Yes, yes I do.
Well I’ve been busy plugging away at raiding and gearing and dailies and everything else that goes with MoP (hence my lack of blogging), but it appears that no matter what you do in Azeroth, one thing remains constant – asshats.
In a recent Sha run I was putting together, I had the great displeasure of encountering a member of a new guild on Nagrand, Vault Hunters. This ‘warrior‘ joined the run as I was putting a shout out in trade chat, and a few pugs in the group asked for a brief run down on boss mechanics, as they hadn’t done it before.
Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in plenty of fail Sha runs, so I responded with ‘sure – once the run is full I’ll fill you in’ – after all, I’d rather one-shot the boss than wipe and have it tagged by the Horde on the corpse run back!
From this seemingly innocent and helpful response, aforementioned warrior pipes up in raid chat with ‘you just dps the boss – it’s not hard’.
Mhmmmm – right.
I continued to fill the group, as the warrior repeated himself a number of times – overandoverandoverandover again. I decided to respond politely with ‘well there are a number of people who have asked for a rundown, so I will be explaining basic mechanics. I prefer not to wipe because people don’t know what to do, and it doesn’t take long to explain. If you don’t like it, you’re free to leave – your choice’.
‘YOU JUST DPS – IT’S NOT HARD!’
*remove from group*
Alot of ‘thank god for that’ comments in raid chat. Within seconds, what do I get?
WARNING: Offensive language!
Just – wow.
I responded intelligently, and then put them on ignore. End of the story? I think not!
This asshat then took to trade chat, and abused me for an hour. I had them on ignore of course, but the abuse was so bad that people from other guilds were telling the guy to STFU. Now I know you’re probably thinking I shouldn’t have responded to this vitriol at all, but after the carrying on this person did in raid chat, I was getting pretty pissed, so figured a basic response would get them to bugger off.
As a female, I took great offence to the word used, so I did what is commonly perceived to be the ‘mature’ thing in an MMO -I did a /who and looked officers up on armory. Luckily (or so I thought at the time) one was online, so I whispered them to confirm this, asking ‘hey there, are you an officer?’.
Officer: ‘Of what?’
…..
Me: ‘your guild?’.
Officer: ‘so are you gonna have a cry to me about one of my guildies? You need to get a life, take a break and realise this is just a GAME.’
Me: ‘…… errr forget it.’ *ignore*
No asking what the issue was, just straight out abuse right off the bat. Charming.
After this, I sent an in-game mail to the GM, explaining the situation so that they knew how their players were interacting out in the world. There was no demand of a gkick, punishment or the like – just a factual account of the situation and an explanation of why I found the situation so offensive.
(As an aside, you do NOT just dps the effing Sha – Icy Veins wouldn’t bother to post a STRATEGY on it if you did! Yes, it is relatively simple, but you still need to stay out of Bitter Thoughts, break MC targets and move away from other players when you get Growing Anger – DERP.)
Need I repeat myself?
A day or so later, and after many, many abusive and borderline psychotic whispers from various members of this guild on mains and alts to both myself and other members of my guild (some of which went along the lines of ‘please tell your GM to stop harassing me and my guild members’ and asking ‘is it a woman? It must be a woman’)…
Errrr – what the serious EFF?! Yes, go ahead and report me for continuing to put you and your guild members on ignore…
To which I responded with ignore after ignore. Then their GM whispered me.
Well, at least he was polite…
He went on to tell me the worst offender was a 17 year old kid. Five years older than my own daughter, who would never consider speaking to people in such a manner, and who happened to be looking at my screen on one of the nights I was being sent foulmouthed abuse, which I spoke to their GM about (as she was upset that her mum was being spoken to that way). Apparently being a wow player means I am also neglecting my child…
Oh yes, I am the loser on the internet, abusing YOU?!?!?! Please, do continue!
Now I wouldn’t normally ‘name names’ in this kind of situation, but the abuse didn’t stop after multiple in-game tickets. It has stopped now, but I’m presuming that’s because I spent 2 hours on the phone to Blizzard until I could speak with someone about the situation, and they put in a strongly worded ticket from their end.
