Originally Posted by
Helkor
I don't think they're scared of IRL interaction. They're scared of being inadequate. They're scared they will not perform, and as a result will be kicked and flamed for being bad.
This is not a good feeling, I'm sure everyone has tried it at some point in the game. These people need to find a casual guild, a safe space, where making mistakes will not get you kicked from the raid team. Unfortunately however, there are very few of these guilds. Even the guilds that aren't hardcore, still expect you to do well in raids.
Is this a problem? Yes and no. It's not a problem at all for those who's decent at the game.
Imagine this, you play WoW, and spend a lot of time on it. One of your family members (Sister, brother, whatever) decide they wanna try their hand at the game, because it looks interesting.You like your sister/brother, and don't want them to be hurt. They level up, and clearly, through leveling, they don't obtain the skills required to be a decent player. He/she tries out a dungeon, and it results in being flamed and eventually being kicked from the group. A massively bad experience, especially for a first one. He/she is now sad and scared of trying out more dungeons and raids. Is it their fault? No, they were trying to play the game as intended, they were having fun up until now. Is it the dungeon group's fault? To some extent. They really shouldn't flame other players if they're bad, especially in a dungeon environment. Who the fuck cares? It's just a dungeon!
This may lead to them thinking "Oh well, I like the game, but I really didn't like this experience, so perhaps I should just stick to solo play"
So always remember, if someone is doing bad in your dungeon group, talk to them, ask if they're new, offer some advice. Don't flame them, be polite. I had 3 new players in my dungeon group yesterday. The 2 of them did under half my DPS. We had fun, they were really confused, and died a lot. Luckily me and the tank were pretty well geared, so we just powered through the bosses 2 man. But I think it meant a lot to them that they werent flamed, just because they're new. They actually had fun.
And this is important. In the end, for 100% of the player base "FUN" is the most important element in the game. But fun comes in many different forms for the individual. Some only have fun if they're doing really well AKA "Power gamers", the same goes for people who like the lore, and people who like the world.
Those in my dungeon weren't power gamers, they were there purely to experience the game. They wanna do well, but really didn't have the skills and knowledge to do so.
I guess, what my point is. Don't flame people, unless they truly are gigantic asses. If they're just doing bad, and it's not in an important situation, then who cares? And then we may see less people who play WoW as a singleplayer game, and will actually take part in the community. Because really, these people, from my experience, are really amazingly fun players to interact and play with.
TLDR: Don't flame people, even if they're bad. Then people might not play singleplayer.