In MMORPGs many players behave like a lumberjack in the forest. But why is that? Why do players in online role-playing games like WoW change so quickly?
That things can get a bit rough in online games is an old hat. Anyone who has played any multiplayer online game or MMORPG knows what kind of insults can sometimes fly through the chat or voice chat. But in MMORPGs, victims often become perpetrators. A friendly novice turns into an aggressive pseudo-elite – often in just a few days.
Why do MMORPGs turn us into unfriendly idiots so quickly?
From Noob Tank to Complaining DPS in 2 Steps
Especially in MMORPGs, I notice, Cortyn from MeinMMO, again and again how some players have an “I am the elite and you are all idiots” attitude and proudly display it. This state worsens with increasing experience in a game.
I notice it in myself as well; I am not free from it.
A good example is a scene in the dungeon Waycrest Manor in World of Warcraft. As a tank player, there are some groups placed rather trickily. You basically pull them to you as soon as you enter a room and have no chance to discover them beforehand. However, since you already have another group in sight when entering the room, both groups are often pulled, leading to great chaos.
That is probably a mistake that every tank, who starts tanking, makes exactly once. I did too. Since our healer was quite good, we barely survived. Still, there was immediately a “tank, you retard?!” in the chat, at which point I was already feeling disheartened and thought to myself with a small smile: “You as well.”
Let’s fast forward 10 weeks. Same dungeon, different composition. This time I was with as a damage dealer. From the tank I immediately had the impression that he was probably doing his thing for the first time. He seemed a bit confused as he ran through the halls and couldn’t immediately aggro all the enemies.
It was more than obvious: The tank was fulfilling his role for the first time and was still at the very beginning of his career. Even though no one said it, I knew it. It was unmistakable.
Again we reached the area with the two groups, and in my mind, I heard myself say, “Hopefully the idiot doesn’t pull both mob groups, otherwise it’s over for us.”
Of course, he pulled both groups, and it ended in a wipe for all of us. I was annoyed. I don’t insult people in chat, but in my thoughts, I had attributed a few words to the tank that would have been bleeped out on American television.
Later, I realized: Actually, I was the problem and not the tank.
I saw that the tank was new and could have intervened and warned him. But I didn’t, because I apparently just wanted the confirmation that the tank was indeed the noob I had already imagined.
Understanding for Newbies and Mistakes Decreases Quickly
And you too, the (mostly) dear readers, are apparently not entirely free from such behavior. No one likes to hear that, of course, but it corresponds to what one sometimes sees in the comment section.
A recent example was the article “Believe it or not, WoW is too hard for newbies”. It was about the fact that World of Warcraft with all its systems and lack of overview is too complex to be figured out by newbies without help and guidance.
The core message was that newbies either need a lot of help or must spend many hours in guides and tutorials outside of the game to know their goals and tasks.
In the comments, a lack of empathy for newbies or the typical “pseudo-elite thinking” of gamers often became apparent with fundamental statements like:
- Well, I learned it all by myself, so anyone else can too.
- The new generation of WoW players just wants a lot of loot without effort, preferably already rewarded for logging in.
The second point is particularly interesting. The article never stated that the new player does not want to work for rewards. He just wanted to know which path he needs to take. He wanted to see that path without having to Google for ages first.
Together with sarcastic and cynical remarks that repeatedly explained how stupid procedures X or Y were (“Starting with Demon Hunters is a dumb idea” or “He should level from 1, then you learn everything, just like I did”), some of the comments were anything but helpful.
Even though I can’t speak for the commenters, I do believe that the same “pseudo-elite thinking” stands behind it that I exhibited in Waycrest Manor. Following the motto: “Well, I know how it goes, anyone who can’t manage that is a noob and clearly inferior to me.”
I notice such behavior in the group dynamics that are slowly changing. While months ago, it was enough to take a “random player” on board if they typed a brief “hi” in chat within 60 seconds, now sometimes sites like raider.io are checked.
This is a gradual process that I cannot completely escape. Such elite selection will only get worse when corruption effects can be freely chosen.
I do not know exactly why we adopt this behavior so quickly. I can only speculate that it is a way to polish one’s self-image a bit and distance oneself from those who are “not as experienced” as one is. Because in every comment that admonishes someone for making mistake X or Y, there’s an underlying message: “Well, I would have done that right, because I know how it works.”
But exactly this often makes us appear to others as unsympathetic, unfriendly idiots.
So my advice to everyone, myself included: Take it down a notch and be nice. The gaming experience for everyone improves when we just take a moment to remember that we were not skill gods from birth – and probably never will be.
Or how do you see it?
