Is the World of Warcraft community bad? And should we feel bad?

[Theendgamelv3]

So, thats my problem they have real life issues? If you read the ALSO part, you pretty much confirmed what i said. But the question is why put yourself in that environment? Im pretty sure everyone who has played this game 6 months and more, knows the community is bad.
Here's my answer to that question, as my OWN opinion, People with those issues come on to take their frustrations out on the trolls in trade. Its like the circle of life.
Get mad IRL, come on WOW, there's always one troll, then let them have it. Frustrations gone. THIS is why those same people never put trolls on ignore. If there was no trolls, then they nerd rage in LFRetards or LFGumps, and life is better. Again, IMO.

You're right it isn't your problem. What you said, that isn't trolling, so that guy either had some real issues or was just angry for whatever reason. Here is the thing, a lot people come on to WoW to connect to their guild community. The community outside of this could be bad and sometimes you have to deal with it if you are looking for something on trade which people still do especially if no one on your guild is on. Depending on kind of trolling it is, you can affect others. Basically would you do or say stuff IRL you do on trade, most likely not. I don't know about you, but I don't want to add to someones IRL issues by being a jerk to them. Some people do vent their frustrations in the manner if which you spoke of, others don't. If you want to troll, troll on, just be mindful that it can affect others IRL.

[vindicatorx]

Can we do anything to remedy that though? Or is it just as in real life? "Some people are nice, and some are jerks. Just do your best to avoid the a-holes?"

unless we were suddenly given peoples real identities and allowed to deliver an assbeating to those who sorely need one no, there is nothing we can do about it.

[SirMeo]

unless we were suddenly given peoples real identities and allowed to deliver an assbeating to those who sorely need one no, there is nothing we can do about it.

we can NOT participate in it. Having an attitude of "everyone I don't know is a moron and is there to only steal my trinket from this boss hmph" is not obviously not as bad being outwardly a major pain in the rear-end by griefing others because "they can," but surely it isn't helping the general community to be better. I've found out that simply excluding the problem person from friendly banter and fun-having is much more effective than calling him an idiot mouthbreather.

[yjmark]

I've found out that simply excluding the problem person from friendly banter and fun-having is much more effective than calling him an idiot mouthbreather.

This x1000. Feeding trolls just encourages them to continue their behavior.

[Cerebrate]

Online communities are awful in general. I help when I can, but it usually just ends with them getting offended because how fucking dare I give out advice? Dunning-kruger effect... fuck it.

So much this. What makes it so bad is even when you would have to be mental to not realize it's a troll people still buy into it. Or people will play along to troll people into yelling at them for feeding the original troll. There just seems to be no end. They just want attention and it's easier to get bad attention than it is to get good attention.

[Adam Jensen]

Yes, they are bad.

First of all, remember when Cata came out and heroics had some challenge to them? MASSIVE screaming on the forums. Huge NERF OZRUK!!!! threads (because avoiding ground slam is hard.) Rather than adapting and learning simple crowd control and coordination, everyone screamed until Blizzard nerfed the heroics, and this was after everyone screamed about Wrath heroics being too easy. :boggle:

So now as a result we have heroics that take 5 minutes to steam roll, LFR where people aren't penalized for ignoring mechanics and players who are so impatient that they leave at any sign of difficulty.

And when things do happen in heroics, when someone makes a mistake, it's rare to see people say "hey man, when X happens, you gotta do Y." It usually skips that step and goes straight to "WTF YOU F**KING NOOB! L2P!" *votekick.* Players are hostile to new players and they don't even give new/bad players a chance to learn and improve. Some bad players won't accept valid criticism because they're dumb, but some are bad because they simply don't know how to play and can become good if someone just helps them. I'm one of the "help them first, kick them if they can't learn" people. Some people go straight to "kick them."

It's frustrating.

---------- Post added 2013-02-22 at 10:21 AM ----------

Another thing that frustrates me is when good players make honest mistakes and then take shit for it. In Cata, I decided to do LFR on my rogue. I hadn't done LFR in months but I had been doing normal (maybe even heroic mode) for a while. We get to spine and I start killing tentacles via the Normal mode strategy. Just basic instinct. I had completely forgotten that LFR did it differently.

Oops.

I apologized and didn't do it again but I took shit for it like I was some sort of noob. No, just made an honest mistake. Or there was the time I was tanking Spine and somehow I thought my amalgation was casting Nuclear Explosion. So I ran. It followed. I freaked out and tried to get back into position. Didn't work. Raid lit me a new one.

It's frustrating to play a game in an environment like this where if you make a mistake that might wipe the group, people throw a fit. They expect you to be perfect and then act like children when you aren't. They forget that people make mistakes.

When someone makes a mistake once, it's fine. Twice, depends on the situation. If they continue to repeat the mistake, then okay, yes, initiate the VTK system.

