Elitist attitude viral in today's gaming community?

Randayn

I’m noticing, even with a lot of casual players, that a lot of gamers are starting to become very elitist about MMO gaming.  From gear specs, to “ZOMG you died…noob”, to learn your job talk and all that.  I don’t really have much of a problem there, but I notice others being talked down to for not playing their class to perfection.

When did the gaming community forget to have fun?  I would attribute it toward the following:

1.        Gear scores

2.       Action based combat introduction

3.       PVP

4.       Hand-holding prevalence throughout the rest of the game (where it wouldn’t be in the dungeons)

Anything to add, subtract?  What’s your opinion?

TheDove

Originally posted by Randayn

I’m noticing, even with a lot of casual players, that a lot of gamers are starting to become very elitist about MMO gaming.  From gear specs, to “ZOMG you died…noob”, to learn your job talk and all that.  I don’t really have much of a problem there, but I notice others being talked down to for not playing their class to perfection.

When did the gaming community forget to have fun?  I would attribute it toward the following:

1.        Gear scores

2.       Action based combat introduction

3.       PVP

4.       Hand-holding prevalence throughout the rest of the game (where it wouldn’t be in the dungeons)

Anything to add, subtract?  What’s your opinion?

5. 'My game is THE GAME... everything else is shit'

7. Massive, out of game 'guilds' who view every MMO release as a new lolz grief engine. Sole purpose of said 'guilds' is to simply deprive everyone else of any enjoyment.

waynejr2

Originally posted by TheDove

Originally posted by Randayn

I’m noticing, even with a lot of casual players, that a lot of gamers are starting to become very elitist about MMO gaming.  From gear specs, to “ZOMG you died…noob”, to learn your job talk and all that.  I don’t really have much of a problem there, but I notice others being talked down to for not playing their class to perfection.

When did the gaming community forget to have fun?  I would attribute it toward the following:

1.        Gear scores

2.       Action based combat introduction

3.       PVP

4.       Hand-holding prevalence throughout the rest of the game (where it wouldn’t be in the dungeons)

Anything to add, subtract?  What’s your opinion?

5. 'My game is THE GAME... everything else is shit'

7. Massive, out of game 'guilds' who view every MMO release as a new lolz grief engine. Sole purpose of said 'guilds' is to simply deprive everyone else of any enjoyment.

H:  Leaving out number 6!

9:  I wrote a Hello World HTML page once so I know exactly how MMORPG should be created.  (AKA:  wannabe game dev).

TheDove

#6 would have gotten me banned

Randayn

HAHAHA

Pepeq

Originally posted by Randayn

I’m noticing, even with a lot of casual players, that a lot of gamers are starting to become very elitist about MMO gaming.  From gear specs, to “ZOMG you died…noob”, to learn your job talk and all that.  I don’t really have much of a problem there, but I notice others being talked down to for not playing their class to perfection.

When did the gaming community forget to have fun?  I would attribute it toward the following:

1.        Gear scores

2.       Action based combat introduction

3.       PVP

4.       Hand-holding prevalence throughout the rest of the game (where it wouldn’t be in the dungeons)

Anything to add, subtract?  What’s your opinion?

Play with friends and don't rely on some automated queue system or a tell in trade chat and all of the above is irrelevant.

 

The problem here is, the gaming community forgot about having friends.

bcbully

Action and pvp? Come on man. The WoW tab target raiders are the leetest of the leet, even the wannabes will kick people form completely non consequential dungeons. Plus they demand that player be over geared for lesser content in order to get an invite. Because of these people gear score was invented. Before then they would call you to iron forge to inspect you gear!

 

No op PvP and action combat have nothing to do with elitist. In action pvp environments, if you can get the job done you are welcome. 

rojoArcueid

i think gear score is the main reason for elitism in mmorpgs. Game success should never be attributed to gear score, teamwork and skill should always be the reason for success. That is the main reason i never do dungeons in my favorite mmo(GW2), elitists keep kicking people out unless i have the best gear. Guess what? if i had had the best gear i would have ZERO need to run a dungeon. 

 

Mmo companies should change how they develop mmos, and completely remove the idea of higher gear score automatically equating to better player. Its all about the numbers, unfortunately the fun factor is left behind.

FlyByKnight

When in doubt blame "action combat", PVP or consoles for things anonymous fools do on PC games.

 

Since we're being so cliche, let me add (for absolutely no reason).

