I like to consider myself a pretty open minded person. Only a few things will ever really tick me off, but one of those things happens to be intolerance from other people, or people who purposely hurt others. Last week the guild I was in decided to make some pretty off the cuff remarks about cultures other than their own, and they were making racist comments and making fun of these people. Joke or not, I don’t have tolerance for that sort of stuff and so I decided not to waste my time any more and I left the guild.
I joined another one just after, a very large casual guild. One of the first conversations that took place involved a lot of bodily fluids and more less-than-nice remarks. Again, I value my free time quite a bit and I really don’t feel like listening / reading that sort of stuff while playing a video game, so I left the guild. I haven’t found a replacement yet, but World of Warcraft has a LOT of guilds. I’m thinking in the end what I’ll do is what I always end up doing, which is just creating my own guild. I’d love to just join up with the handful of friends I still have playing, but like all games with servers, none of us actually play on the same ones. I know not everyone has an issue with these types of comments, and I understand that ‘hey it’s just a game’ but overlooking these types of incidents just doesn’t sit well in my stomach.
It has been many years since I have been able to find a ‘home’ in a game. It doesn’t bug me as much now as it used to, I’m quite comfortable doing my own thing – but still, I have to wonder at the state things are in.
The cost of WoW tokens dropped by a fair amount over the Christmas holidays and I saved up enough to purchase my second one even though I slacked throughout the month. I really enjoy being able to buy game time this way. As long as I’m actively playing the game, the funds come pretty easily. Of course if I dither off or take a break it will make earning the coin a bit difficult….
The next Timewalking event started today – I haven’t looked at it yet, but I’m excited. I had fun with the last one. In the meantime, I’ll just keep looking for a guild I can call home on Area 52.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
I’ve been fortunate enough not to be witness to these sorts of idiotic comments. But I wouldn’t hesitate to get-the-hell-outta-there if I were to be part of such a group. High-Five for making the move!
I guess we should be proud of ourselves in Knights of Nii/The 20 Minuters. Since you’ve not left us yet. :)
It very much comes down to what the community (overall game culture, plus local group) allows/tolerates and what the game (as in devs, mods and design) allows.
I’ve always liked how my big GW2 guild runs things, leaders will speak up and put a stop to anything that threatens to get too offensive in a public channel, even over voice chat. Most of time it’s something that doesn’t even register on my personal scale of offense, but they demonstrates the culture of respect desired as a result.
And for the really terrible racist speech, everyone knows it doesn’t last long in GW2 because the mods can and will act on any reports. That has a muting effect right off the bat, and suspensions/bans take care of the stalwart offenders.
We need a guild of the unguilded!
” I know not everyone has an issue with these types of comments, and I understand that ‘hey it’s just a game’ but overlooking these types of incidents just doesn’t sit well in my stomach.”
IMO the “Hey, it’s just a game” people are part of the problem. Hate speech is a problem wherever it happens. I would’ve bailed on that guild too!
I’ve long been wary of larger guilds and generally I stick to very small ones, usually, like you, ones founded and run by myself and Mrs Bhagpuss. GW2, however, allows you to be in up to five guilds at once and for various reasons I am now in two fairly large guilds, one of which is primarily aimed at WvW.
I have never heard anything like you describe. Yes, there’s some swearing, although even that is unusual, and the odd flurry of innuendo but racism? Never. In fact the general tone of conversation has been very pleasant. Given that there are 400+ in the guild and regularly 30-50 on at once the main problem I’ve had is that the conversations become very distracting!
I wonder if WoW really is significantly worse in this respect than other MMOs? that’s certainly its reputation.