno shit!" than if it were all proper. I mean seriously? If you're going to insult me, at least do it properly morons.

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

That one always confused me too. I mean, it's WoW. You play it on a PC. Everyone is sitting in front of a keyboard with lots and lots of these 'letter' thingies on, and it even has punctuation, how strange is that?

And yet they still type like they're on mobile phones when texts were pay-by-character... or on bananas. One or the other.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes, I don't understand that at all. Kids in school write their papers as if they were texting. It's just... it makes my head hurt. (And makes me very glad I'm not a teacher.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think you're right on both parts, but probably the second one especially. Making "retard" into "tard" saves TWO WHOLE LETTERS. Seriously? People are that lazy? Arg!

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

I've found an excellent way to stop the "gay" or "fag" comments is to do something like this.

Pug player: This instance is kinda gay.
Ali: I don't know, it seems pretty straight to me. If it were gay, there might be flags, and maybe also a parade.

For some reason, this usually shuts them down and they don't do it for the remainder of the instance, but it doesn't make them shout me down, either.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's a good idea, I'll try it next time. :)

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

This. Say something that says you're taking their comment at face value (and maybe break a few brains while you're at it).

PUG player: This instance is kinda gay.
Grayson: Nah. It's not clean enough, and purple with blue? Please. No fashion-sense at *all*.

Or: I wish.

Or: I think we can clearly see here that someone is indeed getting shafted. Think we can switch things up and start topping for a change?

Or: Now I have the mental image of two going at it. Thanks.

Or: Yeah. Think it's going to get it on with Zul'Gurub next patch day, or does it seem more of a Sparkling Caverns type to you?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! I've done the "I wish" one before, but it seems to go right over their heads. Suppose I have to be more blunt about it...

This could become a fun challenge!