• WoW
• Alienware
• Obama

CrazKanuk

#10 - A-Holes rule the Internet and, therefore, my kids want to grow up to be aholes. Thanks YouTube! Remember kids, if you don't have anything nice to say, then a career in streaming could be for you!

Randayn

Originally posted by bcbully

Action and pvp? Come on man. The WoW tab target raiders are the leetest of the leet, even the wannabes will kick people form completely non consequential dungeons. Plus they demand that player be over geared for lesser content in order to get an invite. Because of these people gear score was invented. Before then they would call you to iron forge to inspect you gear!

 

No op PvP and action combat have nothing to do with elitist. In action pvp environments, if you can get the job done you are welcome. 

But an elitist attitude goes much further than just "best gear or no dungeon"....again, it's the attitude of "play your class right"...and things like that.  Some people want to have fun playing the game including group play, but they are shunned on when they aren't the best of the best.  I was actually kicked from a group because I did the finder as a tank, but another tank was there as dps, decided to tank and so I switched to dps gear (not very good gear either).  I was kicked because I wasn't doing enough dps.

Instances like this happen all the time and it speaks more about mentality than gear score.  The twitch, e-sport, hyper competitives seem to be the ring leaders.  They have to WIN! and win easy.  That's why I threw in action and pvp...they go hand in hand with them.

Roguewiz

Elitist attitudes existed before Gear Scores.  Instead of gear scores, it was progression/keys or specific gear.  The only thing different between now and then is the number of people playing MMOs.

Randayn

Originally posted by Roguewiz

Elitist attitudes existed before Gear Scores.  Instead of gear scores, it was progression/keys or specific gear.  The only thing different between now and then is the number of people playing MMOs.

I agree there were and will always be elitists, but Im talking about (from my view point) that has gotten to the point where most are elitists...the minority is now the casual player who just wants to have fun.

Fangrim

ACT the dps checker,it also tells people when people are cursed when mobs are doing spells,it makes people fing dummies,turn off act and they have no clue. I refuse to use it in EQ2,I watch the mob and see when it is casting spells so I know when to joust etcetera and look at my detriment bar for if I get a curse or some other thing. A bit  off topic but the dps checker on ACT has ruined pug groups for me.

Randayn

Originally posted by Fangrim
ACT the dps checker,it also tells people when people are cursed when mobs are doing spells,it makes people fing dummies,turn off act and they have no clue. I refuse to use it in EQ2,I watch the mob and see when it is casting spells so I know when to joust etcetera and look at my detriment bar for if I get a curse or some other thing. A bit  off topic but the dps checker on ACT has ruined pug groups for me.

agree 100%....I forgot to throw that in there!

TheDove

Originally posted by CrazKanuk
#10 - A-Holes rule the Internet and, therefore, my kids want to grow up to be aholes. Thanks YouTube! Remember kids, if you don't have anything nice to say, then a career in streaming could be for you!

hahahaha

Battlerock

Games are still fun - they are taken way to seriously though - that's partly because of how much time and money people have put into a hobby. When you see the elites, the Joneses, the 24/7 streamer just ignore them, it's just a video game anyhow.

Agnostic42

Many games cater to and actually demand that the players be like this. It's part of Online gaming and how to 'Hook' the players. When the games themselves offer a way for players to frequent the forums and copy the gaming tactics, mods and macros of other players who are gaming at a higher level, it allows lower ability gamers the ability to elevate their playing experience to those of higher tier players and also causes the nasty bit of Elitism to rear its ugly head from a wider majority of gamers.

 

Players with and without skill only need a voice and anonymity to display how awesome they are (and better than) through as vulgar of means as they are allowed. Elevating ones ego through putting down other players is rampant in gaming and by allowing everyone access to the same methods it creates an unnecessary power struggles where only the clueless and egotistic who haven't figured it out that everyone is equal and has access to equality belittle everyone they feel is lower. Granted there are many other clueless players that lack the desire to better themselves.

 

I'm not saying forums, macros and mods are bad, per se. They allow players the ability to 'leech' off other players and create a false sense of accomplishment that they wouldn't have earned otherwise. Just that many of today's gamers are in fact idiots that haven't realized yet that they aren't special and that everyone has access to what they feel makes them gaming gods.

 

 

Randayn

Originally posted by Battlerock
Games are still fun - they are taken way to seriously though - that's partly because of how much time and money people have put into a hobby. When you see the elites, the Joneses, the 24/7 streamer just ignore them, it's just a video game anyhow.

I agree, it's hard sometimes...I gotta get over it though :P.  

