What Happened to Social Skills?

Seriously folks, what is the problem with people in this game?

I am one of those quiet people in your group.  I do my job as best as I can and I know all the fights no matter what we run into.  If someone wants to be social and talk a little I can play along.  I might not be a social player but I know that sometimes some people need human interaction even if it is only on the net and if they say they hope something drops off the boss I will gladly type good luck because it is the right thing to do.  Nothing wrong with being civil is there?

That is what is wrong with so many people in the game however.  Running yesterday after a tank said that before pulling a boss one of the DPS said just shut up and pull.  Would it have hurt him to say good luck?  It would have been faster to type good luck for sure.  The boss will get pulled at the same time no matter which of those two answers he said.  The shut up and pull comment had no place in the game and people like that are ruining the game for many.

Mind you I did not know the tank or the DPS, they where just random people, but it still bothered me to see someone being treated that way.  Why be rude?  Did it serve a purpose, accomplish a task, meet a quota or something?

Good luck would have worked just as well, if not better.  I don't know the tank, I don't know how they think, but I do know many people that when addressed with rudeness like that will fire back with rudeness and a downward spiral happens.  It could have made the tank feel upset which could in turn effect his game play and possible mean he does a bad job or even worse, a horrible job that turns into a wipe.

Why are people so uptight?  It seems like everyone is wound so tight and their lack of social skills shows, big time.

I am not a social person.  As I said earlier, I can go my entire game time never speaking to anyone and I would be very happy.  Yet I don't act like that.  Decent people with social skills, even if not social themselves, know how to deal with others.

That is the biggest problem in WoW as I see it right now.  It is the player base.  A base of people that are all lacking even in the slightest of social graces.  A base of people that grew up thinking that what they say has no impact on others.  A base of people that do not need to fear the repercussions their words.  A base of people that all believe that anyone that is not them fits neatly into the category of a baddie or a no lifer.

We can blame this on the internet and its anonymity.  We can blame it on a society that likes to tell everyone that they are special.  We can blame this on the parents of these people for not teaching their children how to talk to other people.  There are a lot of things we can blame this on but in the end there is no one to blame but the person that is being rude.

They control their own responses.  They are the one that could have said good luck and chose not to.

More often then not, and seeing it a lot more with the addition of LFR, there will be someone who takes every moment they can to berate someone else.  Be it picking on their performance, at their gear selection, gems or enchants, or even as base as picking on their server or guild just for the sake of making themselves feel better.

Why is it that everyone feels the need to be special?  So much so that they have to do so at the expense of others.

I have noticed from my own experience that the person that starts to trash talk is usually someone not doing as well as they should and maybe it is a defense mode that makes them start to talk crap.  Maybe it is a fear that someone will point out that they are not as good as they think they are.  So to keep someone else from pointing out how they did they have to point out how someone else did to put attention on them.

They are wound up so tight that they go on the offense to attack anyone for anything and this just recreates a bad in game atmosphere.

Do these people realize that there are real people on the other end of the screen?  Do they realize that those people might actually have feelings?

Every time I see someone say to kick all the baddies doing under 15K it bothers me.  It bothers me because there is no need to be rude.

"We need more DPS so we have to kick the lowest ones" would work just as well as saying "kick the baddies under 15K".

Why do people choose the rude or hurtful words?  Given an option, 99 out of 100 times, you will see someone address a situation like this with the choice that shows they lack social skills.

The only vote kick I ever started in a 5 man was against a boomkin doing less then 3K and I said in party before I kicked them that I was sorry but after three wipes and them never pulling even 3K I had to kick them or we would not be able to down the boss because we need more DPS.  I did not call them a baddie, even if they where pretty horrible to be honest.  I explained we needed more DPS if we where going to down the boss and explained they where low man on the totem pole so to speak.

I am sure the thunder chicken was quite upset with being kicked but I am also sure that what I said left him feeling a hell of a lot better then if I said l3p you f'n noob and then kicked him would have left him feeling.

Perhaps the way I handled it made them think they might need to look at what they are doing and try to do better next time instead of just thinking that some elitist asshole kicked them which I am sure they would have thought if I insulted them before kicking them.

Words have power and even with the anonymity of the internet they can still hurt.  The person they hurt might be unknown, the person that did the hurting might be unknown, but those people are both real people with real feelings and real emotions.

I have read on some peoples blogs how people have broken down in tears in real life because of things that where said and done.  I have heard people on vent in my guild so upset over things that someone else said.  I have watched good groups turn into insult fests.  I have seen good players turn to crap because you can tell they are obviously upset in real life and not playing as well as they could.

I have watched how the fabric of the game gets torn down as the veil of fun we throw over it gets burnt and turned into a blazing inferno of hate filled bile so often to the point where it is no longer a game of WoW but a game of russian roulette.  If I queue up will I get a good group or a group of those people.

It seems as if anything turns these people into hate mongers.  Win a roll for something they wanted?  Get ready for the insults.  Do better on something then they did?  Get ready for the insults.  Do something different then they are used to?  Get ready for the insults.

They will find stuff to insult you about, even if there isn't anything.  God forbid you make a mistake from that point on, they have it out for you, they are wound so tight now that the second they get the chance they are going to pounce on you and rip your heart out if given the chance.

The game in and of itself is in a fair place right now.  The people that play the game however are the worst they have ever been.  It seems as if everyone has it in for someone.  Everyone is wound too tight and is ready to explode.

I am not sure why it is, but I am getting more upset when I see someone insult someone else.  Sure, it does not involve me, but I am there to witness it and it bothers me.  It bothers me because I know that is a real person that is being ripped apart in a game that is meant to be fun.  It bothers me because I know it will only continue to get worse.  That behavior is contagious.  That behavior needs to be stopped because it can only be bad for the game.

It might never happen, check that, it will never happen, but blizzard needs to take the bull by the horns and start handing out punishments to the people that act like this, the ones with no social skills.

Sorry, we need more DPS for this boss is 1000 times better then l2p noob.

What happened to social skills?  It is sad when an anti-social person like myself has better social skills than most of the people I run into in the game.

Have a good day, and please, be civil to the people you meet in randoms.... yes, even if they suck.