I’ve only shown the absolute ‘pearlers’ here, but suffice it to say, I have never experienced this level of harassment in all my years of wow, and if this is how the community is evolving into a ‘younger demographic’, I’m going to need to reconsider where I choose to spend my gaming time.
On a closing note, I have one last, rather hilarious screenshot to share with you…
It’s all good little boy, I don’t need to send it to Blizzard – that’s way too old school. I’ll just share your asshattery with the entire internet instead 🙂
I would advise all fellow Nagrandians to give these douchebags a wide berth.
/end rant
untamedhellcat 
The GM cannot control them, but we can all choose who we associate with. I’d rather not have people like that in WoW and would never tolerate it within the game.
Chin up Gen, we’ll see better than that. The insults were not even very clever.
Thanks for the support Mort – unfortunately they did get alot more creative than that, but I chose not to share it. If I had, it would have been a MASSIVE post. All the assumptions and judgements made by total strangers in response to one of their members being kicked from a 40 man raid group for bad behaviour just demonstrates to me that WoW, and Nagrand, is no longer the community it used to be. Sad, but I guess ‘working as intended’?
We’ll see if a bit of blogger talk might make it feel better. I’ve blogged it too.
To think that you even took the time to put together this compilation… I’m absolutely shocked how sad this is.
Why is your daughter watching you have arguments on a Video Game.
Do you even have a day job?
UNTAMEDHELLCAT EDIT: This is the person who called me a ‘CU Next Tuesday’ in the first place. I know this, because their GM accidentally sent a mis-tell to me with their ‘real’ name.
Seriously? You would condone behavior like that? The fact that you or anyone else, would put up with that sort of behavior really makes me sad, as well as doubt your maturity level. Any punk child with a PC can post obnoxious flames. It is just a statement to your character as a person. I would say enjoy your career in the fast food industry, but that would be an insult to the fast food industry. Gen, I am behind you 100%. And I believe this blatant harassment is grounds for Perma-banned accounts. But that’s Blizzards call….if they ever make one.
Pingback: How to ruin your Guild’s reputation | TyphoonAndrew's – Eye of the Storm
I bet they have a web page and we can post this on their forum
Nah Sal they don’t – they’re all ‘real life mates’ so I guess they don’t go by wow guild norms.
I will refrain from using language that will merely lower myself to their level.
I am astonished and horrified at the immaturity and extremely poor manners that these asshats have exhibited. In fact I am so infuriated I must get online and write a response after I put my daughter to bed.
Thanks Nav – I’ve put up with so much crap this week it took me some time to formulate a post, but this crap shouldn’t occur in the first place. Whatever happened to ‘good server guild relations’ I ask you?
This is horrid and am sorry you’ve had to go through this. Have you thought about submitting to Fat, Ugly or Slutty. It is a naming and shaming site for female gamers. http://fatuglyorslutty.com/
O.O I never knew about this! Thank you very much for the info! I will do so asap ❤
At first I thought, oh decent people, they actually stopped to ask for a rundown of the fight and then …
When I read things like this I have to wonder were they raised by wolves, do they not have parents? And Blizzard, why does this type of behavior not merit a ban, this is okay with you? What kind of pathetic little creatures have to resort to name-calling in an MMO to feel better about themselves.
Not surprisingly this type of stuff is why Cat lives in an undisclosed location and almost never groups with people she doesn’t know, that way she can pretend the world is a lovely place.
😦 I know – it’s a sad state of affairs, isn’t it? I could have also posted the smarmy responses I got from game masters to start with, but chose not to. Once I got on the phone to blizzard, I got all the ‘they’re very busy with starcraft and diablo patches/updates atm, so it may take a while, but trust me, they’ll take action’ responses, but in my opinion, this isn’t enough. Directing people to report people ‘via the in-game tools’ doesn’t stop someone harassing the crap out of you for 3 days before they deign to respond/intervene…
Wow. I’ve been on the receiving end of this kind of harassment but it never ceases to amaze me. Just keep reporting them and call again if you have to. I’m very sorry that being a decent person in a Sha raid of all things invoked this. 😦 Not that there’s a GOOD reason for them behaving like this.