Randayn

Originally posted by Agnostic42

Many games cater to and actually demand that the players be like this. It's part of Online gaming and how to 'Hook' the players. When the games themselves offer a way for players to frequent the forums and copy the gaming tactics, mods and macros of other players who are gaming at a higher level, it allows lower ability gamers the ability to elevate their playing experience to those of higher tier players and also causes the nasty bit of Elitism to rear its ugly head from a wider majority of gamers.

 

Players with and without skill only need a voice and anonymity to display how awesome they are (and better than) through as vulgar of means as they are allowed. Elevating ones ego through putting down other players is rampant in gaming and by allowing everyone access to the same methods it creates an unnecessary power struggles where only the clueless and egotistic who haven't figured it out that everyone is equal and has access to equality belittle everyone they feel is lower. Granted there are many other clueless players that lack the desire to better themselves.

 

I'm not saying forums, macros and mods are bad, per se. They allow players the ability to 'leech' off other players and create a false sense of accomplishment that they wouldn't have earned otherwise. Just that many of today's gamers are in fact idiots that haven't realized yet that they aren't special and that everyone has access to what they feel makes them gaming gods.

 

 

wow...I think you nailed it!

Xyire

Hello everyone, now shut the fuck up and listen to what I have to say.  I am the best in the world.  If I lose its because my team was too heavy and I'm the best in the world.  If I win I didn't have a team and I am the best in the world.

 

I think that just about covers it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxiwkTJ04vo

Tanemund

Elitism existed before Gear Scores.  All Gear Scores does is give elitists an easy crutch with which to perpetuate their elitism.  It makes elitism more prevalent now because there is an easily identifiable "number" that someone has to hit to be included in the group.  Elitists used to seek each other out.  Now everyone tries to make their group/friends/guild into an elite haven.  I'm not sure its "elitism" so much as an "Us v. Them" mentality meaning "we" are clearly superior to "them."  Somewhere between MUDs and today's MMORPGs the idea of community went from everyone in my realm to everyone in my guild/friends list.  I think a few things are responsible for that.

 

1. Focus on the End Game and viewing every other piece of content as something to be endured and powered through rather than enjoyed.  I'm not sure when this happened but when I first started playing MMOs the leveling curve was so long that most toons never reached max level and therefore no one talked about "end game".  Instead there was the game.  Period.  The rush now is to get to max level everything with the minimum of effort.  In most games now you can level crafting while you're doing something else by having an NPC slave do it.

 

2. Proliferation of informational websites that give full walk-throughs on content the day the game is released.  One of the purposes of community was to pass along information such as, where is a good spot for this level or I've got a great spot to farm gold etc.  Now you just log onto the wiki and cookbook your way through the game.  Because of this easy access to information people don't feel any need to connect with anyone and/or will be intolerant of anyone asking questions.  This also includes leveling guides which will take a player from 0 to max level without even once grouping with another player.

 

3. The movement by developers to "reward" players for every second they spend in game.  Heck the developers reward people for simply making an account.  This can be anything from bonus XP to gear etc, but today's MMOs are stuffed to the gills with things that reward players for simply expressing an interest in the game.  This ties in with the informational websites in that a player can simply avoid content that doesn't provide the proper "reward" of XP or gear to facilitate leveling as quickly as possible.

 

4. Player choice.  No matter how you program the game, if people choose to be "isolationist" "elitist" "xenophobic" or whatever that is how they're going to play the game.  You cannot program community into a game.  That is a choice the player base makes and for whatever the underlying reason, most people choose not to associate.  Today people not only Min/Max their avatars, they Min/Max the circle of people they interact with in the game.  It simply means they hang out with people that can effectuate their in game goals faster than others.  Those people may be friends, but those friends become expendable if they're not progressing in the way that an individual player wants to progress.

 

Just look at the way "PuG" or "Pick Up Group" has become one of the dirty words in online gaming.  Its become a way to call an entire group of people "noobs".  However this won't change until we gamers change it, and we won't because ... OMG TEH PIXELS R SHINY!

Agnostic42

Originally posted by Randayn

Originally posted by Agnostic42

Many games cater to and actually demand that the players be like this. It's part of Online gaming and how to 'Hook' the players. When the games themselves offer a way for players to frequent the forums and copy the gaming tactics, mods and macros of other players who are gaming at a higher level, it allows lower ability gamers the ability to elevate their playing experience to those of higher tier players and also causes the nasty bit of Elitism to rear its ugly head from a wider majority of gamers.

