Curse

Snow Bunny · Apr 21, 2008, 04:04 PM // 16:04

Yes, I know, I critique Guild Wars for its large population of stubborn, ignorant, and generally unpleasant idiots. While I have always criticized Zinger for his shameless promotion of the World of Warcraft playerbase, I have always recognized that the GW community has its share of less-than-pleasant individuals, as any sample population undoubtedly will have.

However, more and more, I find the Guild Wars population better in comparison to those of games.

Every once in a while, I log off GW to play Starcraft, TF2, CounterStrike, (insert popular online game [here]). After about 30-45 minutes of play, I inevitably log off of that, if only due to my absolute disgust with the players I encounter there.

It's not that I lose a lot or win a lot; my SC record is about 1.5 wins to losses, nothing amazing. Everytime I play, I am for some silly reason or other, bombarded by unmerited verbal attacks "Tryangle, you're such a RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing faggot/RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO yourself/I'mma RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO your mother" etc. One game of SC last night, a mass-attack game where you are assigned a unit that spawns constantly, only be thrown at other players, I stayed silent the whole match. I played decently, did nothing out of the normal, and was called all manner of epitaphs, constantly verbally assaulted.

I encounter this frequently whenever I play games other than GW. And while, yes, in GW, I encounter general jackassery, I've never encountered such visceral and unwarranted aggression as I do in other games. Shit-talking, even at its worst in GW, has never for me evolved into out-right hate, whether its from me or at me.

What do you think? Does Guild Wars have a generally 'better' (difficult to use this term, but I will) populace in terms of general civility, or do I encounter the worst in others?

Malice Black · Apr 21, 2008, 04:12 PM // 16:12

No.

EVE has a better community. I also have had no issues in WoW either.

RiKio · Apr 21, 2008, 04:13 PM // 16:13

In PvE, everyone is happy with Ursanway, so there aren´t noobs and people for blaming to.

Probably you are good at PvP, so you dont receive insults.

And maybe, you are playing with the chat filter activated.

But I have a theory: grinding players are the worst-behaved ones, and Guild Wars is the less grinding game, so....

makosi · Apr 21, 2008, 04:13 PM // 16:13

I haven't played any other online competitive or co-operative games so I can't make a direct comparison between the lot. I can say that the GW population isn't as bad as I'd expect when you consider that it's the internet and people retain their anonymity. We all know what these two factors lead to.

There are plenty of people I have a low opinion of on these forums for adding nothing apart from crap like "PHAIL" and "lern2play". While these people waste valuable bandwidth, there are people outside the internet who are wasting valuable air that better people could be breathing. The point being that there are bad eggs both on and off the internet. I don't let them bother me. If you don't feed the trolls they'll eventually get hungry and graze in new fields.

I can be an ass too but I choose to be an ass in real life where someone can hit me if they want to. I'm not gonna shout abuse at people on forums with the security of a screen.

Richardt · Apr 21, 2008, 04:13 PM // 16:13

I don't really play much of the multiplayer games anymore (GW is the exception), so I don't know much about the state of other online games. In fact, I try to avoid said games as much as I can.

And here's the reasoning: When my family first got internet back in the day, I thought I would try some of the games that I loved online. And even then I encountered the same kind of hate/ignorance/jackassery that Snow Bunny described. Needless to say I won't even bother with any other sort of online gaming outside of GW.

Dr Strangelove · Apr 21, 2008, 04:17 PM // 16:17

I've had some outright rage-fests in GW as well. I really don't believe there's a huge difference between communities in most online games. People are ignorant, stupid, and all around jerks, yet they make online games worth playing. I'll just be lazy now and paste a post I made in another thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by R.Shayne

So I should avoid playing in Random groups (pugs) and avoid pvp all together. Totally agree with you on that and it would seem the majority of guildwars have come to the same conclusion.

Sure, you can curl up by yourself and never leave your comfort zone. You can avoid playing with anyone you don't know. That's certainly an option. However, for every asshole I've met ingame I've met a person I get along really well with - this is true for PvE and PvP. It's not worth it to let the idiots ruin your game for you.

Plus, it's really, really funny if you think that there's a real person behind some keyboard, desperately struggling to string together a coherent sentence. Try subjecting their words to a dramatic reading.

EDIT: EVE admittedly does have a different community from most online games, mostly because of the horrendously steep learning curve. However, people are still jerks there, they're just more coherent about it. Every corp is filled with people scamming everyone else, people who head out to lowsec only to podkill people, and people who play the market to screw over newer players. EVE is white-collar asshattery, shooters are blue-collar, GW lies somewhere in between.

Tyla · Apr 21, 2008, 04:17 PM // 16:17

Well I've noticed things like what you described in Halo 3, but not as bad.

I still think it doesn't match the community's behaviour, and atleast those people can play to a minority of decency.

DarkFlame · Apr 21, 2008, 04:17 PM // 16:17

They haven't learned to properly curse yet. Once they get over that hurdle, you're in for the same verbal beating.

Buster · Apr 21, 2008, 04:19 PM // 16:19

Before GW I played FFXI online for 2 years. By far the best community I ever been associated in concerning an online game. People you didn't even know would help you if you needed it. We also didn't have to deal with pvp elitism or people shouting noob this or noob that in town. I can only hope that GW2 since it will have persistent areas will improve the ingame community.

