just because these people/kids are in a virtual world does not mean they are not real people. or that their actions do not affect real people. Gabe is most assuredly correct about anonymity and assholes and whatever, i forget his exact math. but underneath that blanket or shield of anonymity is a real person that wishes he could act like that all the time, if only he could get away with it.
experiences from world of warcraft that are worth sharing:
i see a player walk by with the name "Jookilla." i am horrified. that is wrong. there is no way that can be funny. anyone who creates a character with that name is going out of his way to be _patently_ offensive. i ask in /general chat how to report a player for an inappropriate name.
person 1: what's the name?
me (kaziganthi): Jookilla.
person 1: that's not a very good name.
person 2: i'm going to report you, because your name has kazi in it and that is close to nazi. omg... lollage
person 3: omg... nerd
person 4: here's how... uninstall world of warcraft
that's it. these are the people playing the same game as me. i am associated with them through this software. people who don't play the game get a picture of us as a whole, and it INCLUDES these people. the best part is the similarities in their typing. ellipses? check. "omg?" check. "lollage??" please somebody remove him from the human race.
some good stuff from pvp. i'll try to go in chonological order.
steiner and i killed 2 greys in windshear crag once (greys are players that are so far below your level as to be a nonthreat). they were hunting at the time, and i charged the druid and slaughtered him in maybe 2 or 3 hits while his friend fought a thunder lizard with no idea what was happening. steiner said immediately afterwards, "we are jerks." he was right. i was laughing so hard at the time, at how awful it was, but i will never do anything like that again. bad.
i'm running through ashenvale, and at a fairly busy intersection (meaning horde players come through alone about every minute or so), i am ambushed and killed by 2 lvl 30 rogues and a lvl 25 hunter. all night elves with shadowmeld, all in the same guild. as a ghost, i watch them ambush and kill single horde again and again. a large group of horde, informed by /localdefense about the group, comes and kills them. they set up again. repeat. repeat. the night elves do not get the message. bad.
i'm in booty bay. this is a neutral town in a contested zone. that means that anyone can initiate, but the guards will help the person attacked first, if he can reach them in time. first of all, alliance always outnumber the horde. it's terrible. i'm sitting there waiting for my group because we're doing a quest nearby soon. a higher level paladin comes up to me, nods to me, and goes about his business. i figure /nodding means, i don't want to fight you. 5 minutes later, i am attacked by 4 alliance, including him, as i am sitting there doing nothing. baaaaad.
i'm in thousand needles, and i see a paladin chasing a hunter. the paladin was maybe 37, i was 34, the hunter was 30. 7 levels below! i charge the paladin and we kill him, with me having barely any life left. we cheer at each other, then we both see an iron vein. he mines first and moves back to let me have the next, but alas, it disappears. oh well. good.
i'm in the flats in thousand needles, and i see a 30 paladin fighting a mob. i go over and wave to him, and leave him alone. later i see him run by as i'm fighting a mob. he leaves me alone. good.
i'm at the small racetrack camp in flats, and i see a 20 gnome mage. he's being chased by a 30 something, and a 36 shaman. 16 levels higher! they slaughter the poor little guy. i say, why did you do that? he was only level 20. the response? shaman: for the horde! other person: FOR THE HORDE! bad.
i'm in charred vale in stonetalon and i see a 33 NE rogue chasing a horde, i don't remember the class. the average level around there is 25, so i know the rogue is a ganking fucker. i charge him (i'm 35) and destroy his ass with retaliation. not exactly good, but that fucking ganker got what he deserved.
i'm in desolace by thunder axe fortress, fighting a mob. immediately after i kill him, a 37 NE rogue (always always NEs, always always rogues) ambushes me and stabs the hell out of me. i am still level 35, i am caught by surprise, so i start running. i'm out of sprint potions so he just follows and stabs me until i die. bad.
what gets me the most is that he emoted /spits on the ground. he spit on the fucking ground, disrespecting me, after ambushing and killing me when i clearly had no desire to fight, seeing as i turned and ran away. this person, he must think he is _role playing_, and doing it _well_. how? he sees himself as some sort of champion of goodness, taking his mortal enemies by surprise and then !? spitting on their corpses ?! after killing them. what is he in reality? a fucking griefer that wastes other players' time in 5 minute increments and hurts their gaming experience. bad. the stuff going through this guy's head makes it even worse.
i'm in stranglethorn vale, running to the orc outpost grom'gol, and i see a 33 paladin. he turns and runs away, i guess assuming that i will try to kill him. i'm still 35 at the time. i have no reason to attack him, so when he takes a left turn at a fork in the road, i keep going straight. he comes up behind me and roots me to the ground, and it's on. i really should have won, but my latency was over 1k ms at the time. it was a pathetic fight. but he /bowed afterwards, as my spirit stayed near my body, so i really don't mind. i guess he attacked because he assumed i would. eh, bad, but not when you compare it to other situations.
