I was sitting peacefully on my lawn the other day, drinking tea with my pinky out and eating a scone, flicking through a weathered copy of Debretts and I wondered to myself why there is a total majority lack of social decency in World of Warcraft.
Considering it’s a world wide forum for communication and a game in which you choose to play with other real life, living, breathing, human beings you would think that internet anonymity, however real that is, wouldn’t slip into a world where having manners actually improves and enhances your game play.
Emboldened by anonymity, it is easy to get carried away online. Intemperate messages can be sent off with no fear of redress, promises can be made that will never be fulfilled, crude innuendo is the order of the day. Mild-mannered computer geeks turn into determined stalkers, poking and prodding their victims, deluging people with whispers and spam.
From politeness comes reputation and from reputation comes invites to great guilds/groups which in turn can provide item upgrades and a fuller social experience, which is surely what its all about?
Fair enough World of Warcraft is a place of endless reinvention, where people hide behind multiple personalities; the shy and socially awkward become brazen and bullish, the uncommunicative become loud mouthed, but what impact does this have on other players and are you taking it to far?
Tethanes top tips to being a nicer WoW player
1. Watch your mouth
Make it a general rule that you will never say anything online that you wouldn’t be able to articulate directly, face to face without receiving a swift punch in the mouth.
2. Please and thank you
Remember your pleases and thank yous.You got a rez or a summon? A simple thank you goes a long way and the person will be much likely to provide the same service again.
3. Say my name!
Use peoples character names when addressing them. “Lock summon” or “Priest heal” is just the equivalent of you saying “Cleaner, clean” or “Oi you” it’s not pleasant and is so easily avoidable.
4. Bitching
Don’t be an online bitch, skulking behind the computer screen and dishing out poison. It will always come back and bite you in the arse.
5. The profanities
While we all get a little annoyed every now and again a constant flow of profanities in a group or by a raid leader is just pathetic. Use the language you were gifted with and remember you wouldn’t do it in a real life social environment, so why should a group of strangers have to be submitted to it.
6. Bugger off bullies
Don’t be an online bully: threatening and haranguing people you can’t see, who can’t fight back. Some people ask silly questions, but remember when you were low level. Just because they are asking something everybody else knows, doesn’t mean the question isn’t any the less valid.
7. Gold begging a no no
Don’t beg. Money is something that everyone needs and everyone is capable of earning. One of the most annoying things in game is to be hit up by someone begging for the money, instead of doing this, level a profession, do some questing or play the auction house.
8. You wouldn’t steal a wallet!
Don’t steal from your fellow WoW players. If you see someone fighting a mob near a mining or herb node, be kind. Most likely they are fighting their way through in order to get the node. Don’t steal it while they are busy fighting. You wouldn’t rob someone’s handbag would you!
Hopefully some people may take bits of this away with them and make Emerald Dream a much nicer place to be and if you don’t well I will happily oust the guilty parties to the rest of the server!
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Oh so true this.
Nice post! I really hate the “lock summon” actually I loathe it. I dont know how many times I have put up a soulstone on healers and received no thanks.
A nice story though, the otherday I was farming herbs and I was hovering next to a mining node. A player asked me if I was taking the node?
Lol! Great article.
And I am in COMPLETE agreement with all of it.
Main rule: if you wouldn’t do it in real life, don’t do it online.
Sadly though, a lot of people disregard that advice.
I think, however, that many people who are guilty of some of these virtual misdemeanors are in fact too young to have developed any sort of social understanding (and sadly the online media being the new platform for social interaction only proliferates this behaviour)
I am fortunate in that, quite frankly, I WOULD say pretty much anything to people’s faces that I say online. I’m dumb like that.
I was mining a Saronite node in IC not so long ago when another player landed next to me just as I emptied the node. He promptly told me to “Die of cancer” and flew off.
I had someone once spam /rude /slap /spit me for the same thing.
Best thing for people like that, seriously, is to just stick them on your ignore list and move on.
If losing out on a saronite node (or even titanium or whatever) is the greatest loss of these small minded and pathetic people’s lives, then they REALLY need to get out more.
Maybe someday they’ll know someone with cancer and actually get a clue how stupid they are.
I’m known for beign rather grumpy in raids however when it comes to a general approach to friendliness, I like to think I’m fairly amenable. I will however gladly point out in trade chat/pugs etc if someone is either being unreasonable to another player or being infantile.
