Why are most WoW players jerks?

[Deleted-401606]

I am not sure if anyone here is familiar with wow,but it is basically a replacement for a real life job and your goal of the game is to get stronger in level and then item level. I played both retail and pirate servers,yet the experience was very similar.The community and basically everything in this game is essentially a high school popularity contest in reverse. Populars in high school are usually happy as they get to mingle with the opposite sex on a regular basis,however on wow it is basically nerds that run everything hence why I mentioned it was high school in reverse.What do you think happens when people that were bullied/excluded have power? They usually abuse it. Most of the game is centered around how much other players are willing to help you out as your progression is directly tied to how much others want to help you.You start your journey out with joy thinking it is this great escape from real life and it's problems. As you progress you come to the inevitable conclusion that everyone is out for themselves just like in real life.Wow is a game based on RNG(Random Number Generators) and is basically structured to give you just enough gear to keep you subscribed. What ends up happening is that the players that perform the best are usually the players that have better gear. How do you get better gear? Investing tons of time into the game to where it basically feels like a job.As you play the game longer and you improve your skills(mostly gear) you eventually hit a point where your guild is not progressing.What do you do? Waste 12 hours a week wiping on the same boss? Or joining a different guild. Once you go the route of guild hopping for gear,you are essentially back into a virtual rat race where it is dog eat dog in every aspect. Your progression once you reach the mental milestones will of course skyrocket. You get better gear by joining guild to guild the same way people "network"(aka using others). Eventually you come to realize that you are not really playing a game and just trying to emulate what a real life looks like without any of the perks of the time invested.To top things off,the better you get the more people see you as just a "number".Most people are fixated on imaginary pixels over socializing for instance.I am not sure if this belongs in the blog section but I just wanted to share my experience in world of warcraft.Anyone have any similar experiences?

Edit:I was sleepy and I forgot to add that WoW abbreviates into World of Warcraft.

 

[FAST6191]

"I am not sure if anyone here is familiar with wow"

First I should say as a pro tip by all means abbreviate but at the start if you want to say World of Warcraft in full it will help (if abbreviating ask yourself if in 10 years time people will know it, same for 20).

Anyway I imagine people are still broadly aware of the game. I would be less surprised to hear people did not know much of it compared to 5 or 10 years ago but it is still a popular title and notable from a historical perspective.

A favourite phrase is "the game makes the community" and as the game itself provides the incentive for people to act like arseholes then they will. Had the mechanics been such that cooperation was key then friendliness would be the order of the day. It is not quite as stark an example as the DOTA/MOBA stuff that kneecapped WOW. You may also wish to look up the sunk cost fallacy.

 

[Deleted-401606]

"I am not sure if anyone here is familiar with wow"

First I should say as a pro tip by all means abbreviate but at the start if you want to say World of Warcraft in full it will help (if abbreviating ask yourself if in 10 years time people will know it, same for 20).

Anyway I imagine people are still broadly aware of the game. I would be less surprised to hear people did not know much of it compared to 5 or 10 years ago but it is still a popular title and notable from a historical perspective.

A favourite phrase is "the game makes the community" and as the game itself provides the incentive for people to act like arseholes then they will. Had the mechanics been such that cooperation was key then friendliness would be the order of the day. It is not quite as stark an example as the DOTA/MOBA stuff that kneecapped WOW. You may also wish to look up the sunk cost fallacy.

I never gave thought to what you said about how the mechanics in the game affect the overall sense of community. I guess objectively speaking you do progress further if you have no problem using people. I will be reading about sunk fallacy,and I appreciate that you took the time to respond to my thread.

