In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, there are situations where players become angry and insult others. A player in WoW has now shown how he dealt with such a situation and how he calmed a flamer with one sentence.
This was the situation: In a 2v2 arena match, the storyteller of the tale was playing with a partner and faced a duo of mage and paladin. The mage was quickly eliminated by the two, but the opposing paladin kept his cool and managed to take out the players despite being outnumbered, thus winning a 2v1.
After the match, the paladin sent a whisper: “Two against one and you lose! Are you kidding me?”
However, the player managed to defuse the situation with one sentence.
“I’m glad you won”
This is how the player took the wind out of the flamer’s sails: The flamed player replied: “Oh, good job! You played well, bro. But there’s no reason to be so toxic. You did great, and I’m glad you won.”
The initial flamer immediately engaged in the conversation and thanked the game. He said he was so frustrated, that 10, 15 years ago he was a good player himself, but everything had changed so quickly.
The flamer had jumped like a tiger but now had landed like a doormat.
This is what the player says: He says he employed the tactic “Kill them with kindness”, so he remained particularly friendly in the face of anger. Instead of flaming back, he was nice, and it turned out: The paladin just needed a little love in his life.
This is how it’s being discussed: Some people are making fun of it, and people say, “Ignoring would have been better.”
But there are also some who explicitly praise the player for stepping out of the cycle of flaming. In a PvP game, it’s easy to assume that everyone is an asshole who hates you, and thus one can justify malignant behavior, but often it only takes talking normally to someone to break this cycle.
Another user says:
“I appreciate that. A few months ago, I had a similar moment as this guy. I vented about some guild members because of something that wasn’t even what I thought. I was in a bad state. When I realized I was in the wrong, I apologized, and it helped me a lot that this apology was accepted and I was treated with kindness. It’s easier to be toxic when you believe everyone else are assholes. It’s easier to be an asshole among many than to be the only asshole.”
Maybe you should try that next time someone is being rude to you. It doesn’t have to be that you’re always alone: World of Warcraft has become a solo game – 3 out of 4 play almost alone
