Assholes Abound

Now, I've played this game for a long time. I recall when the AQ event happened, and feeling at a loss for how I can recover my beloved Feralas. I remember what it was like to see a member of the Top Guild, inspect their shinies, and vow I'll be like them some day. I spent a lot of time in cities, rolling my eyes at the meaningless babble. Remember when the global LFG channel was implemented? Scary times, man. But in all those years, I have no memory of the amount of assholeness that I see today.

It's possible it's just me, but have the big, progressive guilds sudden taken a turn for the pricks? The guild in topic has been on server since Day 1, and I've had friends in and out of the guild. They suffered a rough split in early BC, but the group of people as a whole have just been honest, proud raiders. There would always be a jokester member, some who hang out in trade, but they rarely uttered a demeaning word such as "scrub". They had huge egos, to be sure, but they weren't used as a weapon. Yesterday a "discussion" was going on about whether a 500g fee for crafting some ICC patterns was honest. The seller informed on of his accusers that he did not need the opinion of a "scrub hunter." Really? I mean, wouldn't "idiot" equally suffice? "Uneducated imbecile"? "Fool"? Why do you have belittle both his class and his guild membership? When I /who'd the seller, found out he was in the Top Guild, I bemoaned how the mighty have fallen.

I've done my fair share of name calling, don't get me wrong. I've flustered over how the "casual" members of Guild Y managed to down a boss before us. But I've never referred to anyone as a "bad" outside of my guild. I'll specifically trash talk people who are on the same level as me in terms of game play and experience, not people who don't know how to pull pyrite when riding shotgun in a demolisher.

So why have the assholes multiplied? I'm going to make an unresearched correlation and blame the new raid system. Normal vs Heroic. Easy vs Hard. All the loot looks the same, they all have the basic level stats. You couldn't tell the difference at first glance between raider of Guild A and raider of Guild M. Are raiders a bit frustrated by this? I think so. There is considerable more pressure now to prove you are not a bad player, that your iLevel gear was earned with hard work and diligence and not just through a random PUG found in Trade; that you have been playing this class as your main for years, not just as an alt, casually earning your tier through badge runs. And so the inevitable happens when a group of males must prove their manliness when nothing else distinguishes them: They talk shit, and their guild's reputation suffers.

Like I said, it might just be me. I'm in a new position, where I no longer have an assured raid spot. I have to PUG my way through the weekly raid quest. I have to compete for a GDKP raid poisition with alts from the Top Guilds, with friends of the leaders, and with people that buy gold. The world is a bit scarier place for me now, and keeping my eyes open is vital if I want to inch my way through progress.

Of course, this comes from a bad day back. My first two attempts at completing the Random Daily Heroic failed due to Brann bugging out (yes, another HoS...) and people immediately leaving if they find the random heroic happens to be Oculus. The second attempt at Oculus was successful, thankfully. I tried to get into a group for Ulduar 10 to down Razorscale, but I was totally ignored, even after the leader specifically said "need a warrior, mage, or pally dps." Really? This is Ulduar 10, to Razorscale - what can a mage do that I cannot? And are you really concerned that I will be taking gear from another hunter? I just linked Glory of the Ulduar Raider to prove to you I know what I'm doing - I don't think I'll be needing gear. Then came the slew of embarressing WSG defeats, followed by a duo of equally as embarressing WG failures. The Horde has so much promise; why do they have to be so single minded?

The only highlight of my day came when I saved a boomkin from a human pally in between Wintergrasp battles. It was by total chance - I had just sniped a draenei hunter with about 5% mana, and I was flying down to drink up when they appeared in front of me. The boomkin thanked me, and we parted ways. I was doing some fishing before the battle when I got a tell saying that I was an ass for interrupting their little duel and that hunters are always butting in where they don't belong. I asked him how long he'd known of the concept of world PvP and if he considers rape just casual sex, too. Moral of the story, kids: World PvP means that anyone can enter your little "duel".