 

[Taleweaver]

I am not sure if anyone here is familiar with wow,but it is basically a replacement for a real life job and your goal of the game is to get stronger in level and then item level. I played both retail and pirate servers,yet the experience was very similar.The community and basically everything in this game is essentially a high school popularity contest in reverse. Populars in high school are usually happy as they get to mingle with the opposite sex on a regular basis,however on wow it is basically nerds that run everything hence why I mentioned it was high school in reverse.What do you think happens when people that were bullied/excluded have power? They usually abuse it. Most of the game is centered around how much other players are willing to help you out as your progression is directly tied to how much others want to help you.You start your journey out with joy thinking it is this great escape from real life and it's problems. As you progress you come to the inevitable conclusion that everyone is out for themselves just like in real life.Wow is a game based on RNG(Random Number Generators) and is basically structured to give you just enough gear to keep you subscribed. What ends up happening is that the players that perform the best are usually the players that have better gear. How do you get better gear? Investing tons of time into the game to where it basically feels like a job.As you play the game longer and you improve your skills(mostly gear) you eventually hit a point where your guild is not progressing.What do you do? Waste 12 hours a week wiping on the same boss? Or joining a different guild. Once you go the route of guild hopping for gear,you are essentially back into a virtual rate race where it is dog eat dog in every aspect. Your progression once you reach the mental milestones will of course skyrocket. You get better gear by joining guild to guild the same way people "network"(aka using others). Eventually you come to realize that you are not really playing a game and just trying to emulate what a real life looks like without any of the perks of the time invested.To top things off,the better you get the more people see you as just a "number".Most people are fixated on imaginary pixels over socializing for instance.I am not sure if this belongs in the blog section but I just wanted to share my experience in world of warcraft.Anyone have any similar experiences?

Edit:I was sleepy and I forgot to add that WoW abbreviates into World of Warcraft.

I really like this post. However, as I'm not that familiar with world of warcraft (okay, I do know the abbreviation ), I don't want to press the like button, as it can be seen as "I agree with this".

It's true that quite some online games require more an investment of your time than an investment into learning skills, and AFAIK wow is one of those.
I once had a girlfriend who played it from time to time...I played it maybe half an hour (on her account), but honestly was just bored by it*. However, I'm aware enough that what bores me might enlight others. For her, it was a way to socialize with people whom she otherwise would never meet IRL**. Rather than seeing the game as a way to collect the most loot, she saw it as a way to use said loot in helping others to gain that loot (so the joy for her was the helping others; not to get the most for herself).

I can't say I have an opinion on guild hopping. It might be using others, yes. But it could just be that: expanding your horizons.

Basically, what I'm wondering is: is your perception of the way wow is played the actual truth, or just your personal view?
I don't ask this question to demean you...it's just that I hardly know anything about wow, so one opinion could be either truth or just that: just one opinion.





*note: I was playing UT2004 at that time, and compared just about any other game to it, calling it inferior for unjustified reasons.
**erm...on second thought, maybe this opinion might have been from another girlfriend who played wow.

 

[DinohScene]

I guess it's true for every obsessed fanatic of every game.

Tryhards in GTA.
Neckbeards in EVE Online and WOW.

It's one of the reasons I don't play public multiplayer games.

 

[Deleted-401606]

I really like this post. However, as I'm not that familiar with world of warcraft (okay, I do know the abbreviation ), I don't want to press the like button, as it can be seen as "I agree with this".

It's true that quite some online games require more an investment of your time than an investment into learning skills, and AFAIK wow is one of those.
I once had a girlfriend who played it from time to time...I played it maybe half an hour (on her account), but honestly was just bored by it*. However, I'm aware enough that what bores me might enlight others. For her, it was a way to socialize with people whom she otherwise would never meet IRL**. Rather than seeing the game as a way to collect the most loot, she saw it as a way to use said loot in helping others to gain that loot (so the joy for her was the helping others; not to get the most for herself).

I can't say I have an opinion on guild hopping. It might be using others, yes. But it could just be that: expanding your horizons.

Basically, what I'm wondering is: is your perception of the way wow is played the actual truth, or just your personal view?
I don't ask this question to demean you...it's just that I hardly know anything about wow, so one opinion could be either truth or just that: just one opinion.





*note: I was playing UT2004 at that time, and compared just about any other game to it, calling it inferior for unjustified reasons.
**erm...on second thought, maybe this opinion might have been from another girlfriend who played wow.