JR · Apr 21, 2008, 04:28 PM // 16:28

I've followed Guild Wars for three years, mostly due to my interest and ties with the community.

It's hard to pin down exactly why, but I think a lot of it has to do with the game and the type of player it attracts. It's not a typical grind MMO, with more complex and unforgiving gameplay than some alternatives.

The PvP crowd is particularly different, and at times I am reminded more of the Unreal Tournament community than I am of other MMO communities I have been a part of. In general they are self-policing and fairly unforgiving of stupidity or silly behavior.

There are always rotten apples wherever you go, but I like to think that this community is better than most on that count.

Ctb · Apr 21, 2008, 04:31 PM // 16:31

The LOTRO community is awesome. Smart, helpful, friendly. If they'd get their botspam problem fixed, there'd be next to no reason for an ignore list. Eve was also decent, though they seem to have the attitude that every single idea anybody has that would change any aspect of the game is an insult to their mother. WoW isn't too bad outside of the PvP servers, though I wouldn't call it a great community by any means.

Guild Wars? Meh. In PvE it's mostly jerks spamming in the wrong channel or begging. In PvP you get the trash talking basement dwellers. Overall, if I had to rank 'em:

LOTRO: A+
Eve: B
WoW B-
Guild Wars: D+
Everquest 2: Incomplete... there's like 7 people still playing that game...

Compared to UT or CS:S or other FPS-styled games, it's probably not too bad, but Guild Wars, compared to other MMOs, has the least mature, least respectable community of the bunch I've played, IMHO.

Quote:

In general they are self-policing and fairly unforgiving of stupidity or silly behavior.

I wouldn't be that charitable. I don't think I've ever played an AB match where you didn't have jackasses swearing back and forth and insulting each other the whole time, and I'd guess about 1 in 3 TA/RA matches I see have a significant or extreme amount of trash talking.

But, then, I have 0 tolerance for trash talking. My opinion on the matter is that if you're proud of a video game achievement, you have nothing in your life to proud of, and I don't want to hear it (and I don't... unchecked chat boxes ftw!)

StormDragonZ · Apr 21, 2008, 04:34 PM // 16:34

Jealousy is the greatest evil in any online game. If you had to think about everything that people complain about, in the end, jealousy is the key perpetrator. You want a good community? Make sure everyone finds a way to enjoy the game without someone else GO RED ENGINE about it all the time.

Shuuda · Apr 21, 2008, 04:34 PM // 16:34

All communities are the same, their all human, and not in a good way.

deluxe · Apr 21, 2008, 04:39 PM // 16:39

I think it's safe to say that CounterStrike has the most rotten game community you can find.

Lyphen · Apr 21, 2008, 04:40 PM // 16:40

I don't know where you guys are playing WoW, but a battleground's chat is sewage. And you know someone is really trying when something legible comes from the opposing faction.

I played around 30 matches in RA this weekend. No trashtalking. Only the odd GG at the end of a match. Only in Aspenwood (1 match) did I see someone complain.

StormDragonZ · Apr 21, 2008, 04:44 PM // 16:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyphen

Only in Aspenwood (1 match) did I see someone complain.

Played on Kurzick side and two people complained on our side that we had it too easy, so one of them left.

Moral of the story: If it doesn't make you have to complain because of losing, sometimes complaining on winning too much ends up being the case.

pumpkin pie · Apr 21, 2008, 04:44 PM // 16:44

cannot help you there, I don't play other MMORPG, and, I don't play with other people in GW that often to know if they are good people or bad people or just people with bad languages. but there are some people who would go on a "typing war" while they are in Alliance Battle, but, I suppose that is normal because Luxon and Kurziks are never friends, even Lukas says he can't believe the monastary let the Luxon in, right?

However, I do encounter a lot of very helpful and generous players during my 28months +- of GW days. And have also encounter a handful of cheaters and not so pleasant players, but only a handful.

korcan · Apr 21, 2008, 04:47 PM // 16:47

i may be thick skinned or oblivious, but less than appropriate online behaviour has never really bothered me.

i think i've just become numb to all the idiocy i've seen online, but from my online gaming experiences, guildwars would probably rank somewhere in the middle in terms of a helpful/friendly gaming community.

Punio4 · Apr 21, 2008, 04:47 PM // 16:47

My logic:
Why do FPS-es, and GW have the most idiots?
Because most of the idiots are basement-dwelling 12-year-olds / college dropouts / chavs and the like.

Now. What do FPS-es and GW have in common?

No-monthly-fee.

That's right. No sane parent would dish 15$ a month to his kid to play an online game. Analogly, I don't know of any 12-year-old who earns his money.

The most they can squeeze out is "Mommy/daddy buy me game xy."

Dr Strangelove · Apr 21, 2008, 04:49 PM // 16:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ctb

I wouldn't be that charitable. I don't think I've ever played an AB match where you didn't have jackasses swearing back and forth and insulting each other the whole time, and I'd guess about 1 in 3 TA/RA matches I see have a significant or extreme amount of trash talking.

There's rarely more than a couple of loud idiots playing AB in a single match. The rest of the 24 players there, the silent majority, are perfectly fine. In fact, that fits perfectly with your RA matches - around 1-2 of every 24 players try to ruin things for everyone else. I'd say a 5-10% chance of moron is pretty good, compared to real life.