New tag.

As will be evident at the bottom, I've devised a specific tag just for this kind of blog post.

I write this here not just as a pre-post "I'm sorry, I think", but to remind myself that these kind of overthinking tendencies where my take on the game ceases to actually be a game, but becomes a conduit for philosophy etc, are what has made previous attempts at a regular blog crash.

Fewer words: Overthinking bad.

I'll have a similar readers digest version of the entire post at the very end, too.


If you TLDR'd the previous post, I noted that I wasn't too happy about that warlock getting kicked. Despite praying fervently for him getting kicked all the damn way from the first spam.

The first thing that makes me uncomfortable with it is because I'd rather give people the benefit of the doubt than be a forum-level asshat about things. Hence, when I see someone caps-spamming in broken English, I don't want to think that they're stupid, nor that I'm being trolled; In this case, I'd assume the warlock was young, new to the game, and/or bad at English.

Heck, perhaps weeks, months or years of playing a game where everyone around him speaks a language that he barely understands, he's gotten very fed up with it.

And has a broken leg.

Point is, when you face someone who's annoying, in most other situations in life, you can of course walk away or obviously ignore the person, but it's hardly socially acceptable. If you're at a party, and a person who speaks far too loudly and acts a bit inappropriately, you can act politely and try to be inclusive, you can try to downplay his part in your evening, or you can outright ignore the person, turning your back to him or walking away.

You'll rarely see the last of those, except in extreme cases, am I right?

Hell if I know, I don't party a lot.

The warlock was one such. We were three people who enjoyed eachothers' company, with one onlooker, and he came around and started being annoying. He did not disrupt the party very much - only for himself, really - and in the end, people threw him out.

All these analogies have their limits, and there are quite a few counterarguments, by all means; Why should you put up with elements like these in a paid recreational service? Is this truly a social event? This person is a total stranger, and being kicked from a party has far less impact on that person*.

I'm not gonna handle all these arguments back and forth. I'm not trying to preach here. My goal is not to try to convince. I think.

Come to think of it, I rarely know what my goal is as I write.

Anyway; The problem may be that it's too easy. I understand why the ignore function exists, and the same goes for the dungeon votekick - it's there to prevent people from pissing on your fun. What worries me is what this means with the rising standards on all fronts across the World of Warcraft.

First you formed groups by inviting people who asked for an invite. Back in the days of Strat and Scholo 10 and UBRS 15, the expectation that a run would be a full clear was not an absolute.
Soon, people would ask if you knew tacs. Then "link achi or no reply." Now it's 5k GS or less.

I don't blame people overmuch, especially not right now in the last content patch of an expansion. We've been given tools to facilitate the process of finding a skilled member with ridiculous ease.

The advent of LFD continues the trend that expectations and standards rise, and I'm not talking about the built-in minimum gear requirements for certain heroics. Those are just good sense.

Noone will feel unfamiliar, if they have a L80 char, when I say that the expected time to clear on a random heroic is ridiculous. When I'm on my bear druid, I make a point of trying to kill the end boss before the dungeon lockout timer expires**. Not only is it fun, but people are gonna start bitching the second I stop to pick my nose.

I don't pick my nose, by the way. I'm a gentleman.

Back on topic, I have to wonder; Would this partymember have been kicked a year ago? Two? Four? I'm not a doomsayer looking for signs of the wowpocalypse, I just think the current incarnation of the kicking tool is dangerous.


During that SM run, I was mildly annoyed by that warlock for perhaps twenty minutes, but I kept talking to him, mostly requesting that he stop hellfiring, but I kept thinking "this'd be fantastic if we didn't have that damn lock". Having another clever and chatty player in his stead would make it fabulous. But I didn't try to votekick, nor did I press "yes" to the votekick. The speed with which the vote was over, the others having pressed yes, was a little frightening.

And I think I know why, now. I may have the right to decide how I want to enjoy my favorite passtime. I've ignored a handful of people who've aspired to outperform all other asshats in the field of asshattery by a generous amount.

But I don't have the right to deprive others of their fun.

If that warlock didn't leave despite being harassed for his caps***, he was clearly getting some fun out of this. Be that xp, the promise of loot, or if he simply genuinely enjoyed playing, he was clearly in this run because he was getting something out of it.

The predictable counter is that I'm not responsible for his fun. And I'm not; I doubt he'll break apart crying that noone likes him if he's kicked from a party, but-

Okay, great. I guess there's always a chance, it's bound to happen from time to time with so many people playing. Great job, me, now I can't stop thinking about that.

But by virtue of some famous sayings about evil men, victory, and good men sitting on their asses doing nothing, I think the picture's a little more blurred. It's the same reason I attend raids if I'm needed even if I'd rather play Dragon Age. How's this different? I am more beholden to friends than strangers? Familiarity is the divisory line between duty and neglect?

I don't think I can accept that.

I realize this all makes me sound like a far better person than I am, but I'm far better at hammering keys on my keyboard than I am at acting up to my high ideals, so here we are.

Edit: Look, I even forgot the short summary. And I'm not going to add it. Ha!

*They even get their dungeon timer cleared, though I wonder if this will remain for very long as I've seen people try to get the group to kick them from Ocu.
**I usually run with a certain guildie healer, so that's not an issue.
***To this day, I don't understand why people make that big a deal out of caps. Yes, it's annoying, but some people completely rage out when they see caps.