World of Warcraft: A Rant on General Jerkholery

[Whir]

I have been playing wow since beta. I have seen the game change an incredible amount since I first activated my account in those early months of learning the game. I have taken half-year breaks when the game got boring. And I always come back.

I have not disliked a single change Blizzard has brought into the game to date. At least not in the scope of wide-reaching rebalancing and new content. The new multi-server looking for group system has been a real boon for small guilds like mine.

And while the implementation of the new LFG is nothing short of greatness, as with any large change in the social structure of a society -- and WoW has its own society -- it brings with it the dregs of humanity, or in this case, jerkhole players.

Even back on my original server, which had a very small horde population, rife with rumormongering and worse, people were generally not completely outrageous in their conduct. Of course you'd have the odd guy ninja the White Hawkstrider and the guy that stood in Org/Shat yelling his name in all capitals for no apparent reason, but by and large, people were civil.

With inter-server grouping, that seems to have changed completely. Combine this with the fact that it's really not very difficult to get a character geared up to a level where heroics seem trivial, and you end up a lot of cocky, bad players.

And herein lies the rub: a lot of people play WoW for entertainment and this kind of absurd behavior absolutely takes all the fun out of it. I have encountered more foul-mouthed teenagers, completely incapable of typing full words and communicating intelligently in the last few months of WoW than in the five years previous. I don't think I can count the number of times I've seen someone call someone else a "faggot" (or "fagget" as it's often misspelled) for making a simple suggestion or even better, dying on a pull where the tank, usually the derider, failed to do his job properly and then blamed whoever got whacked. And I'm quite sure this kind of thing isn't limited to teenagers.

The problem with the multi-server system is that it adds a bit more disconnection between the players. It's much easier to get away with mouthing off or being a downright douchebag when the other guy has to log on to your server, make a character and then hopefully remember how to spell your name so he can confront you there. And even if he does, you'll just put him on ignore and laugh about it with your (probably) equally unintelligent and sociopathic guildmates. It's really a sad thing and I doubt it's what the people at Blizzard had in mind.

Another thing the latest changes have brought upon the WoW society is the widespread rise of elitism. Players that jump on another player for any mistake, real or perceived, because they think they are the best player out there. And hey, sometimes they're right -- but that doesn't really leverage an excuse to be a jerk about it.

It also leads to people who think that any 80, geared in greens, should be carried through a heroic by a group of random strangers. It's completely disrespectful to the people you're playing with to have them use their playing time to gear you out. If your guild doesn't help you, find a new guild, or run regulars until you have the gear to keep up with what's expected in a heroic.

And maybe that sounds a little bit like elitism itself, but let me assure you, it's all about respecting the other people who are paying their $15/mo to enjoy their gaming experience. Put yourself in their shoes. And I've leveled nine toons to 80 (working on a tenth), so I know all about being a burden on people -- but I keep it in my guild where my friends willingly help each other with such things.

Another thing that's cropped up with the ubergearing in late game is the total disconnection from the geared level 80 and the leveling character. One of my pet peeves is a leveling tank who thinks that he can charge around an instance just like he does on his 251+ geared toon. These guys usually pull more than they can successfully hold, don't pay any attention to where their group is or how much mana they might have and generally take any kind of suggestion (like "hey, I need to drink if you want heals") as insults to the very foundation of their existence.

I'm not proud of it, but I have left groups where a tank has pulled half the instance and caused other players to get their character killed due to his dire need to prove his epeen is intact and working. I simply cannot abide these players (and neither should you).

Tanks, your job is to make sure your group stays alive. You do this by keeping the enemy focused on you. If you're running around like an idiot trying to pick up multiple groups with no real AoE abilities, you simply can not do so. What you're doing is not cool, it's annoying. If you need to feel like you are the baddest thing in the instance, please go back to your level 80 and let those trying to level like sane individuals enjoy the game.

Pay attention to things like where the group is, the group's overall status (health, mana, afflictions, etc) and if someone has gone AFK for something. And if you have the ability to help with those situations, do so. I cannot describe to you the number of paladin tanks that simply refuse to cleanse party members even when there is no other class present that can remove those afflictions. Druids as well.

Healers, your job is to make sure that the party stays alive as well. You should not be running ahead pulling more mobs onto the tank, typing in party chat while group members are being mauled by mobs the tank isn't tanking, or telling people how much they suck because they died and it's their fault. Do not be afraid to ask a tank to pause so you can recover mana or heal the group back to full. Do not be afraid to ask a DPSer to tone it down if they are consistently pulling threat from the tank. The tank may be the party leader, but you're the beating heart that keeps it all going.

DPSers, your job is kill things. You kill them dead. Hard. But trying to beat your personal best DPS rating on every single pull of every single run can lead to a few things like large repair bills and irritated tanks and healers. Learn when to recognize a tank isn't as well-geared as you are and when you will not be able to go full out no matter how good the tank is. Summarily, do not blame the tank for losing threat and a mob killing you when as a DPSer, you have full control over the amount of threat you cause.

Doing so much damage that a tank can't keep a mob? Wait a few seconds longer before engaging. Sure your overall damage done will be lower, but your DPS will be just as high and you'll save the tank and healer some precious sanity points. If you simply can't stand there doing nothing for a few seconds, start DPS slow. Autoattack, use low-threat abilities or even threat-reduction abilities (I am quite convinced that rogues don't even remember what Feint does, let alone put it on their bars). Your job is to make sure the mob dies, but also to make sure the tank can do his job effectively and that the healer has to worry less about you and can focus on the tank.

Real tanks don't try to be heroes. Real tanks judge their abilities by how cleanly they can get a group through a situation. Real tanks want to be on top of damage taken. Real tanks help other players become better at their jobs by explaining how said players are making life difficult for them.

Real healers don't watch healing meters. Real healers know when and which of their spells are the best for a certain situation. Real healers take pride in hard-won victories.

Real DPSers, like tanks, don't try to be heroes. Real DPSers know how to ride threat like a wave. Real DPSers don't use damage meters for epeening, but for studying what rotations and spells work best in specific situations. Real DPSers help a tank do their job by doing theirs well.

If it were a perfect Azeroth, all players would learn how to play their classes well (perfection is not required, just a level of reliability), treat their fellows players with respect, and have as much fun as possible without causing problems for other players. Obviously that will never happen -- such is human nature. But you'll find yourself more widely accepted outside of your circle of friends, which will allow you to get into more rewarded situations in the long run.

If you need advice on how to fine-tune your character and play it in the way Blizzard developers had in mind, elitist jerks is a great place to go. Although even they can't seem to decide on what to do with warriors...

If you need advice on how to get along with people in-game, I offer these four words that have kept me and my guildmates getting into large and successful pick-up raids and groups on our new server: Don't be a dick.

[nemowolf]

exactly why i left over two years ago ... people suck.

[tony_j15]

the general level of douchebaggery and faggettry () has greatly increased. It used to be, I had an idea who the good tanks and healers were and people would warn you about bad players. I remember dropping out of instances several times because we knew the tank was an idiot. It used to be, everyone would jump in and buff each other. I play a Lock, and I always soulstone the tank or healer, give everyone a healthstone, and port people in. My brother plays a mage, there was always food and drink offered to every player.
A few months back we jumped in an instance and the mage wouldn't give anyone shit. We all kept asking him and he wouldn't share jack squat. Told us if we needed that sort of thing, we should go to town and buy it because he wasn't wasting his time and money on us.
And that's when I knew WoW was dead.