The WoWing stigma

[Flying-Emu]

I'd like to pose a question to the esteemed members of this forum;

Why this discrimination against the World of Warcraft (or any MMO in general) player?

I realize that there are those nuts who play World of Warcraft, or Warhammer, or Guild Wars, or whatever for 10-12 hours a day. Those folks that will camp a single enemy type for days to get a helm with an extra stamina point.

But what irritates me is this stigma, discrimination, if you will, that all players of MMOs act as such. I browse forums, and anyone who even mentions World of Warcraft is instantly bombarded with flamers, saying that they obviously have no lives, family, or significant others.

I know for a fact that this isn't the truth, as I have plenty of friends, a social life, strong family ties, and a loving girlfriend. I know many other people who play World of Warcraft that have the same situation.

Why do so many people believe that the entirety of the MMO community consists of useless drains on society, when many of them are productive members of their community?

Give me a good reason why MMO players should be judged by the few, rather than the many, and you will have amazed me.

 

[Good morning blues]

Because it's easy and hilarious

 

[black lincon]

Because it's easy and hilarious

what he said

 

[Avida]

Most people discriminant of MMO players are sore that they cannot afford/are too young to buy a subscription, and the others because above all other game genres it is known to absorb peoples lives and they may have lost someone to that (knowing examples of both personally)

 

[insectoid]

There's no good reason.

People pick because they can...

 

[Panayjon]

People are silly and mob mentality goes a long way, as seen here in your very own thread. Halo players are seen as drunken frat-boys with the courtesy of mules. Fighting game enthusiasts are seen as twitchy number crunching obsessives. There's a certain personality attributed to every genre, MMOs are just part of that odd tradition.

 

[dnv2]

Maybe they had a bad experience with a WoW player?

Like the one I had where a guy told me "Go get Cancer" because I wouldn't invite him to a group.

Granted not all WoW players are like that, my best friend regularly plays it.

I guess I can see where the stigma gets attached people like the aforementioned guy almost warrant a bad response.

 

[crazy-j]

Because it's easy and hilarious

what he said

yup

 

[Xaryn Mar]

Simply because people are, well people, and humans need to look down on someone to feel like they belong to a group. We, humans, are after all still flock animals and our instincts tell us that those not belonging to our group, i.e. are different from us, are legal targets for ridicule.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I pick on WoW players because they are alien to me, and because I know some in person.

The fact that you will play the same dungeon, over and over and over again, kill the same enemies and do the same quests just to get one piece of new equipment disturbs me. The fact that some of you will do this and only this eschewing any other activity is even MORE disturbing.

 

[greygelgoog]

What you need to do is embrace every stereotype people label you with. So if anyone asks, I spend 24 hours a day farming fictitious creatures for magical clothing, act like I have a caffeine addiction, get a giant erection from guns, and hunt woodland creatures while pretending they're co-workers.

 

[gibboss28]

New from Gibboss Emporiums: The Gamer-insultomatic 2000

Here at Gibboss emporiums we realise that the common variety of internet troll may be too busy with typing out his insults and usually requires a bit of help.

People who play (Insert game genre here) are (Insert stereotypical insult to do with chosen game genre)

Thats the template now lets see how this works with this example

People who play World of Warcraft are a bunch of losers who have no life!

And thats not all. Order now and receive an added bonus at the end of your sentence. Make your point even more valid with a bunch of explanation marks or even a lol or 2!


*ahem*

but yeah its like Xaryn Mar said really. but i fancied doing that little bit for the hell of it.

 

[John Funk]

Because they need to L2P, nub.

*a-hem*

 

[Agayek]

It's mostly because the most "visible" MMO players are the ones that live in their parents' basement. There's plenty of people who play them and live perfectly normal lives, but nobody ever hears about them on the news or anything of the like. Essentially it boils down to that most non-MMO players only hear about the hopeless shut-ins and it's just become a stereotype.

 

[SomeCrazyGuy]

Here are a few reasons, either from personal experience or from what others seem to believe:
(Skip to #4 if you want to skip all the BS)

1.)
Short Story: They've encountered an anti-social jerk while playing an MMO.
Long Story: They've encountered one of the many (but certainly not a representative majority) players would take the game seriously enough to treat a fellow player in a disgusting fashion... One time I was told to kill myself because I didn't defend a battleground well enough, or to rephrase that, I was told that because I didn't do well enough at something I do for fun, that I should kill myself because of it. Another time, I joined a group to run an instance I had never done before, it just so happened I didn't deal enough damage for their tastes, and they decided that spending every second I remained there insulting me as a player, a person, and a living thing would be a fitting reaction.

2.)
Short Story: They are or know a person who is or once was, lacking a better word for it, a 'slave' to the game.
Long Story: I knew someone who used to spend 10-12 hours a day playing WoW, outside of WoW, they were and are a great friend, funny and intelligent... They just didn't do much with their free time beside play WoW. Thankfully, it only lasted a matter of months and he became bored enough to pul himself away, but during that time, he had become distant, I could see his sharp mind and clever wit dwindling, it was just sad to watch. So I can understand others getting angry or frustrated when they find another example of it, even if they didn't know a personal example of it, they know MMOs have a strong capability of making people become that, so it doesn't feel wrong to put all MMO players under that stereotype of the lifeless MMO player.

3.)
Short Story: The person making fun of the MMO player is insecure.
Long Story: We've all seen it, and it's hard to make a strong paragraph about it... That person who says that MMO players are lifeless, worthless things and says that they will be busy, after insulting people on an internet forum, having sex or something similar to that. Nothing says confidence like making fun of other peoples' short-comings and bragging about about sex in the safety of anonymity.

4.)
Short Story: It's the effing internet.
Long Story: Dude, it's the internet, everyone makes fun of anything they can get their hands on, seriously, it's not a big deal.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Two Words.
Grind-tastic.

 

[L33tsauce_Marty]

Making fun of WoW is easy as hell. Simple as that.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

It's a question of how I want to waste my time, I consider MMO's a more wasteful waste of time. I play games for immersive story, I want an action packed novel or movie that I can participate in as opposed to a mindless number crunch. Read any of my reviews, I like story based games and I tend to regard storyless games with a quizical "And I'm interested in you why?" sort of look. And in the end for me if a game doesn't have story, it better be exciting. MMO's have neither story nor excitement, they have grind.

Basically take a look at Yahtzee's Tabula Rasa and Age of Conan reviews and you'll get it.