Course, when it happened to me it was because I refused to invite an alt with an obscene name into our old guild [guy also refused to tell me whose alt he was]. The guy and his friends then began rolling level 1s to harass me, my hubby, my GM and random guildies.
And I get the line about my son too when people who don’t like me find out I’m a mother.
I’m sorry to hear that Ask 😦 And yes, I find it extremely interesting that being a parent makes you such a target of vitriolic abuse for no apparent reason other than by playing wow you’re ‘neglecting your children’. Like WTF. I do everything for my child including private schooling from day one – while I know intellectually that they’re just trying to ‘get at me’, I’m like a lioness – screw with my relationship with my kid, and it’s on like donkey kong. It was actually the majority of the reason I bothered to post – I can take it, but seeing the look on my child’s face, and the stress she went through thinking her mum was being bullied by strangers was enough for me to oust this situation publicly.
Private school as in a private school or homeschool? We’re planning to homeschool, so I’m curious 🙂
But yeah, I’m a stay at home mom and I adore my son 🙂 I know that protective feeling very well.
Private schooling Ask – here in Australia it’s bloody expensive, but well worth it for the education and social skills my daughter gets. 🙂
As someone that was there in the raid to witness this happening I can certainly say that it was disgusting behavior – I also saw many of the comments in trade that were being said. There was a multitude of people that were defending Miss Gen and i wish i had taken the time to note who they were to thank them.
I’ll jump in and take the blame for getting him kicked from the raid – the second he joined he was on about it being a “just dps” fight, which rustled my jimmies – and from that point I was saying in guild “kick this idiot” so then it got to the last member added and Gen did the ol’ heave ho – I was happy – but then the abuse started on poor Gen.
The Guy was given multiple chances to just shut his trap and go with the flow – but continued and continued to rant so it was well deserved – but the after effect was over the top and just down right evil.
I hope people like that really get whats coming to them, but having lived a long life I know that its highly doubtful. And that is unfortunate because this guy really deserves it.
what are ‘jimmies’?! AND YES – I blame you!! 😛
❤
Gen,
I’m new to your blog, having been introduced by our mutual friend Navi, and I wanted to take a moment to tell you how sorry I am you had to put up with that.
What you went through it totally unacceptable, and I hope that Blizzard decides to act on this, though of course you’d never know if they did. If it’s any consolation, I’ve been on a quasi-self-destructive crusade against this kind of behavior for years. It’s brought me nothing but pain, but at least I can look back and say I know I did the right thing. You did, too, deciding to punish a troublesome player with exclusion from a good group. I’m just sorry that it so greatly came back to haunt you. If nothing else, know that you did the right thing and there’s a ton of people out there who support you.
Sincerely,
Stubborn
Thank you very much for your support Stubborn. It’s difficult to maintain the ‘crusade’, but I am also one of those types – I just can’t lose my sense of justice, even when the same behaviour happens over and over again. People are people – why do they lose their humanity once they get behind the computer screen? It never ceases to amaze and disgust me.
With names like “holysheet,” the level of maturity was already implied. I’m sorry you had Togo through that.
Agreed – I was considering a name report, but I already have them on ignore. Thank you for your support! ❤
Genowen,
It sucks that you had to go through it – it’s an unfortunate byproduct of the current ‘random’ MMO environment, but harassment is harassment, and I HOPE Blizzard does something.
Problem is, it seems like a really faraway thing to hope for when it shouldn’t be.
I think that IF Blizzard isn’t going to handle issues like this in a reasonable timeframe with appropriate punishments, then they are (almost, I mean, we do choose to play the game) obligated to provide better tools for ‘protecting’ ourselves. The ability to ignore needs to be improved, to the point where one can ignore a screen name and have that ignore that account’s – or even further, that battletag’s – stable of characters, including newly created ones. Being able to ignore a guild might have to come into play as well.
