I have a friend who doesn't play WoW, but his roommate does. As a psychologist, my friend is a more astute observer of individual behavior than I am. At lunch one day, he theorized that we tend to play World of Warcraft with the same attitude that have in the real world. On this surface this statement seemed to be correct. People in game and in life vary from kind, helpful souls to nasty boorish trolls.
I like to think of myself as WYSIWYG (what you see what you get). I try to portray myself online with the same values that I feel define me as a person. I set goals and work hard to achieve them. I consider myself a good friend. Every once in a while I go too far and take on the role of martyr in both game and in life. This is something I'm proud of; on the contrary, I wish I could stop myself from doing it.
On the flip side, the anonymity of the Internet seems to get the better of some people. People say and do some of the most outlandish and offensive things online- particularly in-game and on the WoW official forums. I'd like to believe that they would not behave the same way to people they met on the street. I have found at least one inconsistency of my own: I am more likely to give a dollar to a homeless person in a park than to give gold to a beggar in Orgrimar.
How similar is your WoW self to your real self?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-17-2008 @ 8:46AM
Lucas said...
I'm the guy in your guild who calls out your guild leader for being a racist, and then proceeds to insult his leadership decisions and GQUIT.
Happened multiple times.
Calling out homophobes/racists/sexists > Being guilded
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2-17-2008 @ 10:13AM
hamiltonerics said...
Hear hear! Integrity ftw.
2-17-2008 @ 11:08AM
Lucas said...
I know.
Gah gotta get rid of these "standards", they really limit my raiding viability.
Last guild I was in I GQuit after about 5 hours of sitting in vent hearing officers sound like fundamentalists...
2-18-2008 @ 3:41PM
Zonique said...
Yes mate, except i tend to call out people for it over trade or in STV. Especially people with offensive names like 'Gypohunter' (might mean something if you live in the UK)
2-19-2008 @ 11:48AM
Good_Idea said...
You've had multiple racist guild leaders and you've gquit because of it multiple times? Maybe there is something wrong with you or perhaps your choice of guilds. If the guild name is "Mein Kampf" maybe you shouldn't join lol.
2-19-2008 @ 5:30PM
Lucas said...
Not really, they'll have a normal sounding guild name and they'll act normally then BAM! They'll lay down some kind of broad generalization that really creeps me out (my old GL basically said that he wanted every arab in the murder to be murdered).
Oh also, go onto the Vashj forums, you'll see this guy called trucks. He is INSANE. Former GL of mine...
2-17-2008 @ 8:47AM
Timothy Bower said...
Y'know, I notice somethin' about my WoW self is different from myself. I'm a lot nicer, and generally I am like that on the internet. It could be that when I first came to this mystical place of wires, I acted like a dick, because I could... But that gets no one anywhere, and for every nice person, there's 800 jerks following.
However, on WoW, contrary to when I want to make jokes, if a new player says somethin' stupid, I'll laugh and try and help him out... I even find myself just... Giving away gold to people, sometimes for no reason... I remember I feigned one day outside Stormwind and every time someone would pass I'd say "Help." No one would stop... Until one person did, a little level 25 Rogue. I pop up, and say he's a nice person, and gave him 50 gold (Pre-BC, mind you) and ran off...
Whether I'm nice there, or just bored... He seemed happy. I figure you might as well make your time pleasant avoiding fights, and not giving other people frustration. Though, in real life... I love to argue, that's one of my favorite pass times. So much so I'll go watch a bad movie just so I can rant on about how much it sucked.
Also I'm one of those guys who has to tell everyone about everything about the game... Which you guys here have not helped me ditch that problem...
But yeah, my WoW persona is a little more pleasant to deal with, generally helpful, a little more giving. But the real life me is that too, to a degree... Just more mouthy.
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2-17-2008 @ 8:48AM
Timothy Bower said...
Wow, I didn't know that was that long of a post... Geez.
2-17-2008 @ 8:48AM
Bixxi said...
My WoW personality is somewhat schizophrenic. I have a pink hair female gnome I raid on, and an Undead Shadow Priest on a PVP server that's in a guild called .
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2-17-2008 @ 10:11AM
xenothaulus said...
People in my guild have taken to calling me Grandpa, because I'm very much a "get off my lawn" type of person I guess. It also has a bit to do with my age, but I'm not the oldest in the guild. (Damned close though).
I'm actually a bit nicer in the game than I am in real life, probably. I tend to help people out, even ones I don't know, running new people through low-level instances to help gear them out, or running escorts for someone that wants to get to an area far away that they'd need to trek through a high-level area to reach. In the real world, I tend to ignore most humans as wastes of organic matter.
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2-17-2008 @ 10:31AM
Hoggersbud said...
I'm the person who is nice to everybody, always prepared, then suddenly gets fed up with all the shit and quits.
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2-17-2008 @ 10:34AM
airwalke said...
My online persona is wildly different from my actual persona. In game, I'm very light-hearted and constantly making stupid jokes/puns... but get me on vent, and I'm the quietest person you'll meet. To top it off, I have the deepest voice that completely throws people off when they know my toon is a gnome.
2-17-2008 @ 11:09AM
Lucas said...
Same for me; apparently I sound like a twenty year old :O
(me=14)
I guess these people know some pretty effeminate 20 year olds...
2-17-2008 @ 10:47AM
Jarviswabi said...
I tend to be pretty much myself in WoW, probably a bit freer and more chatty than I am IRL. My guild labelled me a Level 375 wiseass, because I see my job to be to keep everyone laughing. I love all the different personalities you run across, except for the asshats mentioned in #1. I too feel a responsibility to call out ignorant behavior and make it clear that it's NOT okay to call someone a f*g for any reason, especially an in-game argument.
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2-17-2008 @ 3:38PM
outforprophets said...
For me, saying fag is making you a homophobe as much as saying bitch makes you a sexist. And I don't think saying bitch makes you sexist.
2-17-2008 @ 11:13AM
Zeplar said...
What...is...that...picture? AHH!
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2-17-2008 @ 12:43PM
Lucas said...
Looks like an imminent rape scene. Notice the tail between the legs.
2-17-2008 @ 11:20AM
MystikRavynAutumnn said...
TYPO - thinD should be thinK
"I like to thind of myself as WYSIWYG (what you see what you get). "
WTB Spellcheck
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2-17-2008 @ 1:10PM
Aticus said...
I find myself acting the same both in and out of the game. If I do group with people, I like to get right to the point and get the quest done with haste. I'm like that at work as well. My boss will give me a project, I'll do that project, and only that project, until it's complete.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
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2-17-2008 @ 1:58PM
Gimmlette said...
My experience has been that those people I have met outside of WOW play fairly close to how they are in real life. We became friends because, even though you try to craft a certain personna in the game, who you are and how you were raised comes through and we all have a similar set of values. We might try to be something we're not, but, in the end, who we are takes over. I am helpful, sometimes put upon, sometimes unable to say no, sometimes running to the rescue.
@1, there's probably a guild somewhere for you, but it may take more bouncing to find it. I don't tolerate that kind of language/behavior in my guild. You may have to sit through some scary conversations before you find a guild with your values. There's nothing wrong with a group of [insert ideals] having their own guild as long as you know, up front, that's the tenor of the guild. Still, if the whole tone of the guild is racist, isn't that a ToS violation in and of itself?
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