I don’t often post on social topics about the game or gaming in general. I tend to stick to the toon biography approach … this is my character and here is what he/she has been up to. But a recent post in my reader has inspired me to break from the norm for an afternoon and give you something other than screenshots of naked male trolls.
Ten’nen at Rants and Raves of a Mad Mage put up a post yesterday discussing hypermasculinity and homophobia present in WoW, although it likely could be observed in any gaming atmosphere, and also in that alien world I’ve been hearing about called Real Life as well.
I’m sure we’ve all seen this type of behaviour ingame ourselves, and not just in Barrens or Trade chat, either. There was a guild who used to sometimes invite me to Naxx, way back in that pre-Ulduar era.* I was glad I got to see the content, and I dearly love Naxx despite them, but the crap I had to listen to on vent …. oi. I don’t think I ever said a word, even once … I was better off not revealing my gender. There was another female who was often in the raids, and the way some of those boys hovered around her toon and talked to her on vent … I eventually stopped accepting the invitations.
Last night I logged onto a low level alt on my Alliance server, intending to do some questing. I’m not sure what was special about last night, but Dolanaar was full of toons, and it seemed like the majority of them were involved in some sort of pissing match between two of them. I’m sure you can guess what sort of insults were being tossed around. Some of the terms .. well, I could figure out what they meant from the context. I killed one spider, turned in the cooking quest, learned the recipe, and went right back to the inn and logged out. Yeah, sure, I could just /leave general chat … but if I wanted a world with zero interaction, I’d go play something that’s, you know, not multiplayer.
So, where am I going with this? Firstly, I thought Ten’nen made a great post and I wanted to make sure my friends and readers got to see it. Secondly, I want to give a big shoutout to both of the guilds I am in, Ashes of Tirisfal (H) on Dawnbringer and Crits and Giggles (A) on Winterhoof …. because they both are full of wonderful people who make the game that much more enjoyable for me and would not tolerate any of their members mistreating other players or being jerks. There ARE awesome people in the game … trust me, it’s not completely full of immature, egotistical, misogynistic and homophobic jerks. You just have to find the good ones and keep them close by. 😉
*pre-Ulduar was only what … 3 months ago? Time moves so fast in the MMO world! Holy cow!! but that’s a subject for another day.