It is expressly stated in the Terms of Service that you are not allowed to “(vi) Harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to any user of the Game”. However, Blizzard does not police this nearly as much as they should when REPORTED – I’m not saying they need to police their logs from start to finish, but if someone’s reporting harrassment, by all means take it seriously! – and thus people continue to do it because there’s really no repercussions for doing so in most cases. Sure, sometimes people get unlucky, but the majority of the cases don’t result in much, I’m thinking.
I hope that your harassers leave you alone going forward, Genowen, and good luck to you and your guild in the future.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama
Yes Akio, totally agree with everything you’ve said here. In fact, when I was on the phone to Blizzard, the guy I was talking to said as much, and even asked me ‘can’t you just ignore all characters across your account and only have to do it once?’ I was surprised he didn’t know that you couldn’t (e.g. I was getting harassed on my alts as well, and had to go through the same process) but perhaps it’s something they’re working on for him to have mentioned it.
While the guy I spoke to on the phone was fantastic, and did what he ‘really wasn’t supposed to do’ by putting in a further ticket from his end, I really am very disappointed that Blizzard are automating their customer service and report features so much that these days you never even get a decent outcome. The first few tickets I had opened were responded to with ‘you need to use the in-game reporting feature, in this case ‘language’.
Ok!?
The blizz phone guy also said ‘is there not a ‘report for harassment’ option?’ which of course there isn’t. He also mentioned that the tech department would get onto it, but there may be a delay due to starcraft/diablo patches and updates.
That actually made me feel sad, as WoW used to be a community where the GMs were players as well, and a serious ticket of any kind would always result in a blue popping up in your chat log within an hour. No longer it seems 😦
I’m so sorry this happened to you. 😦 I was in the Sha of Anger fight today, and there was someone there as well with the “just dps it” strat. Idiots are everywhere! 😦 I’m glad that you’re who you are!
Z
Ugh – I feel for you. That fight is a nightmare when people ‘just dps it’!!!
Thank you for your support – it’s much appreciated 🙂
That’s one thing I really miss about Guild Wars 2. The GMs there would ban you without much, if any, hesitation for harassment. There was a thread going elsewhere where people would publicly contest their bannings, only to have a representative from ArenaNet post a sample of the chat log that resulted in the person’s ban. The majority of the people saying they were unjustly banned were revealed to be throwing around similar profanity.
Unfortunately, it seems like Blizzard doesn’t have the same stance. 😦
I wish Aranan!!! See my response to Akiosama above – it is interesting where Blizzard are taking things, and I’m not liking it one bit.
One of the things that GW2 has that WoW doesn’t is the subscription. It’s in Blizzard’s best interest to keep as many open accounts as they can, because each open account brings them periodic income. GW2 doesn’t have that incentive, because once they’ve sold the software package, that’s all the money they’re going to get (aside from any ‘cash store’ type things they might have – I’m not familiar with GW2), so banning does two things – a) it makes the place more pleasant for the people being harassed, and b) they might actually MAKE money by banning people, if the banned person really wants to get back in the game (i.e., the banned person needs to buy a new copy of GW2.)
So, the pricing structure of the game itself does contribute to how the software company polices its players.
I mean, look at many of the Free-to-Play games out there. In the few that I’ve tried, there’s very little policing of their Terms of Service because there’s no way to actually enforce the punishments, since all it takes is a new e-mail account to create a new account in the game.
It’s all about the bottom line for the software company – they’re not making these games for ‘us’, really. They’re making them to make a profit. And thus, their enforcement of their own Terms of Service agreements is likely to be influenced by how they make money on the game itself.
It’s sad, but players have very little choice, because the game experiences are unique enough that there aren’t ‘reasonable substitutes’. It’s not like most players wouldn’t see so little a difference between WoW, GW2, and SWtOR that they’d abandon one and go to another at the drop of a hat just because they’d had a bad experience on one. They’re just not as interchangeable as changing restaurants or supermarkets due to bad experiences.
So, voting with your wallet is not as much a solution as one would hope, and thus, we end up having to deal with asshats and trolls more than we’d like, just so we can play the game we enjoy. Walking away only comes when the experience from playing the game no longer outweighs any discomfort with the players playing said game.
