It’s funny how over time, we as gamers will change to fit our surroundings. Let me elaborate. Yesterday I just about forgot that I am – when it comes right down to it – a very nice person. I decided to partake in my first ever World of Warcraft raid. It was a pick up for Illidan which means it was an older raid (Burning Crusade) but still worth an achievement that I didn’t have. The player organizing the raid was paying anyone with a gear score higher then 5k to join. Something should have clicked in my mind right away but it didn’t. As soon as everyone was in the raid instance, the raid leader calmly announced that he would be looting all gems since they were “BC gems and going towards his BC bank tab”. Someone joked that this was the method of being a polite ninja. The raid took far longer then anyone had thought, and chat was something I actually had to turn off. Perhaps my age was showing but when raid is filled with discussion of getting high it just completely turns me off. In fact the raid leader mentioned that he had to AFK to go partake in this activity. I’m all for people doing what they want, but why do they feel the need to tell everyone in the world around them?
There were no wipes, and eventually we DID finish the instance. Except the raid leader chose at that time to ninja log with the gems and not paying anyone who he had promised with the 5k+ gs. Suddenly I found myself in the middle of 23 very angry players. Then I took a deep breath. This wasn’t me. I don’t care about money in game, and stuff happens that I’m not going to like. So I left the raid group and went about my day. Yes, it was a horrible thing for that raid leader to do, and it probably tainted my look of WoW raids for the future, but it’s not the end of the world. I can continue to feel good about the fact that I am not like that. That I am a relatively good person, with a pretty kind disposition.
The problem is in games these days that seems to be an incredibly rare state of mind. It’s so easy to scream and yell and stomp our feet when something doesn’t go our way. A player once asked me for a little gold for a mount when I was afk. It wasn’t much, so I sent it to them once I had returned. I don’t know if they ever received it but I never heard from them again. It didn’t bother me because their reaction wasn’t the one I was looking for – the only thing that mattered was my action.
As a gamer some times I need to take a step back and remind myself of who I am. It may seem a little odd, but to me it makes perfect sense.We can become so absorbed in our surroundings.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
That’s where I’ve been fortunate in Eve Online. I’ve had both very giving people give me a leg up in the game, and have been in situations where I can do the same for others. It feels a little like I am combating the craziness that is theft, destruction and deception, all issues that run rampant in the game.