 

Players with and without skill only need a voice and anonymity to display how awesome they are (and better than) through as vulgar of means as they are allowed. Elevating ones ego through putting down other players is rampant in gaming and by allowing everyone access to the same methods it creates an unnecessary power struggles where only the clueless and egotistic who haven't figured it out that everyone is equal and has access to equality belittle everyone they feel is lower. Granted there are many other clueless players that lack the desire to better themselves.

 

I'm not saying forums, macros and mods are bad, per se. They allow players the ability to 'leech' off other players and create a false sense of accomplishment that they wouldn't have earned otherwise. Just that many of today's gamers are in fact idiots that haven't realized yet that they aren't special and that everyone has access to what they feel makes them gaming gods.

 

 

wow...I think you nailed it!

Take any game, say..... World of Warcraft.... and turn off the ability to use macro's and mods and you will see a drastic decline in average player skill, and then a steady decline in the player base, because so many elitist players will perceive it as "Just not fun anymore."

Randayn

Originally posted by Tanemund

Elitism existed before Gear Scores.  All Gear Scores does is give elitists an easy crutch with which to perpetuate their elitism.  It makes elitism more prevalent now because there is an easily identifiable "number" that someone has to hit to be included in the group.  Elitists used to seek each other out.  Now everyone tries to make their group/friends/guild into an elite haven.  I'm not sure its "elitism" so much as an "Us v. Them" mentality meaning "we" are clearly superior to "them."  Somewhere between MUDs and today's MMORPGs the idea of community went from everyone in my realm to everyone in my guild/friends list.  I think a few things are responsible for that.

 

1. Focus on the End Game and viewing every other piece of content as something to be endured and powered through rather than enjoyed.  I'm not sure when this happened but when I first started playing MMOs the leveling curve was so long that most toons never reached max level and therefore no one talked about "end game".  Instead there was the game.  Period.  The rush now is to get to max level everything with the minimum of effort.  In most games now you can level crafting while you're doing something else by having an NPC slave do it.

 

2. Proliferation of informational websites that give full walk-throughs on content the day the game is released.  One of the purposes of community was to pass along information such as, where is a good spot for this level or I've got a great spot to farm gold etc.  Now you just log onto the wiki and cookbook your way through the game.  Because of this easy access to information people don't feel any need to connect with anyone and/or will be intolerant of anyone asking questions.  This also includes leveling guides which will take a player from 0 to max level without even once grouping with another player.

 

3. The movement by developers to "reward" players for every second they spend in game.  Heck the developers reward people for simply making an account.  This can be anything from bonus XP to gear etc, but today's MMOs are stuffed to the gills with things that reward players for simply expressing an interest in the game.  This ties in with the informational websites in that a player can simply avoid content that doesn't provide the proper "reward" of XP or gear to facilitate leveling as quickly as possible.

 

4. Player choice.  No matter how you program the game, if people choose to be "isolationist" "elitist" "xenophobic" or whatever that is how they're going to play the game.  You cannot program community into a game.  That is a choice the player base makes and for whatever the underlying reason, most people choose not to associate.  Today people not only Min/Max their avatars, they Min/Max the circle of people they interact with in the game.  It simply means they hang out with people that can effectuate their in game goals faster than others.  Those people may be friends, but those friends become expendable if they're not progressing in the way that an individual player wants to progress.

 

Just look at the way "PuG" or "Pick Up Group" has become one of the dirty words in online gaming.  Its become a way to call an entire group of people "noobs".  However this won't change until we gamers change it, and we won't because ... OMG TEH PIXELS R SHINY!

agreed all the way...although I like endgame, I remember my favorite MMO "Anarchy Online" and that I never, never never reached the last level...210?  i think

Randayn

Take any game, say..... World of Warcraft.... and turn off the ability to use macro's and mods and you will see a drastic decline in average player skill, and then a steady decline in the player base, because so many elitist players will perceive it as "Just not fun anymore."

Yup, I think I remember doing Zul'Gurrub back when it first came out...there was none of that...you better watch and understand. 

I think that's how it was...can't remember.  Back then wipes were expected...now you get hung by your piers if you wipe.

Randayn

Originally posted by Xyire

Hello everyone, now shut the fuck up and listen to what I have to say.  I am the best in the world.  If I lose its because my team was too heavy and I'm the best in the world.  If I win I didn't have a team and I am the best in the world.

 

I think that just about covers it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxiwkTJ04vo

haha...awesome!!