My 2 yen,
Akiosama
I just listened to Girls Gone WOW, episode 75. I was unaware of all this going on until I listened, and I’m just posting here to show support for you, and to thank you for coming forward with your experience. I am sad that this series of terrible events took place, but I hope it will be a learning experience for WOW and other players. Take care!!
After reading this post I can honestly say I am ashamed to be in the same category of female gamers as you ‘ladies’.
Clearly contacting other guild members and Blizzard escalated the situation which you claim is what you were attempting to avoid. However, someone with as much ‘experience’ as you would have the common sense to realise that this isn’t going to receive positive feedback.
This entire fiasco, if it could even be called that was made worse by your own actions because you just couldn’t accept what happened and move on, regardless of who said what. Instead, because you think you’re someone important on the server you had to take the situation to the next level.
I hope you aren’t too miserable for the rest of your life because of what happened…
UNTAMEDHELLCAT EDIT: This person was one of the main perpetrators of the abuse I received, with no direct contact.
I am disappointed you feel this way. I think that Gen did the correct thing in management of the problem. I don’t think she was trying to cause trouble but merely do the correct thing which is to correct antisocial and malicious behaviour. Think of a school situation. If your child is being beaten up at school does the parent of the abused child go in to school and yell or hit the offending child? It may be what you want to do but it’s not the right thing. You speak to the teachers and then the principal and if it is so bad that it is a criminal offence (like knives or serious injury) then you get the police.
I think a lot of positive feedback has been received here. Most decent players are sick of the abuse. And it is time we stood against it.
Yes, you can choose to take that path during school. But this can hardly be compared. Blizzard is no real authority like a principal.
Everyone is expected to make their own decisions about what is right or wrong and Blizzard provides guidelines.
Schools have strict rules and the consequences are made clear if you choose to break them.
I just think the ‘abuse’ needs to be taken not so harshly.
I really don’t see the big deal about it, after all, you are never going to see these people irl.
You don’t know anything about them, nor do they you.
So why do people feel so threatened by them?
Its not like they can blackmail you etc.
Its just a game.
UNTAMEDHELLCAT EDIT: This person was one of the main perpetrators of the abuse I received, with no direct contact.
True, it is just a game, but people shouldn’t feel that just because they are safe behind anonymity they can act like idiots. Cyberbullying is very similar – and you can see the stance that people have on that.
Blizzard has as little or as much authority as the choose. That comes from our acceptance of the T&Cs we agree to, and their application of resources to control the community. In wow they are the principal, and there is no other.
How can you possibly say Blizzard has no “authority” in this like a principal does? Blizzard in this case isn’t just the principal— they’re the whole state education board. They have rules, which clearly state “thou shalt not harass” and this guild did.
OP did the right thing by trying first to stop the behavior by ignoring the individual, and then contacting the next step up the food chain when that didn’t stop (guild officer, and guild GM). As a guild leader myself, I would absolutely want to know if my guildmates were acting like this unprovoked. It makes my guild look bad, and I don’t want to associate with those kind of “kind to my face, cruel to my back” sort of people.
When ignore doesn’t work– when people are going out of their way to make alts to whisper bile, and look up your alts to spew venom, then yes. Blizzard absolutely needs to be contacted so it will cease. If you don’t think it is abuse, then what’s the purpose of doing it to OP to begin with? It’s certainly not supposed to endear you to her.
(WoW Insider linked to Sheep The DIamond who linked to you— so prepare for a lot of traffic. Maybe Ash and his fellows will see just who really has the support in all of this.)
Glad I’m not the only one that thinks my guild members are a bunch of dicks. (For the most part)
What a bunch of jerks! Nearly enough to make me re-sub and roll on Nagrand just so I can put them on ignore.
Unfortunately it is exactly this type of idiocy that made me un-sub in the first place.
Mike.
“However, someone with as much ‘experience’ as you would have the common sense to realise that this isn’t going to receive positive feedback.”
Odd that this is the only piece of negative feedback I’ve seen
I’d hardly say its odd…
Clearly this womans readers are those who are generally like what she posts so obviously she isn’t going to get negative feedback…
Simply because I have a different perspective on the issue doesn’t mean my opinion is wrong.
