Thursday, February 11, 2010

The average gamer is selfish

You know it’s interesting, I’ve learned a lot about the MMO community in the last month and I don’t think I like it. I have been playing a Warlock leveling up in Outlands and now Northrend using the Dungeon Finder feature. My goal is to hit level 80 on my Warlock by primarily doing dungeons, I’m currently level 72.

The more time I spend in dungeons the more I realize just how bad or lazy people are. I understand that at times DPS, damage per second, Meters can be misleading. The main reason I run one is to get an idea of how I’m improving. However if it weren’t for the DPS meters I wouldn’t realize how little DPS some people did.

I typically average 1200-1500 damage per second in a group, which is including my pet. 1200 on single pulls and 1500 on nice big AoE pulls. I know that as a Warlock I’m going to have some of the highest average DPS out of the other classes in my group. I’ve never considered myself to be cocky or flaunt my skill over others. The problem is lately there are people who consistently do less damage then my pet. Most people I group with tend to be in the 500-600 DPS range and my pet is normally doing about 450.

The last 3 times someone has done less damage then my pet by the first boss I have called them out on it. I never compare MY DPS to theirs; it is always them versus just my pet. These people always have an excuse too. One Death Knight said he was eating noodles so his DPS was low, a Paladin said he was mostly AFK and a druid said the same thing.

Why do these people enter a dungeon without the intent to at least try? It is partially because with the Dungeon Finder feature there is no accountability for poor performance. We aren’t on the same server so they can ninja loot, afk, or just be plain bad and there is little I can do about it. Now I don’t want to just blame Dungeon Finder for this, because it isn’t forcing these people to act this way, it is however enabling them too.

MMO gamers today seem very much more selfish than they were 10 years ago. I think that is the standard commentary on society in general now but I’m sure as everyone gets older they all feel that way. The players in World of Warcraft don’t care about anyone but themselves. They constantly use the “it’s my $15 I’ll do what I want” as an excuse. To me that doesn’t sit right. Yes these are games and you should have fun but whatever happened to taking pride in what you do? What happened to the consideration of others?

Just because it is your $15 and your life does not give you the right to ignore the feelings and happiness of others. That is called being selfish. I don’t care how you try and spin it; nothing gives you the right to be a lazy selfish prick if it is going to affect the gaming experience of someone else. When people start thinking of the community again over themselves then MMOs may just have a chance to turn back into what originally made them great, the community.

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