I think I’ve hit rock bottom with blogging, gaming, and all things social. I’ve lost the faith in people to be honest, kind, polite, caring, and everything else that separates us from wild animals. It seems everybody is just in it for themselves and after you’ve bent over backwards to help others, they vanish or insult you.
It’s not all bad though. There are some great people out there. I know, I’ve met a few. They are the roses in a field of cow manure. Even though they are beautiful, the stench is overpowering. Just 10 years ago that field was all roses. What has happened to our community? Has it always been this way and I was ignorant to it?
10 years ago I started playing MMOs. I remember booting up Everquest for the first time and the weird feeling of wonderment as I aimlessly wandered around in a huge mysterious world. I was so lost in the world and I didn’t even know how to get back to town if I ventured too far. It was great.
I remember figuring out the chat system and asking for help. Not only did someone help me get back to town, they took the time to group with me and show me the way. They even gave me some armor, a new weapon, and some cash. That wasn’t just a fluke, over the time I spent in EQ I watched the chat and saw how everybody helped each other. Yeah there were jerks, but 90% of the people were helpful.
It wasn’t just EQ though. After I left EQ, I went to DAoC and SWG. Even in those games, people were helpful, most of the time. Surprisingly,in the beginning of WoW, people were super nice. People like to blame WoW for the drop off in community quality, but it’s not WoW’s fault. It’s ours. I’m sick of people pointing the finger at an inanimate object.
A little story for you:
A few years back I was getting a divorce. I called my father to rant a bit about it. I remember complaining about how she was a slut and how crazy she was. On and on I went telling him how horrible she was, then he said to me, “It’s your fault.”
I stopped talking. How could my father blame me for what she was doing to our family? How could he say it was my fault? This is my father and he was taking her side. No, he was telling me the truth. Pointing the finger at her did nothing for me. I couldn’t change her I couldn’t fix her. All I could do was except what I did, learn from it, and move on.
I felt so much better knowing it was my fault. I felt I could control the rest of my life and not have her burdens hanging over me. I married her- my fault. I didn’t become the man she wanted- my fault. I was not right for her- my fault. I’m a lot happier knowing I can control me and my future.
My point is, WoW is not to blame or the other guy being an ass in chat is not to blame. It’s our fault for shitting in the field of flowers. Every time a person acts like an asshat in chat or social media, we take on a defensive stance and say our 2¢. That is when we drop a curler in the field. Why can’t we just let it go and move on? Why is it every time a person with low self-esteem gets on the forums and baits us into giving them negative attention, we have to give them what they want?
If we don’t rant back and make a 20 page pissing match, that type of thread wouldn’t be the norm on forums. You have an opinion, great! Just don’t add to the negative behavior by stating that opinion. It is not the trolls fault the community sucks, it’s yours for enabling that behavior.
We need to stop crapping on our lawn. We need to stop blaming the game or others for a poor community. We need to clean up our mess if we want the next generation of games to be a better place to play. Just like losing weight though, it will be slow and we need to have patience.
The only thing I can do is start by cleaning up myself. I’m not going to rally forces and count on others to help me. I only can count on myself and take responsibility for myself. I can hope others do it, but I’m not going to count on it. If I quit MMOs because on fed up with the community, I take full blame for my decision. After all, it’s my fault for getting upset with the community.
Because the tone of this post is negative and I don’t want to fuel a negative behavior, comments are off. Thank you for reading.