I just think it could have been handled differently and it wouldn’t have gotten to the point where there would even have to be a blog post about it.
UNTAMEDHELLCAT EDIT: This person was one of the main perpetrators of the abuse I received, with no direct contact.
@ashattack – what is the “different” response to being called a dumb cunt by somebody who is (a) rude, and (b) incorrect?
Explain in detail the scenario where Gen takes a different path, and also where the path is one where these players are dealt with in a manner which counts? Ignoring them has not reduced the population of people who think it is ok to openly insult others.
Speaking up for yourself is the general advice when dealing with a bully. And if these people have evidence of Gen saying foul and rude things then I’d like to see it.
At what stage did I ever imply she did say ‘foul or rude things’
And I don’t really feel as though I need to justify myself to you..
But, you say these players need to be dealt with but do you honestly think anything you say/do is going to stop them? Acting as if you’re going to bring them to some form of justice isn’t going to help. Only going to make them more pissed off.
I can say this because I was one of the people that ‘harrassed’ Genowen and I’m a part of that guild. Do I regret it? no. Do I feel like I was out of line? no. Did her actions make any difference? no. Does her taking the matter to Blizzard affect me or anyone else in the guild? no.
Blizzard must not really be that concerned otherwise they would have taken further action by now. This gives the impression that it isn’t really a big deal..
Obviously, Blizzard have bigger things to deal with than someone who feels insulted over what was said to her.
Trust me when I say she could have saved herself a lot of trouble if she had of just left it and not tried to take it further. After clearly being told by an officer of the guild that her opinion didn’t make any difference and what she was looking for she wasn’t going to get. She should have probably taken the hint to leave it there. But instead, she wrote to our GM. This made matters worse because she thought she would bring everyone to the justice they deserved…
Well, I’m sorry, but she was just digging herself a bigger hole at this point.
I’m not saying what we did was right, I’m just saying, it didn’t have to be like it was, and it was that way because of her.
UNTAMEDHELLCAT EDIT: This person was one of the main perpetrators of the abuse I received, with no direct contact.
Actually, I came here from a WoW Insider post about harassment in the game. Never read this blog before. Still think you and your guildmates were unbelieveable douches for ganging up on her and going out of your way to circumvent ignore.
But go ahead. Justify to yourself that you’re not the bad guy here however you like. The only thing you’re right about is that it should never have escalated to the point that it did. YOU and your guildmates should have stopped it long, long before then.
@ashattack – I don’t think its reasonable to expect to speak to Genowen in the manner demonstrated in the screenshots, and then say the outcome was her fault. That is blaming the victim for the aggressor’s actions.
Your guild member initiated the behaviour, then your guild members escalated the attacks. If a members of Genowen’s guild attacked your members in a similar manner that might be different. Or if Gen had insulted the players back in kind that would be different too.
You’re kind of correct though, the game has very little recourse for these situations. I think that is disappointing. Had the people had to sit face to face I think the situation would be different too.
Saying ” it was that way because of her ” does not represent how much of the escalation your fellow guild members contributed to, or the opportunities they had to also step away from the keyboard.
Just adding my support for you in this. Good luck.
1st
Great props for standing up to these juvenile bullies. I just put the Blink Graphic on my guilds wepage News. Having had to, more than once, rebuild the confidence of my guild members after a few incidents with this type of player I applaud your efforts.
2nd
To the kids who have felt they need to come to this blog and justify themselves and their bad behaviour “You are That Guy” Abuse among friends _may_ be amusing. Abuse from strangers is Abuse and not Welcome, not Funny and not Amusing. Oh, and your guy who caused all this was wrong. tunneling the boss is the way to fail.
3rd
To the GL who feels powerless… YOU CAN KICK the entire raid team. If they treat strangers like that, they are making other guildies feel like that too. I can speak from experience on this topic. If you dont care, then you too are part of the problem.
Hey Sunhead – thanks for your comment. I think my post spoke for itself, but clearly being abused is all my fault – taking matters into my own hands by the ‘traditional’ method of contacting a guild’s leadership didn’t do me too many favours in this case, did it? 😛
*Salute* To you, fine Gen, for not stooping to their level. I know this type of harassment personally(I even blogged about it, too) and I’m glad you rose above it as well.