[Notamonk]

Most if not all of the online gaming communities could all be considered bad because of the anonymity and being able to say what you want when ever you want with little to no repercussions. This will never change.

[bionics]

The problem with WoW isn't the Elite players. It's the average player who think and act like they are part of the Elite when they aren't even close.

Everyone thinks they're their class equivalent of Neilyo after watching one of his videos. Or at least that's what they want people to think so they can add a few inches to their e-peens.

[RicardoZ]

The WoW community is horrible. And no, we shouldn't feel bad. Blizzard has done nothing to fix it and as long as WoW is a subscription based game, they won't. So get used to it.

[Outofmana]

When I see threads being created like this http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Boot-from-LFR in which the OP really thinks he is right in ANY way and see some posters agreeing with him, you can really see how bad the wow community has become.

[RicardoZ]

When I see threads being created like this http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Boot-from-LFR in which the OP really thinks he is right in ANY way and see some posters agreeing with him, you can really see how bad the wow community has become.

As far as I'm concerned it bottomed out in early Cataclysm. Ever since then I've been kind of a WoW hermit. I do 5 mans and stuff but I don't really talk anymore, the few times I've ventured out of my shell in groups I've gotten slapped so hard it's taught me to just shut up lest my queue time have been wasted. I also switched to only tanking and healing since the DPS gestapo was so horrible. If you were doing 1 dps less than some idiot thought you should be doing you'd get the boot and an hour of your life went down the drain for nothing.

I'm not really sure how it is in Pandaria to be honest, I very rarely login anymore and my account has been lapsed for months.

Isn't it strange that people who are socially awkward in real life excel at the social aspects of WoW, whereas I'm very extroverted and love to be the center of attention IRL but I suck at the social part of MMO's. Anybody know the science of that?

[Pann]

There are SOME actions that can be taken, report every reportable offense you can, make a point to have a personal 'black list' of toxic players so you remember to refuse to invite them to your groups and to kick them from LFD/LFRs if you happen across them, encourage other non-toxic players to do the same, share your list with them and across the server with guild leaders of reputable guilds. Eventually when no one on their server wants to play with them anymore, they can't get into any worthwhile guilds, can't even get into public pugs, and no one will even talk to them, they'll get the message. Sure they could server xfer, name change, or make a new toon, but then they are being forced to invest extra time and money. Eventually they'll give up.

I agree with what you are saying about reporting bad behaviour I do not agree with taking the law into your own hands so to speak. You have to remember that many of players that cause problems are of an age where they seek attention, regardless of whether the attention is negative or not, by going to the lengths you describe you are giving them the attention they so crave. By calling them out and reacting in kind you become part of the problem.

The best way you can deal with the people you describe is to ignore them, they soon get bored and the best way to improve the community is to act in a polite, civil manner towards each other.

So...there wasn't a problem, but you posted a thinly veiled attempt to get a rise out of us and start one? :/

This is the second thing I agree with you about, who'd have thunk it!

It was sensible. None of my point incited anything nor was trying to.

It even explicitly said it wasn't.

I was trying to help since you both continuously bickered, and then pointed out how this relates to the community.

That's all.

And now another argument is inciting because of an apparent language barrier or something.

It wasn't sensible it and had nothing to do with the thread. Whilst Lovecrafts and I were disagreeing with each other we were not at each other's throats as you put it nor were we as you condescendingly describe it continuously bickering. Even though I do not share Lovecraft's point of view I have not found him to be rude or offensive and I hope that he has found me to be the same.

It is not your place to back seat moderate or accuse us of something that neither of us feel that we were doing. If you have issue with anything that either of us written then feel free to report the offending post to a moderator and allow them to deal it as they see fit.

[Destil]

It wasn't sensible it and had nothing to do with the thread. Whilst Lovecrafts and I were disagreeing with each other we were not at each other's throats as you put it nor were we as you condescendingly describe it continuously bickering. Even though I do not share Lovecraft's point of view I have not found him to be rude or offensive and I hope that he has found me to be the same.

It is not your place to back seat moderate or accuse us of something that neither of us feel that we were doing. If you have issue with anything that either of us written then feel free to report the offending post to a moderator and allow them to deal it as they see fit.

It was just my two cents to try and help, man.

I had no issue with any of the points nor anything either of you had said.

I was just pointing a fairly good point out and it seems it came off the completely wrong way since you're somehow offended by it.

My apologies regardless.

[bionics]

Isn't it strange that people who are socially awkward in real life excel at the social aspects of WoW, whereas I'm very extroverted and love to be the center of attention IRL but I suck at the social part of MMO's. Anybody know the science of that?

It's just the divergent nature of the interactions. In real life there are so many more indicators such as facial expressions, laughter (or lack thereof), various gestures, and the tone of voice used in response that make them more involved than just typing a few things on a keyboard or watching polygons move around on the screen.