Lets Talk Community (Or Lack Of)
stargrace 
Tipa made a good point on a previous point. In most games if you come in as a new player you’re helped. You’re offered suggestions on how to play better, where to go, gear, and gain a general sense of the community. In World of Warcraft, this is not the case. Tipa mentioned that as a new player the community is never more harsh then it is in WoW and she’s exactly right. Why is this the case? What has hardened everyone to become ignorant of a new player? Why are we not acting the same in this game as every other game? Tolerance is at an all time low.
There has been one group in my many many LFD PUG’s that was kind to new players. This was a regular version of Halls of Reflection. Two players (myself included) stated that they had never been there before. As it turned out the two players were the tank, and the healer. People were kind, explaining the encounters. Told me to watch my mana and try not to over extend myself so that I could heal through all of the waves. They told the tank about pulling the single mob (the one who creates replicas of group members) back to the main chamber to avoid his adds. This was the only group I can remember where players were kind to those of us who had not been there before.
However – I also feel that it works both ways. Very rarely do I know someone has never been before. No one speaks in groups any more. If you’ve never been to a dungeon and don’t SAY that you’ve never been and that you may be new, how am I supposed to know to explain the encounters, or to help out. There is such an aura of fear of being ‘new’ that no one is communicating.
The few times that my group does communicate, it’s someone stating that they have to go AFK to do drugs (I hear this so often now I wonder how many times it’s true) or some other nonsense. Do people who do drugs actually have to broadcast it to everyone around them or is this a popularity thing? I have no idea, seeing as I’ve never been involved in that sort of activity. I just find it odd that everyone has to announce to the rest of the world (game) what they’re doing.
The community (or lack of) in WoW is certainly unique to me. I’ve played many games, and if it were not for the handful of friends I have on the Firetree server, I wouldn’t be playing. There’s no way I’d be able to handle the community as it stands now.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
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?