” It’s just a game” is the biggest cop out these ass-hats will use and the most common and the most rubbish. They can go polish their asses with that oil, is all I say.
Keep being awesome and funny and YOURSELF.
Cheers!
❤ thanks! And agreed – regardless of it being a 'game', there are still HUMANS behind the screen, with feelings and morals!
Hi there –
Just heard the GGW podcast today and was saddened and horrified to hear your story. General asshattery seems all too common in the game these days, though the pervasiveness of the harassment you endured is disturbingly extreme. I’ll be very disappointed in Blizzard if they don’t take some kind of action against these kids.
It’s unbelievable to me how far people – younger ones especially – think they can go online because they don’t have to be face to face. It’s a little too easy (and cowardly) to hide behind the keyboard and behave like complete dregs of society because there are few consequences. Astounding. And to come here and try to defend the behavior and set the blame on you is just idiotic.
I’ll spare you more ranting – I could go on for days. 🙂 This behavior has been a sticking point for me lately, as it seems to be worsening exponentially. Completely uncalled for. I can only hope that these children will face a harsh reality once they’re out in the grown-up world interacting face to face with people who won’t tolerate such antics. Might earn them a pop in the mug or two, which may be a good thing. :-O
Just wanted to show support for you and thank you for calling out this situation. I know many players have had enough of this crap, and your putting it out there gives others confidence to join in the conversation and maybe put an end to it. So sorry this happened to you.
Hey Ellora – thanks for stopping in! Totally agree with you on all points, and being sick of this increasing bad behaviour is one of the main reasons I decided to post in the first place. Your support is much appreciated! 🙂 I noticed that WoW Insider posted about this today and linked to Stubborn’s blog, so with luck, it will reopen a long-standing dialogue within the community and hell – maybe people will take the power back into their own hands!
I also found the opinion of one of the guild members who was a major part of this interesting, as it reflects negatively on younger gamers as a ‘generalisation’:
“I just think the ‘abuse’ needs to be taken not so harshly.
I really don’t see the big deal about it, after all, you are never going to see these people irl.
You don’t know anything about them, nor do they you.
So why do people feel so threatened by them?
Its not like they can blackmail you etc.
Its just a game.”
They said it all in 6 sentences.
Hi, found this post through a chain from WoW Insider and just wanted to add my voice to your supporters, Gen. What happened to you is inexcusable and awful. Hopefully the huge publicity it is receiving in the community will cause Blizzard to rethink its policies, because the current “fling reports into the digital abyss” model does NOT work.
If it makes you feel any better, It’s gratifying to imagine what would have happened to these idjits if they’d been in my guild and our GM and officers had gotten hold of them. The carnage would have been fun to watch.
Hey Meg, thanks for stopping in! Totally agreed! And yeah, if the situation was reversed, there would have been hell to pay in our guild as well. Hence contacting their ‘leadership’ but hey – some times you just can’t win.
What’s that saying?
‘Never argue with an idiot, as they’ll just drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.’
Hi Genowen,
I’ll add my support for you in this. Clearly this kind of behaviour tells us lot of those people irl. And as in Meg’s guild our guild would have given namers hard time.
I came here through a link chain from WoW Insider as well.
The harassment you went through is real bad, no mistake about it. What really “grinds my gear” afterwards is how the Guild Master portrays himself as being helpless.
To the GM: No, you are not. You *choose* to see yourself that way. I guess to you, being able to raid is more important than that a FELLOW HUMAN BEING is getting harassed by people via what is supposed to be a fun video game. And you call those jerks your friends? I wouldn’t want to associate with anyone in Real Life who is going to use the anonymity of the internet to be .
You can do something about it. It’s clear you’re unhappy with the situation, but for some reason you are self-sabotaging yourself and that needs to change. Doing what’s right is definitely not always popular, but to remain in silence is to be an accessory to whatever crap is going on.
“to be .”
Sorry about the cut-off. It was supposed to say, “to be (insert certain choice words).”