Civility and morality in the game

First, hello everyone. I am a long time reader of these forums and have been playing Guild Wars for a long time now. For those of you wondering about my misspelling of the avatar, I am a long time real time strategy/turn based strategy player.

That said, I have noticed the community of Guild Wars is rather immoral in play compared to RTS and other games I have played online. Now, I am not a die hard online mmo player so I have little to compare this game's community, but the language, put downs, and other uncivil behavior is very prevalent. I understand it is a game full of children and teenagers; however, the behavior is quit intolerable for something that is meant to be fun.

My Pvp experience has been even more sour than pve; something about competition brings out dishonorable behavior beyond the normal trash talk.

So what experiences have you had with the community? Have any of you had an overall uncivil experience as I have or have I just been unlucky?

Apologies for not searching for a thread about this- the search function does not work in any of my browsers (I run Internet Explorer 6.0-7, Firefox 2.0, and Opera. I still cant figure out why this forum and others do not search etc for me with scripting turned on in each browser).

Welcome to the Internets.

I just see it as trash talk and don't take it seriously. Sure, there is a lot of it, But there always is a handy Filter When F11 is pressed. Also the local Chats can be turned off.

The trash talk seems to happen Only in the Major Areas, places which are more Advanced, Such as the Tombs of the Primevil Kings and untill recently, the Realm of Torment sees little of this, Seeing as the people form which the useless banter comes out off probably does not have the attention span and / or patience to do anything to difficult and would Rage quite (and open a thread here) When Missions become too difficult.

i've been playing this game since july of 05, and i've noticed a decrease of morality in Gw, but that doesnt mean that everybody is bad. I've had good experiences and bad ones, just dont let the bad people ruin your game. in pvp ive even had to tell off a few teammates because they were behaving very inappropriatly toward their teammates and the other team. and most of my bad experiences have been in pvp as well.

on a side note, one thing i cant stand is when people barely beat u in pvp then pm you after the battle and go "lol, nub! i pwned joo! you (insert bad word here) suck!"

You mean video games haven't completely desensitized you to aggression of all kinds?

The biggest fights I've ever seen have actually been in Lion's Arch and the Monastery (American Districts). I've seen more than a couple Canadians v. Americans arguments. I mean... I don't know, I think people say mean things sometimes, but you shouldn't let it get you down. Some people are very hateful toward others and they get really carried away.

And it doesn't help that when one person starts insulting others, everyone else jumps in. Mais... C'est la vie.

I hate to think how I've contributed to this as well. Helping out complete noobs to the game that didn't know their head from their ass, helping them develop their character up to and beyond ascension, hunting Elites, showing them how and where to farm to make the most gold, only to see them now as some of the biggest Elitists around, whining about every little change in the game from armor to AI to whatever. I just have to keep reminding myself that kids will be kids and move on.

I rarely have chat on anymore because of all the bickering in the towns. Its just tiresome when such things get in the way of completing a goal. Hench and heroes only go so far considering it is an online social game.

I too have had such pms, RPGmaniac. Usually its when I experiment with a class I do not play often at all in RA.

I have to admit that despite being tiresome it is very satisfying to set a young foul mouthed in their place by not rising to their bait.

Are there any differences between American vs European players? I do know people tend to be people no matter to locale.

I guess overall, people tend to act in games as they do in reality. Its pretty sad when kind souls who just like to help others and have fun are a rarity in reality and in gaming.

Haha its a pity Anet can't make a title for those rare players somehow.

because if they did, it will still be farmed and bought with gold or abused and defeats the purpose of its intent.

Anyways threads like this complaining about the lack of morals/bad behaviour of others on the internet or in online games is nothing new and moot really.

Jay and silent Bob had a very effective approach to this problem

Comparing the attitude of GW community (no monthly fee) with other MMORPG communities with monthly fee will shock you, Since they put alot of effort on their charc. and payed alot (monthly fee) to reach this level of uniqueness in armor,weapons,rank...etc. will make them think twice before they start trash talking in local channel and got banned for this childish attitude.
Also GW is the most competitive game i have ever seen, it always make its players tense and nervous especially in PvP.

^_^

How many people wanna kick some ass?

The problem is that they are kids. Individually they're not bad, but put them in areas with their age peers and they start bragging and acting tough. There is hope for them; they will age and hopefully mature.

As for the bigots, if they're kids, they are repeating what they have heard from family; if adults, they are just idiots. I suppose that's bigotry also.

I've spent a long time telling myself to consider the source before getting overly annoyed. But even in these forums, people show their ignorance by picking on a poster's grammar/spelling without questioning their nationality. I've always wondered how many languages the complainer can write well.

So, to me, it's just that the game is an extension of real life, with all types gathered in the same areas. I shake my head and go elsewhere or report the most offensive episodes. I refuse to let them ruin the game for me.

I dont do any PVP

I played GW since May 05 and seen no difference with the PVE crowd
(its always been a mixed bag)

You are not alone, I have and still do avoid certian towns like the plaque due to the immoral attitude that is shown there. A lot of the time I will turn the local chat off t not hear the jerks and immature players out there (not all are teenagers and children). If it gets realy out of hand I will turn the offenders in but most of it I can ignore. I believe there is a certian line that shouldn't be crossed, and if that line is crossed then I will turn someone in to NC-Soft. Granted my tolerance for the bad language and trash talk may be higher than most players, so when I turn in someone that person has crosssed the line into just vulgar and nasty. Names dont bother me much seeing as how I look for the most extreme ones and let my team know of them then we have a good laugh. We have actualy made it into a small contest to see who can find the stupidous or even most crazy name out there. I am not condoning certian names, we just have a god laugh over them. A-Net and NC-Soft can only police certian areas at any one time,so we as a group of players need to help out and report those that cross the line.

Have fun Play Fair
Mega Mouse

Morality has nothing to do with bad attitudes. I could be waaaaaay wrong here but I'm almost positive that the game comes with a language filter for chat. There are always jerks in the world. Unfortunately that's life and has nothing to do with said jerk's moral standpoint. There are people who are very moral but are complete jerks. I don't like this "run-go-tell-Anet" attitude I see here in this thread. Yes Anet will take care of things like this but as mature players we have the option to simply ignore puerile behavior no matter how bad it gets. If you feel so morally outraged by foul language that you would go so far as to report a person to a governing body, regardless of the scale, you should probably reach around the back of your computer and jerk your ethernet cable now because that's the internet and you're likely going to be offended at every turn. I personally feel Anet's time is better spent handling scammers, botters, and ebayers as opposed to Johnny Foulmouth and other player's delicate sensibilities.

Honestly, I just can't stand the elitist PvPers. I've heard more "QQ nub" than "thanks" in my year plus of playing. It'd be nice if there was a "leet" filter.

People seem pretty nice if you are nice to them. I have never downright insulted before. I did get scammed earlier today on a Droknar run. Thats the worst thats happened so far.

If I catch my kids being vulgar in town (or mission) like I've heard in some towns, I'll personally whallop them! Don't care if they are 23 and 19 .

I remember a couple months ago popping into Shing Jea and there was someone with a real potty-mouth. It was just uncalled for, so I mentioned something about the 12 year-olds needing to be taught manners. (I usually don't bother commenting unless they're trying to swindle a new player). The kid promptly whispered and informed me that he was NOT a 12 year old, thank you very much! He was all of -- 13! Oh, well, that makes all the difference. *rolls eyes*

yea, The Internet is truely the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The chat filter may catch the foul words, but ignores most anti-race/religion or hate topics that some people spew.

@tomcruisejr who's that on your avatar? Looks familiar- just curious. -Thx