It's more of an experience/opinion but I would say that is pretty close to how your experience will be if you don't have friends and you join wow to play with strangers. It's the same principle in real life,people usually think IRL "what can this person do for me?".Guild hopping is considered rude because that guild spent 2-4 weeks gearing you so that someone can guild quit into a better guild.There are nice players like your girlfriend,but the deeper you get into end game raids,the less friendly people become(for the most part).If you search wow guild drama on youtube you can get a pretty good idea on what you deal with playing wow.

I guess it's true for every obsessed fanatic of every game.

Tryhards in GTA.
Neckbeards in EVE Online and WOW.

It's one of the reasons I don't play public multiplayer games.

I have never played GTA online unfortunately although I do wish to try it out one day. Eve online wow I almost forgot about that game,if I remember correctly that game requires more of a time investment than wow.Again,my experience is that endgame wow gets extremely cut throat the further along you progress. Another thing about wow is that most people think they are skilled when really they have just farmed alot of gear.I rejoined wow for nostalgia but I realize that the wow I played 12 years ago is long gone. I will have to check out some other online games,been thinking about getting into animal crossing 3ds online.

 

[PalomPorom]

You hit the nail on the head. Mmorpgs do that to people. I've been playing since the 1st expansion and still can't seem to find a guild that I like. Everyone are elitist jerks and it's either you devote your life to the game or you're inferior.

Just enough gear to keep you playing and it requires hours of effort to get just 1 piece if you're lucky and get anything even.

And rep omg. What is it 12k rep to reach revered and world quests only give like 75-100 at a time. I got to the point where I started doing all available world quests just for rep and still barely see the bars move. And I use the app for war missions so I got the rep rewards from that too.

It seems there's little reward for the hours of work you put in. It was like this is legion too. I quit shortly after legion release because I was doing like 4 mythics in a row and still not one gear drop.

Idk I love this game but I also completely hate it. I might just need a break. Might go back to FFXIV. I see there's a new patch for that anyways

Sent from my toaster running rebug

 

[Deleted-401606]

You hit the nail on the head. Mmorpgs do that to people. I've been playing since the 1st expansion and still can't seem to find a guild that I like. Everyone are elitist jerks and it's either you devote your life to the game or you're inferior.

Just enough gear to keep you playing and it requires hours of effort to get just 1 piece if you're lucky and get anything even.

And rep omg. What is it 12k rep to reach revered and world quests only give like 75-100 at a time. I got to the point where I started doing all available world quests just for rep and still barely see the bars move. And I use the app for war missions so I got the rep rewards from that too.

It seems there's little reward for the hours of work you put in. It was like this is legion too. I quit shortly after legion release because I was doing like 4 mythics in a row and still not one gear drop.

Idk I love this game but I also completely hate it. I might just need a break. Might go back to FFXIV. I see there's a new patch for that anyways

Sent from my toaster running rebug

I personally could not tolerate the endless rep grind. If you are lazy and skip world quest you will find yourself left behind because of the azurite necklace grind. I tried playing on a pirated wotlk server,and the community was 10x worse than on retail.I quit BfA about a month in.The game pretty much requires you to no life at all to make any meaningful progress,I guess there is alot of debate on whether WoW is skill based or not. I personally think gear matters a bit more since you can find addons that tell you how to do a perfect rotation,yet your dps wont move much if you dont have proper gear. I started playing wow during BC when I was 12 and I usually play for 1-3 months before burning out and forgetting why i quit in the first place.I am not really in the mood to have a man child insulting my entire person/life because it is my first time doing a particular raid boss.Before this expac,many times I was in guilds that I devoted myself completely too and for what? So that the GM can start drama and the guild can disband anyways? I guess wow is a fun game but only if you play with cool people/friends. Its not fun being just another number in a video game. The worse part about wow is how big of jerks people are to noobs.The same people that complain about getting "bullied" irl will be the first to bully others online I have noticed.It's too bad games like this get ruined because of a bad community but then again I am no longer a kid.