Are We Getting Meaner?
A post last week on MMOCrunch seems rather hand-in-hand with my entry on Friday about Love. In the entry, the author ruminates on his experiences in gaming communities and comes away with the feeling that, compared to five years ago, people in MMOGs and online games have gotten a lot more negative.
While I agree with him superficially, I don't think it's time to sing the death chimes for politeness and manners online. I think one of the comments on the entry nails the true issue behind this perception: compared to five years ago, MMOGs and gaming in general were not as mainstream as they are today. It's not so much that the collective has gotten more ill mannered over time, but over time more and more "normal" people have taken up gaming as an interest, and the subset tending towards being rude bring their bad manners with them.
I also can't find myself agreeing with one of the last statements in the entry:
Regardless of the reasons, we aren't doing ourselves any favors with our posting habits. MMOs are still made or broken based on their community and the forum is one of the most visible representations of that community.
In my experience, the forums are actually only ever monitored by a particularly vocal minority of any online community. They're hardly even read by most players, much less participated on by them, so the idea that bad seeds ruining the forum experience will spell the doom of a MMOG is a bit off to me. And with most players plowing through MMOGs like single player games with multiplayer, social elements (and a host of tools built-in to facilitate everything from ignoring one player or the entirety of simultaneous gamers) I don't think the community makes as much of a difference towards success as a compelling playing experience will.
Nevertheless, I offer the question to the readers: do you feel like we've gotten more acerbic and rude to one another and developers, or is this just to be expected as our particular hobby sucks in users in the multiplying millions?
mixvio
Posted to Miscellany on 5 October 2009
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: civil, manners, mean gamers, opinion
I think that rude and negative players are playing the game of being rude and negative more than they are playing the game they are logged into. In playing the "being mean game" they negatively impact more people and are remembered for these negative impacts while the normal (yes, I think the norm is still a nice-guy attitude) is less noted because it's normal.
Increasing the number of players increases the number of bitchy broadcasts from mean players--and we just remember those better than how mannered the rest of the population is.
Compared to only 5 years ago? Hardly. People have definitely been dicks for that long.
10 years ago? Perhaps.
Oh and forums are not representative of an MMOG community at all. They are full of whiners who threaten to quit over every change. People who enjoy the game are too busy playing it to post on the forums.
If anything, I've learned how to coexist with other players better - not letting the assholes and children annoy me as much as they used to. Also MMO etiquette is more widely appreciated these days, and more easily dismissed when it's ignored.
Forums for MMOs being the most visible representation of the community? It's an MMO: the GAME is the community.
The internet is crammed with the terminally insecure, and appreciating that has been a valuable lesson. Not to go all meta or anything, but being gay I've had to learn not to let shit people say get to me and that's carried over to online. Hell, if I took offense everyone someone called me a faggot online, I'd be crying *all the time*.
Besides, people with the least to say have the biggest mouths. In my experience, it's by setting the better example on online games that you connect with the (quieter) people who are actually worth a damn. No-one with more than 15 minute's internet experience expects to find that on a games forum.
i solved this problem in WoW by turning off the general and trade channels, and finding a great guild of like-minded people who treat each other like adults. we are all courteous and helpful, and it encourages the newer members to behave likewise. lead by example, and don't pay attention to (or feed!) the trolls!
I've met so many rude players online (mainly WOW) it's made playing not fun at all. And all the MMO's require you to group up with other players to either progress in the game or take on big challenges. And those take long too. So while you're questing with other players much of that time is spent waiting for them to stop talking about how bad ass they are, complaining about someone's gear, or just being plain rude. I've fallen back to good 'ol offline gaming!