Sadly this game is so popular that ther will always be a disproportionate number of gobshites on any server. Ours in no exception.
Personally I’d love the job of a server GM if only to slap people with temporary bans for being twats in trade chat.
.-= magpawacar´s last blog ..True Colours =-.
/spit is the worst emote! Hate it. Blizzard should take that away! As for someone saying “Die of Cancer”, its scary how some kids are turning out these days.
Telling someone in a game to “die of cancer” is disgraceful. I wish there was an option to get people banned for saying things like that.
One word I hate the use of is “retard”, and unfortunately it’s used extensively in WoW. I’m sure the vast majority of players who use it don’t know what it actually means. I’m willing to bet that if they actually met a mentally retarded person, they wouldn’t throw that word around so lightly. But ignorance, as they say, is bliss.
There is a way to get them banned. You open a GM ticket for harrassment.
Telling someone to die of cancer or die in a fire and the like, I believe, is a suspendable offense.
.-= Necrall´s last blog ..Feedback Loops in Games (Like WoW) =-.
It’s the internet. Deal with it
.-= Vinnayo´s last blog ..noTion 25-man progress =-.
Being called ‘priest’ or ‘healer’ is particularly aggravating, especially since my name is shorter than both of those and is displayed on the goddamn UI.
Want to really surprise someone? If you see them killing a monster around the mining/herb node? Help them and don’t take the herb/ore. It’ll shock the heck out of them and may even help spread the kindness around
Like the classic Penny Arcade cartoon says;
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/
It’s something that’s a problem in all online games, but WoW has a really bad reputation for it. This can probably be attributed to the games mass appeal, which is good for Blizzard, good for players who want a thriving community, but bad for also attracting that small percentage of people who are simply jerks.
They will always exist, and if you get one banned then another will simply pop up in a never-ending game of Whack A Mole. Not to say they shouldn’t be fought, or given in to. Just that it reminds me of Galadriel in LOTR saying “together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat”
Good article, and if even only one person reads it and is changed, then it has served a noble purpose.
I don’t have trouble with them calling me rogue really.
I also can’t see why people are getting annoyed getting called by their classname instead of their char name.
As long as you understand the message he/she/it tries to make clear what’s the problem?
I mean:
Duelist Vinnayo would you be so kind to disarm that trap before someone gets hurt?
or Rogue disarm trap pl0x. I understand both and I won’t think any less of the second person cause he calls me rogue. Someone explain why this would upset you.
.-= Vinnayo´s last blog ..noTion 25-man progress =-.
It is as Munas already replied, the message comes across, sure. However think about how it comes across.
At work for example the same woman comes everything cleaning my office.
If I ask her: “Cleaner, will you give my plants water today?”. Sure, she’ll do the job but there’s a good chance there’s detergent in the water.
If I ask her: “Rita, will you give my plants water today, please?”. She’ll do it, no questions asked, add a thank you after it and she’ll feel apreciated for her work as well.
Politeness and friendliness helps a lot and in general makes people feel better about what they do.
When dealing with other people I always think: “Don’t you like to feel good you helped somebody?”. Well others think the same imho.
It annoys me because it sounds impersonal and rude. I make the effort to call people by their names (or a shortened version thereof) as a sign of respect – even people I’ve never played with before and never will again – so why can’t they bother to read my name and use it?
You’ve got a point about the message getting across but you don’t consider how that message gets across, and it’s the difference between me happily doing something and grudgingly doing something. ‘Priest do X plz’ just sounds like the other person regards me as a tool for his own benefit, rather than another player. A little effort costs nothing and goes a long way.
Damn someone beat me to the John Gabriel theory! It’s just so true though with people acting like morons because they’re behind a wall of pixels and an internet connection. It’s just a shame really that experiences with aforementioned wastes of DNA that should kill themselves for the sake of the gene pool’s safety tend to just tarnish guilds and the whole wow experience!
its just general manners and yes calling someone by the class name may get the job done, but is it going to cost you anything to say please? also i dont think its just kids who are like this, i know some adults who are very quiet and polite in rl, but get them behind a computer and their inhibitions go and they say whatever is on their mind wether it be nice or not.
manners are a garunteed free thing in life so why not use them?